Creating and Editing Content
Getting Started
To create or edit content in LLU you must sign up and have your status raised from a “Standard User” to a “Member” so you have editing privileges. This will allow you to create and edit wiki pages and publish your own blog. Once you have completed registration, send an email to BornFree@LibertyLion.com and request to become a “member” with editing privileges.
Feedback
Feedback, including comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome. Use the “Feedback” button on the main menu.
Recognition for Contributing
Those who contribute content to LLU will be recognized for their support of freedom. Every time you create or edit a wiki page, participate in a forum discussion, or post to your blog, you get points that qualify you for recognition on the site. The scoring of this system is in place but the display of the levels of recognition is still being worked out. Most of the things you do in LibertyLion, even logging in and reading a page, count toward your recognition as a contributor liberty.
Types of Content
Wikis
The articles in LLU are wiki pages, similar to Wikipedia. This means that other members will be able to help you with your page by adding additional information, correcting typos, etc., unless you lock your page. You will be automatically notified of any changes through your email. The creator or an administrator can roll the page back to a prior version if the changes are unacceptable. See the following instructions to create and edit wiki pages.
Forums
Discussion forum allow registered users to participate in an ongoing dialogue about a specific topic or problem. Registered users can participate in forums and start new discussion threads. If you see a need for a new forum, put your selection in Feedback.
Blogs
Blogs are used to express personal ideas and opinions and share information you have found. Members can create their own blogs in LLU by going to “List Blogs” in the Blogs drop-down menu and selecting “Create New Blog”. After that they can administer and make posts to their blog.
Sharing
Sharing is a simple tool for sharing good information you have found. By categorizing it and adding tags and other characteristics, the information becomes part of a searchable knowledge base of liberty that will make it more accessible and provide easy access to related material. Use the “Sharing” button in the main menu to open sharing and select the “Add a Share” tab and fill out the information to share quotes, websites, videos and more.
Finding Content
Before you create new content you should look for existing related pages. What you plan to create may already be present and your time may be better spent adding information to an existing page, making it stronger or clearer, instead of starting from scratch. You can find pages, blogs and forums by using the browse and search buttons in the menu bar and the search text box at the top of the page.
Creating New Wiki Pages
To create a new page, login and select “Create New Page” on the drop-down menu that opens under the “Wiki” button on the main menu bar when you hoover your mouse over it. This takes you to the “Page Creation Wizard”.
Title, Tagline, Etc.
Enter appropriate information in each of the required text boxes and the description and tagline if at all possible.
Enter the page name carefully, following the instructions about what characters can be used. (The Article title, which is the page name by default, can be entered separately if you want to use characters that are not allowed in the page name.) The page name must be unique because it is used by the computer system to uniquely identify the page. Existing page names are shown in a drop-down list as you type so you can avoid a duplicate name.
Page Type
Select the type of page you are creating and its purpose. Hoover your mouse over the question marks by each type and purpose to see what they are used for. You can also open the “Preview Templates” tab at the top to review the templates for each page type. They are just suggested templates; you can change them to meet your needs once you start editing your page.
Multiple different page formats are available to convey information in different ways, including methods for challenging people to think and draw their own conclusions, because in religion and politics you can’t tell people what to think. People need to be led to new conclusions if they are going to believe and remember them. Money and Global Warming is an example of such a challenge page.
Examples of some of the different types of pages can be found on the home page at www.libertylion.com under the “Editor’s Choice” tab. Or you can click on the links below to see them:
Money and Global Warming:
Challenge page; asks people to consider a few facts and develop their own ideas about what they mean
Mowing Down the Grassroots:
Summary of a lengthy and detailed article, making it more accessible for those with limited time to learn
Freedom and Equality:
Gateway, providing an introduction to the subject of Income Inequality and leading to multiple other pages that discuss various aspects of the problem
The Future of Education:
Gateway into the world and potential of online education
The Lessons of History:
Book Highlights, sharing the best ideas from a book, including separate pages for each chapter
The Income Inequality Mirage:
Custom page for a relatively long article with an Executive Summary at the beginning for those with limited time
Creating the page
After you have completed all of the required fields, select the “Create” button at the bottom of the page. A new page will be created using the template for the page type you selected and you will be taken to the page.
