Guide to a basic article
From ENHLDWiki
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This is a simple outline of the kinds of things each article should strive to have. Note that the Table of Contents is generated automatically when there are 4 or more headings. To make headings, type your heading text between pairs of equal signs: ==Heading== creates a first-level heading like those on this page. See also Help:How do I properly organize a page? and Help:How do I make a new property? For general editing questions, please also see the help index page. If you create an article on a property by making a red link in an existing page, please also add a link to the page on the Content Index.
Please note that a lot of the articles created to date (Oct. 2007) by Dick do not yet include "Basic Information" and "Teaser" sections. You are encouraged to add such sections.
If you have suggestions for this page, you can edit it, too! If you're all excited about this, but don't quite know where to start, visit the Resources for research page.
Basic Information
Note: Consider putting this basic information in an InfoBox, illustrated in draft example at 301 N. Crystal.
The first section should be the basic information for the property. start the section with ==Basic Information==We'll need to discuss exactly what that is but some ideas include:
- address (written normally)
- legal address, geocode etc
- a code representing the status of the building (contributing structure, compatible, etc)
- the year built
- the year demolished / remodeled as to be unrecognizable or when all historical value has been removed.
- coordinates
- building name
- original owner/builder
Teaser
The second section should be a short (50 words or less) introduction to the property. Start the section with Teaser. This will be the text in the teaser box of the Google Earth pop-up window and may either be included as an opening or excluded entirely from a proper wikipedia.org entry.
Main Body
Include whatever you want. (But see References, below.) If someone else disagrees, either with the facts you present or the way you present them, they should bring it up on the Talk Page (Discussion tab at the top of every page). Although things like text on historic plaques and in NHLD nomination forms are public domain and could be copied verbatim, if you can, please try to re-cast the information into a more flowing, encyclopedic form. You can build links in as you type by simply putting the link between pairs of [[square brackets]].
One formatting note to be aware of -- in a Wiki, you don't indent the first line of a paragraph. If you have a leading space, it will put things in a box like the one below under Photos. To indent, start the line with a colon. To create a square bullet, as in the list on the Content Index page, use an asterisk as the first character in the line.
The heart of our project is individual property descriptions, but as you research and write, please feel very free to add characterizations of entire streets (see Granite Street for a draft example) as well as information about people - residents, architects, authors, performers, officials -- that are linked to particular properties. If the information is minimal and relates only to one property, such material could be included in the property article. If there is more wide-ranging information about a person or organization, go ahead and create a separate article for him/her/it. Eventually we aspire to having some level of summary article for topics such as mining history, labor history, ethnic groups, political activities, and so on. Ultimately, this will then become a coherently interlinked history of Butte, using the properties as the centerpiece linking everything together.
As you type an article's text, it may occur to you that there ought to be an article on something. Just do it -- make it a link! [[Make this a link]] If it turns blue, the page exists, if it is red, you (or someone else) can later make it. If you make a mistake and try to make a link to a page that exists but you don't know that the exact title is something else, don't worry, we'll fix it when it is discovered. Suppose I was typing along and decided that Brinig, Myron needed an article, so I make the link. But what I didn't know is that the article Myron Brinig was already out there - someone (Dick) created it in the wrong format for a person's article name. This can all be dealt with, so just do it.
Do Not Worry About Making Mistakes! If you click the "history" tab at the top of this (or any) page you will see links to all the previous incarnations of the page (21+ for this page as of this morning, Oct. 21, 2007). If you do something like accidentally blank the page and save it, no worries -- you, or someone else, can simply revert to the previous good version. Every single change made to every single page is saved!
Naming Conventions
Name an article according to the best-known name of the feature. Thus, Metals Bank rather than whatever the address is -- eventually we will make redirects to make that address go directly to the "Metals Bank" article.
Articles on people should be named in the format last name, first name.
