How to create a great glossary article
Glossary terms are an important part of the ICANNWiki.com site; as those involved with ICANN depend on a myriad of specialized terminology and acronyms to discuss their already complex issues. These terms and acronyms make life easier for the ICANN insider, but can really confuse those not as familiar with the unique lingo. This is a guide to writing a successful article for an ICANN related glossary term.
Getting Started
If you are new to the site, take a moment to read Getting Started, keeping the NPOV policy in mind. To create a new page, simply add the name to the URL. For example, to create a new page for DNSSEC, we will simply use "DNSSEC" in "http://icannwiki.com/index.php" to change "http://icannwiki.com/index.php/DNSSEC" and go to that address. Initially, the page will not exist but you can use the "edit this page" link to edit, add information, and save the page.
Example
The key to a good glossary article is that the term is defined and that the definition is supported by examples.
To help us illustrate how to create a glossary article, let's look at the article for TLD.
- The introduction to this article breaks down the acronym, gives a definition, and gives examples. This is the bear minimum to be expected from any glossary page. If the article were to stop at just the introduction we would technically be defining the term, but we'd be a long way from creating a valuable article for the term.
- Given that Google will help us define the term we can use that as the starting point. Searching for "TLD" will give us plenty of results that all define the term in a similar manner, read a few of these definitions, compose an original definition (Do not simply copy and paste), and cite one of the sources you used as a reference.
- Now, we have a definition of TLD, but so does every other website.. so let's aim for something more substantial.