sona pona:Guide: Difference between revisions

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{{Wiki essay}}
{{Shortcut|SP:G|SP:GUIDE}}
Welcome, aspiring editor! This work-in-progress guide will hopefully help you get your bearings on the wiki.
 
==What do I do here?==
Any help is welcome—you can even just fix typos—but there are many larger projects you may like to participate in:
{{Needs work|WIP|section}}
 
* makeCreating [[sona ponaProject:Requests|requested pages]], or onesarticles for other things that you know about
* even just fix typos
* Writing and expanding [[Project:Word articles|word articles]]
* sources
* Expanding lists of [[media]]
* formatting
* Writing [[:Category:Essays|essays]]
* media
* Adding missing information, especially to [[:Category:Articles needing work|articles marked as needing work]]
* make [[sona pona:Requests|requested pages]] or ones you know about
* [[#Source what you can|Adding sources to articles]], especially in [[:Category:Articles with unsourced statements|articles with the <code><nowiki>{{citation needed}}</nowiki></code> template]]
* write essays
* Fixing [[#Formatting|formatting]], especially in [[:Category:Unadapted imported pages|unadapted imported pages]]
* And many more projects tracked in the <code>#{{tok|pali}}</code> forum thread on the [[Project:Discord|Discord server]]
 
==Technical==
 
===Moderation===
Your first edit won't appear immediately and will instead be sent to the moderators for approval. This is to prevent trolls from making new accounts purely to grief the wiki.<ref group="lower-alpha">And if they insist, they'll have to make at least one useful edit per account, which is a net win for us!</ref>
 
==Policy==
 
===Be bold===
{{Hatnote|See also [[{{w:Wikipedia|Project:Be bold|the Wikipedia policy]]}}.}}
{{Shortcut|SP:BOLD}}
 
If you have an idea for an edit or page, but you're not sure whether others will like it, just do it! Everyone can easily bring a page back to a previous version, so it's impossible to permanently "ruin" anything. [[mw:Help:Patrolling|Patrolling]] ensures that every edit will be inspected by at least one other person.
 
===Be messy===
{{Hatnote|See also [https://mspaintadventures.fandom.com/wiki/MSPA_Wiki:Sloppy_is_fine the MS Paint Adventures Wiki policy] and the talk page for this article.}}
 
An unfinished or messy page is infinitely better than no page at all. Even if you never come back to it, [[Special:AncientPages|someone else surely will]].<ref group="lower-alpha">Heck, this very guide started as barely more than an outline!</ref> Slap a <code><nowiki>{{Needs work}}</nowiki></code> template on top and let others work their magic.
 
(But as a corollary, do make the page however good you can, so that others can work off of it as easily as possible.)
 
===Notability===
{{Hatnote|See [[Project:Notability]].}}
 
===Source what you can===
{{Main|Project:Citing sources}}
Unlike topics covered by Wikipedia, there aren't many public reliable sources for Toki Pona. (In fact, this very wiki was made to fill that gap!) As such, it's fine if an article doesn't have any citations, though they're always appreciated. Potential resources include:
It might be difficult to find sources, so just source what you can (if anything)! Primary sources are fine. For general information, we have lists of common resources and [[:Category:Citation templates|citation templates]] to use.
* {{tp|[[pu]]}} and {{tp|[[ku]]}}, if you have them
** freely-available fragments, such as the {{tp|pu}} dictionary or "[//tokipona.org/Sonja_Lang_-_Toki_Pona_Dictionary.pdf Notes on {{tp|lipu pu}}]"
* other materials by {{tok|[[jan Sonja]]}}, e.g. [https://jan-ne.github.io/tp/tpize the tokiponization guidelines]
* {{tp|[[lipu Linku]]}}
* anything on the [[Recommended learning resources]] page
* the [[Toki Pona census]]
 
If you cite anything, please [[Project:Citing sources#Archiving sources|archive it]]! Links to Discord uploads are temporary, and so must be archived.
When using a proficient speaker's thoughts as a source, remember to note whether they reflect consensus or are rather their personal {{tp|[[nasin]]}}. This includes what you may consider "official" material:
 
===Details and organization===
<blockquote>
There are some useful rules of thumb for coming up with details to include, and deciding how to organize them.
This is the way I use Toki Pona.
*'''{{w|Inverted pyramid (journalism)|Inverted pyramid}} style:''' Give important info and "conclusions" first. For example, explain common [[style]]s and prototypical usages before [[:Category:Experimental sections|experiments]].
*'''{{w|Five Ws}} (and H):''' The details "who, what, when, where, why, how" are important background information. If these are missing, you can tag the sentence with <code><nowiki>{{wh|</nowiki>''who?''<nowiki>}}</nowiki></code> or similar.
*'''Follow established layouts:''' You can check articles on similar topics to see how they're laid out and what details they tend to include. (Not a hard rule; some articles do call for unique section headings.)
*'''No {{w|Project:Manual of Style/Trivia sections|trivia sections}}.''' This has a few prongs:
**Put new facts in relevant sections. The lead section counts! If no section fits yet, you can add one&mdash;just make it specific. The heading can be any {{w|noun phrase}}, after all.
**No lists of miscellaneous information. These grow rampant and disorganized into [//tvtropes.org/Administrivia/ThreadMode walls of contradictory points], where even general info becomes impossible for the reader to find.
**Something literally {{wikt|trivial}} ("of little value") need not be on a wiki. (But many "trivia" points sell themselves short, and would be useful if better placed!)
 
