Forum

Index of Articles Posted

Immigration

Setting Immigration Quotas - the Mystery of the Wages

Democrat Platform on immigration

Republican Platform on immigration

Gospel Light turned off by Christians

Abortion

Template

Ways you can contribute

Your contribution is welcome. Sign your contribution with 4 tildes (~~~~).

The simplest way to contribute is on the "Discussion" page, which is like a place to leave comments. That page is also appropriate if your point is general, and not directed to any specific point on this page.

To clarify something on this page, you may edit the text directly to correct simple errors like typos or even awkward grammar, or even different word choices that strengthen the flow of thought. You needn't sign where your contribution does not change the meaning.

To dispute or add up to a paragraph, start a new indented paragraph (insert colon at beginning) after the point about which you have something to say. Please begin your paragraph with a word after the colon describing the nature of your interaction. Examples: "Clarification", "Correction", "Corroboration", "Criticism", "Counterpoint", "Consideration", "Friendly Amendment", "Argument", "Rebuttal", "Additional point", "More Evidence".

To add much more than a paragraph, make a new subsection by putting 4 equals signs on either side of your heading. You could use a word like those just suggested, followed by a colon or dash, and a headline that describes your point. For sample verbiage and codes to help you do this, that you can copy, paste, and adapt, see Template.

You can add a whole new article. You can make your paragraph or section a summary of a different article, with a link to it. To create a new article on this website, type your article headline in "search", click "search", and an empty page ready for you to fill appears with your headline. Or type your headline (case sensitive) in the list at The Forum. When you click "save page", your headline will become active. Click it and the empty page with your headline will appear.

Advantages of mirror articles. If you post articles elsewhere, you can "mirror" them here too, and link each article to its mirror. Overdoing this will trigger penalties from search engines. But the legitimate reason here is that the two kinds of formats complement each other: a blog post preserves the original version, while the Wiki invites more reader feedback where quality is encouraged by (1) the prohibition of ad hominem attacks, (2) the possibility of very specific feedback by posting it next to the subject matter referred to, and (3) the interaction with other readers, with the option of keeping contributions distinct or of merging comments to eliminate redundancy, or both.

How to use the software

Basics: To create a new article, go to The Forum#Index of Articles Posted, click "Edit", type your title in the list at the bottom, and surround it with double brackets. Click "Save" at the bottom; then your title will become clickable. Click on it, and a new blank page with that title will appear, ready for you to write. Easier way: to create a new article without listing it on this page, just type your article title in the search box and click "search".

To separate paragraphs, put a space between them.

If you would like this font for your paragraph, 
in this kind of a highlighted box,
put a space at the beginning of it. 
But you have to break up your paragraph
into short lines with a space starting each line
because otherwise your words will run off the screen. They won't "wrap". Which is a real bummer if you have something very important to say which you put off to the very end. 

To indent a paragraph about 3 spaces, put a colon (:) at the beginning. The whole paragraph will be indented; you don't have to break it up into short lines.

To indent both the left and right sides of a paragraph about 7 spaces, put <blockquote> at the beginning of the paragraph and </blockquote> at the end.

To make symbols appear which normally are part of wiki formatting code, such as angle brackets (<>) or regular brackets ([]), surround the symbols with <nowiki>__</nowiki>

To sign your contribution, type 4 "tildes". (~~~~)Those are the squiggles (~) in the upper left of your keyboard. When you click "save", your name, state, and political party will be posted.

Copying and pasting Wordpress articles. If you are copying lots of text, or a whole article, from another post, some html will work here but not all. What will not, will show up as garbage text which you will have to delete.

For example, <b>html code for "bold"</b> works in wiki software as well as the preferred ''' on each side of what you want in bold. The same goes for <i>html code for "italics"</i> instead of the preferred '' on either side, and <H1>html code for "Heading"</H1> instead of the preferred equals signs on either side. (No guarantees the html will still work when the wiki software is updated.) Outbound links in html don't work, however.

But if you copy and paste "rich text" - that is, where the codes don't appear but the formatting and links all look great, none of the formatting or links will transfer; just the plain text. The icons that appear at the top of your edit space when you click "edit" will help you reconstruct them.

More about the icons that appear when you edit

Internal link - 3rd icon from left: To link to any article on this site, type the title of that article and either enclose it with double brackets or highlight it and click the "Internal Link" icon. The link is case sensitive, so capitalize the way the article title reads. To link to a section within the article, place a hashtag (#) after the headline title and type the su. bheading title after the hashtag. Copy whatever spaces are between the words of either title, but don't put a space on either side of the hashtag.

External Link To link to any other web page, type the word(s) you want the link on, highlight it or them, and click the globe icon, 4th from left. In the box that appears, type the complete web address (URL) including the http://... To do the same thing manually, type a left bracket, then the web address, a space, the words you want linked, and then a right bracket. If you just type the URL (web address), including the http://, that will activate the link, if you don't need another word or phrase linked.

COLOR!

To make a word have colour, use: <span style="color:hex triplet or colour name">text</span>

Examples:

• <span style="color:red">red writing</span> shows as red writing
• <span style="color:#0f0">green writing</span> shows as green writing
• <span style="color:#0000FF">blue writing</span> shows as blue writing

More information.

More tools:

Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.