Wiki Usage and Editing

This "wiki" is based on the same open-source code used to make the famous Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia work. The concept is simply to make information findable and update-able in a rather plain wrapper with no coding experience required (though some "wiki markup text" items may help enliven your entries). It invites regular folks to use the tool with little in the way training or experience required.

Getting started

When looking for information that may already have been provided, search for it by entering what you think might appear in the name of the page as. No guarantees of course. You will notice that, as you type, suggested pages that do exist will be presented.
If you click the "Search full text" button, the entire wiki will be searched for the words you enter in the content of the pages and a page will be presented displaying the pages and excerpts of what it found.
If no page is found, then you will be asked, on that results page, to create the page, using the text you enter as the title of the page. Try it out.

If you know you are adding something new, type the name of a page you would like to create in the box below. You will be taken directly to a new page creation page. If that page already exists, you will be presented with its current contents to edit it.

What you will get first is a notice that the page does not exist. That's exactly what you should expect. On that page is another link to create the page. On the edit page, there will be a set of buttons at the top. These might be arranged differently depending on the "skin" you may have chosen for display of the pages. But for most, there will be two buttons in particular:

An the "Edit" button for a WYSIWYG type editor. This provides almost exactly what will be displayed when the page is saved.
An "Edit source" button for editing the actual text. This will allow you to edit those special "wiki markup" things to enhance your page. And it includes formatting buttons along the top of the editing window. And a live preview option so you can see your changes as you make them.

What and How to Include Things

You can type in anything of course. But you can also include images, videos, links, even other documents. For details on some of these things please refer to:

Help:Formatting: Provides all sorts of ways to format your text, such as section headings, font settings, including pre-formatted text, inserting tables, creating lists, special symbols, and even some HTML tags.
Help:Links: Tells how to link to virtually anything, anywhere. In the same page you are editing, to another page in the wiki, to pages elsewhere in the network. Links are probably essential to any page created here. Take a look at how many there are on this page!
Special:Upload: To upload a file, typically a JPG, JPEG, PNG. But other files as well such as XLSX, PPTX, MPP, DOC, PDF and others. This also explains how to thumbnail a picture, with or without caption, and size and position it. As an example, here's how I included my YouTube videos:

Include a YouTube reference

A simple link to a YouTube video: AMTRAK loops Monkey Puzzle. It opens in this browser window. You must use the browser's back button to get back to the wiki page. Or you could open this in a separate tab or window by using the browser's mechanisms, which vary with the browser.

I tried putting in some HTML that embeds the video in this page.

But that didn't work. I think the wiki software won't allow that type of HTML.

Categorizing Pages

As you may note in the "MRT SIG Topics" page, we have suggested several different categories for various articles. These categories are by no means the be-all and end-all. If you have another category in mind, please suggest it.

If you believe your article belongs in one of the categories, you can include it there by adding the following line somewhere (perferably the top or bottom of your page).

[[Category:whatever category you want]]

The category you supply need not even exist. That's OK too. But if you do, please inform us of it, and provide a brief description of what would typically be included in that category. It will then be added to the topics page.

Conformance and Consistency

To attempt to make these pages as understandable and usable as possible, we have created a "Sample Article Structure" page that suggests what needs to be included in a page and how to arrange it. We aren't [yet] enforcing this, as we are just getting started and we want feedback on this. So take a look at it and let us know if it meets your needs. And if not, how to improve it.

Security

Ostensibly, you should be a member in good standing with the Rose City Garden Railway Society to create and edit pages. But everyone can LOOK all they want. That is sort of the point of a wiki, to share information! You can apply for an account following the link in the upper right labeled "Request an Account"!!