To-do

This is where we will discuss the future of The Commons. Ideas for pages are divided into the type of attention they demand of us. Ideas that require usage are already functional, but need more users to function properly. Ideas that need construction do not yet have an actual manifestation in the commons, but should constitute a well-thought-out, and feasible idea. Finally, ideas that require consideration are in need of more input from users in order to polish and improve an idea. Maintenance tasks require access to the server, and probably require some knowledge of PHP and the mediawiki framework.

Generally, wherever you see a red link, there is work to be done. This means that somebody thinks that the phrase in red should have its own page, but it doesn't. Relatedly, if you are editing a page, and you include a phrase that merits its own page on the wiki, you should put it in brackets, even if you don't intend to create the corresponding page right away.

Happy editing!

Usage

Community Portal

The Community Portal should be the place where we find each other, for purposes of both communication and entertainment. By default, all users have a 'talk' page, which can be used to communicate in public. Private communication should occur using PGP encrypted mail. There's no real concept of a 'friend' on here, there's only the concept of collaboration. People have something of a right to determine the content of their own user page, but not an absolute right. The Commons, in addition to being about information, is a social project in its own right.

Current Events

Current Events should contain a listing of whatever news and clippings you find relevant from around the web. There are two ways to go about this. The first is to link directly to the article from the current events page, perhaps with a few lines of comment or exposition, but probably not more (unless you want more). The second strategy is create a page in the commons for the new article, and do a sort of double-link: (Current Events)->(Commons Page)->(External Article). You should also feel free to make announcements in this space, at least for now.

Construction

art

art is a place for discussion, creation, and deconstruction of art

literature

literature is a place for discussion, creation, and deconstruction of literature

Consideration

local

local A way for people to connect locally. Say in Grinnell, IA.

Maintenance

wikichat

This mediawiki extension will allow us to create a live chatroom for each page on the wiki. The chatroom at yawp will be the global chat, and then we will have a room for live collaboration, discussion, and editing on every article.

cite

This extension allows the sort of reference list citation that is used on wikipedia. It allows inline citations to be easily compiled into a references list at the end of an article.