Editing 9 things you need to know about the Crankshaft Coalition wiki

==What is a wiki== A wiki is a piece of software. It's like a word processor (software used to edit documents, like Microsoft Word) combined with a bulletin board (software used to enable discussions between groups of people, like the [http://www.hotrodders.com/forum Hotrodders Bulletin Board]). On a wiki, groups of people work together to edit articles. There are thousands of different wikis on the internet, the most famous (and largest) one being [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]. This wiki, the [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Crankshaft_Coalition_Wiki ''Crankshaft Coalition Wiki''], is focused on hotrodding information. ===How does the Crankshaft Coalition Wiki work?=== Anyone, including YOU, can edit any of the articles in the Crankshaft Coalition Wiki. Just click the "edit" tab at the top of the page, or, click the "edit" link that appears to the right-hand side of each article subsection. Once you do that, you'll see the text of the page in a posting box on the resulting screen. From there, you can add, remove, or edit the text. To save your edit, click the "Save page" button at the bottom of the screen. You may also add a brief description of the edit. Don't worry about screwing anything up; every time a wiki page is edited, the previous version is saved. It's very easy to roll back to a previous version. In fact, you can see the editing history of a wiki page by clicking the "history" tab at the top of the page. ==Do I need to log in?== No, you don't need to be logged in to edit a page. When editing without being logged in, your IP address is used as your username. However, it's generally considered worthwhile to create an account. It only takes a minute; all you need to enter is a username and a password. Once you've created an account, you'll have additional privileges, including: *Your own [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Help:User_page user page] where you can add a few details about yourself and receive/answer messages from other contributors by using the user page "discussion" tab *Your own personal [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Help:Watchlist watchlist] to which you can add your favorite articles *The ability to [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Start_a_new_article start new pages], [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Special:Upload upload images] (more info [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Help:Images here]), and edit protected pages (see "What about protected pages?" below) *A [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Special:Contributions "User contributions"] page where you can view all of your editing contributions *Your IP address will no longer be visible to other users ==How do I add links or formatted text like bold or italic?== You can use the buttons at the top of the posting box to format your text, insert headlines, and add links. For more information see the Wikipedia.org article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page How to edit a page] and the [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Help:Contents Help] page here on the Crankshaft Coalition wiki. ==What about "[http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Help:Protected_pages protected pages]?== Bear in mind that the power of the wiki concept lies in its openness and accessibility. Only certain wiki pages are "protected" from open editing by having their editing privileges restricted. This protects information that has no reason to be edited (like rules and matters of policy as an example) except by the Bureaucrat in charge (Jon). ==Vandalism and trolls== Vandalous entries are deleted as soon as they're detected. This almost always includes blocking the user name or IP address. Trolls, while rare, are obviously frowned upon and are dealt with on a case-by-case basis by the Bureaucrat in charge (Jon) or the admin staff if the situation warrants. ==How can I discuss or ask questions about a wiki article?== You can use the "discussion" page to start a dialog about any article. At the top of each wiki article is a discussion tab. Simply click the discussion tab to open a [http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Help:Talk_pages talk page] for that particular wiki article. If the discussion page hasn't been used yet, the discussion tab will be seen in red at the top of the page. If a discussion about that article has already started, simply edit the page to add your thoughts, then save it as if you were editing an article. On the discussion page you may want to ask the opinion of other wiki editors regarding a specific change, or you may want to start a discussion about future additions to the article, etc. Also, the discussion page (like all pages in the wiki) will save an indelible record in chronological order of the thought processes that went into each article (also all edits/changes are saved in the "history" page even if they're not documented in the discussion page). ==Can I copy text and images into the Crankshaft Coalition Wiki?== Only in certain cases. Don't copy-paste information into the wiki posting box if it is covered by copyright; that makes it illegal to copy/paste. Instead, add a link to the page if there is any question as to the copyright status. Any text entered into the Crankshaft Coalition Wiki is by default accompanied by a promise that you wrote it yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource. So be sure of the source before entering it into the wiki. Fortunately, once your original writing is entered into the Crankshaft Coalition Wiki, it's covered under a special "Creative Commons" license that allows it to be freely shared and copied. For more information on this, see [[Project:Copyrights]]. Also, don't upload images to the wiki unless you either made them yourself (drawings you made, or photos you took, etc.), or they are in the public domain or from a similarly unencumbered resource. ==Should I sign my name on wiki pages?== On a wiki article page, don't sign your name. Because many contributors may edit any given article, this would ultimately result in hundreds of signatures interspersed throughout a page, making editing difficult. However on a discussion page, do sign your name. If you're logged in, at the end of your message, include the following text as your "signature": <nowiki>--~~~~</nowiki>. That's two dashes, followed by four [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde#Tilde_with_keyboards tilde characters]. It will automatically be converted to your signature, including the time and date. Or use the "Your signature with timestamp" button above, second from the end, right side. The tilde character will probably be located in the top-left corner of your keyboard. ==What else do I need to know about editing a wiki article?== The unofficial wiki motto is "'''Be bold'''". When editing wiki pages, don't hold back. If you have information that can be added to a page, add it. If you see a spelling or grammatical error, fix it. On a wiki, the best articles come from a large group of people making small additions and adjustments to a single document. Don't worry that you're going to offend anyone, but do behave professionally; don't use profanity, for instance. Don't hesitate to improve an article, even if it just means adding one comma to one sentence. Try to present material in a fashion that would make your English language teacher proud. [[Category:Wiki information]]

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