Editing Wiki Pages
You can practice editing without creating any problems by going to the “Practice Sandbox” in the Wiki drop-down menu. Your changes will not be saved and it won’t matter if you make a mistake. It is a good idea to practice creating headings and inserting links, images and videos.
To edit a page, select the “Edit this page” button at the bottom of the page. The page will be opened in an editor that is similar to Microsoft Word. The article title and tag line will have been entered automatically along with the template in new pages. You can edit the title and tag line but don’t delete them. If you make a mistake you can use the undo button at the top to go back.
Note: Do not leave the editing screen open when you are not working on it. It will close automatically after about 5 minutes of non-use and your work could be lost. Save the page if you are not actively editing. If you forget and it is closed, you may be able to recover your work by reverting to the “AutoSave” version that will be shown at the top when you open the page for editing again.
Type the text you want, editing or replacing the headings and text to accomplish your objective. You can delete heading and create new heading using the “Format” list on the tool bar as needed.
Viewing LLU during editing
If you want to view other information in LLU while you are editing, select the “Open LLU” button at the top. This opens a new tab or window that you can drag to another place on your computer so you can view it while you are editing your page.
Inserting images
To add images, place your cursor where you want the image inserted and select the “Choose or Upload Images” icon on the editing tool bar (hoover your mouse over the buttons to see their names). A pop-up box will appear. Use the “Browse” button to navigate to the image you want to add. Select it and use the “Upload File(s)” button. Select “Click Here to Insert in Wiki Syntax” to put the image into the page.
In the editing screen, you will see a small image. Double click on the image to change its attributes (don’t use a right click). Change the display size using the “Image width” field if desired. 400-600 pixels is a good size. The height will be automatically adjusted to match the width. The other image settings are best left to experienced users.
Inserting links and videos
For help entering links and Youtube videos select the “Help” button on the top right of the editing page. Note: after inserting a video, you will see an icon for the inserted video on the editing screen. The video will not be visible until you save the change.
Saving your changes
When you are finished making changes, select one of the save button on the upper right. “Save” saves what you have done and alerts others that you have made a significant change that they may want to look at. The “Save Minor Edit” is for minor changes such as correcting spelling or punctuation, etc. It does not alert other users of the change unless they have selected to be notified of minor changes. All changes, including minor changes, are monitored by the managers however.
Whenever you save your changes you need to make a short note about what you changed in a text box the pops up before it will save the changes. This is used to notify others of your changes.
Publishing Pages
New pages are automatically saved in “draft” mode, meaning that they are only visible to members with editing privileges. They must be “published” before they are visible to the public. Only the page owner and administrators can publish the page. Pages do not have to be perfect before publishing as it is expected that wiki pages will change and improve over time.
To publish the page, the creator of the page or an administrator must select the “Publish” button in the “About” box on the left side of the page. It can be returned to draft mode after being published by selecting the “Make Draft” button that shows up on published pages.
Adding Tags and Categories
The beauty of the knowledge base in LLU is that all the information is tied together through a system of relationships that allow users to move through information quickly, finding and absorbing what they are most interested in. This process is improved by adding categories and tags to the page. To do this, view the page and open the “Star” tool box by clicking on the star icon in the upper-left corner of the page.
In the tags text box, start typing the name of a tag. If it already exists, it will be listed in a drop-down menu. Select it and then select “Add”. The tag will be shown above the text box. Add one tag at a time. If you don’t find an acceptable tag, you can create one by typing the name of the tag and selecting “Add”. Be aware that tags with more than one word in them must have the words separated by a dash with no spaces between the words.
Unlike tags, where you can create new ones, the list of categories is fixed. Click on the categories text box to see a drop down list of available categories from which you can select. You can also start typing to find a category and select it from a list. You can add multiple categories by repeating this process.
You should add as many tags and categories as apply to the subject matter because doing so will make it more likely that users reading other related pages will be alerted to the presence of your page, making it more visible.
Additional Help
If you need additional help, email BornFree@LibertyLion.com and arrangements can be made to open an online classroom where the use of the system can be demonstrated. Instructional videos are also being created but that have not been complete at this time.