DotNetFrequentlyAskedQuestions

The source text is just plain text, with a few special punctuation sequences for formatting. You don't need to know anything about the formatting conventions to get started beyond using blank lines for paragraph breaks. If you want to learn more, see HowDoYouFormatWikiText and the WikiTestPage.

When you are done editing the text, click the "Save" button at the top. If you make a mistake and want to start over, click "Reset." It's that easy.

What is the global page editing password?

In late 2004 the DeVaulDotNet wiki came under attack by wiki spam bots. These bots destroyed wiki pages, replacing them with endless lists of links in an attempt to game the Google search engine rankings. As a result, I implemented a site-wide editing password. A few individual pages have their own editing password as well, but this predates the spambot attacks.

I am considering making the global password visible (as part of an image) on the "enter password" page, with the idea that humans will be able to read it easily and spambots will not. Stay tuned...

How do I make a DotNetPeople personal wiki page?

1. Edit the text of an existing page by clicking the "Edit" link.
   For instance, you might add a new personal wiki page by editing DotNetPeople.
2. Insert the title of the new page somewhere in the text of the existing page, and click "Save."
   For a personal wiki page, the title could be your first and last names run together, like ScottStuart or OligarchyBob.
3. View the page you just edited. You will see the title of your new page with a question mark link after it. The question mark link means the page does not yet exist in the wiki database. For example, the page ReallyDoNotClickOnThisLink does not yet exist (please don't make it exist so we can keep using it as an example).
4. Click on the question mark link. That will take you to an "Edit Page" form for your new page. Start typing.
5. When you have finished entering some text, click "Save" to create your page. Your page doesn't have to be done to click "Save" — this is a wiki so you can always go back and edit your page once you've created it.

Do I need to know HTML before I can edit a wiki page?

I'm looking at the source text of a wiki page; what do all of those strange punctuation sequences mean?

I'm used to the standard wiki formatting conventions, but there is some strange stuff going on here — help!

Wiki markup is based on punctuation sequences that never arise naturally in normal English text. You don't need to know anything about wiki markup to get started; just start typing. The most important formatting convention is that blank lines are paragraph breaks.

DeVaulDotNet employs an extended wiki markup language that is a superset of the original wiki markup language developed by Ward Cunningham. This extended markup language supports headings, centered text, line breaks, font changes, page "inclusions," etc., as well as the basic text formatting provided by the original. The DeVaulDotNet wiki formatting language also allows the use of certain HTML tags, though this is unnecessary for most formatting operations.

For more information on the specifics of wiki markup, see the WikiTextFormatting page.

1. They obey the MixedCaseConvention, and thus suffer from "studly caps" syndrome.
2. Every page title is actually a link to that page, so your browser will render it as such. This is true even when the title is used in the body of the page itself.

Words composed of at least two non-consecutive capital letters followed by one or more non-capitalized letters follow the MixedCaseConvention. More precisely, the MixedCaseConvention is satisfied by any word which satisfys the Perl regular expression:

 ([A-Z][a-z]+){2,} 

1. Build on what already exists
2. Respect the ideas of other authors

It looks like an HTML TABLE tag is being used to change the background color of some text. Is there some other way to do this?

1. The "voices" markup, which is intended to visually distinguish speakers in a body of text, e.g. This is the default voice. This is voice one. This is voice two. This is voice three. This is voice four. See the WikiBetaPage for an explanation of how to use voices.
2. The HTML "font" tag. The use of this tag allows you to set the foreground (but not background) color of the text. For example, specifying the color attribute to be "red" results in text that looks like this. You can find more information on HTML markup at http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/.

3. The use of the HTML table tag. This tag is complicated and primarily intended to support the grid-like structuring of information in a page, but also allows you to specify the background color for the table. There is currently no way to change the background color for a portion of a page other than to use the table tag.

Warning: The incorrect use of the table tag can break a page, resulting in unspecified browser behavior (usually the page just comes up blank). If this happens, you may need to manually enter the edit URL for the page to fix it, e.g. http://devaul.net/?edit=HowDoYouChangeTextColor.

I see working HTML table and font tags, but the HTML tags I tried don't seem to work. Why?

It is much easier to break a page through bad HTML than through bad wiki markup: bad wiki markup may give you an ugly page, but bad HTML may give you a page that doesn't render at all.

Is it OK to post spam or commercial messages?

I see something I don't like; is it OK to delete something others have written because it is offensive/pornographic/in poor taste, etc.?

My request (and it is just that, a request) is that you work to keep things interesting and constructive. Posting flame bait, out-of-context commercial messages (spam), or simply deleting opinions or material you find offensive is not likely to contribute much to the experience of other readers.

If you really feel something is inapropriate to a particular context, consider moving it rather than simply deleting it.