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Short version of how to "create account" (register) and then contribute

1. Click "Create Account - so you can contribute" and fill in your "RealName", password, email, abbreviated party and state, click "create your account".

2. Find the email sent to you by SaveTheWorld. Click the link in it. A screen will say "Congratulations...!"

3. Start editing.

If something doesn't work, please contact me, Dave Leach, at Biblewizard at) gmail.com or DaveLeach (at Saltshaker.US. Needed: volunteer computer wizard.

RESOURCES

Rules are designed to facilitate productive dialog and limit hostility. Talk Tips are suggestions how to make your contributions persuasive. The Forum#How to use the software shows a few cool things you can do with a little bit of code. Template has words and codes you can copy and paste. The Forum#Ways you can contribute shows ways you can contribute: from the simplest - entering a comment on the "discussion" page, to adding corrections, more evidence, argument, etc to main pages, to starting new articles.

Detailed version of how to register ("create account") and then contribute

Here you will learn how to create your account, and how to make the simplest type of contribution - on the "discussion" page of any article. (See "Resources" above for links to more advanced ways to contribute.)

Creating your account

1. In the upper right of screen at www.talk.saltshaker.us/savetheworld, click "Create account - so you can contribute".

2. At "RealName(WithoutSpaces)" type your real first and last name without spaces. Example: JoeShucks. Optional: You can add a middle name or nickname. Example: JoeCornShucks. Capitalization is optional.

If your life or the lives of your relatives would be at risk from posting your ideas with your real name, 
you may enter another name followed by the number sign #. But read the warning, and understand the reasons 
for real names explained at SaveTheWorld:FAQ#Why do we have to register with real names and party affiliation? 

3. Enter a password and your email address. (Neither will be posted publicly.)

4. At "Your Political Party & State" (or country) enter the single letter abbreviation of the political party on your voter registration card, and the two-letter abbreviation of your state or country. Example: "I-IA" for "Independent from Iowa". Or "N-SD" for Non-U.S. citizen from Sudan". If you are an adult U.S. citizen who has not registered to vote, register to vote! Optional: add a word or phrase summarizing your worldview. This will be public when you sign your contributions with 4 tildes (~~~~) - the squiggle in the upper left of your keyboard.

5. Click "Create your account" (If you later change something, remember to click "save" at the bottom.)

6. The screen now says "Welcome, JoeShucks! A confirmation code was sent to your email address. This code is not required to log in, but you will need to provide it before enabling any email-based features in the wiki. Your account has been created. You can change your SaveTheWorld preferences if you wish...."

7. Find the email you have just received from the software. Click the first link in it. That opens up a screen in your browser (the program with which you surf the internet) that will congratulate you. Print out that screen, mount it in an expensive frame, and hang it next to the picture of your mother. Now you are able to edit.

(Double check: go to "preferences" and scroll down. If your email has been confirmed, this line will appear: "Email confirmation: Your email address was confirmed on _____ (date)."

Getting a second chance to confirm your email

What if you entered your email incorrectly, so that the confirmation email never arrives, or or you lose, or need to change it? Or what if you put off clicking on it for a week, perhaps because you thought creating your account was all that was needed, so that the confirmation link expires? You need a Second Chance to validate your email. Here is how to get it.

At least you have created an account. So log in, click "preferences" in the upper right of the screen, and scroll down to check the email address you entered. Here is where you can double check whether you had entered your email correctly. It lets you enter a different email, if you have another one and that is what you want to do.

It also invites you to "confirm email address". When you do, this message comes up:

"Confirm email address - A confirmation code has already been emailed to you; if you recently created your account, you may wish to wait a few minutes for it to arrive before trying to request a new code. SaveTheWorld requires that you validate your email address before using email features. Activate the button below to send a confirmation mail to your address. The mail will include a link containing a code; load the link in your browser to confirm that your email address is valid."

The box below that message says "Mail a confirmation code". Click that and another email will come to you.

Contributing

Sign your name. At the end of whatever you contribute, type four tildes (~~~~).

Exception: if yours is a "minor edit" that doesn't add new information or change any meaning, such as correcting a typo, or grammar, or simplifying an awkward train of thought, you needn't sign your name to it.

Adding a Comment on the "Discussion" Page

The simplest, most familiar way to contribute is like posting a "comment" after an ordinary article or blog.

