Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

[Leigh Blackall]

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

In Community

Just because anyone can edit Wikipedia doesn't mean it's easy. Sure, you can edit anonymously and say anything you like, but if you want to make edits that last and if you want to participate in a meaningful way that complies with community guidelines, well, there's a lot to learn. Guidelines can be hard to find on the site, and for better or worse, they're always evolving.

As the pull-quote on the cover of this book indicates, Cool Tools has previously-recommended other Missing Manuals from O'Reilly. Like the other books in the series, Wikipedia: The Missing Manual is logically structured, includes lots of screen-shots, and is infinitely skimmable. A great introduction and a handy reference, the manual starts out with the basics: editing, creating articles and maintaining them (yes, that's just the start). More advanced topics include collaboration, advanced formatting, broader site structure, and interface customization.

Documentation at the website is not particularly searchable given the site's relatively simplistic one-box-fits-all search interface; browsing through documentation and discussion can be difficult and, frankly, overwhelming. In addition to the quite readable, cover to cover flow, the book has a comprehensive index that allows for quick navigation that delivers precise answers to the myriad questions that inevitably arise, especially when you're just getting familiar with this medium.

Make no mistake, community consensus is always the last (ever-changing) word. But John Broughton, who has also overseen the Editor's Index to Wikipedia project, can help you ease into editing without committing any major blunders. 

-- Camille Cloutier

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual
John Broughton
2008, 502 pages
$20
Available from Amazon

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Leigh Blackall
+64(0)21736539
skype - leigh_blackall
SL - Leroy Goalpost
http://learnonline.wordpress.com
http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Leighblackall

[Cormac Lawler]

On 11/11/08, Leigh Blackall <leighb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual

There's also the recently published "How Wikipedia works", written by three seasoned Wikipedians, and which is available online (as well as in book form) under the GFDL.

http://howwikipediaworks.com/

Cheers,

Cormac 

 

[Nadia]

Cormac and Leigh,
Thanks for the useful information.
How are you Cormac, I am the one who fell flat on her face in front of
you in Alexandria. How are you?
Will be in London from the 26th of Nov. till 15th of Dec.

On Nov 11, 10:57 pm, "Cormac Lawler" <cormag...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/11/08, Leigh Blackall <leighblack...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Wikipedia: The Missing Manual<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/CoolTools/%7E3/jOBASt6hkqM/003282.php>