SikhiWiki:About

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Introduction to Sikhi Wiki

The SikhiWIKI encyclopedia is our brand new experiment - A web based encyclopedia of the Sikh Way of Life written collaboratively by many of its readers. Lots of people are constantly improving SikhiWIKI, by constantly making changes, all of which are recorded on the page history and the Recent Changes page. Nonsense and vandalism are usually removed quickly. Feel free to dive in take a look at the Tutorial, play in the sandbox, get comfortable and start contributing the our SikhiWIKI!


The whole point of SikhiWIKI is that you don't have to be a scholar, a pundit or a gyani to contribute. We all have the experience of what it means to live as a Sikh. Now's the time to share our wisdom, insights and experiences with each other.


The basis of a WIKI is trust and respect for each other. The beauty of a good WIKI is that it is self-regulating and self-cleansing. You can post anything of value that you wish to contribute, but all contributions will need to be in good taste. If you want to stand on a soapbox and lecture, preach, advocate your personal or political view - this isn't the place to do that. If your stuff gets erased, that's probably why.


Those who want to use SikhiWIKI to advance their personal agenda will not be allowed to participate.


Let's build something new and beautiful that is of use to everyone to understand the Sikh Way of Life and what it means in today's world.

See the "edit this page" tab at the top of each article? On SikhiWiki you can edit pages whenever you want, logged in or not.

How did it start?

(Excerpt from press release)

Ash Singh, creator of Rate My Turban and Turbanizer, recently had a television interview in which both he and the interviewer stressed the importance of not only recognizing Sikh history from the last 400 or so years, but of documenting today's "history" as it happens. After this interview, Ash realized that today's events need to be documented, but by whom? By the people who are making the history today of course! So, teaming up with his mentor Gurumustuk Singh Khalsa, webmaster of SikhNet.com, they are bringing another cool new technology to the web in order to serve the Sikh community worldwide. Inspired by the Wikipedia (the largest online encyclopedia in the world) they created SikhiWiki - an online resource for Sikh philosophy, history, culture and lifestyle. Rather than an academic compendium of existing materials, SikhiWiki is a living website which is constantly changing, evolving and improving through everyone's active participation.

What is SikhiWIKI?

SikhiWIKI is an encyclopedia of the Sikh Way of Life written collaboratively by many of its readers. Lots of people are constantly improving SikhiWIKI, by constantly making changes, all of which are recorded on the page history and the Recent Changes page. Nonsense and vandalism are usually removed quickly.

Why a Wiki?

We are all familiar with traditional websites and most of us are familiar with Blogs (online journals). Wiki is a new concept originally developed by Ward Cunningham. It's a set of web pages which can be edited by anyone without any special tools. All you need is a web browser. The word "wiki" comes from the Hawaiial word "wiki", which means "really quick." This technology has given rise to Wiki communities on the internet, the most well known of which is the Wikipedia. With most websites you come to read and perhaps listen or download. With a Wiki you can jump right it and change anything that is on the page. We feel that this is a marvelous opportunity for Sikhs everywhere, young and old alike, to share their knowledge, experience, thoughts, and poetry, and to generally inspire each other with an ongoing, ever-growing narrative.

What do we mean by Encyclomedia?

Well, SikhiWiki is really not an encyclopedia. An encyclopedia is compiled by scholars to serve as a fixed reference. So how does it differ? We know that everyone has expertise. Some people are smart about some things and some people are smart about others. Everybody is smart about something. You don't have to be a scholar, pundit or gyani to help us create SikhiWiki. We want Sikhi Wiki to include not simply reference material but all kinds of contributions. Text, audio, graphics and whatever the participants would like to include. So we coined a new word, Encyclomedia. We are still discovering what it means, and you'll help us define it by your contributions.


Our vision for the future

As with any web community, it takes a while for a new endeavor to take form, and gather momentum. The key principles of Sikhi Wiki are:

  • No fear, jump in and contribute. You can write, edit, review, delete. . . whatever makes sense to you.
  • Trust - We build trust by honoring each others' work. Trust the process. You may not think that what you have to say has value, let the group decide that.
  • Be graceful. SikhiWiki is the place for ideas, insights, reflections, realizations and inspirations. It's not the place for personal agendas, politics, diatribes, or attacks on anyone.


The wiki culture is new and it is defined by the fact that what is of value stays and what isn't relevent will be deleted or changed by the community. Gradually the Wiki takes form and its value increases daily. So our vision is simple, if you can type, logon and contribute. If you can't type, go get someone who can, have them logon and make your contribution anyway!

How can I help?

Don't be afraid to edit pages on the SikhiWIKI - anyone can edit, and we encourage users to be bold! Find something that can be improved, either in content, grammar or formatting, then fix it. Worried about breaking SikhiWIKI? Don't be: it can always be fixed or improved later. So go ahead, edit an article and help make SikhiWIKI the best source for information about Sikhs on the Internet!

Editing is very easy:

  1. Click edit this page (the link is at the top of the page). You can test your first edit right here on this page.
  2. Type a message.
  3. Click save page to save your writing ... or "show preview" to test your changes.

When you're finished testing, find out more about editing

Feeling passionate...have time on your hands....? Let's build something new and beautiful that is of use to everyone to understand the Sikh Way of Life and what it means in today's world.

Contact The SikhiWiki Staff

SikhiWiki is maintained by SikhNet.com, however most of those involved in the SikhiWiki project are volunteers. If you have questions or need help feel free Email us or call us at: in the United States at: +1-505-814-1523 or toll free: (855)745-SikhNet