To better help our customers, we’ve acquired the toll free number 1-800-AboutUs (1-800-226-8887), making us the only major wiki to our knowledge to provide toll-free support for our visitors. For those in the Portland, OR area, we will also have a local number, 503.488.5763. Customer support for AboutUs.org is also provided via IRC chat, email, talk page message, or notes to our SuggestionBox and ConcernsFAQ pages. For help with contacting AboutUs, check out our ContactUs page. For the next few months, the 1-800-AboutUs number will be shared with the former owner of 800-226-8887, BasketAndFloral.com, as they transition to a new number. BasketAndFloral.com is a Florida-based floral and gift shop providing a variety of services and deliveries to the greater Orlando area. Their new 800 number is 888-855-0003.

Alex rocked out on his site and the WikiPage ActiveFind.net. This is the kind of beginning collaboration we like to see. He has learned a lot of basic wiki tools in the process and has helped himself in search engines. Now he will be able to work with the site if his community shows up!

Nathan made an interesting technical edit by moving the logged in people to the top right of the page. Vartan also helped in the technical arena by helping us focus on a long standing task of making images linkable - as an example our Values image.

Finally, for a bit of fun, Saad made the WikiPlane!

Israel based TalentGames.com, a division of Tal Books, makes learning English fun with its innovative teaching materials. The company is a leading maker of supplementary resources that make English fun for children to learn and easy for parents to teach. In addition to creative use of language with Hebrew and English text, this WikiPage does a great job using images to highlight its various proprietary flashcard style memory games, including: Phonic Fours, Donkey and Cheat. (View Comments)

SaveForHouse.com is a new WikiPage about a new website (see the history section) packed with great information about saving money to buy a house, or really for any reason you have. Check out the use of images as section headings, as well as the links to specific articles on the site, backlinks to places the site is listed on the web, and a great related domains section where tons of other great times can be had. (View Comments)

Last week saw some great action on basic tasks that this wiki, any wiki really, needs. Adam spent some good energy reverting bad edits. Nathan worked on shortening Long Pages and per our AdultContentPolicy flagged many pages . Nick showed everyone how to use images in headers and William showed how to tweak the MapMashup.

In addition to those important activities, two really BIG questions happened. First off, new to AboutUs, Patty asked a bunch of good questions, like: What is AboutUs, what can I do here?. Hopefully some of those questions got resolved for her, and her questioning will help clarify for everyone. Long time active member Simon is pointing out a major challenge we still have in front of us: how we make changes and communicate them in this wiki. It is a year old question, what are your thoughts? (more)

The Pacific Coast Feather Company WikiPage tells you all you need to know to get right to sleep, in photos, text and diagrams, guarantees and awards, address and contact information. It all makes us want to head right down (sorry!) to Seattle to check out the geese (and their feathers). (View Comments)

If Deehan Landscaping, Inc. puts as much care into the design of your landscaping as they did into their WikiPage, their customers are sure to be satisfied. If you’re in Northern Virginia, USA and need landscaping, be sure to check them out. If you want a great example of a WikiPage with images, video, complete contact information, great information and a pleasing layout, check out Deehan.com. (View Comments)

For those Mac enthusiasts out there, there’s a cool function in the new OS X “Leopard” [1] that makes a great feature of AboutUs even better.Visitors to our home page probably know about our “presence” meters which list the people who recently have been active on our site as well as the most recently edited WikiPages on AboutUs.

Well, using a cool function in Leopard’s Safari web-browser, you can create mini “Web Clips” from any website that become little widgets in Apple’s Dashboard. You can use this function on nearly any website, and AboutUs is no exception.

Some of us at AboutUs have already started playing with this feature, making Web Clip Dashboard items from such things as calendars on AboutUs, favorite Portals, lists of AboutUs pages we’re working on and more. But the most common and interesting use case for an AboutUs Web Clip is the aforementioned “presence meters”. Because the Web Clip in the Dashboard is dynamic, it gives you a birds-eye view of what’s happening on AboutUs at any particular moment, letting you easily check to see if a user in online or see what pages have been edited. (And although you have to use the Safari-browser to set up the Web Clip, once it’s in your Dashboard, links clicked on will open in your default browser like Firefox or Camino.)

The steps for making a AboutUs Web Clip are simple and require no coding. In fact the only requirement is having a copy of Leopard installed (which does have it’s own modest technical requirements).

Steps

1. Load AboutUs.org into your Safari web browser.

2. Find something to turn into a dashboard widget. The “Currently Online” or “Wiki pages just edited” on the home page make great widgets to keep up on what’s happening on AboutUs.

3. Click the Web Clip icon in the upper left hand corner of Safari.

4. A little box appears. Highlight the AboutUs content you want to turn into a AboutUs Web Clip.

5. Adjust the box to get everything you want.

6. Click “Add” and wait a few seconds. OS X Leopard will open up the Dashboard and your AboutUs Web Clip will appear momentarily.

Adjusting

Sometimes boxes on AboutUs change their shape or location. If you need to make slight adjustments to your Web Clipped dashboard item, Apple makes it easy for you.

1. Access the Dashboard on your Mac by clicking the F12 button.

2. Click the “info button” on your dashboard clipping and click the “Edit” option.

3. You can now expand or collapse the web clipping’s window just like any other window.

Removing

Because changes to an AboutUs WikiPage you’ve clipped are reflected dynamically in the Dashboard, you might have to remove the clipping altogether rather than adjusting it (or if you just want to remove it from your Dashboard).1. In the Dashboard (F12), click the plus sign at the lower left of your screen.

2. This will change the “+” to an “X” and add “X”s to all of your Dashboard items.

3. Just click the “X” on the item(s) you wish to remove.

4. Click the “X” at the lower left hand corner to exit the “manage widgets” mode, or just use F12 to get out of the Dashboard.

Contibutor: TakKendrick

It’s that time of the month again for WikiWednesday, an opportunity for people in the wiki community and those interested in learning more to gather at various locations around the globe to discuss, meet and socialize.

This month, the Chicago WikiWednesday group has their first meeting, which follows an impromptu first meeting last month in Ann Arbor, MI; those of us in the wiki community are excited to see this list growing and growing:

• In the San Francisco Bay Area, they’ll be meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Socialtext co-working space, 695 High St, Palo Alto, CA 94301. more info
• The Chicago kicks off their first meeting at 6 p.m. at Cosi, 116 S. Michigan (near Monroe), Chicago, IL 60603. more info
• In London, they’ll start gathering a 6:15 p.m. for a 7 p.m. formal start at the Sun Microsystems London Customer Briefing Centre, Regis House, 45 King William Street, London, EC4R 9AN. LondonWikiWednesdays.com
• The Ann Arbor WikiWednesday meeting will be at a 8:30/9 p.m. at Rendez-Vous, 1110 S. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. more info
• The Portland WikiWednesday group’s meeting will again be held starting at 5:30 p.m. at the main AboutUs office, 107 SE Washington Ave Ste 520, Portland, OR 97232. more info

(all events are being held on Wed, Nov. 7, times are local)

To see a list of upcoming WikiWednesday events each month, check out the Wiki Wednesdays page on Socialtext.net.

Contibutor: TakKendrick

Having a solid online marketing strategy is the core of any good business, especially ones that primarily operate on the internet. That’s where companies like Xplusone.com [x+1] come in. [x+1] helps optimize online marketing with a variety of strategies tailored for your business. And, by building a great WikiPage on AboutUs with a list of their services along with client testimonials and links to their case studies, [x+1] improved their own online marketing, which has a perfect symmetry. (View Comments)