Digiclass:Tutorial

Overview

The Digital Classicist Wiki contrains three broad types of page:

1. Projects, which may be based on fixed-term funding or long-term research by single scholars or teams, often including a concrete (usually digital) output
2. Tools, including those not specific to classics or ancient studies, but which are also used to study, find or transform ancient data
3. Methods, overview or FAQs, which do not necessary address individual projects or tools (but may in some cases link to several)

Most pages include the following structure, as appropriate:

• Available (where the project or tool can be found, URL or other information (including library records, description of legacy resources)
• Authors/editors, naming the lead individuals responsible for the resource, project leads, etc.
• Description, in the editor's own words or quoted (with attribution) from the project website
• Several categories, to help users browse to the resource. See the list of categories.

Tutorial

• tba: Link to video tutorial

1. Request an account

The “Create Account” option in this wiki has been disabled to limit spambots, so accounts have to be created for you by one of the administrators. Please contact any one of the people listed at Administrators to request an account. Please give a brief explanation of who you are and the reason for your interest in editing the Wiki.

Your username and password will be sent to you when your account is created. The default format for your username will be “ForenameSurname”. If you have a usual or preferred name that may not be obvious to the administrator from your email, please provide that information in the email requesting access.

2. Log in

In the upper-right corner, click “Log in.” Enter your username and password (as provided in step 1, above). If this is your first time logging in, you should change your password to something both more secure and memorable.

3. Wiki Syntax

It is possible to use the wiki markup toolbar at the top of the editing area to insert markup as you edit. However, you should be familiar with the conventions used in wiki markup, especially if you are editing an existing page. The following are the most commonly used formatting codes in the Digital Classicist wiki. Mediawiki provides a comprehensive guide to formatting, linking and other markup.

Headings

Enclose the heading text in equal signs.

• = Level 1 heading = will create a level-one heading (equivalent to html <h1>)
• == Level 2 heading == will create a level-two heading (equivalent to html <h2>)
• === Level 3 heading === will create a level-three heading (equivalent to html <h3>)
  • up to
• ====== Level 6 heading ====== will create a level-six heading (equivalent to html <h6>)

Try to use headings in sequence, so that you only use level 4 if it is preceded by levels 1, 2, and 3 for example. If there are 4 or more headings (of any level) in a document, a table of contents will automatically be generated at the top of the page.

Note: In order for headings to render correctly, there should be no spaces at the beginning of the line.

Italic

''italicized txt'' renders as italicized txt

Bold

'''bolded txt''' renders as bolded txt

Links

Links usually have two parts: the link text, which is what a user sees and clicks on, and the URL, the actionable link address. In some cases, these are the same, as when a URL is visible and clickable in a document.

There are two main permutations of link syntax.

• To link to a page in the Digital Classicist Wiki, just put the name of the page inside double square brackets. For example, [[Prosopographia Imperii Romani]] will display as Prosopographia Imperii Romani and link to the project description page. Note that the text inside the double square brackets is the name of the page, not the actual link. If you would like link text that differs from the page name, you can use the full syntax, which includes the link text separated from the link address by a vertical bar. For example, [[Prosopographia Imperii Romani|Roman Prosopography]] will display as Roman Prosopography but link to the same page as in the fist example.
• To link to an external page, the syntax is similar but not identical. The link text and link address are enclosed in single square brackets, and there is no need for the vertical bar to separate them. For example, [http://nytimes.com New York Times] will display as New York Times and link to the NY Times web site. You can also specify only the link address without square brackets, if you want the URL to be the visible, clickable link. http://nytimes.com will display as http://nytimes.com. Single square brackets around the URL only will create a numbered reference linking to that address: [http://nytimes.com] will display as [1].

Media Wiki Help page on Links

Lists

Lists are indicated by putting an asterisk or a hash mark at the beginning of a line. Each line in unordered or bullet list begins with an asterisk. A second level is indicated using two asterisks, with additional asterisk rendering as further nesting.

* First unordered list item
* Second unordered list item
** A nested item
*** A further nested item

renders as:

• First unordered list item
• Second unordered list item
  • A nested item
    • A further nested item

Ordered or numbered lists work exactly the same way, but instead of an asterisk, you insert a hash mark.

