Theosophy Wiki:Community portal
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About Theosophy Wiki
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Contacting administrators
Please contact our administrators if you want to become a Theosophy Wiki editor or to make suggestions.
Help topics
These are short articles providing information that should help users, particularly editors, in using the wiki. Before starting editing please make sure you read the Policies for Theosophy Wiki articles.
Plans and announcements
In this section, we will announce changes to the Theosophy Wiki and plans for the future. If you have suggestions, please add them to the Discussion associated with this page (see Discussion pages ), or contact the administrators. As of July, 2012, our immediate goals are:
- To finish filling in basic information for all the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett.
- To seek a few Mahatma Letters images that fill gaps in the collection.
- To expand the stubs and minimal articles that are listed at Category:Articles need expansion.
- To develop plans for adding images of letters from the Mahatmas to people other than A. P. Sinnett.
- To begin adding audio and video materials.
Update on April 8, 2013:
The search engine that originally came with MediaWiki has been replaced by a much more powerful piece of software. Now the search results are useful and complete. Images have been added for the Mahatma Letters through ML 118 (chronological numbering), and notes have been added to a substantial number of letters. Links to audio and video materials have been added.
Update on May 21, 2013:
We have created a video tour called "Introducing the Theosophy Wiki". Please take a look!
Update on October 23 2014:
The URL was changed to take advantage of the new .wiki extension. www.tswiki.net became www.theosophy.wiki. Thanks to Chris Bolger for drawing this opportunity to our attention, and Patrick Layden for putting it into place.
Update on September 8, 2015:
The wiki data was migrated from SQLite to the more robust MySQL.
Update on December 19, 2015:
The wiki was expanded to have editions in French, Spanish, and Russian languages, with interlanguage links between articles. Thanks go to Pavel Malakhov and Patrick Layden for all their technical efforts, and to Harry Binford for the new entry page, logos, and welcome banners.
Update on May 31, 2017:
An Italian language edition of the wiki was established.
How you can participate
Here are some areas where you could contribute:
- New Theosophy Wiki articles:
- To create a new article read:
- Existing Theosophy Wiki articles:
- Add information on the topic of any given article (make sure to use quotes and references when necessary). Read Help:Editing.
- Add photographs and scans of documents that would add interest to articles.
- Add links to websites and related online resources in the sections "Further Reading" or "Additional Resources" you will find at the end of the articles. We especially want to include links to the appropriate entry of the online edition of the Theosophical Encyclopedia so that more readers will find these scholarly entries. See example.
- Add links to websites and related online resources to the article Blavatsky resources.
- Start to build content for articles that are now just stubs. You will find a list of these in Category:Articles need expansion.
- Take a book on Theosophical history and use its content to add to wiki articles. Some examples (from the Adyar tradition) are:
- Henry Steel Olcott's Old Diary Leaves
- Josephine Ransom's A Short History of the Theosophical Society
- Joy Mills' 100 Years of Theosophy: A History of The Theosophical Society in America
- Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa's The Golden Book of the Theosophical Society: A Brief History of the Society's Growth from 1875-1925
(Note: Let us start by working on non-controversial facts. We want this site to be a constructive influence where members from any organization of the Theosophical movement can work together in harmony for the spreading of Theosophy. The controversial facts will be handled with special care and respect, and the participation of the different parts involved, when possible.)
- Calendar:
- Add dates to help us build the feature "This Day in History," which will show what happened today - births, deaths, holidays, and significant events. (You can skim through Theosophical histories and periodicals for dates of interest). See example.
- Periodicals:
- Skim through a Theosophical periodical for information to add to the wiki.
- Use the Union Index to Theosophical Periodicals to improve the lists of additional resources for topical wiki articles and bibliographies in biographical articles.
- The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett:
- Add "Notes" (on the right-hand column) to the individual letters that will help understand the event, place, or person the correspondant is referring to. See example.
- Add content to sections such as "Context and background", "Commentary about this letter", etc. Make sure to document your contribution with the necessary references.
- Create internal links to existing Theosophy Wiki articles for technical terms, places, or personalities mentioned in the letters. See example.
- Create new Theosophy Wiki articles for technical terms, places, or personalities mentioned in a letter and link them to it.
- Blavatsky Portal
- Update "Resources related to HPB"
- Add to biographical article - footnotes are especially needed.