Authors

Identifying the authors of Wiki pages

Each version of a Wiki page is created by a user by editing a form (see how to create a page and how to edit a page]]). The form includes a text field at the bottom (below the main text area) to enter the author of the change or of the new page. The author of a new page is called its creator.

The author of the current version of a page and the creator of the page appear at the bottom of each page, if they are known. The creator of each page also appears in the site map. The author of each version of a page appears in the recent changes page and in the history pages.

Although it is not required to enter a name in the Author field, it is good practice to sign your contributions (see social protocols). You can for example use your login name. When you enter a name in the Author field, it is recorded in your Web browser with a so-called "cookie". Next time you edit or create a page, the Author field is pre-filled with the last value you used. This makes it very easy to sign your contributions.

The author names at the bottom of the pages and in the summary pages (site map, history and recent changes) appear as a link to a page whose title is the author's name. Such pages are called Wiki home pages. Here is an example of a Wiki home page: mbl. Wiki home pages should belong to a category such as "Authors", "Home pages" or "People" (as in this server). The first time you use a Wiki site, you should create your Wiki home page and you should fill the Author field.

Note that in addition to signing the version of the page, you might also want to sign your contribution within the page, especially if the page is in a discussion mode (see social protocols). Here is how I sign: [mbl]

Version 1, Tue 24 Nov 1998 08:48:38 [mbl]