For properties with street addresses, create the article this way using a reverse address format, between paired square brackets, followed by a vertical pipe (| = the symbol above the backslash) like this: [[Park 803 W.|803 W. Park]]. (Note that there is no space after the pipe.) This facilitates indexing by street name rather than numbers. Use a period after abbreviations for north, east, etc. How it works is the "real" article name is the part between brackets and before the pipe. Everything after the pipe is how it will be displayed. When you link to an article with a street address, do the same thing. You can see examples of this in the article 301 N. Crystal - go there and click the "edit" tab at the top to see the syntax for links.
Photos
Main article: How do I insert a photo?
Our goal is to have a current photo of existing properties. If historic photos exist, check into what it may cost to obtain them. It will also be necessary to check on copyright restrictions for historic photos - we may not be allowed to post them online.
Once you have a photo, you upload it using the link "upload file" in the toolbox on the left side of every page. To make that image appear in an article, add text similar to this:
[[Image:301NCrystal.jpg|thumb|301 N. Crystal]]
That adds the image named 301NCrystal.jpg, tells it to display it as a thumbnail, and tells it to add a caption saying "301 N. Crystal". The vertical lines | between sections are pipes, the upper-case character above the backslash on most keyboards (looks like two vertical hyphens).
Ideally, make images smaller than the likely native file size from a digital camera -- that is, don't upload a 3-meg photo, reduce it to something like 400 to 600 pixels wide (which will probably make it less than 100K). It is possible to make the image display smaller, but there is really no need for huge, high-resolution photos, and they take up space unnecessarily on the server. When it is displayed as a thumbnail like the one here, you can click on the image to get to the image page where it is available at full size.
References
Please try to avoid adding things that you "just know." To make this resource reliable and encyclopedic, as much information as possible should be referenced, ideally to primary sources.
- Every article should have at least one reference.
- List the sources from which information has been gathered. Things like the City Directories, the Historic Plaques, NHLD nomination forms, the historic inventory, etc. should be listed by name, date, author, etc., along with other print references such as the date of a newspaper article. See examples of formats within existing articles. See also Resources for research.
- If you determine something on your own, by visiting, measuring, observing the property, and that cannot be verified in some print reference, cite it this way:
- Gibson, R.I., field work, 2007.
- If you include things like stories, cite the original source in a manner similar to this:
- Mohan, Pat, Oral History, 2008.
Existing references - list, for style, for copying
Categories
Main article: Categories
Categories are great ways to organize pages into related, automated lists. As you edit a page on a property (or an architect etc. for that matter), add appropriate Categories by typing [[Category:Properties]] [[Category:Schools]], or whatever is appropriate, at the bottom. This will automatically add your page to those category pages, in alphabetical order no less! You do not add directly to category pages, which are automatically generated -- do it by adding the Category tag on the page you create or edit. Every article should have at least one category.
TIP: Note that case matters - Category Properties works, but properties (lower-case "p") does not.
See Special:Categories for the list of existing categories. Suggestion: If possible, in addition to the "Properties" category, try to always include one of the date categories such as [[Category:Structures built in 1880s]], and an architect category (if the architect is known and has or is likely to have multiple properties) such as [[Structures designed by Herman Kemna]].
Finally
When you have made a new page, or added substantially to an existing one, please add a link on the New Pages page. And also, go back to the Content Index and make your link a bold one.
Expect Editing
The nature of a Wiki - and its strength - is that we all can contribute to all articles, and improve them both in terms of content and style. No one "owns" an article, so if you can improve something that someone else has started, please do! Likewise, please don't be offended if someone changes your prose or adds to your information - that's how articles will grow and improve, through both contributions and editing by all of us. And disagreements benefit from their visibility to and input from all.
Redirects
If you feel up to it, you can make a redirect for common variations on the name. For example, the page Henry Patterson contains only the following:
#REDIRECT [[Patterson, Henry]]
That means if someone types "Henry Patterson" in the search box, they automatically are sent to the article Patterson, Henry. You can do the same with addresses vs. building names, etc. Likewise, if you make a link in an article to [[Henry Patterson]], it does not matter that the "real" page is named Patterson, Henry -- when someone clicks, they are redirected to the correct page. More information
