What On Earth Is A "Twiki"??

A wiki/twiki is usually a community edited internet medium for the exchange of information whereby all surface level upkeep and maintenance is handled by the community of users. Ideally and by intention, a wiki is supposed to provide free and equal access to all users vis-à-vis the creation and editing of pages across its entire terrain regardless of original creator, page content, or level of importance placed on any particular page, e.g. the home page. In order to allow this while maintaining a semblance of order, wikis keep track of all edits for each page through a fully accessible log called the page's revision history. In this way no revision or page is ever lost (as long as it has been saved once) and pages can easily be reverted to a previous incarnation should the need be deemed to have arisen at any time by any one.

For example, at the time of this writing, the AnarchistU home page is currently on revision number 305, i.e. it has been revised 304 times since its original creation. A page's revision number can usually be found somewhere on the actual page.

Twiki Etiquette, or, "How Do I Behave On A Twiki"?

Wikis can easily become huge jumbled masses of amorphous goo that are hard to navigate or even understand. They can also be catalysts for conflict because of their free and open nature. For this reason, users must implicitly agree to behave somewhat nicely and keep their content reasonably ordered at certain levels so that the fundamental goal of "exchange of information" is not too badly hampered. Some of the main ways this is accomplished are:

• WikiWords:
  Every page in a wiki has a title and "Wiki Words" are usually the titles of pages and follow a predefined format. For example, in twiki a WikiWord is a phrase or group of words for which all spaces are removed and the first letter of each word is capitalized. One of the main benefits of this is to allow for easy linking between pages. All one needs to do to put a link to one page in another page is write the page's WikiWord title.
  
  So that if I type the page you are currently reading, "Editing AnarchistU Twiki" without spaces, I automatically get a link to this page. Like so: EditingAnarchistUTwiki
  
  In twiki, all WikiWords^? are actual page titles or potential page titles, so that if I type any group of words without spaces and first letters capitalized, I'll get either a link to the page with that title or a little question mark next to the WikiWord^? which would allow me to create a page with that WikiWord^? as title. Like this TestWikiWord^?.

• Be Nice:
  Because of the inherent freedom contained within the wiki format, conflict and disagreement can very easily arise mainly due to inconsideration. Sometimes users spend many countless hours creating or editing a page. So if you want to make any major edits or revisions to a page here are some rules of thumb:
  • Have a quick glance at the page's history and see if there have been any major recent edits.
  • Think about contacting the last editor and letting them know if you think there is a possibility that they may be upset by a new revision.
  • Think about applying your edit in an unobtrusive way, or demarcate your edit in some way that indicates it is separate from the previous
    edit(s), for example; It is very common to use a wiki page as a discussion page whereby someone posts a topic or thoughts and others respond by indenting and marking their name, the date and time, like so:

Fred, may 6, 2008:
I agree with what you said about such and such but so and so and this and that are in conflict with such and so.

Hubert, may 20, 2008:
I'm late coming into the discussion but just want to say that I agree with Bill. Also Tracy makes a good point.

• • The AnarchistU Twiki already has a tips page on good style when creating/editing a page here GoodStyle

"Now That I Know Good Twiki Citizenry,
How Do I Make/Edit A Damned Twiki Page?"

In order to edit a twiki page, you first have to have a page to edit:

• Creating a Twiki Page:
  There are a few ways to create a twiki page, both of which will take you to the "Create A Twiki Page" page.
  
  1.) Think of a WikiWord title for your page (see WikiWord, above), then enter it into the "jump" box at the topmost of every AnarchistU twiki page. If a page with that WikiWord^? as title does not already exist, then you will be asked if you wish to create it. If it does exist, then you will be brought directly to that page and will either have to edit that already existing page or think of a new title for your page.
  
  2.) As described in the previous section "Twiki Etiquette", you can edit an already existing page to include a WikiWord link to the page you want to create. Once you've finished your edit, if a page with that wikiword title does not already exist, then you'll get a little question mark next to the link which upon clicking on, will take you to the create a twiki page page.
  
  Once you've reached the "Create a twiki page" page, follow the instructions careful. As of now, there are only two decisions to make; The title of your page, and the parent page ("topic") of your page. Choosing a proper parent for your page helps in the organization of the entire site. If you can't see an appropriate parent for your topic (usually a preliminary menu page is a good parent or some overarching category under which your page fits) then the home page is a good choice as parent, though pages don't necessarily need parents and this is an available choice.
  
  Then hit "Create This Topic" upon which you'll be taken to the "Editing your new page" page.

• Editing a Twiki Page:
  Every wiki/twiki page has an "Edit" button on it and is editable by any one. You are taken to the editing page of a twiki page by either clicking on the page's "Edit" button or after creating a new page.
  
  
  • The editing page consist of a text entry area where you enter the text for the page.
  • Special formatting such as bold, italics, tables, lists, etc.... are specified in the text entry area using special characters. The editing page usually lists some of the ways to perform these special formattings and there is a link there to a more comprehensive list of special formatting characters, TextFormattingRules.
  • In addittion to special formatting characters, twiki allows some HTML to be used in the text entry area to format a page.
    
    
  • ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FORMAT YOUR WIKI/TWIKI PAGE is to look at the edit page of a wiki/twiki page whose formatting you want to emulate, and copy the special characters they used to achieve that formatting.