Vinismo is written by its readers -- Internet users like you -- and we need your help! Try our getting started guide to learn how.
It can be a little intimidating to look at a new Web site like Vinismo and try to figure out what to do and how you can help.
This step-by-step introduction to the site should give you an idea of how to go forward. You should be able to go through all of these steps in about 30 minutes, but if you don't have that much time right now, do as much as you can, and you can pick up where you left off later.
Remember: we all want you to plunge forward and get going -- please, give it a try!
If for any reason you have problems with any of these steps, send us an email at help@vinismo.com. Our administrators will be happy to help you through the process, and we can use the opportunity to improve this documentation.
- Create an account. (recommended) You can read and even edit Vinismo without registering as a user, but it helps a lot if you do. Go to the registration page to sign up; it should only take a minute. After you register, the next time you come back to Vinismo, you can log in with your username and password by going to the login page or using the form in the upper-righthand corner of any page.
- Write your user page. (recommended) Your user page is the place on Vinismo where other people find out about you. It's found at User:Yourusername (different depending on your user name), and when you're logged in there's a link in the upper-righthand corner of every page. People will look there to find out more about you.
Since it's initially empty, you can start editing new page when you get there. Just look for the "edit" button and start typing; see Help:Editing pages for more info. Some questions you may want to answer: What's your name? Where do you live? What kinds of wines do you like? Which wine regions have you traveled to? If you're shy or just cautious, share as little or as much information as you want. Remember: you don't have to get it perfect the first time; you can go back and edit the page later as often as you want.
If you get this far, you've done the hardest part! You've now got all the skills needed to be a real help on Vinismo! - Upload a picture of yourself. (optional) It can help people learn to think of you as a real person, rather than a name on the screen, if you upload a picture of yourself and put it on your user page. Just go to the upload page, choose an image from your local hard drive, and upload it. Then, you can add the image to your user page; see Help:Images for more info.
- Add some wine resources in your home town. (recommended) Vinismo has directories of local resources and information for wine lovers in different cities and regions. You can help by adding info about your home town. First, find your home town -- for help see Help:Searching or Help:Navigation. The name of the page should read like Resources:YourHomeTown (different depending on your home town). Feel free to edit that page to add some new info (or correct what's already there). Do you know of a good wine bar or restaurant? Festivals and other wine-related activities? What about wine-tasting classes? You can learn more about how and what to add on Vinismo:Resources pages, part of the Contributor Guidelines.
- Share your knowledge about a wine topic. (recommended) Wine lovers know a lot about wine -- varietals and their aromas, regions and their climates, food and wine matches, etc. Is there anything you want other people to know? Find the page on that topic (again Help:Searching and Help:Navigation can help), read what's there already, and edit it to include your info. See Help:Editing pages for help with editing. If there's no page on the topic... you can help us get one started! See Help:Starting a new page.
- Add a new wine. (recommended) What was the last wine you drank? If it already exists (Help:Searching), edit the page (Help:Editing pages) with your impressions or other information. If the article about that wine doesn't exist yet, you can quickly create it by using the Wine form. Just fill in the fields that you know, and click save to save the wine.
- Ask a question on a talk page. (optional) If you've gotten this far, you've probably come up with a few questions about the project or a topic. Every article on Vinismo has a corresponding "talk page" where people can discuss it. To get to the "talk page" for a particular page, go to the page, then click on "discussion" or "talk" in the left-hand menu. (See Using talk pages for more information.) There, you can see previous discussion about the page (if any), and you can add your own. Just edit the page (Help:Editing pages), and type in your question. Do you think the information on the page is incomplete? Does this page duplicate another one? Do you want some feedback on your contributions? Whatever you feel like discussing, feel free to put it on the page.
- Leave a message for another user. (optional) The talk pages for user pages are called "user talk pages". You can leave a message for another Vinismo contributor on their user talk page. First, pick a user to leave a message for -- maybe the person who invited you to start working on Vinismo, or one of the founders, listed on the About page. Go to their user page (try Help:Searching and Help:Navigation for how to get there), and then use the left-hand menu to go to their talk page. You can then edit the page (Help:Editing pages) to leave a message. Don't be shy -- they'll be really glad to hear from you!
- Read more about Vinismo. (optional) As you get more involved, you may want to learn more about our project. The Community portal is a one-stop shop for learning more about the community. None of this stuff is mandatory -- don't let all the text intimidate you -- but if you want to know more, it can help.
- Wash, rinse, repeat. There's lots more to do with this wiki, but if you get this far, you've got the skills to learn all about them. Feel free to come back and work on these steps over and over again.
edit See also
- Community section -- everything you need to know about our project, its community and guidelines.
- Help section -- everything you need to know to start or edit pages, and and the other features of the site.
