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Metaweb:How to start a page

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

Here is how to start a Metaweb page. You might also want to learn about: * The Wiki Markup: How does one edit a page * Editing tasks in general at the Editing FAQ * metaweb:intermediate pages, which link entries together

General principles

  • Search to see whether someone has written an article before you start one yourself.
  • If you are writing about a topic and there is no intermediate page for it, create one by copying and filling out the intermediate page template.
  • It is highly recommended to start a page from an existing link. (The so-called "ghost links" or "red links" -- links that have been made in the text, but for which no article exists.) See below for more.
  • Remember to establish context, i.e. write a short introduction at the beginning of a new article. Don't write "This was his third novel..." -- while you may have followed the link from the famous novelist X, other readers may arrive at this page from elsewhere.
  • Review the Metaweb's Naming conventions before naming a new page. Proper naming will ensure your page will be linked by other related pages, and will help to avoid any need for renaming pages.
  • Highlight the title phrase or title word very near the beginning of the article.

Ways to start a new page

  1. Start a page from an existing link
  2. Start a page by editing the URL
  3. Start a page from the scratchpad

Starting a page from an existing link

To start a new page, you can start from a link to the title of the new page. As you're reading through Wikipedia articles, you'll see clickable links to pages that haven't been written yet (like this: Sample article title -- but DON'T CLICK ON THIS PARTICULAR EXAMPLE LINK). Links to unwritten pages appear in red (if you are logged in you can change this to a small question mark using the preferences). Click on the link, and you'll arrive at a page that says:

You've followed a link to a page that doesn't exist yet. To create the page, start typing in the box below:

Just start typing your article in the edit-box. When you're finished, click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. (Use the "Preview" button if you want to see what the page will look like first.)

While you are editing some existing article, if a word or phrase you are typing strikes you as if it ought to have an article of its own linked from here, just put it in double square brackets, [[like this]]. We call that "wikifying" the text. When you save the present article, that word will either magically link to an article if one exists, or it will become one of those red links mentioned above which allow you to create the article. This is a great way to build new articles.

Starting a page by editing the URL

One of the easiest ways to start a new page is to enter something like the following into your browser as a page address:

http://www.metaweb.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Sample_article_title

Replacing "Sample_article_title" with whatever you want the article to be called. For example, to create an article about frumpysnarf, type: http://www.metaweb.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Frumpysnarf

This will bring up a template page that informs you that there is currently no text in the article yet. So, click on the "Edit" link at the top of that page, and presto! you are now editing your brand new article. Your careful attention to accuracy and neutrality will be greatly appreciated, of course.

However, creating an article with this method makes what we call here an orphan -- no other articles link to this new page. Orphans are bad -- they should be linked to. Which means you might as well have started by making a link in the first place ;)

Start a page from the scratchpad

Another way is to use the scratchpad!

  • Edit the scratchpad, then create a new link.
  • Then create/edit your new page by clicking on the link and writing new text.

Note: The scratchpad is periodically erased, so remember to bookmark the page(s) you have created, in order to edit them again in the future. If you are a registered user, it will also appear under "My contributions" in the Quickbar.

Further info

When creating pages it is also good practice to run the text through a spell checker before submitting. You may find it more convenient to take a copy of the original page, work on it, then paste the edited copy back in. Creating brand-new topics is a great way to help Wikipedia increase its breadth (and depth).

Note: The Metaweb is an open content database. You are contributing to a free, publicly-usable database of information. You automatically license everything you contribute under the GNU Free Documentation License; you can only do that if you own the copyright to the material (which you do if you created it), or if the material is in the public domain. See metaweb:Copyrights for details. Never submit copyrighted material without permission from the copyright owner.

See also: