Contribute to Athena

Creating an Account
To begin contributing to Athena via the PERC wiki, you will require an account. To create an account click "Log in/create account" in the top right corner of the page. After following the link, click on 'Create an account'. You will be asked to enter a username, a password and your email address. Once you have filled in all of the required fields, you can click the "Create account" button to activate your new account. After creating an account, you are now able to edit Athena pages. Each time you visit Athena and want to add information you just click on the "Log in/create account" link and enter your username and password.

Editing Pages
To become familiar with how to create and edit pages on the Athena wiki, follow this tutorial. It is not necessary to read through the tutorial and memorize it at all once, but it can be used as a guide once you're ready to begin creating and editing pages. Refer back to it whenever you're unsure how to do something, and it will make contributing a whole lot easier.

Naming conventions

 * No acronyms, or short versions if possible. Remember that the page name appears at the top of the page and acts as the page title so it should be easy to understand.

About Categories

 * All pages created under Athena should fit into one of the main categories (i.e. Food and Drink, Household, etc.) on in a subcategory of these main categories.
 * When listing a page under a subcategory, don't also list it under the parent/main category.
 * When you add a category that doesn't exist, this category page will be created. However, use the existing categories as much as possible before creating your own.
 * To make your new category a subcategory of one of the main categories (Food and Drink for example), you can edit your new category page and add, just like you would do to put a normal page under that main category.  Make sure to also add  to all new category pages.

Page Template
When creating a new page, copy and paste the following text to give your new page the basic look and structure that is consistent with all other Athena pages. Only the,  and Categories have to be on every page. The other sections are just there to give you a suggestion on how to set up your page.

All text italicized must be changed to whatever is relevant to your page. See the Athena Template Description for more information about what information to put in each section. Also, feel free to look at other pages already created to get the general idea of how to set up a page, what content to include and how to organize it.

Food Page Template
=Product= == Ottawa-area Producers/Manufacturers == Producer #1 Location: Source: Organic: Available at: * retailer#1 * retailer#2

Why should I?

Non-Food Page Template
==Product== Product description

Possible concerns:

Ottawa-area retailers of sub-item include: * retailer#1 * retailer#2

Why should I?

Neutral Point of View
Neutral point of view is a core concept in the design of wikis. It is important to maintain a neutral point of view as it helps to bring more people to the wiki. It creates a space that does not alienate anyone; it is just about information sharing.

Wikipedia has a great article on Neutral point of view. This article lists some of the ways that contributors can ensure a neutral point of view. Some of these include:

-providing arguments from both sides of the debate -sticking to the facts -realizing you may have a biased point of view that you are not aware of -not insinuating -using attributions and citations

Discussion pages
Editing pages is what wikis are all about. For example, correcting mistakes, filling in missing information, creating your own pages etc. However, if you believe that a page requires a major overhaul, it might be best to attempt discussing it with others using the discussion page (link can be found in the left margin). Every page on the wiki has a discussion page, use them to your advantage to plan with other users, leave comments, etc. This will help to avoid problems with other users who have put a lot of work into their pages. Engaging in dialogue is an effective way to reach a consensus.

Respecting the wiki and other users
It's ok to be bold about editing. However, it's also important to respect other users by going with the flow of the wiki, following the same format as everyone else, discussing major problems/ideas with others users, and by trying to leave pages in the same if not better shape when you leave them. This will make it easier for others to contribute if everyone tries to move in the same direction and further the goals of this wiki.