International-Scratch-Wiki-FAQ - Test-Scratch-Wiki (original) (raw)

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This FAQ is about the Test-Scratch-Wiki and creating of International Scratch-Wikis. You can ask questions on this forum thread. Find FAQ's about Scratch itself at: en:FAQ.

About this FAQ

What is this FAQ good for?

This FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a "work in progress" aimed at answering all question that can be asked about "building a Scratch Wiki in your language". Originally it was made to help authors of one of the Test-Scratch-Wiki:Test_Scratch_Wikis but it is also very useful for authors of the existing Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis and for anybody who is interested.

Some helpful links:

How can I ask new questions or give better answers?

You can ask questions in this Forum Thread.

Naturally, if you are already an author of the Test-Scratch-Wiki, you can also edit the wiki. Like the wiki itself, this FAQ is a collaborative work, so all authors can help make it larger and better: Please correct typos and explanations, care for transferring new questions form the Forum-Thread to here and give good answers. (see: #How do I request an account at the Test-Scratch-Wiki?)

What other FAQs could I use?

The English Scratch-Wiki has its own FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about the Wiki itself:

It has many questions (some still missing here) but it does not focus on the international scratch wikis like this one.

Find FAQ's about Scratch itself at: en:FAQ.

About Scratch Wikis

What is a Scratch Wiki?

The Scratch Wiki is a collaboratively-written wiki available for free that provides information about the Scratch programming language, its website, history and phenomena surrounding it. The wiki is supported by the Scratch Team, but is primarily written by Scratchers. The Scratch Wiki is a popular source of information for scripts and tutorials and it continues to grow as Scratchers use it as their primary source of information.

How can I join/create a Scratch-Wiki in my Language?

Because it is not so easy to set up a Mediawiki and to establish a community, we have this kind of "Scratch-Wiki-Incubator" or "Giant Multi-Language-Sandbox" here at the Test Wiki to start a scratch-wiki in a language that doesn't exist. There is also an international community to help you.

Why are there "Real-Scratch-Wikis" and "Test-Scratch-Wikis"?

Real-Scratch-Wikis are Scratch Wikis that exists in their own domain or subdomain. They existed years before the Test Wiki was set up (in 9/2015). The original Scratch Wiki was the English one. The DACH, INDO, RU, JA, HU and the NL Scratch-Wikis where set up later as sister projects by the international Scratch Community mainly driven by the DACH-Scratch-Wikians.

Because they saw - after first successes with DACH and INDO - how difficult it is for the starting Scratch-Wikians to build up their Wiki and their Wiki-Community, they decided not to set up separate Wikis for starters anymore, but to use this Test-Scratch-Wiki as an "Scratch Wiki Incubator" where starters will get help and coaching from the international community until their Scratch-Wiki "can stand on its own feet".

Why should I join the "Test-Scratch-Wikis" If I'm already at a "Real-Scratch-Wiki"

If you are an author at one of the international "Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis" you should additional join this "Test-Scratch-Wiki" to get in better connection with the international Scratch Wiki community and the Coaches that could also help you at your Scratch-Wiki. At your Scratch-Wiki there are only that few people of your language: The Scratch Wiki Coaches can't patrol all international Scratch-Wikis regularly to find out if somebody needs help with Mediawiki-Syntax, Templates, etc. but at the Test-Wiki we can do that.

For which languages do "Real-Scratch-Wikis" or "Test-Scratch-Wikis" already exist?

How do I start a new scratch-wiki if there is no one for my languages?

How did the Test-Scratch-Wiki come into Existence?

About working in the Test-Scratch-Wiki

How do I request an account at the Test-Scratch-Wiki?

Go to Special:RequestAccount to create your account here. Instructions on what to say are present on that page. Please don't waste the time of our admins by asking for an account if you not really interested to work here and edit much: An account here is not a "status symbol" but a commitment to work and improve the Test-Wikis.

How could I find somebody who is Mediawiki-Insider?

Read #Can somebody help me?

Can somebody help me?

