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Contents 1 Learning how to edit 2 Translating a Palm Profile 3 A suggestion for Palm profiles 3.1 Another suggestion 4 Adding new species and pics 5 A new idea 6 New template 7 Naming Convention

Learning how to edit

How would you recommend going about learning how to edit pages? There seems to be a lot of "code" to learn that seems daunting at first.MattyB 10:26, 8 June 2007 (PDT)

Re:Learning how to edit -> There is a lot of documentation available at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki. Ldgarcia27

• Matt, check out the "help" link in the opening dialogue on the Main Page explaining Palmpedia, where it says, "Check out the Help page to see how you can edit any page right now." That help link takes you to a "how to" edit primer. It could probably be improved, but that's pretty good. We could definitely use one for how to upload and insert pics. I don't know if there is one out there already written. Would be nice though. Dypsisdean 11:14, 8 June 2007 (PDT)

Translating a Palm Profile

It would be nice to have the option to translate a Palm Profile (i.e. Raphia taedigera) to another language. Ldgarcia27

• Please remember to sign your name. Otherwise it can be difficult to track down who wrote something. :-) Is that you, Luis? There are multi language wikis. I have checked into it but it is complicated. Too much other stuff to do right know, but I have it on my "to do" list. Maybe somebody else can look around, or may know about it already. Dypsisdean 11:14, 8 June 2007 (PDT)
• Yes Dean, it is me :). I will try to find a simple way to achieve this. Ldgarcia27

A suggestion for Palm profiles

It would be good to add some references in the Palm Profiles, for example links. What do you think about this? --LDGC 21:22, 8 June 2007 (PDT)

• Luis, I'm ot sure I understand exactly what you mean. Do you mean links on each palm page, or a more generalized location to compile links? If it's the latter, I would imagine we could do it under "Resources" where I had intended to start a page for links to other palm websites. If you mean on each page, perhaps you could choose a page and do it. That way we could see it, and decide if it looks like a good idea. Personally I think it could work either way. My only reservation is that there are so many other things going on at the moment, we should probably try to work more on what we have in front of us now first. What we need most, IMO, is descriptions on each palm page to go with the photos. Soon I hope to start uploading more photos and species again when the new server comes on line. Dypsisdean 10:43, 11 June 2007 (PDT)

Another suggestion

• Hi, I have encountered a kind of 'issue' in the naming standard. How should it be for Aiphanes aculeata and Acrocomia aculeata? Both are A. aculeata. Should I continue naming the titles with Genus and species (i.e. Aiphanes aculeata)?
• Luis, There are others with the same problem. For example...... C. elegans (Calyptrocalyx, Cyrtostachys, Cyphophoenix, Chamaedorea) The ones that are added second or third will have to carry the full name. It can be "qualified" to read C. elegans, yet still refer to the Cyphophoenix elegans page using the wiki markup. See the above reference for the examples. Dypsisdean 13:11, 4 July 2007 (PDT)
• Hi Dean, How do I use the wiki markup to do that?--Ldgarcia27 16:32, 4 July 2007 (PDT)

Adding new species and pics

Hey Dean, figured I would see what pics I could add. Had a cool one of some Bottles I wanted to test but no Hyophorbe lagenicaulis in system.

This site has come a long way. :)

• Thanks Len, great to see you drop by. An unofficial policy/procedure has been for someone to upload a photo, and if there is no Palm Page already, I will see it and create the page and post the photo. So if you upload them, I'll create the page and post them. This procedure is due mainly to the fact that most people are unwilling to learn how to do some of the wiki stuff. And because I am worried about the Main Page or the main Encyclopedia Page getting messed up, I have protected (locked) those to all but sysops. If you wanted me to give you sysop rights, I would be more than happy to. It would just give you the ability to do a few more things if you cared to. Let me know, otherwise go ahead and upload, and if I happen to miss them, give me a heads up. Please note I have installed an extension that allows multiple uploads. If you go to 'Special Pages' and then 'Upload Files.' It makes it a little easier if you have more than one or two. Thanks for contributing, I need all the help I can get. Dypsisdean 00:35, 2 July 2007 (PDT)
• Len, BTW --- I just went ahead and created a page for you, if you still wish to try the upload.

A new idea

Hi Dean,

I created a template for articles in construction (i.e. Palm roots). It has a wiki-styled appearance. You can look it here: User:Ldgarcia27/Template:Stub. The idea is to serve as: [The Stubs in Wikipedia]. Should it be used instead of the construction picture? Please let me know your opinion.--Luis Diego 15:04, 18 August 2007 (PDT)

New template

I noticed that people were putting a small box which contained a back link to the Species list page. I created a template for that to make it more simple. Instead of writing:

{|align="left" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" style="width:20%;" |- | align="center" style="background-color:#F8F4FD;border:1px solid #D9CEB8;padding:20px;"|[[Palmpedia:ONLINE_REFERENCE | Back to to Species List]]

You just need to type:

{{SpeciesListBackLink}}

and a little box like the one below will appear. I hope this helps. --Luis Diego 10:10, 11 November 2007 (PST)

Definitely an improvement.Mmcknight4 22:30, 11 November 2007 (PST)

• Very Nice Luis, Thank You Very Much--Dypsisdean 00:12, 12 November 2007 (PST)

Naming Convention

I realize the servers are in the process of being changed and Im not sure to what degree that process will effect edits made to the wiki but I'd like to reiterate the idea of listing palm articles at the full binomial rather than the abbreviation. To be sure, I don't mean that the still-protected species list would need to change its form. Listing the abbreviated name under the genus title is probably preferable there. The article titles, however, should contain the full name in my opinion. It isnt only because some species share the same epithet with other species in different genera (though this is enough cause in my view), but also because the article title is the actual web address/URL. So people doing a web search for the palm B. nobilis, for example, will also pull up Banksia nobilis, Blanfordia nobilis, Bertholetia nobilis, Bombus nobilis, Bullina nobilis, etc, etc. I don't think it would be all that big of an undertaking to move the existing pages to the full name (and edit the corresponding 'What links here' pages); one or two editors could probably do it in a weekend. I may be missing some other considerations here so hopefully any active editors with an opinion will add their thoughts here about the merits of the proposition and its implementation. .Mmcknight4 18:24, 15 November 2007 (PST)

• Hi,
  

I agree with Mmcknight4. First of all, the search engines take the title HTML tag very seriously when indexing. So having both genus and species (in the title) will increase the chances of finding Palmpedia when searching (i.e. Phoenix reclinata).
I don't think it would be complicated renaming the pages. Just need to use the tool Move page. For example, I want to move R. taedigera to Raphia taedigera. I will just need to use the move page tool. The links in the reference page will still work. There would be no need to change those links, nor other links from other articles. --Luis Diego 20:04, 15 November 2007 (PST)

• Yes, I am in full agreement with what is stated above, and for all the same reasons. If I had thought ahead far enough concerning search engine algorithms, I would have done it that way. The server and software switch was supposed to have taken place Thursday. However, the sysop asked if he could postpone it, and I told him that I would prefer he did it when it was best for him, due to the importance of getting it done right the first time. So as soon as it is complete, I would like to initiate the above mentioned modifications. I will do a little thinking as to the best procedure to use. Thanks to you guys for confirming what I had also thought of as a necessary change.