Ontology covers the structural patterns of the wiki, in the work of wp:ontology, reaching for the simplest way to structure the shared knowledge here, to help participants keep the wiki up to date, through ease of navigation and understanding, and consistency in organization.
This page discusses the fundamental structure of the wiki, in its current design, and hopefully receives updates as the structure is added on to, while retaining historical motivations at ready textual reference.
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being. It investigates what types of entities exist, how they are grouped into categories, and how they are related to one another on the most fundamental level (and whether there even is a fundamental level).
The compound word ontology ('study of being') combines:
onto- (Greek: ὄν, on;[note 1] gen. ὄντος, ontos, 'being' or 'that which is') and
Namespaces (mw:Help...) of the wiki support keeping separate types of pages apart. MediaWiki software treats different pages differently, and parses wiki text to transform {{templates}} into text, and index [[Category:Wiki]] pages into categories. Other pages can be used as templates, from the (main)/Article namespace {{:Guilds}} can be included (with partial transclusion filters in its wikitext), as can {{:Category:Usage}}
Guilds are self-organized maintainer groups that maintain Resources and organize Events within Noisebridge with multiple maintainers collaborating to improve the group's resources, institutional knowledge and resiliency.
Why call it guilds?: There is no medieval theme to Noisebridge! This is an attempt to codify something essential that usually happens organically, in order to help new people to the community see that THEY ARE NOT LOST. THEY CAN BELONG. If you have a better name, make it real!
If you have questions about use of space, or items in the space owned or used by guilds, please see Guilds/Contact page.
Guilds that were active recently, but need to create a charter to be known as an active Guild. To submit one for active status, see MetaGuild's.
[| Charter] for how to do so.
Proposed guilds (based on slack and discuss)[edit]
Art : Start improving NB art resources, classes and decorations by meeting for Artbridge.
GROW: Invite at least 10 people to join the group. Look for interested people by searching Discord for messages related to the topic.
Maintainers list indicates who are active
Inactives: Away & Past maintainers lists to avoid all maintainers listed being inactive.
POST PHOTOS You need at least one photo in the info box of your guild or event.
Take current photos of any resources like machines in their current location.
Take one group or activity-related photo at every events meeting.
TELL PEOPLE WHEN: Current time and date of any events they can attend.
TELL PEOPLE HOW TO COMMUNICATE: communications channels info for any events
TAKE NOTES: Write notes in the Discuss tab of your event page or guild.
Note-taking Notes section or /notes sub-page updated if group has meetings or updates.
Make a notes template page with a copy-pasteable notes template that has your usual event meeting format to fill out so anyone can facilitate the meetings.
ANNOUNCE THINGS:' Post Announcements pages about anything the guild wants to share or ask for. You can add them to the meeting agenda to be read at the next meeting or mention them at meetings yourself. Post on Discord with a link to your announcement.
HISTORY SECTION: Outdated info moved to History sections at bottom of pages or entirely old pages marked { { historic } } if they won't be updated or { { outdated } } if they need updating.
There are a number of patterns groups have used that are reusable. If you are interested in starting a group or improving a group's effectiveness.
Groups as maintainers of multiple resources, events and subgroups[edit]
Groups can play a role in maintaining multiple things of interest to the group such as resources, events and classes.
Many resources such as tools exist at Noisebridge without groups that maintain them, relying on a single volunteer or two who takes an interest in maintaining them. Sometimes those unofficial maintainers change focus or leave and resources go without any maintainers or events and classes go without organizers and teachers.
By adopting things and encouraging group members to become maintainers, groups can help keep things they care about functioning.
Groups themselves can benefit from having organizer maintainers who develop the group's membership and activities.
A guildmaster should exist for any group that wants representation in general. Talk to the MetaGuild and the Archguildmaster specifically for more info about guildmasters and what they ought to do and why.
Guilds might discover a way to leverage resources outside of Noisebridge in a way that befits their interests.
In so doing, we’d generate linkages between Noisebridge and other communities that is organic, that will help us cross-pollinate and generate more funds when we need them.
Put the { {guilds} } template on top of the page. (View source to see how this is done with double curly braces around guild).
{{guilds}}
List Maintainers and add recruiting template if it is below 2[edit]
Put a list of maintainers at the very top of the page with 0 if there are none signed up. Add the { { recruitnig } } template to include a volunteers needed infobox:
Guilds are self-organized maintainer groups that maintain Resources and organize Events within Noisebridge with multiple maintainers collaborating to improve the group's resources, institutional knowledge and resiliency.
