Help:Getting Started
Thanks for your interest in helping out with the SGU transcription project.
As you probably know, there are over 350 full episodes of the SGU, and over 100 5x5 episodes, so we appreciate any and all of the help we get.
We want to make it clear that we welcome all contributions, regardless of whether you can tell the difference between Jay and Bob, don't have time to do all the formatting and mark-up for a wiki page, or can only contribute parts of episodes.
We encourage everyone to contribute just as much or as little as they wish
This page covers some of the basics of setting up a page and editing. For more detailed help, see the list of [useful links] below.
Getting started
First things first, find an episode that you want to transcribe, make sure it isn't already listed on the Main Page, and create a page for it.
If you'd like to just try your hand at transcribing, start with an SGU 5x5 as these are much shorter.
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Creating new episode pages
It's best to create a page before you start any of the work in order to make sure that no-one else is working on the same episode. You don't want to put in all that effort only to find out someone submitted the same transcript just before you did!
It's easy to create a page, just enter the name of the page you want to create in the search bar, for example:
- "SGU Episode ###" or "5X5 Episode ##"
Searching for this will let you know if the page has already been created by someone else - in which case you should find another episode to transcribe.
If no-one has created a page for that episode, then the search results page will say:
- There were no results matching the query.
- Create the page "SGU Episode ###" on this wiki!
Click on the red link to open the new page's editing box, and type ''page in progress'' in the editing window. Saving this page creates a new page for your episode that notifies people viewing it that someone is working on it.
Adding to the Main Page
Before you run off to start your transcription, you should add your new page to the Main Page. This makes it extra clear to other contributors that you've called dibs on this episode.
- ⊗ If you would like someone to do this step for you, or if you have any questions/suggestions, just put a note in the Community portal, and someone will be happy to help out.
???link to section on portal???
You can edit pages by clicking the 'edit' tab at the top of the page, which allows you to edit the whole page. If you just want to edit one section, you can also click on the 'edit' link to the right of the relevant section heading.
Find the section on the Main Page where your episode should go and enter the link to your page, the date and mark it as incomplete. If you are transcribing a 5X5 episode, also include the episode name , for example:
[[SGU Episode 352]], Apr 14 2012 (incomplete)- or
[[5X5 Episode 110]], Apr 11 2012, Naturalistic Fallacy (incomplete)
The page name between double square brackets inserts the link to the page. You can remove the "(incomplete)" text from the Main Page once you've finished your submission in the same way.
Once you've previewed and saved the page, you're ready to go ahead with the fun part!
Editing your page
Once you've done all the hard work, it's time to show the world.
Go to the episode page you created, click the 'edit' tab, and paste your text into the editing box.
Click on the 'show preview' button at the bottom of the page to show what your current edit looks like.
- It's generally best to check the preview before saving a page in order to avoid excessive entries in the Recent changes log. This log shows all changes made to the website, and is handy for checking for new additions, such as messages in the Community portal.
When you're happy with the page, or want to save your progress and come back to it later, click 'save page', which will show your newly edited page in all it's glory.
Wiki mark-up
- ⊗ If you would like someone to mark up your page for you, or if you have any questions/suggestions, just put a note in the Community portal, and someone will be happy to help out.
Here, we describe the most commonly used wikitext markup and html tags for pages on this site. For more detail, see [[1]]
Formatting
italics, bold
Links
- internal, external
Line breaks and paragraphs
| Description | What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|---|
| Starting a new line in the editing window does not show on the final page as a line break | This is my first lineThis is my second line |
|
|
To start a new line, use the |
This is my first line |
|
| To start a new paragraph leave an empty line between text in the editing window | This is my first line
This is my second line |
|
Headers
Headers are used to mark the different podcast segments, and are automatically incorporated into a table of contents that appears at the top of the page.
Headings are made by using 2 or more 'equals' signs:
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
Podcast segment |
==Podcast segment==
|
Segment subsection |
===Segment subsection===
|
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We also include the time at which that section starts in a small font using the <small> tag, for example:
=== News Item 2 <small>(24:32)</small>===
is displayed as:
- News Item 2 (24:32)
References
Tips for Transcription
You should use whatever method of transcription you find suits you best. So far, we don't know of any speech recognition software available to do the task for us, so the following is for manual transcription only. Here's some quick info on what we've found useful so far.
Please let us know if you have any suggestions to add.
Audio software
(copied)My method of transcription is to use VLC media player, and dial down the speed until I can type comfortably. A quick alt-tab, then shift-left a couple of times will skip back a few seconds if you missed something.
ExpressScribe is a free program that allows you a lot of control over the audio playback, whilst using the text editor of your choice. You can assign hot-keys to actions such as play, pause, speed up, skip back etc. that are system-wide (i.e. they work no matter what other program you're in at the time).
You can find an overview of ExpressScribe functions in this article
Text editing software
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what program you use for writing your transcription, but some have their advantage and disadvantages.
Here are some things you might want to consider:
- spell-checking
- automatic correction of common typos (e.g. with MS Word)
- ???preferences for format/saving file type
Community Portal
To post a message in the Community portal, click on the 'edit' tab on the portal page and enter your note at the bottom of the editing box. If you are replying to a post, you should indent your text by including one or more colons, ":"
You can automatically insert your user name and the time of the post by using 4 tildas "~~~~".
Useful inks
- Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.
- Configuration settings list
- MediaWiki FAQ
- MediaWiki release mailing list
- [2]