Policies

From the LDC Language Resource Wiki

Revision as of 23:21, 14 April 2010

(Mamandel 18:49, 16 December 2009 (UTC))

Organization

Each language included in this wiki has its own namespace and category. The two serve different purposes:

Namespaces are a way of controlling the file structure of the wiki, to permit editorial access on a language-by-language basis. For example, all pages dealing just with Tamil belong in the Tamil namespace. As I write this (2010-10-14) there are two such pages:

• Tamil/Tamil, the main page about Tamil
  (URL: http://lrwiki.ldc.upenn.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Tamil/Tamil)
• Tamil/Nonstandard encodings, a list of nonstandard encodings and fonts specific to Tamil. This list is too long to fit comfortably in the Encodings section of the main Tamil page, so instead that section contains a brief subsection with a link to the list page.
  (URL: http://lrwiki.ldc.upenn.edu/mediawiki/index.php/Tamil/Nonstandard_encodings)

We use namespaces to control administrative rights on a per language basis, and possibly later by subtopics (below).

Categories are a way of organizing access to the content of the wiki, to help users find what they are looking for. Before the general use of Unicode, ISCII (Indian Script Code for Information Exchange) was designed as an eight-bit encoding system with escape codes to allow encoding of many Indian languages. So our ISCII page is not in any language's namespace, but it is included in several language categories.

As the wiki develops, a contributor might expand the present section on Tamil lexicon resources and move it to a new page, Tamil/Lexicon, with a link from the main Tamil page. Still later there might be entries treating specialized vocabulary resources in detail:

• Tamil/Tamil (the main page for the language, also accessible as simply Tamil)
• Tamil/Lexicon
  • Tamil/Lexicon/Technical word lists
  • Tamil/Lexicon/Names

...

As a wiki is something like an encyclopedia, the units of content are often referred to as "entries", as well as "pages" in the usual web sense. But a wiki has other web pages than its content proper, such as (in one way) this Policy page, and (in another way) the Talk pages as well as other special pages. See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk_pages.

Content

This is a publicly accessible research resource, not a listserver or debating forum. Content should be accurate, objective, useful, and civil. An entry may say

Jones's (1997) brief treatment of honorifics is different from the others.

but not

*Jones's (1997) treatment of honorifics is inadequate and inaccurate.

Who can add to the wiki

Anyone with web access can read the wiki. But because this is an academic resource, only people we have approved and registered as editors can post to the content pages.

Each article page has a Talk (aka Discussion) page associated with it. These pages are open for anyone to discuss the content of the articles. As an example, I've put the basics of using talk pages on this page's talk page in an appropriately titled section.

The talk pages are not moderated, and the LDC is not responsible for their content.

Editing the wiki

(Mamandel 18:51, 16 December 2009 (UTC)) This wiki uses Mediawiki software. When you start a new page or edit an existing one, there is a link to Wikimedia's Editing Help at the bottom of the page, below the editing window and summary.

All entries should be signed and dated by typing four tildes in parentheses:

(~~~~)

The wiki turns the four tildes into your user-id and a time stamp, and the parentheses separate that from the content. (Don't use square brackets, which the wiki software will misinterpret in this context [although in general they're OK; see Links in Editing Help].) As the creator of this page, I've signed it at the top. We may also have contributors creating single sections; I've signed this one as an example.