NOTE: New entries are being added at the top of the page, so they are more immediately accessible.
5 Oct 2020
Did you know that you can reach 99 pages of the wiki in just one click? If you set GwucQuickLinks as your home page on the wiki, you can get to any one of those 99 pages with only one click of your mouse! And from those 99 pages, you can reach just about any other page of the wiki with one, maybe two, more clicks. For example, going to CouncilPage gets you within reach of nearly 560 other pages (out of 3926 total pages) with just one more click!
7 Jul 2020
What's Going On? Did you know? A recent CommunicationsCommittee meeting decided that it would be good to provide more information to the congregation about what is happening around the church in these times of lockdown. It has been suggested that church groups might like to write a sentence or two (with photo or screenshot) about their recent activities. To get the ball rolling, you are invited to see what the GOMERs group has been doing through their special wiki page, GomerFun (http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/GomerFun). If you would like to write something about your group, or create a wiki page, contact JoBoldiston in the office in the first instance, or JohnHurst in the second case. We'd love to hear about what you are doing!
30 Jun 2020
Did you know that the wiki gets over 1000 malicious hits per day? Yes, the hackers are always at our IT resources, but we have very strict protocols in place to ensure that they never get to a point where they can damage the wiki pages. You may have read how Australia is under cyber attack from foreign state agents (no names are mentioned), and our wiki is no exception. For the last 5 years we have had no damage to the wiki, and on the one occasion where a hacker did get in, we were able to repair the damage very quickly, and tighten our security to make sure that the vulnerability was removed. And no, the attacks do not come from one country - they come from all over the world.
It is for this reason that we have had to make accounts on the wiki hard to get, which is unfortunate for those who are new to the wiki and want to explore further. But getting an account for bona fide users is very easy. Simply email [email protected] with Subject line "New Wiki Account (Your Name)" (no mail body needed), and once we have verified your credentials, an account will be setup for you, usually within 24 hours. When you have your account, you can explore the wiki fully, following the guidelines at HowToUseTheChurchWiki.
3 Jun 2020
Did you know that the wiki adheres to the Doctrine of Forgiveness? Yes, any mistakes that you make when editing the wiki can be quickly forgiven, and through the divine grace of the Psalter, you can backtrack to where you where before you made the mistake. Unlike email, where once you press the SEND button you cannot undo your typing (don't we all know the angst that that causes?), the wiki allows you to REVERT the page to the version it was before you pressed the SAVE button. Just click on the "Info" link at the top of the page, click on the "view" action of the version you want to go back to, and then when you see that page and check that it is what you want, click on the "More Action" and choose "Revert to this revision". That's it! Your sins are forgiven.
3 May 2020
Did you know that you can have your own wiki page? In fact you may already have one without knowing! Go the the Home wiki page (http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/), and add your name after the last slash, as one word, like JohnHurst. Then hit enter, and if you have a page, it will appear.
These pages are automatically created from our church database, and in the interests of privacy, we only include phone numbers (with your permission) and email addresses (again, on your say-so). The email addresses are encrypted so that they cannot be harvested by spammers, although you will see them as normal addresses. In addition, we also require that you are logged in before you can see them, so that they are not available to the casual prying eye. Talk to us if you want more information.
(Next week: how to get a wiki account and have your own wiki page.)
12 Apr 2020 (Easter Sunday)
Did you know that you can "bookmark" wiki pages that you visit frequently? Go to your "Settings" page, click on "Preferences", and down at the bottom of the page you will see a text box labelled "Quick links". Click in this box, and type a new line containing just the name of the page you want to bookmark. When you "Save" this page and return, you will see your bookmarked page listed in the collection of Quick Links at the top of your page. PS I put "GwucQuickLinks" into my quick links, so I can navigate around the wiki qwikily!
5 Apr 2020
Did you know that you can get up-to-date very quickly with what is happening in the church through the wiki? Simply click on the "Recent Changes" link you can see in the list of links at the top of your page. Note that not all pages may show this link - if it doesn't, simply go to the page RecentChanges, or type in http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/RecentChanges. There you will see what changes have been made to the wiki in the last few days, and you will be as up-to-date as anyone in the church!
15 Mar 2020
Did you know that you can find things easily on the wiki? Open your browser at http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/, and click in the box labelled "search". Type in one or more words that describe something you want to find, then click either "Title" (to find a page with your search item(s) in the title), or "Text" (to find a page with your search item(s) in the body of the page.
Of course, the more specific you make your search terms, the fewer hits you will get! For example, try typing "Council" and click "Titles". You will see that our church council has been very busy! Warning: clicking "Text" will give you even more hits!!
8 Mar 2020
Wow! I see that this entry is almost exactly 10 years since we started the wiki. We have had so many changes since then, that the CommunicationsCommittee has decided to re-establish this BulletinWikiArticles page. Here is the first (re)new entry:
Did you know that you can find out contact details for any person on the church rolls through the wiki? Yes, if you want to know how to ring someone, or send them an email, just go to the wiki (http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/) and add the person's wiki name after the slash.
