Hokkaipedia Quick Start
Logging on
The first thing to do is create an account. 'LOG IN' is located on the brown band at the top of the page - number 6 on the right hand side, next to the search box. Cicking on 'LOG IN' will bring up the 'LOG IN/CREATE ACCOUNT' page. Select 'Create an account' will open a new page enabling you to choose a username and password and enter your email address (required). (Anonymous writing or editing is not possible on Hokkaipedia.)
You can sign on with your real name or a 'handle' (or fantasy name!). It's up to you what kind of name you choose, but you should only have one account. (It's confusing for other people if you adopt multiple account names - a bit like dealing with someone suffering from multiple personality disorder!).
Your user page
After you sign on you will see your username in the green box on the bottom of the page, at the top of the column on the left hand side. If you click on your username, your personal user page opens. You can use this page to say something about yourself, and what you intend to do on Hokkaipedia etc.
My talk
Below your user name is My talk. This is where other people can leave messages for you, (e.g. Hi John , I've just updated Obihiro. Can you have a look at it? Mary.)
Preferences
Below My talk is My preferences. There are two important options worth considering at the beginning: whether to use your real name, or nickname, perhaps combined with a handle, and whether to enable an email address.
Watchlist
Below My preferences is My watchlist. This is the list of articles that you are monitoring, normally the ones that you are contributing to.
Making a sandbox
Most wiki writers use a page for rough drafting, polishing, spell checking or whatever their articles before publishing them on the on the wiki proper. These are called sandboxes.
Signing ~~~~ discussion pages
Articles are unsigned, but on talk pages (and messages) it's important to say who you are. You can sign and date your work by typing four tildes ~~~~.
Asking for help
You can ask for technical help on the Help talk page here.
General questions about the content and style of articles can be put on the Community talk page here.
Questions about individual articles are best asked on the article's talk page. For example if you want to ask about Obihiro ask here.
Sending personal messages
The easiset way to send messages is to leave them on users' talk pages. Email is also possible if enabled by the other person.
How to contribute factual information to Hokkaipedia
The main aim of Hokkaipedia is to provide information. Everyone has something to contribute - about your local city, town or village, facilities you use, or special knowledge.
Using the edit summary
The edit summary provides a short and invaluable record of the development process of an article. Please use it to note your contribution, e.g. 'correcting typo', 'additional information'. 'starting new section', 'references' or whatever.
Challenging inaccuracies, bias etc.
It's essential that our information is accurate. What should be done it's not? A single wrong fact - it may well be a typo - can usually be corrected directly in the article, suitably noted in the edit summary. If it's more complicated, perhaps a matter of personal opinion or something that's difficult to correct, then it may be better to raise the issue on the article discussion page. If the matter affects several or more articles then it may be best to start a 'centralized discussion' on the community page.
How to contribute reviews (opinions) to Hokkaipedia
In order to leave a review (of a restaurant, hotel, walk or whatever) under an entry you use this code:
{{Review|text=my opinion|signature=~~~~}}
This produces a distinctive two-tone coloured box which indicates a personal opinion, in contrast to the main text which is impersonal. (You change "my opinion" into your review.)
(Opinions about Hokkaipedia as such, including suggestions for new pages etc., should go here.)
Some basic coding
Hokkaipedia uses MediWiki. This is the same software that Wikipedia runs on, so the coding is basically the same and far easier than HTML. You can see the coding when you click on edit (above).
Italics, bold and bold italics are indicated by two, three and four consecutive apostrophes before and after a word or phrase. Examples:
- izakaya is written ''izakaya''.
- onsen is written '''onsen'''.
- Hotel is written '''''Hotel'''''.
Headings of different weights are indicated by two three or four consecutive equal signs before and after a word or phrase. Example:
- the heading of this section is ==Some basic coding==
Links to articles inside Hokkaipedia are indicated by two square brackets before and after a word or phrase. Example:
- Obihiro is written [[Obihiro]].
More information is available in the Cheatsheet and the Wikipedia tutorial.
Using 'found' code
The easiest way to learn how to write and edit a wiki is by copying other people! Much of the editing is repetitive so it's easy to pick up.
Uploading images
Good quality images (correct exposure, good composition, well saturated) are welcome. As a rough guide uploaded images should not be larger than 150 kb, or 12 cm wide at 100 ppi. Images in articles will normally appear as thumbnails (which can be enlarged to full size). There is a good page on formats etc at Wikipedia:Preparing images for upload. (Image markup is explained at Image markup.)
Anything else?
Clicking on the top bar will bring you back to the main page.