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This page contains all the information necessary to perform the job of a Mahalo Guide.
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Table of Contents
- Getting Started as a Mahalo Guide
- Mahalo's Mission Statement
- Wiki Markup Tutorial
- [[How to be a Mahalo Guide#Starting a SeRP in Greenhouse (For PTGs)|Starting a SeRP in Greenhouse]]
- [[How to be a Mahalo Guide#Starting a SeRP on Mahalo (For FTGs)|Starting a SeRP on Mahalo (FTGs)]]
- The SeRPing Process
- How to QC a SeRP
- How to be a Better Mahalo Guide
- Resources for Guides
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Related Mahalo Pages
Mahalo | Mahalo FAQ | Mahalo Greenhouse | Mahalo Warnings | RSS | Mahalo's RSS Best Practices | Advertorial | Mahaloguidelist | Splog | Firefox | Colloquy | Google | [[ Yahoo!]] | Del.icio.us | Digg
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Managed By: heidzelaine
Managed Since: 07/21/2009
Views: 592
Money Earned: M$1.22
Page revenue is subject to change as we obtain data from our partners
Managed Since: 07/21/2009
Views: 592
Money Earned: M$1.22
Page revenue is subject to change as we obtain data from our partners
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This page contains all the information necessary to perform the job of a Mahalo Guide.
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Getting Started as a Mahalo Guide
- The first thing you'll need in order to participate with Mahalo is an account. Click here to apply to be a Part Time Guide (PTG).
- Once you have an account, fill in your biographical information and upload an avatar from WeeWorld to your Profile page.
How to edit your profile page - Next, you will need the proper tools in order to make a Search Result Page (SeRP):
- Download the Firefox Browser, if you don't already have it.
- Download the Mahalo Guide Tool (for PTGs).
- Download an IRC client such as Colloquy for chatting with other guides.
- For instructions on how to communicate with the Greenhouse Community, click here.
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Mahalo's Mission Statement
- Mahalo's motto is "We're here to help." Our mission is to help our users by handcrafting and curating search results. Every time you investigate a link, ask yourself, "Does this help the user?"
- Remember to be as objective as possible. Do not bring your own biases into the SeRP you are creating. Look at Wikipedia's article on Neutral Point of View for reference.
- If you cannot be objective, pass the SeRP off to someone who can. For guidelines, read Mahalo's Ethics Page.
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Wiki Markup Tutorial: Learning the Code
- Watch this video for an overview of how to:
- Create Internal Links
- Create External Links
- Create Sections
- Add Warning tags
- Add "Guide's Choice" tags
- Insert RSS Feeds
- You can also find this information on How to Make Your First Search Results Page and Wikipedia's Wiki Cheatsheet
- Watch this video for an overview of how to:
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Starting a SeRP in Greenhouse (For PTGs)
- Go to the Most Wanted List and a find a term you would like to research.
- Keep in mind that the perfect SeRP will take some time to create, so it's a good idea to do a little preliminary research on the topic before you commit to it.
- Once you decide upon a term, click on it and click the yellow "Claim" button at the top of the page.
- You now have seven days to finish this SeRP and submit it for review.
- Go to the Most Wanted List and a find a term you would like to research.
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Using Templates in Greenhouse
- The term you have selected most likely already has a template on it. You may need to manually add a template if the page is blank. Click here for a list of Templates.
- Copy the substitution code for the template you want from the list.
- Click on the green "edit" button in the upper left hand corner of your screen, and paste the substitution code in the edit field of your SeRP.
- Once you save, the template will automatically format within the body of your SeRP.
- Go back into the edit box and replace all the generic section headers with your specific term.
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Starting a SeRP on Mahalo (For FTGs)
- 1. Go to News to Do and find the vertical you are working within.
- 2. Find a red term you would like to work on. Keep in mind that the perfect SeRP will take some time to create, so it's a good idea to do a little preliminary research on the topic before you commit to it.
- 3. Click on the "edit" button and then cut (apple + x) your term from the list.
