Michigan:Welcome

The Michigan Wiki is a Michigan encyclopedia written collaboratively by its readers. The site is a Wiki, meaning that anyone, including you, can edit almost any article right now by clicking on the Edit link that appears at the top of the page. Much of this wiki follows a similar setup to its parent wiki, Wikipedia. Also, we encourage all users to read the general disclaimer about this wiki.

Browsing the Michigan Wiki

At the present, the Michigan Wiki is in its infancy. As it continues to grow, we strive to cover a vast amount of information from all aspects of Michigan life. This wiki is a place for the sharing of information about individuals, locations, technology, businesses, transportation and everything in between! Even now, however, there are already some categories of articles waiting to be read and expanded. Try browsing the various categories now.

You can also search for text in articles. Just go to the "search" field to the left, enter your search term and click "search".

If you read something that you really like, then why not drop a note on the article's talk page? First select the Discussion link (look for it in the tabs above the page), to get to the talk page. Then select Edit on the talk page, or click the + to the right of Edit to simply add a new comment. We always love to get a little positive feedback.

Editing

Everyone can edit pages in the Michigan Wiki — even this page! Just click the Edit link at the top of any page (except for a handful of protected pages) if you think it needs any improvement or new information. You don't need anything special; you don't even need to be logged in. If you want to experiment first, without risk of "messing up" a real article, head over to the sandbox, where you can practice editing to your heart's content. To practice editing an existing page like this one, just copy and paste it from the article's edit page into the sandbox.

If you want to learn more, check out the pages listed in or the Wikia Help pages. Those pages, provided by Wikia, should help you to learn the basic info you should know as a member of our project.

But, I don't live in Michigan…

It does not matter where you live! Anyone can edit the Michigan wiki. If you have something to contribute, feel free to add it. It does not matter if you live in California, Ohio, or even Australia!

What can I do?

There are many things for you to do! Feel free to browse the wiki and make improvements as you see the need. You also could check out the Things to do page which has suggestions of what you can do to help.

Policies

The Michigan Wiki has a few policies that you should look at. The three most essential principles are NPOV, GFDL, and civility. What does this mean?

• NPOV, or neutral point of view means that articles should not be biased, and should represent differing views on a subject fairly.
• All contributions to the Michigan Wiki are released under the Wikipedia:GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). This specifically ensures that this wiki will remain freely distributable in perpetuity. Please do not submit any content that is copyrighted without permission of the copyright holder. (See Copyrights for more information).
• Civility. The Michigan wiki works by cooperation and mutual respect. Therefore, civility and wikilove should be practiced universally. Please assume good faith when you disagree with someone, stay cool, and talk things over civilly. It is good practice to provide an edit summary explaining your changes so as to assist others with noticing and accepting your changes. If you find that your edits get removed or modified, wait a moment before reinstating them. First check the page history, your talk page, or the article's talk page to discuss. See also Wikiquette.

Other policies

• Style: Michigan Wiki articles, at the moment, do not have to conform to a specific manual of style. However, you are encouraged to help keep articles organized. (One such method could be Wikipedia's Manual of Style.) We also encourage information about travel in Michigan. For example, include a "Travel" or "Tourism" section to an article that is an independent place or location (such as a community, park, or public highway). Similarly, we want information about what it is like to be a Michigander. If there are relevant culture points, feel free to add them into a "Culture" section.
• Interaction: The Michigan Wiki exists to share information about the great state of Michigan. It is not, however, a dating site, a place to have a personal blog, or a personal advertising service. We do encourage details about Michigan companies and places to be listed, but the article should not be an exclusive advertisement.

Want to join?

Anyone can edit, but there are advantages to creating an account if you want to contribute regularly. To join, create an account and then introduce yourself to the community at the new user log. Also feel free to join in on the wiki's IRC channel.

Don't be discouraged

If you run into conflicts in your first forays into editing, then don't let it get you down. In any collaborative project there are clashes. Have a look at the writers' rules of engagement page as well as the other articles in the tutorial wing below. Use them to help you resolve the problems and learn how to become an active and productive contributor.

And if there's anything you don't understand — be it technical or social — and you're not sure where to look, just post a question at the Information Center, and someone will be happy to help you.

Have fun and enjoy!