Please ... Thank You!

-- JacquesDaignault 2006-05-14 14:07:11
-- English Translation: ReneeFountain 2006-05-17 16:38:46 Version française

The goal of this help function

This page is a place where people can ask others for help. At present there are three “help” categories:

• english linguistic revisions
• translations in english
• paging (formatting/structure)

The Three Help Categories

You might be wondering why help with editing and translation is called for in English only. The goal of this impetus is to help those members whose first language is not English to have some special help, especially when their work is destined for the entire IAACS community. Our hope in introducing this function to enable greater communication among members. The reason for the choice of English is based on that fact that, to date, IAACS documentation, information and news - as well as the conferences - have occurred predominantly in the English language.

However, there is absolutely no problem to publish in languages other than English. (Here is a list of all the languages used by MoinMoin on the rest of the planet. Nothing is preventing people from soliciting help for editing and translation in other languages. We can certainly invent other, similar editing and translation options (appealing to translations in and between other languages than English ) should you wish. For now, it would be appreciated that the present editing and translation functions be used for help regarding English texts only.

The third category -paging- is designed to encourage help between technical novices and experts.

Pages awaiting help

A list of those pages awaiting help is at the bottom of this page.

If you want a page to figure among this list simply add one (or more) of the following commands on your page (Remember, you must be in editing mode to work your page.)

• ##fixme editing

• ##fixme translation

• ##fixme paging

  It is VERY important to add the two number signs ## at the beginning of this command. Note that the number of spaces between the words, where you place it on your page and whether you use small letters or capitals does NOT matter here.

Please indicate which kind of help you wish in relation to your page. For example,

• ##fixme editing ###English as a second language;  there are a lot of sentences in this English text that have a French structure. Given that  English is not my first language I would appreciate your help.

  or:

  ##fixme translate ## fixme editing ###The text needs some linguistic revision as well as some help with translation as there are a few terms I could not translate into EnglishInfo

  A final example:

  ###fixme paging ### I am completely computer illiterate. I would like to have some tables here and there on my page and a bit of coulour but I have no idea how to do it! Can you help?

In the event that the words fixme and (editing or translation or paging) are part of your page but you do NOT want this page to appear on the help list, simply add ##donotfixme somehwere on your page (the top of the page is a good place to indicate such information as it is easily accessible, read apparent).

The names of those people who graciously offer their help will appear in the “Info” section of the said page.(This link is located right beside the "Edit" link.)

• When you help someone try to be as explicit as possible about the kind of help you provided. You can add your comments just after the author's call for help. For example:

  ##fixme translation ###I need help with about a dozen expressions (in the Japanese language) to go into English. ###Hello, my name is Yoshi Nishide, I did five of the translations for you. 

IMPORTANT When your page has received the help it needs you MUST remove the “call to help” code ## ... [BR]] YES, you can ask the system to notify you (by email) when your page has been modified. You can select this option under “Preferences” (once you are logged in).

Please Remember to THANK your helpers. Their names (leading to their wikipage) will appear in the " Info " page. (Again, this link is located right beside the "Edit" link.) Click on their name and send them a Thank You email! Or, why not write a “Comment” (on their page) and thank them publicly?

If important revisions or translations have occurred add the helpers names (wikinames) specifying the role they played (revision, translation, paging etc.)

Again, you must be LOGGED in to do any of this PleaseThankYou work.