definition

From IndieWeb

A definition on the IndieWeb wiki should be an accessible, basic, clear, plain English description of the term (or phrase) naming a wiki page, with an explicit connection to the term’s relevance to the IndieWeb, and ideally without any use of jargon.

If you’re looking for how to define terms used in a blog post or on a site, see:

Good page definitions are a key part of wikifying. Help make the IndieWeb wiki a friendly glossary of terms, accessible to anyone, and improve & create pages accordingly.

How to

Be specific

Be specific and meaningful in definitions, certainly more than just a link and/or restatement using the same or similar terms.

Definitions include IndieWeb relevance

When defining a term, include why it is specifically relevant to the IndieWeb (if that's not obvious from the description), beyond just a "normal" definition that could have come from Wikipedia.

Do not copy from Wikipedia

Please do not copy definitions from Wikipedia, or even just restate the same thing as Wikipedia, or only have a definition that links to Wikipedia.

Any of those likely indicate that the page does not belong on the IndieWeb wiki, and it may be deleted.

Do not copy from LLM generated text

Please do not use tools like ChatGPT to write a definition for the IndieWeb wiki.

Such LLM produced definitions are usually generic, not related to the IndieWeb, and of questionable validity.

Tweetable definitions

Write definitions that are Tweetable, as there is evidence that people will tweet good definitions that are of tweetable length (including a subsequent link to the page) - that's 257 characters (space + 23 characters for the tco'd link).

How to markup

Use the dfn element around the term being defined, and MediaWiki bolding, e.g.

A '''<dfn>definition</dfn>''' on the IndieWeb wiki…

To include a link, use wiki syntax within the dfn element

'''<dfn>[http://withknown.com Known]</dfn>''' is an open publishing…

How not to

Things to avoid in definitions:

  • repeating words from the term
  • generic abstract definitions (the IndieWeb is not Wikipedia)
  • jargon
    • If absolutely necessary (e.g. many technical terms make sense only in terms of other technical terms), use as few jargon terms as possible, and then link/define them too.

See Also

  • wikifying
  • dfn
  • to do: figure out a split between the page about definitions on the IndieWeb wiki itself, and definition posts or pages, e.g.:
  • If there is both an IndieWeb usage/practice relating to a term, even if only one or a few people, and also a silo usage/practice relating to a term, prefer and use the IndieWeb usage/practice to define the term, and only secondarily (like in another sentence) document the silo usage of the term.