Download these pages as a PDF so you can print them or read them offline.
Booklet
Download these pages as a PDF that you can print, fold and staple into a booklet.
This page provide non-content advice about categorization, navigation or other how-to-edit advice.
Edit summaries
Edit summaries, entered below the edit box (next to "Summary:") are helpful for other editors to understand your edits. In some cases, particularly moving or copying content between pages (e.g. splitting a page) a clear edit summary is essential.
Moving or copying content
If moving content between Appropedia pages, this must be explained in the edit summary on both the page of origin and the target. This is how Attribution is given in these cases. Attribution to an editor is recorded in the history page for any article - however, if moving part of a page but cut-and-paste, the actual creator of the content is only recorded on the original article's history page. Therefore, the source must be mentioned on the target page (where the content is posted).
On the source page (where the content was cut from) the edit summary is important to explain to other editors why you are removing good content from the page. If there is no edit summary, other editors are more likely to revert your changes.
When copying content (not deleting it from the source), then an edit summary is needed on the target page, saying where it's from.
The edit summary should give the exact pagename of relevance. Use double square brackets (to avoid confusion and to create a link in RecentChanges and in the history page entry. E.g. "Added content from [[Foo]]." Or "Moved section to [[Foo2]]<
(On the subject of attribution: If the source page has an attribution notice on it, this notice should be copied and used on the target page as well. Only leave the notice out if you're completely certain that the particular section you're moving is not from that source.)
Categories
This section describes the unique aspects of category usage at Appropedia. For a more general introduction to categories, see Help:Categories.
Use the "keywords" parameters of Template:Page data instead of categories. Categories are old technology and should generally be avoided. Only the most general, important and unavoidable categories should exist.
Categorization should be done via templates whenever possible (e.g. Template:MOST populates Category:MOST)
If you want to create a category to track some work in progress, consider creating a simple list of links instead.
Category pages should generally contain no text, only templates such as Template:Category data.
Flat is better than nested: avoid sub-sub-sub-categories as much as possible.
Only create categories when there're several (say, 10 or more) pages for it. Don't create categories before needing them.
Category pages should never be used as (long term) redirects because if an editor adds a category tag and chooses the name of a redirect, it will look like they've got the right category, but they haven't (because the category will not show up as a redlink). The only circumstances where a category redirect may be permissible are for a short period of time after moving a category, or where a link has been posted to elsewhere to the old name of a category. In this case the other site should be politely requested to change the link. This is why you should always post links to redirect pages, not directly to a category (see Appropedia:Spreading the word#Important notes when notifying anyone about Appropedia pages).
Appropedia is not Wikipedia! We aim to have few, simple, intuitive, versatile, smart, beautiful, well-documented and multilingual templates.
This page describes the current template conventions on Appropedia. For a guide on how to use templates, see Help:Templates.
Databoxes
Example of content typology on Appropedia described through Template:Databox.
Databoxes are a special kind of template that insert a modular infobox to classify and organize content on Appropedia.
Content on Appropedia consists of original research, much of which is done in contact with the outside world through fieldwork, observations, project deployment as well as work done in different laboratories and spaces. The documentation found on many of these pages describe a variety of projects in multiple stages, for example, a project idea to be deployed in the future, a physical prototype created in a laboratory, or a complete project done alongside a community in a rural setting. Pages on Appropedia can, for this reason, describe a variety of elements that interact with the physical world, despite not being physical themselves, such as methodologies, processes and actions, alongside the description of open-ended designs, as well as thoroughly-documented devices.
Organizing such a variety of knowledge so it can be usable can become a difficult task. For this reason, we've taken on the approach taken by open hardware licenses and certifications such as the OSHWA Certification and the OHL license, which decouples hardware, software, and documentation, and added other layers to describe more accurately how Appropedians create impact in the world:
The documentation layer is the most important one, because give you information about the pages you read on Appropedia. It is useful to make this distinction, especially for cases where the documentarian isn't the same person as the ones who are in charge of the project, or who have designed or built the device. Since pages are the main entity on the web, all pages should contain page data, with different combinations of databoxes according to that the page describes within, such as a device, project, or a documented source (thesis, external URL or an article).
The second most important layer on Appropedia documentation is the project layer (an instance where a device was prototyped or deployed by an individual or an organization at a specific point in time). Projects can take different forms (class projects, those done by an organization, a fab lab prototyping sprint, a hackathon, a personal project at someone's backyard) but they all have in common a time and place.
We have added an organization later to document and categorize organizations on Appropedia. They may act in specific locations and work on specific projects, and you can learn about that from exploring their pages across Appropedia.
We are still working on a source layer (through templates such as Template:Publication data) for content that is actively referenced on Appropedia as a useful resource for sustainability and international development. It could either be a ported thesis or the summary of a book or scientific publication, which you can also connect to specific devices and projects.
Databoxes for content pages:
Template:Page data: Since it contains information about pages on Appropedia (the documentation layer), all pages usually contain this template. This template is designed to be present with Template:Project data (on pages that describe a project), Template:Device data (pages that describe a device)
Template:Project data: Provides information about a project, that is, a real-world intervention that may involve individuals or organizations to design, interact or build in a specific place within a specific timeframe. Examples of
Template:Device data: Helps document hardware designs. This databox will serve makers as a checklist to review the level of completion for their documentation.
Template:Publication data: These templates help describe a publication. Use if you are summarizing or sourcing snippets of open source content available in other places (a URL, book, article, etc).