# First unordered list item
# Second unordered list item
## A nested item
### A further nested item

renders as:

1. First unordered list item
2. Second unordered list item
   1. A nested item
      1. A further nested item

Media Wiki Help page on Lists

4. Template for a common page

 ==Available==
 * URL
 ==Editor==
 * Name·s
 ==Description==
 …
 [[category:category1]]
 [[category:category2]]

The template above is as generic and minimal as possible, so that you can copy it to create a new page or refer to it for reference when editing and improving a page (see following sections). Some pages may have slightly different formats, and we will discuss these shortly too. The four main sections of this minimalist page are:

1. Available: where to find the resource in question. This is most commonly a URL, or possibly multiple URLs (live version, project code, documentation wiki, etc.), but may also include links to a library catalogue, or just information about an offline media format, or the fact that a project or tool is legacy or defunct. There should always be at least one entry under this heading. For consistency, please format this content in a list (even if there is only one item).
2. Editor: the person or persons responsible for authoring or curating the resource in question. If applicable, you may prefer to use the heading ==Author==, ==Director== or similar for this section. Please do not list an entire project team along with titles, roles, job descriptions, honorifics, links to home pages, etc. in this section (they belong on the project’s own webpage); it is really designed just to list one or a short list of the key people responsible for an entire project.
3. Description: at a minimum this should include a few lines of text, as found on the project’s “About” page, explaining the key features of the resource. If this is copied wholesale from the project page, rather than paraphrased in your own words or reviewed from a user perspective, please make this clear by surrounding the text with <blockquote>, and noting at the top “Taken from the project page” and today’s date (in year-month-day format).
4. Categories: These are invisible tags that you should list at the bottom of the page, in the form [[category:Projects]] etc. See the list of categories and try to use existingcategory names if possible, only adding new categories (simply by including their names after category:) if you are sure (a) nothing similar already exists, and (b) the category will be a useful way to organise and search the wiki.

Project and tool pages will usually have the basic format above. Methodology or "FAQ" pages may use different headings, as a single URL author, or description may not be useful. Use your discretion and try to keep it simple and clear.

5. Edit an existing page

1. Find a page you would like to edit. These are two ways to look for pages that need help:
   1. List of pages that need work
   2. Go to a random page
2. Enter edit mode and make changes
   1. In the top menu bar, click Edit to open the content editor.
   2. The editor opens in the left panel, and in the right panel you can preview what the page will look like once it’s published. (On a narrow screen you may not see both panels simultaneously.)
   3. Edit the content using the Wiki syntax
   4. Make sure that the page follows the suggested Template for a common page (if appropriate). If not, you may use the template to restructure the page.
   5. Preview your changes by clicking Reload in the top right corner.
3. Save your changes:
   1. Add a short description of your edits in the Summary box.
   2. If this is a minor change, check the This is a minor edit box.
   3. When you’re ready, click Save changes.

5.1. How to deal with a dead link

If the page you are editing has a broken link, the first and best option is to replace the dead link with a working one (which often can be found via a Google search if you’re not already aware of the current link). If no working link can be found, replace the dead link with the most recent working link from the WayBack Machine at archive.org, as follows:

1. Enter the non-functional URL in the box at the top of the main archive.org page where it says ‘Enter URL or keywords’
2. Find the most recent version from the calendar that is marked in blue (if there are other colors of bubbles, there will be an explanation of what each one means at the bottom of the page: most indicate lack of availability). Hover over a bubble to access the time-stamped link(s) from that date. If the most recent version seems to have some problems, such as broken image links, or it has been replaced by another site that is clearly not the relevant project, go further back until you find a relatively intact version of the project page.
3. Copy the full URL from the address bar of the archived page. It will start with web.archive.org.
4. On the wiki page, replace the broken URL with a link that displays the old URL but links to the archived page, stating the date that the page was last available and the date of the archived page as follows:

[archivedURL brokenURL] - website last available in Month Year (now links to archive.org version from Month Year)

Replace archivedURL, brokenURL, Month, and Year as appropriate, for example:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20180805162046/https://www.epic-poetry-network.com/ http://www.epic-poetry-network.com/] - website last available in February 2023 (now links to archive.org version from August 2018)

