Door43:Get started
From Door43
Door43 has a very specific purpose: create free & open discipleship tools to equip the global church to grow in their faith in Jesus Christ, according to the Word of God. We do not want arguments over doctrinal differences to detract from this purpose so we are asking everyone who wants to join Door43 to do the following:
- Read the "What we believe" page. If the "essential beliefs" are an accurate reflection of your faith and you are willing to disagree agreeably with others on issues of "secondary beliefs", Door43 is for you and we are glad to have you on the team! (If not, you will not find Door43 to be a welcoming place.)
- Read the "Five hinges of Door43" page where we explain the big picture of what Door43 is and how it should be used.
- Read the "What Door43 is not" page for clarification of what Door43 is not.
Finding Discipleship Resources
Door43 is organized to make it so discipleship resources can be easily located. One of the most important organizational features in Door43 is the use of specific Namespaces.
Namespaces
A Namespace is a location on this wiki that ends with a colon, e.g. "Bible:" which is the Namespace for the Open Bible Translation. The Namespaces we are using are listed below (Note: each example prefixed with http://en.door43.org/wiki/ in the browser, e.g. http://en.door43.org/wiki/Bible:Joshua):
| Namespace | Project | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Bible: | Open Bible Translation | Bible:Joshua <- The book of Joshua in the Open Bible Translation |
| Stories: | Open Bible Stories | Stories:Joshua <- The story of Joshua in Open Bible Stories |
| School: | Open Bible School | School:Joshua <- The module for Joshua in the Open Bible School |
| Study: | Open Study Notes | Study:Joshua <- Study notes for the book of Joshua in the Open Study Notes |
| Handbook: | Open Bible Handbook | Handbook:Joshua <- The Open Bible Handbook entry about Joshua, the historical person. |
| Library: | Open Christian Library | Library:Joshua <- A book named Joshua in the Open Christian Library |
| Worship: | Open Worship Project | Worship:Joshua <- A song with the title of Joshua in the Open Worship Project |
By using Namespaces, a person can use the search engine to specify what they are looking for.
Categories
Another way of organizing content is through the use of Categories. The organization of Categories and an explanation of how to use them is contained here: Help:Categories
Searching for content
One of the easiest ways to find discipleship resources on Door43 is to search for it using the search engine (upper right of each page). By default, Door43 searches for the terms across all of the website but you can also choose (click on "Advanced search") to specify in which Namespace you want to search.
Creating Discipleship Resources
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How to edit a page
Once you are logged in, you can edit any page (except protected pages) by clicking "Edit" in the top right of the page. Here's what you need to know about editing content on Door43:
- Page revisions - Every edit creates a new revision of that page. This is a good thing because if someone accidentally messes everything up or doesn't like the changes they made to a page, the previous version of the page can be restored with one click. To see previous revisions of a page, click the "Version history" link at the top of the page you want to see. You can compare any of the previous versions to see how they have changed over time.
- Preview - Before saving a page, click the "Show preview" button at the bottom of the page to see a preview of how the page will look. Edit as needed, then click "Save page" to save your changes to the page.
- Summary of changes - When you edit a page, please enter a brief summary in the "Summary" box, so that others can see at a glance what you changed and why. As more people edit the same page, this will make it a lot easier to keep track of what is going on. Thanks!
How to create a page
Creating a new page of content in Door43 is easy! Here are two ways to create a page:
- By searching - Search for page using the search box at the top right of any page, being sure to include the Namespace for the page. For instance, if you were going to create a new resource in the Library called "A Study of Hebrews" you would search for Library:A Study of Hebrews. If the page exists, you can view (and edit) the page. If the page does not exist yet (indicated by a red link), you will be presented with the option of clicking the link to create the page.
- By linking - In an existing page, create a link to a page you would like to create, being sure to include the Namespace for the page. For instance, to create a page a new resource called "A Study in Romans" in the Open Christian Library, you create the link as [[Library:A Study in Romans]] After saving the changes you've made to the existing page, the link to the new page will show up in red font, meaning the page has not been created yet. Click the red link to create the page.
- Importing content - If you have content that is in a Word document (or other word processing format), you can easily import that content into Door43 using the free & open-source LibreOffice (formerly OpenOffice.org) office suite with the Sun Wiki Publisher extension. Open the Word document in OpenOffice.org Writer (the word processor) then go to File -> Export... and choose the Mediawiki (.txt) format. After exporting the file, open the text file, select all the text, copy it and then paste it into a new page in Door43. The content in the page will be formatted as it was in the Word document (though some things may need to be manually tweaked).
Where to create a page
Coming soon... Start by putting personal notes as subpages of your User page.
Quality control
We are using an extension to MediaWiki called FlaggedRevs (Flagged Revisions) that provides tighter control over the content. For more information on the flags we are using and what they mean, go to Door43:Content quality.
Get started
Jump in! Take a look at the Current Needs list if you need ideas for where to start.
You may want to start by adding content to your user page or trying things out in the Sandbox. You can get to your user page by logging in and clicking your username at the top of the page.
Here is some information about making content look the way you want:
Using Discipleship Resources
What can you do with discipleship resources from the Door43 project?
Pretty much anything. You are pre-cleared to use these resources for any ministry purpose, subject to the two conditions of the license: "Attribution" and "Share Alike". Door43:Copyrights explains this in more detail.