Their wiki name is simple - just join their first name to their surname with no space in between, and you're there! So for example, you can find how to ring me by just typing into your browser: http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/JohnHurst
28 Mar 2010
NEW CHURCH WIKI
A "wiki" has been set up to assist with church communications. A wiki is a set of web pages, which you can access just like any other web page. You can visit the church wiki by pointing your browser at
- wiki.gwuc.org.au
and you will see the Home Page of the new church wiki. From there you can browse through pages describing the operations of the Church Council, the Elders, the Communications Committee, and of course, the four Missional Groups: Outreach, Inclusive Community, the Hub, and Growing Faith. Any church group is encouraged to create their own page - as an example, see the ChoirPage. In time, we hope to serve all church rosters from the wiki - which incidentally, will make 'swaps' between people much easier!
Wikis differ from ordinary web pages however, in that they can be altered by you, the reader, rather than just the web master. This gives great flexibility and power to the wiki. To make sure that only church people can do this, there is an authentication mechanism, based on the usual "username" and "password" combination. Some pages don't need this - they are readable by anyone, and behave just like web pages. Other pages require you to login in before you can read them. In general, you should login each time you use the wiki. There are instructions on the wiki about how to do this, to get you started.
The reason for creating a wiki is to establish a forum in which all can contribute their thoughts and ideas, debate key issues within the church, and generally keep yourselves informed of what is happening around the church. We realise that not all will be able or want to contribute to the wiki - that's fine, and for those who do not have access to the internet, we plan to have printouts of pages in which you might be interested available from the office.
The wiki is very secure - every page can be controlled down to the individual level as to who can read and/or write. Not only that, but all pages are backed-up, so if you do make a mistake, it can be undone. You should not feel afraid of breaking anything, except your reservations!
In the meantime, we urge you to "have a go"!
11 Apr 2010
NEW CHURCH WIKI
Over the last two weeks, you will have seen an announcement in the Bulletin about the new church wiki, hosted at the new permanent location:
- wiki.gwuc.org.au
There are now over 200 pages of information relating to the Glen Waverley Uniting Church and its activities. The wiki pages are open to everyone in the church, and church groups are particularly encouraged to build their own wiki pages to report on past events, and announce forthcoming events.
Over the coming weeks, I shall be including some helpful information on how to get started using the wiki. All of this information is taken from the wiki pages themselves, so once you get the hang of it, you can go exploring for yourself.
Create a Username and Password for Yourself
You will need to do this to access certain of the pages in this wiki.
- Go to the Create Account page.
- a . This will open in a new window, so move it so that you can see these instructions.
- Fill in the details, and then click 'Create Profile'.
Make sure you write your name in the style FirstnameLastname, with capital letters and no space.
- Click on the 'Login' button at the top of the page to now validate yourself.
- You should do this every time you visit any of these wiki pages.
- Most browsers will allow you to remember your details automatically.
You can also visit the HelpOnLogin page for more help.
Visiting a Page
A Wiki page is just a web page, so you can use any web browser you like to view wiki pages. They have the same means of access as ordinary web pages - an URL, or Uniform Resource Locator (sometimes pronounced as earl). This page, for example, has an URL of http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/HowToUseTheChurchWiki. (Try it!)
Anytime you want to visit a page in this wiki, simply enter the URL in this form, replacing the HowToUseTheChurchWiki with the page name that you want. This is also the way you send the address to anyone else, so that when it appears in their email (for example), they just click the link and the web browser does the rest. This is also the way you should see wiki pages quoted in the ChurchBulletin.
JohnHurst
Chair of Church Council
25 Apr 2010
NEW CHURCH WIKI
Over the last four weeks, you will have seen an announcement in the Bulletin about how to create a user name and password for yourself, so that you can visit the new church wiki, hosted at the new permanent location:
- wiki.gwuc.org.au
There are now over 200 pages of information relating to the Glen Wverley Uniting Church and its activities. The wiki pages are open to everyone in the church, and church groups are particularly encouraged to build their own wiki pages to report on past events, and announce forthcoming events.
This week, we will explore navigation in the wiki, and how you can keep up-to-date with what is happening on it.
Navigating the wiki
WikiNames are two or more words, capitalized and "glued" together, like WikiName. These have a special purpose in the wiki, and are the names of pages in the wiki. The first word in the name is often used to indicate what part of the church activities the wiki page describes, such as in CongMeetingAgenda20100412, or CouncilPage.
Whenever you see a WikiName in a WikiPage, it is usually highlighted in blue, indicating that it is a link to another (wiki) page. Clicking on these links will take you to that page, just as links in a normal web page do. The main difference is that the address is just the WikiName, without all the server information. For example, http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/CongMeetingAgenda20100412 and CongMeetingAgenda20100412 are the same wiki page, but the second shorter form is what is used inside a WikiPage - hence the idea that the wiki gives a "quick" way of linking to other pages ("wiki" is Hawaiian for "quick").
