definition

A  definition  on the IndieWeb wiki should be an accessible, basic, clear, plain English description of the term (or phrase) naming a wiki page, with an explicit connection to the term’s relevance to the IndieWeb, and ideally without any use of jargon.

If you’re looking for how to define terms used in a blog post or on a site, see:
 * glossary

Good page definitions are a key part of wikifying. Help make the IndieWeb wiki a friendly glossary of terms, accessible to anyone, and improve & create pages accordingly.

Be specific
Be specific and meaningful in definitions, certainly more than just a link and/or restatement using the same or similar terms.

Definitions include IndieWeb relevance
When defining a term, include why it is specifically relevant to the IndieWeb (if that's not obvious from the description), beyond just a "normal" definition that could have come from Wikipedia.

Do not copy from Wikipedia
Please do not copy definitions from Wikipedia, or even just restate the same thing as Wikipedia, or only have a definition that links to Wikipedia.

Any of those likely indicate that the page does not belong on the IndieWeb wiki, and it may be deleted.

Tweetable definitions
Write definitions that are Tweetable, as there is evidence that people will tweet good definitions that are of tweetable length (including a subsequent link to the page) - that's 257 characters (space + 23 characters for the tco'd link).


 * https://twitter.com/zeldman/status/688791904356581376 "Site deaths are when sites go offline, taking content and permalinks with them, and breaking the web accordingly. http://indiewebcamp.com/site-deaths"
 * Note that he edited the dfn of site-deaths (as of that time) and removed "their" in order to make it fit on Twitter.

How to markup
Use the dfn element around the term being defined, and MediaWiki bolding, e.g.

How not to
Things to avoid in definitions:
 * repeating words from the term
 * generic abstract definitions (the IndieWeb is not Wikipedia)
 * jargon
 * If absolutely necessary (e.g. many technical terms make sense only in terms of other technical terms), use as few jargon terms as possible, and then link/define them too.