FAQ

General questions

What's this all about, anyway?
  The Open Guide to London is a website that you can edit and contribute to. See How To Get Started for an overview.
Is there an index?
  There are lots. If you're on a page whose title starts with "Category", for example Category Tube, look for a link that says "View all pages in ..." to find all pages in the category. The top-level category is Category Category, from which you can click on "View all pages" as with any other category, or browse the hand-built list of categories (this may, however, be slightly out of date).
Can I add a new page?
  That's the whole point! We invite your contribution. Read Adding New Pages and Templating Conventions and you'll be ready to go.
Can I edit/correct/update/comment on a page by someone else?
  Yes, you can. Please be mindful of Wiki Etiquette and our Templating Conventions, though.
It's so easy to modify this site, as I have just done. Why don't you do something about it? Or is this just some sort of open source free for all? If so, it's a rather naive way of thinking no one's going to wreak havoc onto your pages.
  Yes, it's easy to modify the site. This is the point; anyone with something useful to say can easily add knowledge to the site. Conversely, anyone can remove useless or outdated information in order to keep the site up to date; and if someone vandalises a page, the next visitor can easily restore the previous page from the revision history. See WhyWikiWorks (on WikiWiki) and SoftSecurity (on MeatBallWiki) for more.
I run a business. Can I use the Open Guide to London to promote it? This seems a remarkable way of getting free advertising.
  Please refer to the wiki etiquette page for our policy on advertising. If you are London based, and you want to create a page for your business, by all means do so.

But, try and be objective and truthful when describing it. Self flattery will get you nowhere, and will result in the page being edited or deleted fairly quickly.

Also note that OpenGuides will retain copyright of any material submitted to the site, and we reserve the right to change the wording at any point in the future. This includes our regular contributors adding reviews, which may not be favourable.

Using site features

I'm scared to add something in case I do it wrong!
  Don't worry; someone will fix it if you do. Adding new and useful content is rarely bad, even if you do make a few style errors.
Can I practice using the site?
  Yes, you can. Use the Sandbox.
Oops! I just created a page, and on second thoughts it shouldn't be there. How do I get rid of it?
  Users can't delete pages. If you made a mistake in creating a page, remove the page from any locales or categories, and replace the contents with the word 'delete'. A site administrator will sort this out when they have time.
How do I format my text?
  Have a look at Text Formatting Examples.
How do I put in a picture?
  Have a look at Using Images.
Can I use HTML? And if so, which tags can I use?
  Yes you can. These tags are allowed: b i font small sub sup code em s strike strong var div center blockquote ul li table tr td th caption br p hr
How do locales work?
  For information on this, see Using Locales.
How does your system deal with things with synonyms?
  If something has a synonym - for example, 'Tube' and 'Underground', you can make the synonym redirect to the real page for convenience. You do this by:

  • Making a page with the name of the synonym, and putting as its content the single line:
#REDIRECT [[The Name Of The Page You Want To Redirect To]]

Site conventions

Do I have to name everything with a postcode at the end? It gets kind of tedious reading it every time there's a link to it.
  In a word - no. This is a convention we used when the London Guide was first set up, but has proved to be inconvenient. No other guide uses post codes for disambiguation.

There are plenty of pages with post codes in the node title, but we plan to rename these, see Big Renaming.

The convention we are now using for disambiguation is to append a place name in parentheses viz Windsor Castle (Notting Hill). There is no need to do this if the name is sufficiently unusual to be unique, e.g. there's only one Red Lion And Pineapple. Apply common sense; if a page later turns out to be ambiguous, someone can always copy the content to a new page with a place name appended.

For chain stores, restaurants and pubs, it is usual to have a page with details of the whole chain, e.g. Waterstone's, If there are a small number of branches, comments on each individual branch can go in the main page, but if there are many branches, and every branch is different, it is better to have separate pages for each branch.

Note that wiki links can be just like normal web links; the text of the link doesn't have to be the name of the page it refers to. Use this technique: [[Windsor Castle (Notting Hill) | like this]] and your link to the page will end up looking like this, so you won't have to break up the flow of your pages with ugly parenthesised names.

Is there a convention for naming pages about tube stops?
  Yes — follow the name of the stop with “Station”, for example, Hammersmith Station. Ditto for overground stations, for example, Clapham Junction Station.
What other conventions do I need to be aware of for page titles?
  Firstly, omit a leading "The" from your title, especially for pub names. Secondly, bear it in mind that the node title will use "Title Case" (the first letter of each word is capitalised) as it is formed. You do not have to use title case for inlinks though.

Note that punctuation is allowed in a page title.

Also, apply common sense: standards emerge as this site develops. If people have already created other similar pages, it is best to copy their convention.

What categories do I put my page in?
  A list of the current categories can be obtained using an index search on category category. click on the link below:

View all pages in Category Category

Think of what your page is, what it is about, and decide which existing categories apply. If the new category concept does not appear in the list, by all means create it (by putting the new category name on a line on its own in the Categories box).

Conventionally, apart from category category itself, category names are plural, hence we have category pubs, category restaurants, category shops, etc.

Last edited 2006-02-21 13:17:19 (version 23; diff). List all versions.