The experienced wikians at the Test Wiki are willing to help others, whatever their question may be. There might even be someone in your own language that is skilled enough to help you. In point 2, we will tell you how to get in contact with someone for help, but please read and think about point 1:

  1. Because their time and power is limited, try to invest a little bit of your time and power to find an answer out yourself. Some good ways to get help include: visiting the Help pages, reading this FAQ, and doing tests in the Sandbox.
  2. How to contact someone:
    1. If your question could be of general interest please ask it at this FAQ's Forum so it can be added to the FAQ for others in the future.
    2. Contact one of the experienced Scratch-Wikians their Talk-Page given here: Test Wiki Coaches
    3. Contact a Scratch-Wikian of your language at their Talk-Page given at the About/Start-Page of the Test-Wiki of your language:
    4. Go to the Test-Scratch-Wikis Community Portal and start a new Thread there
    5. Go to or create the Community Portal of your language if there are enough experienced authors of your language and ask the question there in your language:
    6. Go to the Talk-Page of the Wiki article and start a discussion there. This is not recommended here, but in a high frequented Wiki like Wikipedia, it's typical to discuss at the articles Talk-Page.
    7. Go to the Scratch-Userpage of the author you want to contact (same user-name like here) and leave a comment there if you need a faster reply (it could be read more often by this wiki member)
    8. Please (!!!) only as the last option (Don't steal the time of others only to save time yourself!!!) If you need a very fast reaction or nobody answers your question after a long time of waiting you can also write an email to user:mtwoll: mtwoll [at] gmail [dot] com. He will be happy to help you with things only he could help you with, but he would also be very unhappy if you bother him with things you could find out yourself or asks others for.

How can Wikians of the English Scratch-Wiki help us?

See: en:S:PORTAL#The international Scratch Wikis need your help

What should be my "first steps" after my account is created?

  1. Read our Help:Welcome-Tutorial (you can also read it at the English Wiki here en:Help:Welcome.
    1. Perhaps somebody of your language did already translate it, else it would be nice if you help to translate it later :)
    2. Follow the links at the button of every Help:Welcome-Tutorial-page until you are thru
    3. Now you know about:
      1. to Edit
      2. to Format
      3. to Link
      4. to Sign Posts on Talk Pages
      5. Wiki Organization
      6. to Independently Edit
  2. Login:
    1. you should have your username and your password from the account creation
    2. If you see your username at the right of the purple top-menubar you are already logged in
    3. If you see "log into the wiki" instead just click it to go to the login page, enter your username and password there and click "log in"
  3. Edit your userpage: Write something about you, your scratch career and your plans at the test-scratch-wiki so the community gets's to know you. Best you write it in English and additional in your language. If you don't know how to do it follow this explanation:
    1. Go to your userpage by clicking on the first entry of your user-menu (yes: that's where your username is at the top right in the purple menu bar)
    2. Click the "edit"-menupoint at the pencil-menu (yes: that's the blue pencil icon under your usermenu)
    3. Enter your text
    4. Press "show preview" button to see the result
    5. If you like the result, press the "save" button
  4. Read and answer your "Talk-Page".
    1. Go to your "Talk-Page" by using the second menu item from the user menu.
    2. If somebody left you a note please answer it, say "hello", "thanks" or ask a question to get in communication with the community.
    3. Use English language for communication with the whole community and the coaches. You can use your language if you found somebody who knows it but be aware that most other users will not understand it. Best use both languages your's and English. Don't be shy about your English: Most people here are "non native English speakers" :).

How can I see what's going on on the wiki?

Have a look at the Wiki-menu item RecentChanges (on the left side of the page). There you will find a (customizable) list of the latest edit's. See the RecentChanges of other Scratch-Wikis here:

You find the existing co-authors here, ordered by language: Test-Scratch-Wiki:Test_Scratch_Wikis

To find new co-authors here are some ideas that have been successful before. All Ideas that have to do with "meeting" should only be practiced by adult Scratchers.

When will "my wiki" be transferred from "test"-Wiki to a "real"-Wiki?

We started the Test-Scratch-Wiki because we have seen that it is very difficult for a new Scratch-Wiki to survive because it is not "strong enough". We will always suggest staying within the test-wiki until your wiki is "strong enough", because you will be alone with the people of your language after it has been made a Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis.

