Dana Merrick

My Suggested Wiki Layout
I understand that the system that was created in class today is silly... I agree that Sample Student Wikipedia History is a dumb naming scheme. We do, however, want to shy away from the "nested directories" system... this is a wiki!

Stuff sort of got out of hand in class. Here is what I would suggest:


 * HFOSS root.
 * CPSC110
 * (Includes links to user pages... NOT Dana Merrick but User:Dmerrick)
 * (Also includes links to CPSC110 Assignments)
 * CPSC110 Assignments
 * (Inludes links to separate assignment pages -- also off the root! Like this Wikipedia History)
 * Wikipedia History
 * (Contains info on the assignment. Also contains a backlink to CPSC110.)
 * Other Assignment
 * (Keep adding these pages as needed. No "CPSC110" is necessary, as long as our assignment titles
 * Sample Student
 * (Redirects to User:Sstudent as a courtesy, so people don't have to worry about what their username is)

I understand your concern about clobbering and lots of content on one (user) page. I don't know how much data they will be submitting, but still, this is the most wiki-like idea:

{|border=1 cellpadding=10

Assignment 1
LOTS OF TEXT

Assignment 2
OTHER TEXT.
 * }

But yeah, that's not perfect. Sample Student Wikipedia History is okay, because in theory no one will ever be typing that in, they will just head to User:Sstudent and find the link there (or even better, Sample Student would redirect to User:Sstudent).

To be honest, it doesn't matter where people link their pages! Don't be stingy with article titles. Not very many people will be editing this wiki, and there are TONS of possible titles. As you saw today, you can very easily edit, move, and forget about article titles. If a student wants to name their assignment luxEdNiv but links it properly My assignment #1, it shouldn't matter. Maybe someone (like me) who cares will go and move it around for them, but the whole point is to have it work out smoothly. Optimally we will be able to teach the students the proper formatting guildlines so they will be able to make their decisions themselves.

Categories
Trishan brought up a good point: how do you group pages on wikis without nested directories? Good question! Categories.

Here is an example list of categories for this page (and many that will be used later in this class):

These go to the end of the page and start linking pages together, like tags.

Why is this a good idea?
One of the pillars of wikis is being able to access information quickly and easily. You probably noticed how I had to click through a ton of links to navigate the current directory stucture to find the assignment page. That's useless! No one is going to need "CPSC110 Assignments" as their page but us, we can claim it.