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Opus Editing - A Guide. (1 Viewer)

Steve

Member
Staff member
United Kingdom
Dear all,

We have spent a few weeks looking at some problems with the Opus, but we think we are about ready to get more people editing and adding to it in ernest.

If you're still not sure 'what' the opus is, you might want to take a look here.

Firstly, it is important to realise that EVERY logged in member can edit pages in the Opus! We'd love to see everyone getting involved and so please consider this as a request for all members to pick a bird (or a few!) and add something to it. Some of you might want to upload extra photos for birds - for example the female or male of the species, juveniles, etc. Others may just want to add some factual text - for example the distribution, identification, differences in gender, call, diet, habitat, etc.

DON'T WORRY about making mistakes - it's impossible to 'break' the opus, as changes can always be undone or tidied up by another member. If you can't get something to work, or are unsure about an entry, click the 'discussion' tab and ask for help!

PLEASE NOTE that the Opus is not a place to post questions or 'insignificant' sightings - "I saw this in my Garden" for example would not be suited for the Opus, although "This bird can often be seen at (reserve name)" may be appropriate. Information posted should be FACTUAL and have a NEUTRAL POINT OF VIEW.

Also, when we took all the information across from the old database, some comments came across that aren't really needed any more (like "I saw this in my Garden!") - these can be deleted as you go along!

Adding Text & Links

When adding or editing text, make sure that all places, birds, countries, etc are surrounded by [[ and ]]. For example, "This bird is closely related to the [[other bird]], which is more common in [[country]]." This will turn the text into a link to the entry about that place, bird, country etc. As a general rule, any word that is used that could one day become an entry in it's own right should be linked (usually only the first time it occurs).

Links which are BLUE will take you to pages which do exist; links which are ORANGE means that the page has not yet been created, and clicking it will take you directly to the editing screen.

For information on using other formatting, such as headings, bold text, italics, etc, see the page on formatting by clicking here.

If you want to test editing a page, use the 'sandbox' which can be found here.

Adding Photographs

See this section in the Opus Help for more information on adding photographs

Every Little Bit Helps

If you're not sure where to start, you can use the links below to find what we call 'stubs' - pages which don't yet have any text or information on them and 'Missing Images' - entries which don't yet have a photo.
There are also a few pages which have a problem with text 'overflowing' the right side of the page - this is caused by some stray spaces which came across when we moved from the old database. If you happen to come across one of these, you can find out how to remove it by clicking here.

Adding a new Bird
You can use the page below to create a 'bird' page, which will automatically include the standard 'bird' template. We are working on a template for locations and equipment.

http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Help:CreatePage

Opus Editors

We are still looking for a small team to 'co-ordinate' the Opus, ensuring that it stays well organised and that, for example, pages are in the same sort of format. We've already heard from a few people (who we'll be in touch with soon), but there are still a few places for those that want to get involved - please PM or e-mail me if you are interested.

We could of course make this the longest thread ever, with people adding the name of the bird, location or equipment that they have edited to this thread! We could then all see what has been done on the forum as well as on the 'recent changes' page.

Please ask any questions in this thread and we'll do our best to answer them.

Steve
 
Would it (for example )be beneficial to upload a photo I have just taken of a Male and Female Black headed bunting "together" in the same shot??
 
Hi Bob,
Sounds o.k. to me as it would be a useful comparison but, as with all contributions to opus, there's a chance it could be revised by someone in the future if it's felt that a better alternative is available.
cheers,
Andy
 
I've had a tentative go at starting a page on India - sorry if any Indians read this! I'd like to know how you deal with the plurals of bird names... I tried writing [[painted stork]]s but the whole of 'painted storks' was lit up as a link.
Also, is there a standard list of bird names. I realise that I have created a link to, for example, magpie-robin that may be listed as Oriental magpie robin.
 
Hi Ken,
Maybe it's me, but surely you can use the singular in almost every case with a bird species? I saw good numbers of painted stork today .... that seems ok to my ears.

Birdforum has used Sibley Monroe names for 4 or so years, and I think we'll be sticking to that for the forseeable future..so you can take the species names in opus as a yardstick to go by.

cheers,
Andy
 
I've had a tentative go at starting a page on India - sorry if any Indians read this! I'd like to know how you deal with the plurals of bird names... I tried writing [[painted stork]]s but the whole of 'painted storks' was lit up as a link.
Also, is there a standard list of bird names. I realise that I have created a link to, for example, magpie-robin that may be listed as Oriental magpie robin.

Hi Surreybirder - that seems to work OK, the link is "painted stork", the 's' is outside the link but shows as a complete word.

I've been editing a few entries and missed one which puzzled me for a while

D
 
Thanks for your replies, Andy and Delia. For some reason I didn't get any notification, but I found them anyway. Personally, I don't like the 'I saw six blackbird and four robin in my garden' approach. But each to his own.
Ken
 
Best way to do that is [[painted stork|painted storks]] - the second set of text (after the |) is the text 'displayed' in the page - the first set of text is the destination page.
 
Ah - the technician speaks! It's amazing what you can do when you know how. I'll make the changes and hopefully everyone will be happy!
Ken
PS Works like a charm! :t:
 
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One thing about Birdforum (including Opus) editing that is a small irritant: could you please add the possibility of deleting the next word using Ctrl-Delete? I have no idea how difficult it would turn out to be, but if implemented would make my life easier.

thanks
Niels
 
One thing about Birdforum (including Opus) editing that is a small irritant: could you please add the possibility of deleting the next word using Ctrl-Delete? I have no idea how difficult it would turn out to be, but if implemented would make my life easier.

thanks
Niels

I think that's just in the system, not much we can do about that... unless Ollie knows different.
 
Best way to do that is [[painted stork|painted storks]] - the second set of text (after the |) is the text 'displayed' in the page - the first set of text is the destination page.

Ollie would this be a 'global thing' so that every instance of the name in Opus is directed to the destination page or is it just for the page being edited?
 
Ollie would this be a 'global thing' so that every instance of the name in Opus is directed to the destination page or is it just for the page being edited?

No, it's just like providing alternative text, in the same way some people write 'you can see more about my photos here' in a post - the 'here' is instead of the whole URL.

To make all references to 'painted storks' go to 'painted stork', you would just need to create a redirect... see this thread for more info....

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=85844
 
Trouble is there are a lot of 'bad' titles such as this one

http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Corazón_del_Bosque_Ecological_Park(Sololá)

and that's not the worst one I've come across LOL.

Not knowing the site, I don't know what the correct spelling is anyway!

Is there a way to edit the title?

D

In that case I'd suggest moving the whole page to a new page. This can be done by clicking "move" (right next to "history") and following the instructions. Above page evidently got messed up by the ´ (not sure about the english name), as the correct is Corazón del Bosque Ecological Park (Sololá).

Anyway, it's probably a good idea to stay away from é, õ, ä and alike in the titles of the pages, as the system evidently isn't too pleased about them.
 
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Thanks Rasmus

I'll pluck up the courage and have a go shortly

D
 
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