Community Central:Interwiki Integration

This program is an effort to increase the awareness of wiki readers and editors regarding other wikis they may be interested in. It attempts to accomplish this by increasing the number of links between wikis.

If one wiki A gets new members, then the probability that other wikis (and in turn A itself) will grow increases in proportion to the integration between those wikis. Perhaps A will reach critical mass sooner and the neighboring wikis will benefit from its lively community. Or maybe some of those new members are capable of more enthusiasm for the subject of another wiki B; then B will reach critical mass sooner and A will benefit from that. Without cooperation, the new members are more likely to forget about wikis altogether, in which case neither A nor B benefits.

Components are simply suggestions, and members are encouraged to aid each other in implementing them.

Project:WikiNode
The WikiNodesProject is incorporated as the core because it is a basic, centralized declaration of any participating wiki's neighbors, and because it has already gained momentum. The WikiNode will likely be broader than the new article text (below).

MediaWiki:Newarticletext
Any given member wiki will likely have several neighbors whose topics the member wiki is somewhat interested in. MediaWiki:Newarticletext is displayed above the text area when a new article is being created, so the new article's name should be listed there for the convenience and education of editors. As the list should not occupy several lines, a table with two rows is the current convention. Examples are available at the Linux Wiki and the JavaScript Wiki (which is experimenting with a member-editable Template:Newarticletext).

Main page
User:Ose, as administrator of the Software Wiki, suggested that we also include links to our neighbors on the main page. To conserve screen real-estate, the 3-5 nearest neighbors could be displayed up front with a "more..." link in case we piqued the reader's interest. This has the benefit of essentially bringing the WikiNode, which was in a backroom closet relative to the ordinary user, up to the front.

Content links
This is the most important component. Whenever a topic is mentioned which is also addressed by a member wiki, the mention should be linked to the member wiki instead of a super-wiki, such as Wikipedia (although the External links section may also link to such).

Different aspects of the topic may be addressed by several member wikis, according to the stated purpose of each. In this case, each article should link to its parent nexus (the next most specific member's article with useful content) from its main content. Each nexus will in turn link to its children - preferably from its main content, but an External links reference is acceptable. These nexuses will usually only form two levels (excluding super-wikis).

If a member expects to host a nexus for a certain topic, it may make a pseudo-nexus (typically a soft redirect) - a placeholder article for the sole initial purpose of linking to its parent nexus. Such an article should be filled in with useful content as soon as possible; until this is accomplished, members will not likely link to pseudo-nexuses.

An illustration of the above terms follows.



Depending on how much a member links to its neighbors, it may wish to set up linking templates (especially for Wikipedia) for convenience. In addition to the obvious ergonomic value, these have the benefit of automatically categorizing articles which link to other wikis at Special:WhatLinksHere.

Current members
This is an exhaustive list of the program's current membership. (See below to join.)
 * JavaScript Wiki
 * Programmer's Wiki
 * Linux Wiki

Prospective members
To join the program, simply edit your wiki's name in above according to the pattern already established. You will be expected to incorporate the above components in your wiki; however, the community is ready to help. Please also Watch this page to be involved in discussion of the program.