===Red links are not bad===
{{Indent|—{{tp|pu}}, p. 7}}
{{Hatnote|See also {{w|Wikipedia:Red link}}.}}
</blockquote>
{{Shortcut|SP:RED}}
{{w|MediaWiki#Wikilinks|Red links}} point to [[Special:WantedPages|wanted pages]] that don't exist yet. This is good:
 
*It shows gaps in our knowledge base.
Resources with open submissions, such as Tatoeba and Glosbe, often attract overconfident beginners and so should be treated with care.
*It helps us keep track of pages to create. (See [[Special:WantedPages]].)
*It prevents pages from starting out [[Special:OrphanedPages|orphaned]].
 
Don't remove red links just for being red links. Only remove one if it wouldn't be reasonable to create a page at that title. (And remember that a page can be a redirect or a [[:Category:Disambiguation pages|disambiguation page]].)
 
===Trans rights===
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==Formatting==
In addition to [//mediawiki.org/wiki/[mw:Help:Formatting |standard MediaWiki formatting]], note the following.
 
===Italics===
{{Shortcut|SP:ITAL}}
Mark emphasized text with <code><nowiki><em>emphasized text</em></nowiki></code>.
 
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Mark variables with <code><nowiki><var>variable name</var></nowiki></code>.
 
For other uses, like the titles of longform works, you can use <code><nowiki>''italic text''</nowiki></code>.
 
===Language===
{{Shortcut|SP:LANG}}
Mark the language of non-English text with [[Template:lang]].
 
{{Indent|This lets technologies like screen readers treat the text according to its language (see [[ISO 639-3]]).}}
{{Indent|<code><nowiki>''{{lang|fr|''je parle bien''}}''</nowiki></code> outputs ''{{lang|fr|''je parle bien''}}''. Hover to see the language name.}}
 
{{Indent|
Mark unitalicized Toki Pona text with [[Template:tok]].
{{Indent|Italics usually help the reader distinguish between English and Toki Pona text (such as reading "open a tan ale" and "{{tp|open a tan ale}}" with different pronunciations). However, they may be unwanted for names loaned from Toki Pona, direct quotes of unitalicized uses, or for {{tp|[[toki pona taso]]}} pages.}}
{{Indent|<code><nowiki>{{tok|mu}}</nowiki></code> outputs {{tok|mu}}.}}
}}
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==={{tp|sitelen pona}}===
{{Shortcut|SP:SP}}
Display {{tp|[[sitelen Lasina]]}} or [[UCSUR]] codepoints as {{tp|[[sitelen pona]]}} with [[Template:sp]].
 
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{{Indent|Using the <code>:</code> (description detail) syntax without a preceding <code>;</code> (description term) produces invalid HTML, which is [[w:Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Accessibility#Indentation|not accessible]].}}
 
For a {{w:|Project:Hatnote|hatnote}}, use [[Template:Hatnote]] or a <span class="plainlinks">[{{fullurl:Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Hatnote|namespace=10&hidelinks=1&hideredirs=1}} template derived from it]</span>.
 
===Examples===
Use [[Template:Example]] for all example sentences. Highlight the part of the sentence that is relevant to the article or section with <code><nowiki><mark>highlighted text</mark></nowiki></code>.
 
===Citations===
{{Hatnote|See {{sect|Project:Citing sources#Formatting}}.}}
Most sources will probably be cited with [[Template:cite web]]. There are also specialized templates like [[Template:cite pu]], [[Template:cite ku]], [[Template:cite YouTube]], [[Template:cite Discord]], and [[Template:cite lipamanka]] (for {{tok|lipamanka}}'s semantic space dictionary).
 
Please consider archiving a source with the [//web.archive.org/save Wayback Machine] or [//archive.is archive.is]. This is especially necessary for Discord uploads; unarchived links will start to expire so that the files can only be accessed through Discord. {{Indent|
You can add a JavaScript {{w|bookmarklet}} to quickly archive a webpage to the Wayback Machine. Create a bookmark and set this as the "URL":
<syntaxhighlight lang="javascript" line="1" start="1">
javascript:void(location.href='https://web.archive.org/save/'+location.href);
</syntaxhighlight>
Then, whenever you press the bookmarklet, a snapshot of the currently viewed webpage will be saved.
}}
 
===Notice templates===
SeveralThere are several <span class="plainlinks">[{{fullurl:Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Notice|namespace=10&hidelinks=1&hideredirs=1}} notice templates]</span> that should be used to tell the reader about the nature of an article's topic, such as if it pertains to an unusual [[style of Toki Pona]]. We don't want to mispresent nonstandard features as common if they aren't widely understood or accepted.
 
===Maintenance templates===
If you find an issue with an article and can't fix it yourself, or not immediately, add a maintenance template. These include:
*[[Template:citation needed]]
*[[Template:dead link]]
*<span class="plainlinks">[{{fullurl:Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Issue|namespace=10&hidelinks=1&hideredirs=1}} All templates derived from Template:Issue]</span>
 
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==Notes==
<references group="lower-alpha"/>
{{Project}}