Procedure for starting a new topic

This starts when we have at least one confirmed contributor, preferably two or more.
The “wiki team” is currently Katja, Otto and Simon, and we consult overall with Dave and others.

• Be clear about the topic you want to start, and that it isn’t dealt with adequately within existing topics.
• Decide on the page name that will be displayed to readers, to minimise confusion and maximise recognition.
  • Best to consult with our wiki team to ensure it makes sense globally.
• Consult on a version of this name that will be used as the internal page name, and for URL purposes.
  • The internal page name is all lower-case, and spaces are replaced with underscores
  • But when you create a link to it, you can use mixed case and spaces
• Consult with the wiki team to agree on a four-letter abbreviation for the namespace and user group.
• Consult around which group(s) of topics it should best belong to. One group is ideal; 2 is OK occasionally; max 3.
  • take a look at our groups and new topics tab to see if we have already imagined something close

Before you go on, the wiki team needs to create the namespace and the user group, and add you to that user group, so you will be able to create the topic page and then edit it.

• Create the page…
  • there are several ways to do this, see creating and deleting pages for more detail
    • go to the “start” page that the admins created, and in the URL bar, replace “start” with your new page name
    • OR, create a link to the new page in your own space (or even the playground) and then clink on the red link
    • OR get us to do that for you, and skip the next step
  • if not already created, you will see a message saying “This topic does not exist yet”; click on the “pencil-plus” icon
    • It will be very obvious if you've chosen a name that has an active page!
    • Note also, if the page has been tried before, you have the option of seeing past attempts, or just creating anew.
  • edit, as needed, the provided template (which will appear automatically)
    • check / edit the displayed name of the page
    • at the top of the page, put in the correct groups for the topic
    • you can look at the annotated template for topics to clarify the structure we suggest
    • save the page you have created — you can do this as often as you want, and then back to editing
  • Find (or create) a suitable image (photo or graphic) for the topic, with width:height ratio of exactly 4:3
    • While you are on the new page, open the Media Manager (in the Spanner menu)
    • Upload your photo in the Media Manager, similarly to all the other topic pages
    • Check it works on the actual page!
• When you have done all that, let the wiki team know, so that we can
  • copy the image into the “wiki:” space so that our picture-grid menus aren’t vulnerable
  • add your new topic to the display of topics in the group (or groups) we agree make sense

As of 2026-10 we have not yet done this in earnest, but here are the principle we currently imagine:

• Put sub-topics in the same space (folder, directory, namespace) as the parent topic. Don't create sub-spaces.
• Think about the name carefully:
  • to avoid confusion with the main topic page name;
  • to make it easy to link to using its name.
• Create the page in a similar way to ordinary topic pages (see above).
• When the sub-topic is ready to view, link to it from the main topic page.
  • You can do this in the main text in any case.
  • Also consider adding a link under a new sub-heading, “Sub-topics”, alongside “Related topics”.
• Clearly link back at the top of the sub-topic to the main topic page.
• Feel much freer if it may be worth not following the template for sub-topics.

• Not sure if this is needed Create e.g. a “start” page in the new namespace — this action actually creates the namespace
  • after the topic page is created, this page may be deleted, but not until then!
• Under Admin→Access Control List Management
  • at the top, after “Permissions for” select “Group”
  • type in the same 4-letter abbreviation into the box and click “Select”; “Add new entry” appears
  • select the radio button to the left of “Upload”; click “Save”
  • The new permission should appear in the list below, like most of the other topic permissions
• Under Admin→User Manager
  • add the new user group to the list of groups that the creator-contributor belongs to
  • and add to permissions of other suitable advisors/contributors as agreed
• Check the file permissions on the back end, not through the web interface

Then let the contributor know that they can proceed.
When the page is created, several things need to be done off the wiki, in the Categories/groupings spreadsheet, so that we can keep track of everything…

• Add details to columns C,D,E,F of the For wiki tab
• Similarly, add to the tab TOPICS LIST CATS
• Add where possible to the tab Topics & Curators

Finally, go ahead with your advisor/contributor team and fill in an attractive, informative topic page!