Vinismo is written by its readers -- Internet users like you -- and we need your help! Try our getting started guide to learn how.
Here are some Fearfully Anticipated Questions that Vinismo users have heard, or think they may hear, or wonder about themselves.
If you don't see your question answered here, ask it at the Wine Bar, and someone will answer it as soon as possible (probably).
edit General questions
edit What is Vinismo?
Vinismo is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable guide of all wines in the world. It is built in collaboration by wine lovers from around the globe. You can read more about Vinismo on the About page.
(Phew! That was an easy one.)
edit Who are you people?
We're wine lovers from all over the world who are dedicated to making Vinismo the best darn wine guide around. Most of us are people who stumbled across the site, just like you, and decided to share our knowledge.
edit Who edits and organizes all this, though?
We do. Vinismo users. We create articles and then edit them, and we organize the articles into hierarchies and make links between them and have navigational pages, and things like that.
edit So, anyone can just drift in off the Internet and start writing articles about wine?
That's the idea, yes. We use a technique called Wiki that lets any reader edit any page, instantly.
edit Well, that's never going to work.
Bzzzt. Not a question.
edit How is that supposed to ever work?
Doesn't seem like it ever could, does it? With anyone able to edit any page, things should just descend into terrible chaos, shouldn't they? Madness, mayhem, and a horrible bog of unusable drivel.
Strangely enough, it doesn't. People who care about having well-written wine articles on this site are the majority. People who just want to vandalize or delete things eventually get bored with it -- and, you have to admit, it's not that much of a challenge -- and the rest of us come in and clean up.
The other great part is that wikis converge. One user adds as much as they know about a topic, and others start adding more information. Other people come through and condense it all so it reads well. Others add new information, and so on.
It's strange, and it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it just happens. It's really cool.
edit I still don't believe it.
Bzzt.
edit Do you have any proof that this works?
Well, we have the existence proof of other projects that create references collaboratively. Probably the most famous one is Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Many of our community policies are borrowed from that project.
edit OK, so, there's all this hippy-dippy love stuff about working together, but who's really in charge?
You are. Any Vinismo user can change articles, rewrite navigation areas, even overwrite information about the site itself. We try to make decisions about policy and guidelines collaboratively, but if you have a good idea for how we should work, plunge forward and let us know.
That all said, there are certain users who've been working on the site for a while, and they can become administrators. Administrators generally get some higher access -- like really deleting pages instead of blanking them -- but not much. It's more of a burden than a privilege.
edit Who owns the site? Who operates the servers?
Vinismo is owned and run by the its two founders, User:Evan and Niko. They are the main points of contact for bug reports, major content or policy restructurations, and other operational issues.
The content of the site is owned by Vinismo contributors, who each own the copyright to their own contributions, and agree to license them according to the Creative Commons BY-SA 2.5 license. If you've found a photo or another work by a single contributor on Vinismo, and would like to use it under different terms from that license, please contact the creator of that work directly.
edit What is this nifty software you're running?
We use MediaWiki, the software developed for Wikipedia, with some changes and extra features developed by us.
edit Where does the name "Vinismo" come from?
"Vinismo" is an Esperanto word which means "everything about wine".
edit Where can I contact you?
There isn't any specific point of contact for our community. If you have a question about an article in particular, post it on the Talk page for that article. If you have a question about Vinismo in general, try posting in the Wine Bar.
If you're a member of the press, please contact either Evan or Niko using their User Talk Pages or the "e-mail this user" link on their User Pages. Both are bilingual, but maybe you'd prefer to talk to Evan who is a native English speaker, whereas Niko is a native French speaker.
edit Questions about content
edit This article is all wrong! You have to fix it!
This is Wiki -- you can fix it yourself! Click the "edit" link, and change the parts that bug you. That's the whole idea.
edit I am trying to find Topic X, and there's no article about it!
We're still a new project, and there are a huge number of wines we haven't even thought about writing about yet. Feel free to plunge forward and start the outline of an article. Other helpful, knowledgeable Vinismo users will add to it.
edit I am trying to find Topic X, and all that's on the page is one sentence!
Like we said, we're still a new project, and there are huge topics we've only begun to work on. If you don't think there's enough information on a topic, feel free to plunge forward and add more.
edit I am trying to find Topic X, and all that's there is "asdfkjadflkjfd EAT MY BUTT"!
This is typical vandalism. Feel free to plunge forward and delete the vandal's garbage and replace it with a full article, or at least a basic outline.
Make sure to check the article's history (there will be a "history" link in the column on the left) and look at the second or third revision listed to make sure there wasn't content that was blanked. You can edit, add to, and save that version to preserve the original content.
edit I have an idea for an article, but I don't know exactly how to get started.
Check out our Contributor Guidelines to know how to start a new page.
edit I have some information I want to share, but I don't know what to do with it.
We have some templates that tell how we like articles laid out. They are described in our Contributor Guidelines.
edit Questions about editing
edit This all looks like gobbledygook! How do I edit these pages?
Pages on Vinismo are formatted using Wiki markup. It looks funny at first, but after a while it seems like second nature. You should read about how to edit a page and how to format articles.
edit How do I upload an image to use in an article?
You should follow the instructions on Vinismo:Adding images and Help:Images.
edit How do I put an image I uploaded into an article?
You should follow the instructions on Vinismo:Adding images and Help:Images.
edit Hey! I wrote this long nice article on Topic X, and it got changed! What gives?
Any Vinismo user can edit any page. When you submit an article, it's subject to ruthless editing for style, subject matter, spelling, factual information, and just generally fitting into the Vinismo scheme of things. If you don't like that, you shouldn't work on Vinismo (or any Wiki for that matter).
edit Hey! I changed my nice long article on Topic X back to the way it was before, and it got changed again! What gives?
You're in an edit war. You need to go to the Talk page for the topic you're writing about and work out your differences with the other article editors.
edit How do I delete a whole page?
You can't delete a page directly. Only administrators can delete pages. You can submit a request for deletion in their respective Talk pages, explaining the reasons why the page should be deleted. Administrators may then submit your request to a vote amongst the Vinismo community.
edit How do I sign a posting?
When posting a message on a Talk page, it is customary to sign the posting with your user name and the posting date so that everyone knows who you are (for example: "User 15:35, 6 May 2005 (EDT)"). To get that text to appear automatically, simply type four tildes ("~~~~"), and they will be replaced with your user name and the current date when the edit is submitted.
edit Language Questions
edit Ash blash g'nash foosh manoosh?
Huh?
edit Sorry, I don't speak English very well. Can I put articles in my own language in Vinismo?
Yes, if there is a separate Vinismo version for your language ; if it exists, it should be listed on the main page.
If Vinismo in your language does not exist yet, you can start your own language version! Submit a request to one of our administrators or discuss it in the Wine Bar.
edit But my English sounds terrible. I'm embarrassed.
Don't worry too much about the level of your English. Your spelling errors will be corrected by other people. We really want you to share your knowledge!
edit Should I use American English spelling, or Commonwealth English spelling?
We tend to prefer American English spelling, but don't let this stop you from editing pages in your own spelling!
