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MSDN Wiki
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MSDN Wiki
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What is MSDN Wiki?
MSDN Wiki provides an infrastructure for users to comment, edit, and add content to
the Visual Studio 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0 online documentation.
What Microsoft content is included on the MSDN Wiki beta site?
The site includes the English version of the Visual Studio 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0 documentation. In addition, it includes versions of these topics that are machine translated into Brazilian Portuguese.
How is this different
from the content on msdn2.microsoft.com?
MSDN Wiki pulls its Microsoft content from the same database used by MSDN, so the
Microsoft content you see on the MSDN Wiki site is the same as what is available on
MSDN2. With the MSDN Wiki site we are
experimenting with ways we can integrate community contributions into the Microsoft
content.
Will other languages be included in the future?
Within the next year we plan to add MSDN Wiki functionality to the Japanese, French,
German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese documentation.
Will content I add during the beta period be carried over to the RTW version of the site?
Yes!
Who can contribute to this site?
Anyone can register for the site by signing in with a Microsoft Passport or Windows Live ID and agreeing to the site terms of use and the participant code of conduct. Anyone who is registered and signed in to the site can create new Community Content and edit existing community content.
Which of my information can be viewed by others?
After you register, other site users can view a profile page that shows your display
name, the date you joined the site, the data you were last active on the site, and
statistics about your contributions.
The profile page also links to your site contributions.
What is my display name used for?
Your display name is listed in association with each contribution you make on the
site. Site users can click on your
display name to view your profile page.
Are there any restrictions on the display names?
You cannot use angle brackets, square brackets, parentheses, or slashes (< >
[ ] ( ) / \) in your display name. The profile and legal terms page will generate
an error if you attempt to submit a password that contains any of these characters. Please stick to alpha-numeric characters,
spaces, and hyphens (-) in your display name.
How can I change my display name?
The MSDN Wiki site uses the display name listed in your Microsoft.com profile. We don’t provide the ability to change the display name from our site right now, but you can change it by editing your profile from another Microsoft.com property, for example http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/.
What kind of content should I add to the Community Content section?
Add code examples and brief, useful pieces of information. Don’t ask questions or report bugs in the Community Content section. Use the Community Content section to display consensus information. Don’t add your opinions or carry on long discussions here.
When should I create a new block, and when should I edit existing blocks?
If your contribution is related to content that already exists in the Community Content section, add it to the existing block, rather than creating a new block. If you are contributing information about a completely new subject area, add it in a new block. Code examples should almost always be listed in separate blocks.
What should I do if I see questions in the Community Content section?
Edit the content to remove the question. Leave a note for the contributor suggesting that he or she post questions to the MSDN forums (http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn) rather than in the community content.
What should I do if I see bugs reported in the Community Content section?
It’s fine to note relevant documentation
or product bugs in the Community Content section; however, Microsoft people won’t
be reviewing the community content to gather bug reports.
To ensure that the bug is received by the proper team at Microsoft, you should
suggest that the contributor file a bug in the
What should I do if I see inappropriate content in the Community Content section?
First, edit the block to remove the inappropriate content! Then e-mail wikifdbk@microsoft.com and report the inappropriate content.
How long will I have to wait before I can view my changes in the Community Content section?
Changes are available for viewing immediately after you make them. To view new blocks that you create or edits that you make to existing blocks, just refresh the page when you return to it.
How are blocks ordered in the Community Content section?
Blocks that have changed most recently are at the top of the section. When you edit a block, it is promoted to the top of the section.
What restrictions are placed on the editor?
We restrict the styles and colors of text you can use in the editor in an effort to standardize the look of the community content and make it easier to scan. Three styles, normal, code, and header, are available through the Paragraph button in the editor toolbar. We recommend that you style all code examples as code (this will keep the lines from wrapping) and use the normal style for most other text.
Why did I receive an error message when I attempted to save changes?
Right now, we don't provide customized error messages (we're planning to add these soon!), so there are several reasons you might see the "An error occurred and your edits could not be saved" error message. The most common is that you attempted to post content to the database that is a duplicate of other content that was recently posted. Right now we have a 15 minute restriction on duplicate content. This means that if you edit a block, save it, and attempt to save another block less than 15 minutes later that contains the same content as your first block, you will receive an error when you try to save the second block.
Are there any restrictions on the length of community content blocks?
Block subjects must be 150 characters or less, and block content must be 10,000 characters or less.
How can I add links to my block?
You can add links to all community content blocks, however you cannot add alternate link text. If you enter a URL into the editor (for example, http://msdnwiki.microsoft.com) into the editor it will automatically be converted to a link when you save your edit. Your URL must be prefaced with http:// or must begin with www.
What is the legal framework for the Community Content?
We are making all community contributions available to the public under broad, permissive licenses. The textual contributions will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. We chose a Creative Commons license because these licenses are well-designed and widely accepted by the community, and we chose this particular “non-commercial” version based on community feedback that contributors would want to reserve the right to commercially exploit their content.
The sample code contributions will be licensed under the Microsoft Permissive License. We chose this license because we feel it strikes the right balance of granting broad rights and setting minimal obligations for use of sample code.
We have not asked for ownership of contributions, as is often the case for collaborative development projects, but we do ask contributors to grant us a broad license to their contributions. This not only enables us to release contributions under the permissive outbound licenses as described above, but also gives us the flexibility to adjust those outbound license terms over time in response to community feedback.
What do site moderators do?
Site moderators help enforce the MSDN Wiki Code of Conduct by removing inappropriate content from the site.
When will site content be moderated?
Moderators follow the Content Moderation Guidelines to determine when to moderate contributions.
When will users be suspended from the site?
Only administrators (a few Microsoft people who maintain the site) can suspend users. They follow the User Suspension Guidelines to determine when suspension is warranted.
How can I protest content moderation or user suspension?
If you think your content has been unfairly removed from the site or you have been unfairly suspended from the site, please contact the MSDN Wiki team at wikifdbk@microsoft.com.
Who can become a site moderator?
Existing moderators nominate registered users to become moderators.
How can I file bugs or suggestions about the MSDN Wiki site?
You can file bugs and suggestions through the Feedback section of the MSDN Wiki Connect Workspace.
Where can I get more info about this project?
You can check out the MSDN Wiki team blog for more information and project updates. We also post updates on the MSDN Wiki Connect workspace.