Please get in touch with a admin of the Test Wiki if you think your wiki is ready to stand free from the test wiki.

We'll review your work and if we think it is okay we will create a Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis. You will get accounts for it and will transfer all the content over for you.

What does a Wiki need to be "strong enough" to survive?

A wiki is "strong enough" if it has an active community and it has structures that would help it be active even if some authors leave. Therefore it needs:

When you think your wiki is "strong enough" to survive, feel free to contact user:Jvvg, user:ErnieParke or user:Mtwoll, who will help you to transfer the wiki of your language from a Test-Scratch-Wiki to a Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis.

A Community Portal is a wiki page where discussion about the wiki, in general, can take place. As such, a Community Portal is like a forum (but it's not the only place: there is also a discussion page for every article and every user-page) Examples:

Where do I get the best overview on what happens at all of the international Scratch-Wikis?

Wiki Watch is a link-page to look for and to help the international scratch wikis. You find there all admins and their role at the different Real Scratch Wikis. Also, you will find links to the most important pages of the international wikis, like "Recent Changes", "Active Authors" and so on. Be aware, it is easy to get lost in the international scratch wikis for people who can not read the language of the wiki. It's easier to jump from a link at Test-Scratch-Wiki:Watch to a special page.

Do I only have to translate or can I create my own independent content?

Each Scratch Wiki is independent so any article can be started in any wiki. You don't have to only translate but you can also create new articles. Also, you can create Templates and categories independent of the English Scratch-Wiki. For example, there are many articles that only exist in the German Scratch Wiki and even articles that were translated from German to English. So: Be innovative ;-)

Does it make sense to copy-translate Articles from the English Scratch-Wiki?

Because the English Wiki has over 1000 Articles and exists since 2008 there is a good chance that there is already a proper English article about most Scratch-Related subjects that could help you to get a start with your article in your language about that subject. You can Interwiki-Link this Article to your new article so it's easy to jump there. You also can copy the English text to make use of it's format and templates (most English templates and pictures have been copied here, so this could work very easy). Don't copy too much English text without translating it immediately else the wiki of your language will get a mess.

About Wiki-Technology

Where do I find a basic introduction to editing the wiki?

This set of help articles should also be translated and be a part of the wiki of any languages. If it is not translated into your language please feel free to start ;-)

What are Talk-Pages and how do I use it?

Every wiki page has an associated talk page which can be used for discussion and communicating with other users. Talk pages can be accessed by clicking the “discussion” tab at the top of the page. Simply edit the page as normal to add your comment.

A talk page is actually very similar to any other wiki page, but it is in the “Talk” namespace, to keep it separate from the articles in the “(Main)” namespace (See #What is a "Namespace"?). As with any wiki page, you can edit it, link to it, and view the editing history.

A special Talk-Pages are the Community Portal where the wiki-community has their general discussions and the user-Talkpage that every wiki author has for personal communication.

see: en:Help:Talk_Page

What is a Template?

Templates are very important to make Wikis look pretty and consistent without having too much edit trouble. Every wiki should use templates to avoid double and more typing-work: With templates, you only have to edit things at one places, even if they are used hundreds of times at different places at the wiki. So it's worth to make it perfect at that place to have it perfect everywhere: Therefore graphical things and things that need HTML-Editing are mostly created in templates like this example-batches here:

Normally templates should have names in the language of the wiki (see this example-list in the German DACH Scratch Wiki). To make a good and easy start here, we transferred the templates of the English Scratch-Wiki here (+ also the pictures). So it is possible to just copy an article from the English Scratch-Wiki here and it will be displayed properly with all templates (+pictures...). Later, when Test-Scratch-Wiki:Test_Scratch_Wikis become Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis its community can decide, if they want to translate also the template-names to their language, dependent if they have community-members with that know-how who wants to do this work: Templates can be easy as the ones above, but they also can get very complex so it is like coding to create and maintain them: But don't get worried for the first you only have to use the existing templates here and you can see how to use it, by just copying articles form the English Scratch-Wiki here and than translate it to your language.

