Wikinfo:Glossary
From Wikinfo
This is a growing glossary of wiki terms used by Wikinfo and other wiki webs around the wikisphere.
- Article
- An encyclopedia entry or "namespace" information page, such as this one. All articles are pages, but some pages are definitions, indexes, and other information.
- Disambiguation
- The process of resolving the conflict that occurs when articles about two or more different topics have the same natural title. See Wikinfo:Editing/Disambiguation
- Edit Conflict
- This happens when two or more parties both attempt to save different edits to the same page. GetWiki will present the 2nd editor with a page presenting their differences, and they will be required to merge them into the newer text (easier than it sounds...sometimes).
- Edit War
- Used on Wikipedia to refer to two or more parties continually making their prefered changes to a page, and undoing the changes they don't agree with. Generally, an edit war is the result of an argument on a talk page that could not be resolved. On Wikinfo there is the option of writing a set of articles from differing points of view. See Sympathetic point of view.
- GFDL
- GNU Free Documentation License. Most of our articles are released under this license.
- GetMeta
- A support wiki (GetWiki.net) for GetWiki, founded by Proteus, also to discuss "meta" issues, including Philosophy, Technology, and software topics.
- GetWiki
- The wiki software on which Wikinfo runs on ibiblio. GetWiki is built by Proteus.
- Google Test
- Running sections or titles of articles through the Google search engine for various purposes. The two most common are to check for copyright violations or to determine which term among several is the most widely used.
- Orphan
- A page with no links from other pages. You can view lists of orphaned articles and images.
- POV
- Abbreviation of point of view. On Wikinfo, this phrase is not a pejorative - see Wikinfo:Policy/Point of View
- Page
- Any individual display screen on the wiki. Pages include articles, talk pages, documentation and special pages, definitions, directory indexes, and so on.
- Pusher
- Usually shunned on other wikis as "problem users" pushing a point of view the community dislikes, almost all "POV pushers" are welcome on Wikinfo.
- Namespace
- A way to classify pages. Wikinfo has namespaces for encyclopedia articles, pages about Wikinfo (Wikinfo:), user pages (User:), special pages (Special:) and talk pages (Talk:, Wikinfo talk:, and User talk:).
- Newbie Test (also "newb test" or "n00b test")
- An single edit made from a new account just to see if "edit this page" really does what it sounds like. Often these users are never seen again.
- Redirect
- An automatic skip from one page to another. For example, on "This page", we could have #REDIRECT [[That page]] on the first line, and when someone looks at "This page", they are taken to "That page".
- Revert
- The returning of a page's text back to an earlier edit, either to correct vandalism or mistakes.
- SPOV
- Sympathetic point of view. Wikinfo's policy of giving an upbeat spin to topics, and resolving edit disputes by allowing sets of articles.
- Subpage
- A page, like this one, connected to a parent page. All pages/articles can have subpages, and they are very common for user pages, and here in the Wikinfo namespace, to group related articles together.
- Talk Page
- A page reserved for discussion. All pages here, except talk pages themselves and forum pages, have talk pages attached to them for discussing their parent page, for example, Talk:Main Page.
- Troll
- Although rare on Wikinfo, someone who trolls using wedge issues to generate Edit Wars and redundant discussion, usually regarding a single article, with no interest in the rest of the Wiki, the policies, or other editor's input or feelings.
- User Page
- A personal page for our users. Most people use their pages to introduce themselves and to keep various personal notes and lists. They are also used to communicate via the attached user talk pages.
- Wikify
- To format and add links to articles, incorporating them into the "web" of the wiki. Without links, information is difficult to find or relate to other information.