- 4. Go to The Daily SeRP List and paste (apple + v) your term into the appropriate section.
- 5. Next to the term, put your name and the word "pending", so that other guides will know you are working on it.
- 6. Click on your term to edit it.
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Using Templates in Mahalo
- Click here for a list of Mahalo Templates
- Copy the substitution code for the template you want from the list.
- Click on the green "edit" button in the upper left hand corner of your screen, and paste the substitution code in the edit field of your SeRP.
- Once you save, the template will automatically format within the body of your SeRP.
- Go back into the edit box and replace all the generic section headers with your specific term.
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Searching For Links
- Look at Mahalo's page on searching for links.
- Perform a search, and open all promising links in tabs.
- Tip: It's helpful to set your middle mouse button (if you have one) to open tabs within Firefox.
- Cycle through all these links (ctrl + tab) and determine which ones you'd like to add to your SeRP.
- EVERY link you add should be of very good to excellent quality! If it is only an OK link, do not include it.
- If a site provides excellent, unique information but is Ad-Heavy or otherwise obnoxious, you may link to it with a Warning Tag.
- Sites we will never link to are:
- Spam and Advertorial sites
- Unhelpful sites
- Malicious sites that hurt the user or steal content
- Sites with inappropriate content
- You can read more about what types of sites Mahalo links to on our Mahalo FAQ
Check out our page on Avoiding Bad Links. - As you go through each link, thoroughly examine everything that the site has to offer.
- Remember that it's OK to deep-link to several different pages within the same site!
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Adding Links to a SeRP
- When you are ready to add a link, use the guide tool by pressing apple + shift + m (ctrl+ shift + m on a PC).
How to use the Guide Tool - Make sure that the SeRP name is correct, and then fill in the appropriate fields.
- Remember that the tool will use the title bar of the page you are linking to as a default title, so you will most likely want to rename it.
- You can learn more about formatting in How to Make Your First Search Results Page
- Once you've completed general searches on Google, Yahoo!, etc, move on to specific searches such as delicious and Digg.
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Completing a SeRP
- After you've filled up all your sections with links, there are few more steps you must take in order to complete your page:
- Fill out the Guide Note and Fast Facts.
- In your own words, provide a description of what your term is all about.
- Try to link to other Mahalo pages when possible.
- Keep your fast facts short! They should be no longer than a few words, and should simply provide basic information about your topic.
- Add Related Searches at the bottom of the Note Box. Related Searches should be ordered from most relevant to least relevant, and may include terms that Mahalo has not created a page for yet. Each term should be in double brackets and separated by a pipe: Pulp Fiction | John Travolta
- Add Categories to the top of your page (No more than 10).
- Look at Mahalo's directory in order to figure out what categories your term belongs in. Do not make up your own category names!
- Add Disambiguation if necessary.
- Look over your page for blatant errors, such as typos or bad links.
- If you are a PTG, submit your page for review
- If you are an FTG:
- Add an image to the Guide Note via the Guide Note Image Tool
- Remove the red construction notice from the top of the page
- Assign a completion percentage
- Mark The Daily SeRP List
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How to be a Better Mahalo Guide
- Once you've become comfortable with basic SeRPing, keep striving to be a better guide. There's always room for improvement!
- 1. Try your hand at tougher verticals, such as Travel or Health.
Writing a Travel Vacation SeRP - 2. Keep up on current events and breaking news stories, so you can leap on terms as soon as they become popular.
- 3. When appropriate, embed videos.
- 4. Thoroughly inspect your finished pages. They should have ZERO typos and ZERO bad links.
- 5. Use the following Hot Keys to speed up your SeRPing process!
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Browser Hot Keys (for Macs)
- cycle through tabs = ctrl + tab
- reverse cycle through tabs = ctrl + shift + tab
- highlight url = apple + L
- close tab = apple + w
- undo "close tab" = apple + shift + t
- move between windows = apple + ~
- new tab = apple + t
- new window = apple + n
- Browse history (back) = apple + [
- Browse history (forward) = apple + ]