Up the top of the wiki page, the system keeps a list of the last 5 or so pages that you have visited. This is convenient if you want to jump back quickly to those pages. The GWUCHomePage is also listed, just after the Uniting Church logo, as GWUCWiki, so you can jump quickly to that as well. On the HomePage itself are "quick links" to all the activities of the church covered by the wiki.
Subscribing to wiki pages
If you have a particular relationship with one of the many church groups, you will want to know what's happening in that group. The wiki allows you to "Subscribe" to various pages, so that you will get sent an email whenever some new information is posted to that page. At the top of each page is a line containing various links (and the pull-down menu "More Actions"). In that line you will see the word "Subscribe". If you click this link, you can subscribe yourself to get an email whenever this page is updated.
If (when) you get sick of those emails, that same link will now say "Unsubscribe", and clicking it will reverse the subscription.
JohnHurst
Chair of Church Council
09 May 2010
Editing Wiki Pages
The ability to edit a wiki page changes the whole philosophy of web-based information - no longer is control of the information in the hands of a select few webmasters, but it is now open to all the users of the page. It is like having a car that you could change the design of as you drive it. Imagine the changes you might make to a car if you had this ability - you could make it a small two-seater when commuting to work, a station wagon or van when moving goods, a four-wheel drive when camping, and so on. I'm sure you can think of other examples.
Using the GUI Editor
Youe can try these instructions out without fear of damaging anything by using the wiki test page, at
Go to this page, and try out the following instructions: On the header of this (and every) page, there is a menu bar with items such as Edit (Text), Edit (GUI), Info, and so on. This section describes what happens when you click the Edit (GUI) link. New users will probably find this form of editing to be the easiest to use, since it is very like popular WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing applications (Microsoft Word, for example).
Clicking the link places you in edit mode. You see much the same form of the text on the page, but now there is an edit bar at the top of the text. In this bar are are number of tool icons, which should show a short explanatory hint for each as you hover your mouse over them one by one.
The text itself is now live, meaning that when you click in it, and start typing, the characters that you type will be inserted into the page. Not only that, but you can delete things and change the format as well. Try opening up a page and editing it now. (If you are worried about breaking anything, go to the TestPage and edit that. It will not matter what changes you make to that page.) Try double clicking on a word, then click the bold B icon to make it bold. Clicking on the B icon again will turn off the bold face. Or you can use the I icon to make your word italic. Or both. Or underlined, or even all three!
The other icons in the tool bar can be explored at your leisure. You can make numbered lists, bullet point lists, indented text, 'outdent' indented text, add links to other web pages (remember, a link to another wiki page is just a WikiName!), and lots of other interesting things. One which many might find useful is the 'Paste from Word' icon, but let's not rush too fast ...
When you have made a number of changes, you might want to click the Preview button at the top of the edit window, just above the tool bar icons. This will show your page as it will finally appear, so it is handy for checking what you have done without actually finishing your edits. But more importantly, it saves an interim copy, so if you have to go away, or worse, your system crashes, it will be there when you come back, and start editing the page again.
Of course, once you have finished your edits, you will want to make them available to other readers. Click the Save Changes button to do this. It is good to also write a brief comment in the Comment: box just below the edit window, so that others can quickly see what your changes were about.
JohnHurst
Chair of Church Council
06 Jul 2014
If you need to know the contact details for anyone in the church, look on the wiki. Everyone who is a member of any group in the church has a wiki home page, which you can find by going to http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/JohnHurst. Simply change JohnHurst to the name of the person you seek (with no space between their names), and their contact details (name, email, phone, church groups and possibly photo) will be revealed!
Note that you must be logged in to see this - that is how we ensure confidentiality of information to just church people. These details are intended to replace the need for paper copies of group memberships, and they are automatically updated each week from the church database, so you know they are as accurate as we can make them.
If you need a wiki account, please click http://wiki.gwuc.org.au/gwuc/CreateUserAccount
JohnHurst
wikimaster
(never published)
If you are looking for something on the wiki, but are not sure where it might be, or how to find it, the Search Box can help you. It is in the top right hand corner of every wiki page, and it has two buttons Titles and Text next to it. Simply type something about what you seek into the search box, and click one of those two buttons. Titles will search amongst only the page titles, and is faster, while Text will search the content of every page, and is correspondingly slower.
It helps to know that we try to label wiki pages in a consistent manner: all pages relating to ChurchCouncil matters start with the word "Council", for example (ChurchCouncil itself is an exception!), while Families In Sharing Homes (FISH) all start with the word "Fish". Note that acronyms have only their first letter capitalized, to follow the rule for wiki page names. (When searching via the search box however, capitalizations are ignored.)
JohnHurst
wikimaster