Help talk:Jargon

Wow. The beauty of a wiki is that anyone can edit it. This is so complicated that I think only specially trained computer programmers can edit it!--BillFlis 05:22, 15 February 2007 (PST)

Actually, it's really not complicated at all for most people since it's a parallel to so many techniques used in creating documents elsewhere, such as using subdocuments in a word processing application, or inserting images into an HTML file, etc. And I notice that you've been doing a lot of editing in the definition pages yourself.

But in actuality most folks don't worry about doing the transclusion stuff. They just create and edit the basic definition pages with the standard jargon page elements, and then I usually come along behind and add the new terms into the transcluded Jargon Guides. For example, when TheEileen created a bunch of new definition pages recently, I actually created the new Jargon related to The Guidelines to accommodate them.

But anyway, at one point, I was asked to lay out the entire process I personally used somewhere, so I did so here, for the folks who did want to go the "whole hog" with the method themselves, and didn't want to mess up the already existing Jargon Guides to make them less useful to newcomers. And of course, being a Wiki, not every jargon-related item is set up according to this plan anyway.

But a bit more background on the process, since you seem to be asking about it: Personally, I'm very "protective" of the Jargon Guide pages themselves since that's one feature that a lot of Wikis don't have, but we do because they are used as a "educational" tool for newcomers to DP. (Lots of mentors and forum posts will link to them, for example.) They are a direct descendant from the old DPWiki posts in the Forums (which I have no clue who started, but got pulled into the Wiki pretty early on by Vaguery), only much easier to update, organize, and add new entries into.

As for the basic 'definition pages' themselves, I tend to leave them as I find them as long as they are set up to transclude reasonably well into the Jargon Guides. If they don't transclude well, I'll either alter the definition page so it will transclude, or I'll remove the entry from the Jargon Guide. Sometimes I'll add some links to wiki pages I know already exist, and sometimes the former writing professor in me escapes and tweaks some wording, but that's about it. (Although sometimes someone will PM me saying that they've drafted a new definition page and want me to go in and tweak it for them.)

Anyway, it's worked out as a very efficient way to serve the needs of newcomers who want a basic introduction to our workflow jargon through the FAQ-like Jargon Guides, as well as introductory paragraphs to more detailed articles on the same subjects, while only requiring one page to be updated when things change slightly. In that respect, the jargon-related sections of DP Wiki are really like a mini database within a database.  :) But, of course, being a Wiki, someone may eventually come along with a better method of handling the jargon than this one which Vaguery, mickeyc21, and I worked up back in the very early days of DP Wiki.

I know I get a bit long winded sometimes, but I hope I helped address your concerns and implicit questions in here somewhere. -- kraester 13:56, 15 February 2007 (PST)