Why call it guilds?: There is no medieval theme to Noisebridge! This is an attempt to codify something essential that usually happens organically, in order to help new people to the community see that THEY ARE NOT LOST. THEY CAN BELONG. If you have a better name, make it real!
If you have questions about use of space, or items in the space owned or used by guilds, please see Guilds/Contact page.
Guilds that were active recently, but need to create a charter to be known as an active Guild. To submit one for active status, see MetaGuild's.
[| Charter] for how to do so.
Proposed guilds (based on slack and discuss)[edit]
Art : Start improving NB art resources, classes and decorations by meeting for Artbridge.
GROW: Invite at least 10 people to join the group. Look for interested people by searching Discord for messages related to the topic.
Maintainers list indicates who are active
Inactives: Away & Past maintainers lists to avoid all maintainers listed being inactive.
POST PHOTOS You need at least one photo in the info box of your guild or event.
Take current photos of any resources like machines in their current location.
Take one group or activity-related photo at every events meeting.
TELL PEOPLE WHEN: Current time and date of any events they can attend.
TELL PEOPLE HOW TO COMMUNICATE: communications channels info for any events
TAKE NOTES: Write notes in the Discuss tab of your event page or guild.
Note-taking Notes section or /notes sub-page updated if group has meetings or updates.
Make a notes template page with a copy-pasteable notes template that has your usual event meeting format to fill out so anyone can facilitate the meetings.
ANNOUNCE THINGS:' Post Announcements pages about anything the guild wants to share or ask for. You can add them to the meeting agenda to be read at the next meeting or mention them at meetings yourself. Post on Discord with a link to your announcement.
HISTORY SECTION: Outdated info moved to History sections at bottom of pages or entirely old pages marked { { historic } } if they won't be updated or { { outdated } } if they need updating.
There are a number of patterns groups have used that are reusable. If you are interested in starting a group or improving a group's effectiveness.
Groups as maintainers of multiple resources, events and subgroups[edit]
Groups can play a role in maintaining multiple things of interest to the group such as resources, events and classes.
Many resources such as tools exist at Noisebridge without groups that maintain them, relying on a single volunteer or two who takes an interest in maintaining them. Sometimes those unofficial maintainers change focus or leave and resources go without any maintainers or events and classes go without organizers and teachers.
By adopting things and encouraging group members to become maintainers, groups can help keep things they care about functioning.
Groups themselves can benefit from having organizer maintainers who develop the group's membership and activities.
A guildmaster should exist for any group that wants representation in general. Talk to the MetaGuild and the Archguildmaster specifically for more info about guildmasters and what they ought to do and why.
Guilds might discover a way to leverage resources outside of Noisebridge in a way that befits their interests.
In so doing, we’d generate linkages between Noisebridge and other communities that is organic, that will help us cross-pollinate and generate more funds when we need them.
Put the { {guilds} } template on top of the page. (View source to see how this is done with double curly braces around guild).
{{guilds}}
List Maintainers and add recruiting template if it is below 2[edit]
Put a list of maintainers at the very top of the page with 0 if there are none signed up. Add the { { recruitnig } } template to include a volunteers needed infobox:
I don't remember the names of the tags to mark wiki pages for later work and updates, outdated, historic, are there others? Let's namespace these under a common extremely short wiki page template name, with compatible categor(y/ies), to include a heirarchy that can be wandered, even in the tag/template/category structure.
Perhaps call it "WikiWork", {{ww/outdated}}, but {{ww}} is included there, and includes a link to its: category, template and those pages include non-partially-transcluded explanations of their purpose, of the child pages in the heirarchy, and sibling pages that a user might want to use instead.
Compare Template:Outdated and Template:Historic. Asof/2025 outdated has a dashed border line, red, on red box, while historic has a solid, thin grey border line, with cute logo. Outdated is an invitation to editors, while historic is purely a note to readers.
Template:t{{t}}: This is the root page, of a collection of pages, as mw:help:subpages for easy, convenient use while editing. Include {{t/[subpage]}} to include reference instructional text in the page preview, Ctrl-Shift-p, while using source editing of wikitext.
The label is specified either as the block style or as a special paragraph prefix. The label becomes visible to the reader unless icons are enabled, in which case the icon is shown in its place.
Caution vs. Warning
When choosing the admonition type, you may find yourself getting confused between “caution” and “warning” as these words are often used interchangeably. Here’s a simple rule to help you differentiate the two:
Use CAUTION to advise the reader to act carefully (i.e., exercise care).
Use WARNING to inform the reader of danger, harm, or consequences that exist.
The word caution in this context translates into attention in French, which is often a good reference for how it should be applied.
To find a deeper analysis, see www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-caution-and-vs-warning/.