If you need additional templates, please name them this way: Template:LANGUAGEPREFIX/TEMPLATENAME. Replace LANGUAGEPREFIX with the adequate prefix for your language. You can look it up at [[]]. Replace TEMPLATENAME with a descriptive, simple name for your template.

Example: to create a template named "topic" in English you would create "Template:Eng/Topic".

All Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis beside EN: and DE: have a big problem with templates, because they all started with zero (see list-links below). This template-matter and our solution to it (above) is one of the problems we want to solve with Test-Scratch-Wiki:Test_Scratch_Wikis.

see also:

What is a Category?

Categories helps to structure the Wiki and to find things that belong together.

Find out more at: en:Help:Categories

What is a Wiki-Skin?

The "Wiki-Skin" provides the wiki with a special "look and feel" and is partly language dependent, so it must be translated. The Wiki-Skin Determines the Header, Footer an Side-Bars of the wiki as well as the colors and Typographie. It consists of a set of files text and image files (normal transported in a ZIP-File) that has to be installed "inside" the wiki (copied at the File-Server where the wiki runs, you need FTP Admin rights to do that, Wiki-Admin rights are not enough). You can download the Skin from Github in the English version, translated it locally and send it to the Sysop-Admin who can install it.

see:

What is the "Block Plugin"?

The Block Plugin, also known as scratchblocks2, is a plugin for the Scratch Wikis and Scratch forums that allows script images to be constructed through text that is parsed and rendered. It saves lot's of work because you dont have to sceenshot and upload Block-Pictures to show them at the wiki, but you just have to type in the block-Names.You can try playing around with the plugin on the test page.

see: en:Block Plugin

Example:

define dance (speed) set [dist v] to ((speed) * (distance to [mouse-pointer v])) repeat until <(timer) > [10]> move (dist) steps play note (42) for (0.5) beats say [Wow! Scratch 2.0 scripts on the Wiki!] end

What is a "Namespace"?

In the Test-Scratch-Wiki the most important usage of namespaces is to distinct the languages. So e.G. the prefix "Ita:" in http://test.scratch-wiki.info/wiki/**Ita:**Test_Scratch_Wiki_Home means, that this is an article of the Italian Test-Wiki. The Prefixes are named after ISO 639-2 codes for languages.

In generals Pages on a MediaWiki wiki are grouped into collections called "namespaces", which differentiate between the purpose of the pages at a high level.

Please note that you do not need to translate namespaces to your language. They are automated by the system and can be changed when you transfer to the real wiki.

Learn more about Namespaces at: en:Help:Namespaces

How does the account request system work?

The system works like this:

  1. A user submits an account request with their email and wanted username
  2. A confirmation email is sent to the email they provided
  3. Once the email is confirmed, all users with the confirmaccount permission (i.e. admins and bcrats) will see "there is a user with a confirmed email who wants to join" at the top of the recent changes
  4. An admin looks at the account request
    • If it looks good:
      1. The admin accepts the request
      2. An email is sent to the email address saying "your account has been confirmed" and providing a temporary password
      3. The user logs in with that username and password, and is required to change their password
      4. The new user is now accepted!
    • If it needs work:
      1. The admin "hold"s the request
      2. An email is sent to the email address saying "your request was put on hold, here's why" and showing the reason the admin held the request
      3. The user can respond via email and the admins should be able to see the response
      4. The admin re-reviews it and then we go to "accept" or "reject"
    • If it cannot be improved:
      1. The admin rejects the request
      2. An email is sent to the email address saying "your request has been rejected, here's why" and showing the reason the admin rejected it
      3. The user can send another request in about 2 weeks

Additional infos

  1. Specially at the Test-Scratch-Wiki:Real_Scratch_Wikis their admins seems not to know how the accounting system works in spite of they should be responsible for creating new user accounts.
  2. As there are some actions to be done to approve new accounts if you are an admin we have some Snippets here that can be "copy & pasted"
  3. There could be more automation to approve accounts faster:
    1. Link to the Scratch-Profile, so you could look up info's about the applying Scratcher with one click
    2. Suggestion (editable) for a user talk page tesx (comment) (like in Snippets, will be transferred as first entry to the new users talk page)
    3. Suggestion (editable) for a user-page-text (like in Snippets, in the actual version the user-page is created but empty
    4. Suggestion (editable) for a text that will be automatically posted at the profile of the applying Scratcher

