Best Practices v1.0 . December 05, 2008

Wikis are by nature, mostly open for all (or for a large number of users) to contribute and edit. Of course, permissions can be set by the administrator to allow different levels of access rights for different users. Nevertheless, it is important that all users use the wiki in an organised and ethical manner so that the wiki would remain user-friendly and productive.

Here are some recommended best practices that every user should follow when designing and/or contributing to a Wiki.

Principle 1: Tag Wisely
Tagging is to attach keywords, or 'tags' to your article or page. Tagging allows users to perform searches on your articles or pages, based on the tags you had assigned to it. You can assign tags when creating a new page, or when editing an existing page. Tag appropriately and wisely. The relevance of a user's search result depends on the relevance of your tags. If possible, try to take as much consideration in tagging your article as you took to write the article in the first place. Try to keep the number of tags to a minimum and consider tags that best describe the key messages of your article. Here, less is more, as having a whole long list of tags would tend to dilute the relevance of your tags.
Use short relevant phrases instead of single words. For example, a more general tag like "Best Practices" will probably get you more hits but would also make frustrate your visitors if they were looking for "Best Practices for Wiki" and not "Best Practices for Baking".
Principle 2: Create Edit Notes for Version Control
Many wikis such as Wetpaint tracks the history of each page as it is edited. This is for the purpose of version control, which gives users the ability to know who has edited what, and when. It also allows users to track or revert to an older version of the page if there are errors or problems with the latest version. It is always better to have edit notes because a short phrase will inform others of what you have created or modified. This is especially important when using wikis for collaborative and project work.
For the Wetpaint wiki, contributors can enter an edit note or skip the step just before they click save.
Principle 3: Organise Your Page Structure
Before you start hammering onto the keyboard, take a moment to plan your page structure, hierarchy, and content. Even if you have no idea what is going to be in it yet. An organised structure makes it more user-friendly and easy to navigate through the wiki, and in searching for relevant content. Consider putting more content onto a single page, separated into various sections, rather than creating multiple subpages (or *gasp* pages) for each section of your content. It is suggested that for the first page that you create, use an over arching umbrella term for your content. For example, "Virtual Worlds". Now within the "Virtual Worlds" page, you can proceed to add content onto that page. Avoid creating a whole new page or subpage for "Second Life" unless you have sufficient content to fill up a whole screen on its own. To illustrate, let's say all you have to say about Second Life is what it's all about and a bunch of statistics that barely take up half a screen, then leave it on the main page, but with it's own section. If on the other hand, you have a considerable amount of things to write about it like say, the entire Second Life history, social media examples, legal and social issues within it, profiles and personal opinions, blueprints of virtual houses, etc, then perhaps you could create a subpage just for it. That said, it is not unusual for a section to grow into a subpage or even a page on its own eventually, but move the content only when it has gotten that big and not put it in a spot on its own and expect it to grow itself.
Principle 4: Conform to Existing Site Style
All websites, or wikis in this context, should have a general style throughout to ensure that all pages are uniform, organised, and neat. A wiki site may or may not have a style guide already created for users to use as reference. Style guides can exist in the form of general style guides for the wiki, or specific internal style guides for specific pages. If there is one style guide, take a moment to go through it and conform to the guidelines as stated within. Nevertheless, if there is none, take a while to get a feel of the existing style of the site, and follow suite. It is recommended to create a style guide to maintain uniformity. Recommended setings can include: Header font type, size and colour Body text font style, size and colour Size of spacing between paragraphs Styles for the use of tables Page hierarchy and structure Others Take a look at the COMM215 Style Guide for the general wiki style guide when contributing to this wiki, and as a reference when creating a style guide for your other wikis. For individual styles, refer to your own main pages.
Principle 5: Balance Control and Creativity
So much for controlling users on page structure, hierarchy, and style. A purpose and motivation for the use of wikis is to promote creativity. On one hand, too much creativity might result in a mess when there is no uniform style. On the other hand, too much control limits creativity. Thus, when having guidelines created for users to follow, take note of the balance between control and creativity. For example, set basic guidelines for the style of the site, but allow users the freedom to structure their content.
Principle 6: Provide Motivation for Use
Wikis provide for many benefits, not only in acting as an information portal contributed by many authors, but also as a good collaboration tool for teams working on projects. However, the concept of wikis is new, as opposed to e-mails and face-to-face meetings with out teammates. To reap the benefits of using wikis, you have to provide strong motivation for users to use. Here are some ways which you can do so: Make it easy for users by teaching and showing them how to use a wiki. Show users the benefits of using a wiki, using case studies and examples that are relevant and by which users can relate to. Get the support of your teamleasder, superior, or management (for corporate), by encouraging them to get started on wikis. Use only the wiki for collaborative work. This will 'force' team members to refer to the wiki for information. Evaluate team members based on their contribution to the wiki. (if your are the team-leader or manager)
Principle 7: Create a User-Guide to Educate Your Users
Depending on the choice of wiki platform used, an official complete user-guide would usually be available. However, this user-guide might be complicated and too advance for basic users to get started on. To make it easy for users, it would be good to custom create a simple, basic, and intuitive user-guide for users who are new to wikis. Different wikis are also different, and a user-guide would help users to get started easily and quickly on the choice of wiki platform used.