Authored by 16 community members

 This article explains what a Wiki is and the type of information that should be contributed to a Wiki. It also explains how to write good articles. It is important to understand how to write a good article to ensure it can be maintained over time to remain both helpful and relevant.

 What is a wiki?

A Wiki is a web-based application that allows community members to quickly and easily create articles. Unlike traditional web pages that can only be read, a Wiki allows users to easily create and edit articles -- All without knowing HTML.

Similar to an encyclopedia, a Wiki is used to store factual information about a variety of topics. In the case of the eBay Wiki, the articles are about topics that are related to eBay. Once created, the articles are indexed and stored so that other community members can search for and read the articles.

What makes a Wiki so powerful is that not only can other community members read the articles, but they have the ability to edit and contribute to the articles. You see, articles are not owned by individual members. Articles belong to the entire community and everyone in the community can modify them equally.

Since multiple community members are able to edit and contribute to articles, it's important that articles are written as an entry in an encyclopedia. A good article will have the following characteristics:

• It is written in a neutral point of view (it is based on factual information rather than opinion)
• It is not written in the first-person (it doesn't contain words like “I”, “me”, “we”, or “us”)
• It is never written for the personal benefit of an individual community member (it doesn't contain content about or links to a contributor's eBay Store or listings)
• It provides factual information about a specific topic (citations are included when necessary)

Over time, the articles are refined and become a reflection of the collective wisdom and the shared experiences of the entire community. As the number of articles grows, the more useful a Wiki becomes. The more useful the Wiki becomes, the more people will come to the Wiki to find information. The more people that come to the Wiki to find information, the more people will find articles to which they can contribute…This cycle of healthy growth will ensure the eBay Wiki becomes a rich source of eBay-related information.

Writing an Article

The helpfulness of individual articles will determine how helpful the eBay Wiki is for the community. Because each article can be (and should be) authored by multiple members, it's important for community members to keep a few things in mind when they are writing a new article. This will help to ensure that an article can be easily maintained and remain as helpful as possible over time.

Finding the Best Topic and Sub-Topic

If you think of the eBay Wiki as a city, then you can think of the Topics as Zip® codes (or postal codes) and the Sub-Topic as streets. The articles themselves will live at specific addresses, so when you create an article take a few minutes to find the best place for the article to live.

To help you determine the best place for an article to live, ask yourself the following questions:

• If I were going to browse for this article, on which topic and sub-topics would I click?
• If I were going to search for this article, with which terms or keywords would I search?

Once you have answered these questions, click on those topics and search on those terms and keywords. Take the time to see what types of articles already exist and if the article you are planning on creating would complement those articles.

Once you determine the best place for the article to live, navigate to that Topic page or any article within that Topic and click on the “Create an Article” button. This will take you to the 'Create An Article' page.

Creating an Article

The 'Create an Article' page is a very straightforward page. You will need to provide a title for the article, enter or create the body of your article, and select a topic and sub-topic. You have the option of tagging the article with up to 20 tags.

The title you enter will be important. It should be relevant and meaningful and can have up to 150 characters. For obvious reasons, the body of the article is the most important. This is where the information will reside. So remember the following:

• Before writing think about the purpose of the article and what information the reader needs.
• Write in a neutral point of view.
• Do not write in the first-person (don't use words like “I”, “me”, “we”, or “us”).
• Write for the benefit of the community (not to benefit individual members).
• Support articles with factual information based on your eBay experiences (cite sources when necessary).
• Do not include personal information such as your email, phone number, etc.

When creating an article it's important to not include unnecessary links in the articles. A link in an article should always be relevant and add value to the article. For example, an article about how to register as a small business in the State of California could include a link to a page on the State of California's Web site. However, including a link that is not relevant to the article, such as a link to the contributor's personal Web site or to the contributor's eBay Store, would not be appropriate.

Customizing Your Article

Remember that it's more important to focus on the content of an article rather than how it is formatted. That being said, there a number of options available when it comes to customizing how articles look.

The first option is to enter the text directly into the Create an Article page and use the text editor that is available on the page to format the article once you've written the content. The functionality of the text editor is limited, so another option is to write the article off-line using desktop publishing software. This way you can check your article for spelling or grammatical errors. Once you've polished the article you can then copy and paste it into the Create an Article page.

You can also enter in basic HTML. Simply click the “<h>” button on the text editor tool bar and you'll be in the HTML-mode. As previously noted, you can enter the code directly into the editor or you can create it offline using an HTML editor and paste it into the editor.

If you use HTML, here are few things to note:

• No script of any kind is allowed.
• No image tags of any kind are allowed.
• Header tags and body tags are not necessary and should not be entered.

Additional HTML tips can be found at the following location: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/html_tips.html

Ensuring the Appropriate Topic and Sub-Topic are Selected

After you have entered your title and the content of your article, you will notice that a Topic and Sub-Topic are selected by default. Make sure that the appropriate Topic and Sub-Topic are selected based on your research in finding the best place for the article to live.

Tagging an Article

A tag is a keyword that community members associate with an article as it is being created or edited. Tags are displayed in the left-navigation bar of the article page and are very useful because they enable community members to quickly and easily find similar articles.

Coming up with tags is easy. In fact, it is the same process as finding the best Topic and Sub-Topic for your article. Ask yourself, “If I were going to search for this article, which terms or keywords would I search?” The answers you come up with are your tags. Tags can be single or multi-word phrases.

Once you've entered the title, provided the content, ensured the best topic and sub-topic are selected, and tagged the article, you're ready to preview the article. You'll do this by clicking on the ‘Preview' button that is located at the bottom of the page.

Previewing and Submitting

This is an often overlooked step, but it's important to take the time to preview your article and see how it will be presented to the community. If you find a spelling error or if the formatting is off, you can click the ‘Back' link and make the necessary corrections. After the article is ready for the community, click the ‘Submit' button. Once published, community members will be able to view, edit or add information to the article. If, after it's published, you find there's something you would like to change, don't worry. You always have the option of editing the articles.

(1) Wiki. (2006, May 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . Retrieved 20:23, May 25, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wiki&oldid=55126506 .