See:

You only have to put

Example for the "In other languages"-Menu

[["languageID":"Name of the article in that wiki"]]

anywehre in the source-text of your article (normaly at the end of the source text)

For example there are folowing Interwiki-Links at the end of the source-text of the Homepage of the English Scratch Wkii (see source-text of :en:Scratch_Wiki_Home):

[[de:Hauptseite]]

[[fr:Accueil]]

[[hu:Kezdőlap]]

[[id:Halaman_Utama]]

[[ja:メインページ]]

[[nl:Hoofdpagina]]

[[ru:Заглавная страница]]

This is the reason for the Interwiki-Links at "In other Language"-Menu at the left of the Article-Area at the homepage.

An other Example

There are folowing Interwiki-Links at the end of the source-text of the Wenn Grüne Flagge angeklickt (Block)-Artikel in the german language Scratch Wiki. (see source-text of :de:Wenn_Grüne_Flagge_angeklickt_(Block)):

[[en:When Green Flag Clicked (block)]]

[[id:ketika bendera hijau diklik (balok)]]

[[ru:Когда зелёный флаг нажат (блок)]]

[[ja:緑の旗がクリックされたとき (ブロック)]]

This is the reason for the Interwiki-Links at "In other Language"-Menu at the left of the Article-Area at de:Wenn_Grüne_Flagge_angeklickt_(Block).

Linking other Scratch-Wikis inside an Article

If you put a colon in front of the LanguageID, you get a link to the Article of the other Wiki inside the WIki-Text, instead of a Interwiki-Link at the "In other Language"-Menu. (Example like above en:Scratch_Wiki_Home).

If you just want to link to the hompages of an other wiki you don't need to use the Name for "Homepage" in that language, you can just use the LanguageID like de:,fr:,hu:,id:,ja:,nl:,ru:. So they shortest way to say "They are doing interresting stuff in [[de:Hauptseite|the German Scratch Wiki]]" would be just to write "they are doing interesting stuff in de:" (wiki-source-code [[:de:]].)

Linking all Articles of all Scratch-Wikis.

There is still much work to do with Interwiki, see:

Can a Bot do Interwiki-Linking better?

We are planing to have an interwiki-bot that does all the implicit-links (than our international authors only would need to put a link to the english-articles in their articles, and all other Interwiki-link could be done by the bot, because it's implicit). They have such a bot in WIkipedia that we could use for the Scratch-Wiki-Family.

About Wiki-Pages you should create first

Which Wiki-Pages should I start with and how?

To get used to it you could try to translate or create some short articles of your choice, but to get the wiki "ready to start" there are some pages that are really essential.

How do I create the "Scratch Wiki Home Page"?

DACH-Scratch-Wiki-Frontpage-Features at 2016-1-2.png

This page (also called Front Page, Main Page or Start Page) is the most viewed page in every wiki. So it should exist as early as possible and look proper. But it is not the easiest page to build at a Scratch-Wiki, because it's using some templates and sub-pages. Have a look at that page at three Scratch-Wikis:

Find detailed info about making the homepage here: Eng:Scratch Wiki Home/translate

How do I create the "Help Pages"?

You can try to translate the English Help Pages - they will let you see what the help pages should look like.

Simply create Project talk:Community Portal on your wiki, with some guidelines about how to correctly post, and you should be good!

How do I create the "Category Pages"?

Category pages are located in the "Category:" namespace. When you link to a category on a page, like this:

[[Category:(category name)]]]

it will add the page to that category - the title will appear on the category page, and the bottom of the page will show that the page is in that category.

To create a category, simply create Category:Category_name on your wiki. To fill it up, just add pages into it.

How do I create the "List of all Scratch Blocks Page"?

You can try translating the Blocks page on the English wiki - for the list, see the section titled "List of Blocks"

How do I create the "Scratch Blocks Pages"?

Again, you can translate the pages on the English Scratch Wiki, e.g. translate en:Move () Steps (block) for the

move () steps

block.

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