For each article, notice the tabs at the top that say, at the upper left, "Page...Discussion". Click the "Discussion" tab. Then click the "Edit" tab to the right. A bunch of weird codes will appear with the text. Don't fear them. They are your slaves.

To respond to an existing comment

Put a line across the page (with four dashes) before and after your response. Sign your response. If your response is much more than 20 words, it will help if you begin with a short headline - a few words summarizing your point. Make it bold by putting three apostrophes on either side of it. (''')

To begin a new comment (on a new subject; that is, not a response to an existing comment)

Click the word "edit" to the right of the headline of the comment that you want your comment to follow. Notice how many equals signs are on either side of the headline. At the end of the edit screen that has opened for you, type the same number of equals signs (===), then your headline summarizing your key point, then, again, the same number of equals signs.

Type your comment, then sign it with four tildes (~~~~).

Adding information, correction, argument, or opinion to the main page

Separate your contribution from the existing article with a line across the page before and after your contribution. A line across the page is created by typing four dashes (----) (not underlines - ____).

If you have very much to say, you can begin with a headline summarizing your key point. To make it "bold", select it and click the "B" icon at the left of the icons at the top left of the "edit" screen.

Begin with a word that characterizes the type of contribution you are making, such as "Correction", "Clarification", "Addition", "Argument", followed by a separator like a dash or colon.

Sign your contribution with four tildes (~~~~).

If you think your contribution needs its own entry in the index that appears at the beginning of the article, then instead of separating your comment with a line across the page before and after your contribution, separate it by putting equals signs on either side of your heading. You will need to figure out how many equals signs are needed to make your contribution appear where you want it in the index.

More formatting tips

1. Separate paragraphs by pressing "enter" twice. This will NOT cause your comment to post as it does in many other places.

2. When you are finished, scroll down and click "preview" at the lower middle tab. This will show you what your contribution will look like. This lets you double check if you have entered the code correctly and if you said what you meant.

3. The four dashes (----) turns into a horizontal line across the page, separating your comment from what came previously.

4. The four tildes (~~~~) turns into your name, party, state, date, and time.

5. The equals signs on either side of your headline turns into a bold headline with a horizontal line under it. It also appears magically in a "comments" box once there are three headlines.

6. When everything looks right, click the "save" tab to the left of the "preview" tab.

WHY are contributor's names REQUIRED here, which is FORBIDDEN at Wikipedia?!!

One goal of this wiki is the opposite of Wikipedia's goal.

There, the identities of contributors must never be part of the article. Here, they must always be part of the article!

Their goal is a pretense of objectivity in reporting what newsmakers and "mainstream" sources claim, untainted by the personal bias of contributors. Which by deliberate policy shuts out new ideas, solutions not already on the mainstream table, and reasoning between contributors who disagree. Which is precisely our goal here.

So how can we contribute in a way that leaves a clear record of who said what, without making articles so cluttered they are unreadable?

We may have to try a few things.

OPTIONAL: Correcting a comment after you post it: the problem, and the opportunity

5. Another thing you can do here that you can't do with ordinary comments software, is change a comment after you have posted it. This creates the possibility of a small problem and a tremendous opportunity.

The small problem is that if you do it after someone else has already responded to what you are now changing, it could cause the response to not make sense. To eliminate that problem, please add, after or with your change, something like "(My comment used to say....)" In other words, just provide enough explanation so that the response to what you had said before can make sense.

The tremendous opportunity over traditional "comments" opportunities is that should one person in a comment stream persuade another, the one persuaded can more easily erase from his record all but a trace of what he now renounces. Consensus requires a lot of this, and the survival of civilization depends on more consensus.

Mind your own business

6. You will notice that when you are on the "edit" page, you have the power to edit other people's work. That doesn't mean you have the authority, any more than the power to grab candy off the store shelf without paying for it doesn't give you the authority to do it without unwelcome consequences.

On the discussion page you are authorized to make only three kinds of changes to the contributions of others: (1) fix obvious typos, (2) where grammar is very hard to understand (perhaps because the author's main language is not English) and you are sure what the author meant, you can insert corrected grammar [in brackets] after the poor grammar, and (3) if someone hits you with a "personal attack", you can grey it out. See Rules for how and when to do it.