Many, many more people visit RichmondWiki than actually contribute content or edit an article. This is normal wiki behavior. After all, not everybody feels empowered by a wiki platform to create something. Other visitors are intimidated by the wiki syntax.
Part 1: Adding Categories
Part of the power of a wiki is the categorization of its contents. This makes it easier to find similar articles, like blogs, bookstores, or things to do. Adding an existing article to a category is easy, simply add the following anywhere in the edit page:
[[Category:Name]]
where Name is the name of the category you want to add it to. Once you save the article, you will end up with a bar across the bottom that looks something like this:
Wiki Categories
And yes, even categories can have sub-categories. For example, the Sushi Restaurants category is a sub-category of the Bars and Restaurants category, which is a sub-category of Businesses.
Why are Categories Important?
Categories are essential to a wiki simply because of the vast breadth and depth of information. Even though the Information Architecture scheme is loose and anybody can change it, it serves as the wiki’s skeletal structure by connecting and supporting all of the content.
To that end, I am seeking help on outlining a high-level IA for the site. The goal is not to mandate a rigid structure, but rather to help identify the types and levels of categorization that should loosely be followed to provide maximum usability and ease of navigation. Please leave a comment if you have experience in this area and would like to help.
More Information
More detail is available on the Categories Help page. There are lots of little ways that you can contribute to The RichmondWiki Project and this series of posts will address some of the most simple (yet important) ways you can help! For more ideas, visit our To Do List.
(hat tip to AboutUs.org for the idea for this series)
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Nice work on extending this idea to RichmondWiki!
Thanks Steven. Next up: Add a Google Map, use templates, linking between articles, adding pictures.
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