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How to use this wiki

Look around

Start with: New to wikipatterns? Start here. for a guide to the major stages of wiki adoption. Wikipatterns contains 50 pattern and anti-pattern pages which offer strategies and techniques for making your wiki more successful. This wiki is intended to be a toolbox — as you look around, choose the patterns that you think will help your wiki succeed, apply them and see what happens!

Sign up and create a profile

When you sign up, you can edit any page on this site (you won't be added to any mailing lists, your email is hidden from other users). You can also create a profile for yourself. It's a great way to get involved with Wikipatterns.com, and if you're new to wiki, it's a good way to try your hand at editing.

  1. Create an account, if you haven't done so already
  2. Click the Your Space link near the bottom of any page.
    If you don't see the Your Space link you can click on your username at the top right of the page (Welcome yourusername)
  3. On the page that appears, you'll see a box like this:
    You can create a personal space to keep your own pages and news.
    Click the link to create a personal space.
  4. Once your space is ready, click the edit tab, and add whatever you like to your new profile page!

Add a picture to your profile

Click the Preferences link near the bottom of any page, then Edit Profile, and Profile Picture. Smile for the camera.

If you don't see the Preferences link you can click on your username at the top right of the page (Welcome yourusername)

Edit a pattern

Got a great idea you'd like to share? A use case or pattern? Wikipatterns is a wiki, so you can "leave a new tool in the toolbox" if you discover a new pattern or idea for promoting wiki use. If you're reading an existing page and want to add or edit something, just click the "edit page" link in the menu bar.

Add a new one

Click the "Add a pattern" button above to create a new page. If you're adding a Pattern, please include the following categories in your page:

  • Title
  • description of the pattern (unlabeled section)
  • Usage (labeled section)
  • Examples (labeled section)
    Rate this pattern?
  • Related Patterns (labeled section)
  • Further Reading (labeled section)

If you're adding an anti-Pattern, please include the following categories:

  • Title
  • What is it? (labeled section)
  • How do I notice it? (labeled section)
  • How do I fix it? (labeled section)
    Rate this pattern:
    		6 votes
  • Related Patterns (labeled section)
  • Further Reading (labeled section)

Have fun!


Comments  (Hide)

When I go to the home page for my personal space, I don't see "Edit Page". So how can I edit my home page? Also, how do I get to a link to browse my personal space?

Posted by Garnet R. Chaney at Apr 22, 2007 12:29

Garnet,
Thanks for pointing out these problems with Wikipatterns. Some of them have already been submitted to the theme developer to fix, and I've just now reported others, like the edit button not appearing in your personal profile. I didn't realize this was happening because the edit link does appear for me, which is likely because I have full admin permissions to the site. (The good news there is that this is probably just a permissions issue, and should be fixed within a few days, at most).
Stewart

Posted by Stewart Mader at Apr 22, 2007 23:47

At the risk of being an over-organizational and troll:

  • I just realized that I read every article in the three smaller sections, but shy'd away from the larger 'adoption patterns' section as it's just beyond the scale of a list that I can deal with easily at a glance
  • Perhaps there is some way to split that section into visually and conceptually more manageable parts? I haven't read this section yet, so I'm guessing here based on titles:
  • wikiability, naming conventions,
  • technical: 'index','camelcase','contentalert',wysiwyg,
  • organizational: 'lunch menu','faq','onespacepergroup'
  • behaviours: 'community write', window of discussion, threadmode
  • access control: permissions, clean permissions
  • seeding: 'seed content','magnet',''scaffold','futurelinks','
    I'll be in better position to recomend categories in 20 minutes or so, but the 'need' to categories is apparent.
  • Likewise, 'IdentityMatters','charter' is a 'concept' about a 'people' pattern, while some others (gnome, champion, zenmaster, maintainer) are descriptions about type of personalities, and 'tagging','starting points','myspace' are organizational, and 'barnraising','viral','invitation' have to do with people patterns than promote collaborative use. perhaps a split is not too far off for this group either?
Posted by James Mortimer at May 02, 2007 11:13

please see also suggestion on Idea for evolution of patterns

Posted by James Mortimer at May 02, 2007 11:59

I agree with James that there should be some more organizing here: this wiki provides patterns that are not used here. Of course you cannot apply them all on a public wiki but some are general matters, e.g. the wiki language. A thread mode to discuss these sort of things would be the first step.

Posted by MarijanaPrusina at Jul 02, 2007 10:56

A couple of suggestions:

The new theme is great, however it is hiding some of the useful features of Confluence. I particularly miss the History feature to navigate around my recent pages.

The template for patterns needs to be updated to the latest format. Specifically, the right set of headings and the rating macro. There should probably be separate templates for people and adoption patterns as well.

Posted by Mark Truman at Jul 09, 2007 16:09


When I go to the home page for my personal space, I don't see "Edit Page". So how can I edit my home page? Also, how do I get to a link to browse my personal space? Posted by Garnet R. Chaney at Apr 22, 2007 13:29

 Any update on this?

Posted by Kenneth at Mar 01, 2008 10:04

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