MormonWiki:About

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Revision as of 15:36, 31 August 2006 by Amaranth (talk | contribs) (Editing Wiki Content)
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MormonWiki is sponsored by the More Good Foundation. The wiki serves as a tool through which positive LDS content can be developed in a collaborative manner. We welcome positive and balanced content about Mormonism and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

This page explains how you can help make MormonWiki better, and in the process help create more positive LDS content on the Web. Use the navigation links at the left to view our most popular destinations for Foundation members.


How Can You Help?

You can help by adding articles to the wiki or by contributing to articles already on the wiki. Anyone can do so, provided you have an account. (See the link at the upper-right corner of every page for information about an account.)

The More Good Foundation has developed a series of article titles that need to be developed. These titles were derived from examining the way in which people outside the Church search for information about the Church itself. The titles may seem strange, but they reflect actual searching patterns. Feel free to edit any of these articles, or to add your own articles to the wiki.

Editing Wiki Content

Editing a wiki page is very easy. Once you are logged in, simply click on the Edit tab at the top of a page. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the editable text of that page. When you have finished, press Show Preview to see how your changes will appear. You can also see what changes you have made in comparison to the previous version by pressing the Show Changes button. If you're happy with what you see, then press Save and your changes will be immediately applied to the article.

Please See the Writing Guide

Focus and Tone

As you are writing or editing articles on the wiki, it is important to remember the intended reader for the article. All articles on MormonWiki should be written for non-members of the Church, probably for people who know very little about the Church. This means that you need to pay particular attention to the way you phrase things. Something that seems very clear or understandable to a Church member may be entirely foreign to a non-member. For instance, speaking about covenants, sacrament, stakes, wards, temples, and a hundred other things is confusing to non-members who don't understand what these terms mean. You can either take the time to define the term within an article, or (better still) you can rephrase your thoughts to use words with which the reader is already familiar.

As for tone, make sure that the articles are friendly, inviting, and interesting. They should not be offensive, defensive, or condescending. Simply state our beliefs in a way that makes sense for the reader (put yourself in the reader's shoes) and your article will be fine.

What Happens to Content?

From time to time members of the More Good Foundation will need content for Web sites they are developing. The content from this wiki may be used for that purpose. This means that not only is the content used here, but it may also be used as the basis for content on lots of pro-LDS sites around the world.

Questions?

If you have questions about setting up an account or how to use the wiki, please let us know. The fastest way is to use the "Live Chat" tool at the Member's Portal of the More Good Foundation.

The More Good Foundation and Webmasters

MormonWiki.com is sponsored by the More Good Foundation which offers positive, informational articles about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormon Church). It is also a tool provided for the use of Foundation members. Therefore, MormonWiki.com is a purveyor of information and it is a purveyor of content. If you are not already a member of the Foundation, you should visit the Foundation's Web site and learn about what we do; we invite you to join.

MormonWiki.com is also designed as an incubator of content that can be freely used by webmasters and other content providers in their own articles, web sites, and publications.