6. To create a new page

1. Log in: Ensure you are logged into your account (step 2, above).
2. Search for the Page Name: Using the search bar in the top right-hand corner of the page, enter the name of the page you wish to create. If, after checking the search results, you are satisfied that the page does not already exist, proceed to the next step to begin creating the page.
3. Create the Page:
   1. In the search results page returning "no results" there will be a red link inviting you to create the page with the name you searched for.
   2. If you are working from a list of pages to be created (e.g. the Digital Classicist Wiki to do list), a link to the page you wish to create might already appear in red text; click the red link to open the editing screen and proceed to the next step.
   3. You may alternatively type the desired URL for the new page directly into your browser's address bar (e.g., http://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/New_Page_Name) and press Enter; you will then be directed to the editing screen for that page.
4. Add Content: Structure your page using the Template in step 4, above, marking up the text using Wiki syntax (as in step 3). All pages are different, but should include the following pieces of information:
   1. A link to the relevant external resource (use the Wayback Machine if the resource is no longer available; see step 5.1 for details)
   2. The responsible person associated with the resource, e.g. the editor, author, or project director (link to that person’s page on the Digital Classicist wiki if they are a user)
   3. A brief description of the resource (this can be copy/pasted from the resource itself and included as a blockquote)
   4. One or more categories to help make your page more easily discoverable (include at least one of ‘projects’, ‘tools’ or ‘faq’ if possible)
5. Preview and Save:
   1. Click Show preview to check the layout and formatting of your new page.
   2. Once satisfied, add a summary of your activity in the Summary box (e.g. “created page”)
   3. Optionally tick the ‘Watch this page’ box; this will ensure that you are notified every time another user makes a change to this page.
   4. Click Save page.

7. To create a category page

To create a new category on the Digital Classicist Wiki, simply add a category tag to any page using [[Category:YourCategoryName]]. This automatically creates the category page if it doesn't already exist.

1. Log in: Ensure you are logged into your account (step 2, above).
2. Choose or create a page to categorize: Navigate to an existing page or create a new one where your category will be relevant.
3. Add the category tag: Click “Edit” at the top of the page to enter the editing interface.
4. Edit the page: At the bottom of the page (or anywhere in the wikitext), add: [[Category:YourCategoryName]]. Replace YourCategoryName with the name of the category you want to create. For example: [[Category:Digital Epigraphy]]
5. Save the page: Click “Save changes” to apply your edits. The category is now created and linked to that page.
6. Visit the new category page: After saving, click the red link to your new category (it will appear at the bottom of the page). This opens the category page.
7. Add a description to the category page (optional): Click “Edit” on the category page and add a brief description or explanation of what the category includes. This helps other users understand its purpose.
8. Tips:
   1. You can add multiple categories to a single page.
   2. Categories help organize content and make it easier to browse related topics.
   3. To see all existing categories, visit the Categories page.

Where to find suggestions of things to do

Editing existing pages

1. Pages that need work lists existing pages that have been identified as in need of attention
2. You can check Recently added pages, since they may especially benefit from checking and improvement
3. You can also check the Special:PrefixIndex?prefix=&namespace=1 list of Talk pages in the Wiki, since the very existence of a Talk page may also flag up issues in need of attention or discussion
4. Since old pages tend to include outdated information or dead links, you can click on the Random pages link on the navigation menu on the left and check any page to update its content, starting from testing if links are still active.

Creating new pages

1. DigiClass/To_do_list To do list is a wishlist of new articles or pages to add to the Wiki
2. External lists of projects lists more sources to trawl for candidate # How to suggest a new page:

Add the title and URL to To do list Or email the Digital Classicist discussion list and hope that someone copies it to the To Do list for you.

Working on categories

Categories that need work lists categories to add, remove, reorganise, describe better, etc.

Very useful pages for editors

• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/DigiClass/Wiki_editing
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/DigiClass/To_do_list
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/DigiClass/Pages_that_need_work
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/DigiClass/External_lists_of_projects
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/DigiClass/Categories_that_need_work
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/Special:Categories
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/Special:RecentChanges
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/Special:WantedPages
• https://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/Special:WantedCategories