Printer-friendly version

The main thing that the Ink Exchange needs right now is help with data entry. PrawnBoy has been kind enough to enter as many brand names as we could think of into the system, but the individual inks still must be entered.

Here's how to enter an ink:

1. Log in to ink.binaryredneck.net using your OpenID, if you have one. Alternatively, you can create a user name and password the old-fashioned way. The rest of these instructions assume that you are logged in.
2. Take a look at the brands list and scratch ink list. The brands list contains all of the brands that have been entered into the system. Before an ink can be added, its brand must be in the system. The scratch ink list is a list I made of all the inks I could think of... many of these have not yet been entered into the system, so this is a good place to start. The ink list shows all of the inks that are already in the system, please take a look so we avoid duplicate entries.
3. Click "Create content" on the side bar, and choose "Ink" on the resulting page. You will now see the ink creation form.
4. In the "Name" field, enter the name of the ink. The name should NOT include the brand (that comes later). If the name contains a descriptor such as "bulletproof" or "quick dry" include it only if it is needed to make the name unique for that brand; i.e. both Lamy Black and Waterman Black can be just "black" but if a brand makes "black" and "quick-dry black" then the latter keeps "quick-dry" in the name.
5. Select the ink's brand name from the "Manufacturer" drop-down. If the correct brand is not listed, see below for how to create a brand.
6. Select any special properties the ink has in the "Ink Properties" field. This is option may be left blank if the ink has none of these properties. To select more than one property at once, hold down the Ctrl key while you select them.
7. Select the ink's color family. This is meant to be as simple as possible, for finding general categories of ink. While you can choose multiple families in the same manner as properties, you should do so sparingly. For example, a black with green undertones is in only the Black/Grey family, while a turquoise might be in Green and Blue.
8. The "Description" field is optional. At most, it should contain a brief 1-2 sentence description, plus any related links such as the ink's entry on penpedia (if there is one) or a particularly good review of the ink on FPN.
9. Click "Save" and you are done!

If you must enter a brand that is not yet listed, here's how:

1. Make sure you are logged in to ink.binaryredneck.net.
2. Check the brands list to make sure that the brand does not already exist. If a manufacturer uses more than one brand name for the same ink, such as Bexley which is re-branded Private Reserve, please use the contact form to let me know, becasue these need to be linked together using an admin option.
3. Click "Create content" on the side bar, and choose "Brand" on the resulting page. You will now see the brand creation form.
4. Enter the brand name in the "Name" field.
5. In the "Description" field, enter a short (1-2 sentence) description and/or a link to penpedia or the ink company's home page. If you can't think of anything suitable off the top of your head, just skip the description and someone can add it later
6. Click "Save".
7. If you were creating an ink when you discovered this brand was missing, and the ink creation page is still open in another tab or window, you will need to refresh that page for the new brand to appear.

Feel free to enter inks and brands not on the scratch ink list. I'm sure there are some I haven't thought of. Be careful to be precise with the names, however, to avoid accidental creation of duplicates. For example, if you enter Noodler's "Borealis" it could easily be missed by someone planning to enter Noodler's "Borealis Black", resulting in a duplicate entry. The more inks and brands we list the better, however we can't officially announce the alpha site until at least the inks on the scratch list have been entered.

Thank you in advance for your help!