Contributing to the wiki

MiniDisc only stays relevant if people use and discuss it. We want to encourage as much content and preservation as possible so that it can be accessed and shared by everyone.

The wiki software we use is called Dokuwiki. It is a lightweight, fully-featured wiki solution that is heavily customizable and does not depend on a database. All pages are stored as text files, but we also use plugins to provide databases for sorting equipment and releases.

Read more on Dokuwiki and its syntax here: Dokuwiki syntax

Account registration is required to edit pages due to spam and bad actors. Discussion sections do not require registration, but your IP address will be publicly shown unless you are logged in.

View our (brief) privacy policy.

Real name field

Dokuwiki includes a field called “real name” - this is set by the wiki software, and is not something we care about.

Feel free to use a pseudonym in the “real name” field. If you sign in using Google, the name from your Google account will be used.

Security and 2FA

Dokuwiki does not currently support 2 Factor Authentication, so be sure to use strong, unique passwords for your accounts, both on the wiki and anywhere else.

The wiki uses the following structure:

  • Home - the site front page, includes updates, featured photo, and news.
  • About - information about the wiki itself, including this contribution guides
  • FAQ - frequently asked questions about the format and the wiki
  • Photos - featured photos on the wiki homepage
  • Marketing - marketing material, ads, and other press coverage of the format
  • Videos - videos about MiniDisc
  • Guides - how to use, maintain, and repair MiniDisc gear
  • Resources - documents, articles, and external sites of interest
  • Technology - information about the technical side of the format
  • Software - links to software to be used with MD (includes SonicStage and Web MiniDisc)
  • Community - groups and social media resources
  • Equipment - devices that can record and play MiniDiscs
  • Accessories - batteries, remotes, PC Link kits, and others
  • Discs - a database of blank discs (on hold)
  • Record labels - labels that have (or continue to) release music on MD
  • Releases - music that has been released on MD

If you have an issue with any of the site layout, please contact us.

To add a new page, navigate to where you wish the page to be. For example, minidisc.wiki/guides/test creates a page called “Test” in the “Guides” section (known as a “namespace” in Dokuwiki)

To delete a page, navigate to that page and remove all content. The page will then be listed as deleted, but can be reverted if this is a mistake.

For more information, please refer to the Dokuwiki syntax link above.

At the top of any page is a row of buttons that are shortcuts to syntax features in Dokuwiki. Ones on the right / second row are added by plugins (see section below) - all should show a tooltip when you hover over the button.

Dokuwiki has a media manager that supports images and PDF files up to 40MB in size. If you have media that is larger than 40MB or is not in a format supported by the media manager, please contact us as we have other hosting options available.

Allowed file types: jpg, jpeg, gif, png, ico, mp3, ogg, wav, webm, ogv, mp4, vtt, tgz, tar, gz, bz2, zip, rar, 7z, pdf, ps, rpm, deb, doc, xls, ppt, rtf, docx, xlsx, pptx, sxw, sxc, sxi, sxd, odc, odf, odg, odi, odp, ods, odt

Like wiki pages themselves, all photos are stored in namespaces. For example, a photo of the Sony MZ-N920 will be in the equipment:sony:portable namespace. When opening the media manager, it will default to media in the namespace of the given page.

If you are reusing an image that has already been uploaded, you can select it and insert to the document. Otherwise, “select files” and upload them to the namespace shown at the top of the media manager window. PDF files for manuals can be uploaded identically to images, but can only be shown as a link rather than an embedded image.

Equipment pages with many photos look best when the photos are arranged in a carousel. These are enabled by the Bootstrap3 template and associated plugin, plus the WRAP plugin to keep the photos aligned to the left of the page.

To arrange your photos in a carousel, use this code template:

<WRAP left box 460px>
<carousel>
<slide>{{:equipment:photo1}}</slide>
<slide>{{:equipment:photo2}}</slide>
<slide>{{:equipment:photo3}}</slide>
<slide>{{:equipment:photo4}}</slide>
</carousel>
</WRAP>

When creating a new equipment page, the data fields at the bottom of the editor (or the fields in the new page form) are more important than the blurb in the main editor textbox.

The data fields go into our Struct databases (see plugins below) to automatically list the equipment on other pages, and creates the infobox on the right side of the page.

See our Equipment page glossary for more information on each data field.

We use numerous plugins and extensions to customize Dokuwiki to our needs. The most important ones are:

  • Discussion - for discussion and comment sections
  • Include plugin - for including part or all of another page inside another (used for including infoboxes and the monthly front page updates)

The Struct databases we use for equipment, discs, labels, and releases support referencing values as variables. We use this to automate the creation of infoboxes.

To refer to a variable from the current page's data, use:

{{$database.value}}

To refer to a variable from another page's data, use:

{{$namespace:page.database.value}}

Most users will never need to deal with this. It's best to contact us if you need to use variables for something.

There are many sites with information and data on MiniDisc (although many are quickly going offline.) Some of these sites include:

Outside of an official press release, any content added to the wiki should be attributed, checked for errors, and rewritten so as to not be plagiarism.

Archive.org's Wayback Machine is an indispensable resource for recovering dead links.

  • about/contributing.txt
  • Last modified: 3 years ago
  • by specialk