Wiki Help
From OpenStreetMap
The textual information you see here is built and organised using wiki software (Go back to the main Help for information about how we build maps)
Contents |
How to use a wiki
Browse the information. As on any website, click the links to find information which interests you. Have a look around! (Main Page is a good starting point; so is the OSM category tree.)
Edit the information!. Click 'Edit' at the top of any page, to edit the contents.
(You do need to create a wiki account before editing)
That's about it really. Simple hey?!
...Actually there are few other tricks to learn.
See Help:Editing for instructions on editing wiki pages. This explains some of the wiki text syntax for acheiving special effects in the text such as bold and italic text.
Wikipedia's editing help
You may wish to visit Wikipedia's help. Wikipedia has detailed articles covering almost every imaginable aspect of editing pages on a Wiki. Wikipedia also has a group of volunteers who answer questions and provide help with editing. The OSM Wiki runs on Mediawiki software, as does Wikipedia, so much of what you see here works similarly.
Make a user page
You may want to start by editing your user page. If you wish to tell the OSM community where you are (for example, so neighboring OSM members can collaborate with you to map your locale), place some category links like the following at the bottom of your user page, as necessary to identify the area(s) you want to help map:
[[Category:Users in Country|Username]] [[Category:Users in State/Province|Username]] [[Category:Users in City|Username]]
where you replace Country with the name of your country, Username with your username, etc. Then your username should appear under the Users by geographical region category tree. If you happen to be the first user in a particular geographical region category (country, city, etc.), the category link at the bottom of your user page will appear in red until someone creates the category page. If you are new to Wiki editing, don't worry about this---someone else should eventually create it for you.
You may also create user subpages, to practice editing before you post something to the main Wiki. Wikipedia provides some help on this.
Some general guidelines
Be aware that anyone can edit anything on the OSM Wiki. This means anything you contribute may get hacked to bits by others.
Wholesale deletions or large-scale rearrangements may be necessary in order to achieve a reasonable organisation of the website as a whole. Anyone can undertake such re-organisations but for any change which might be viewed as destructive, you should leave a trail of comments on the associated discussion pages, to explain what you are doing and why. (See Wikipedia:Talk Page)
In general be bold, go forth and do it! Any edit can always be reverted, but for really big changes which might upset someone, it's best to hold a discussion about it first. Propose the change, discuss it, and reach agreement on the best organisation. Different people have different ideas for how to organise the wiki pages.
This OSM wiki does need some re-organisation. We need to take an global view point and do some merging/deleting and consolidation of information here. We are coordinating this effort at WikiProject Cleanup. To help in this process, please try not to be too precious about "your" pages. Nobody owns the pages of a wiki. When adding to the wiki, you should seek to find the correct place within the current structure, to build upon the information we already have. This is better than creating a new page as your page where things a written your way.
As with any kind of internet community discussion, if you find yourself passionately defending your way of doing things, try to take a step back and stay open-minded.
