Adding to the Wiki
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Overview
Some of you might not be familiar with editing Wiki, so this page is designed to give you a quick lesson. It won't go into any great detail, but it will teach you enough to let you help out by contributing pages to the site.
The Basics
Creating Articles
The way you create a page in Wiki seems a bit unusual to some, but it is quite simple when you get used to it.
The first step is creating a link TO the page you want to create. While this might seem backwards, it serves a purpose. Because of this, every Wiki page created by definition already has a link leading to it from somewhere. This reduces the chance of pages being "Orphaned" by having no links that lead to it (and, therefore, can't easily be viewed)
Next you simply click on that new link, and it will take you to a blank page. Now you just have to write it!
Suppose you were looking at the Fry page and decided to add a page for his dog Seymore. First you would go to Fry's page and hit "Edit". Scroll down to the bottom and in the family section, you add a a link, like this:
*[[Seymore]], Fry's dog
If you hit "Show Preview" now, you would see "Seymore" as a red link, indicating that the page does not exist yet. If that link is clicked on, a page called "Seymore" will be created. However, the site's pattern is to have character pages be named the character's full name, so you scroll back to the bottom and change the link to Seymore's full name, Seymore Butts.
*[[Seymore Butts]], Fry's dog
You hit preview again, but now it shows the full name in the link. Again, the prefered in this Wiki is to display only the familiar name, plus any titles, in these links. You can change the text that is displayed for a link, similar to a hyperlink in HTML or BBCode. You do this by using a | to seperate the page name from the link text.
*[[Seymore Butts|Seymore]], Fry's dog
If you hit preview again, you will that the link just says "Seymore," but if you hover over it, the page name that pops up will be "Seymore Butts." You're ready to save the changes to Fry's page.
Formatting and Style
We are trying to be consistent with our style of formatting for articles, particurlarly between articles of the same category. For example, all our character articles follow a certain format, with certain headers and information in a consistent order. The easiest way to get started on a new article, and to remain consistent with the style of other articles, is to start by copying another article of the same category.
To continue the example, while creating the link from Fry to Seymore, before saving we could have selected all the text in the page and copied it to the clipboard by pressing Control-C. Then, after following the link to the blank Seymore page, we can simply paste this (Ctrl-V) and change the specific information, while keeping the formatting and other structural info.
Setting Categories
Every article must have it's categories set. These categories appear at the bottom of the aticle as links to the category page. A Category page lists every article in that category, with links, in alphabetical order. For people to find your article, it is important that the categories be set properly. Fortunately, this is the easiest part of writing an article! A list of our existing category hierarchy can be found here. If you've copied an article template, there's a good chance at least some of the categories will be the same.
For our Seymore article, Seymore is a character, so he goes in that category. He doesn't fit into any of the existing sub-categories, though, as he is not human, robot, or alien. He's an animal. Even though the category doesn't exist, we can still use it. Categories are created just like pages - first you have to use them, THEN you create them. Since we copied from Fry, we can leave Characters and just change Human to Animal.
[[Category:Characters]] [[Category:Animals]]
An article can be attached to as many categories as appropriate in this manner. In most cases you should not need to create a new category, but this explanation is provided for completeness anyway.
Linking Pages
Anything mentioned in your article, including characters, episodes, or interesting items, that has (or should have) it's own article page should be made a link. This is very much like the link we made to create the article in the first place. Links can be placed in-line in an article.
example: Seymore is [[Philip J. Fry|Fry's]] loyal dog from the 20th century. Tragically, Seymore was abandoned when Fry was frozen, but he did live a long, healthy life with a regular diet of [[Panucci's Pizza]]. After he died, was fast-fossilized and recovered durring an archaeological expedition ([[Jurassic Bark|4ACV07]]).
Notice that Fry is linked only the first time it appears; it is not nessicary to repeat these links all the time. Before saving a page with links, it is important to check the preview. Links to existing articles should appear in blue, links to new articles are red. If your link to Fry shows up red, you know you've made a mistake somewhere. The link to Pannucci's Pizza should be red, though, since there is not yet an article on it. Also notice that, for the episode reference, we display only the episode's production code. If you don't know these off-hand, you're not alone. I recomend keeping a second wiki page open while working; then you can look up production codes on the Episode Listing. This is prefered to saving the page, looking it up, and returning to re-edit.
Linking to Categories
Sometimes you need to link a word which is a category rather than a regular article. Since the syntax [[Category:whatever]] is already used to define an article's categories, a link uses a different syntax: [[:Category:whatever]] or [[:Category:whatever|link text]]. Notice the extra ':' before "Category."
Linking to other websites
To add a link to another website, you only use a single set of []'s, and you seperate the URL from the text with a space rather than a '|'. This link would link to Google: [http://www.google.com Google]
Wiki Formatting
Bold and Italicied text
To make text bold, simply enclose it in a triple set of single-quotes '''like so'''. For italics use a ''double set.'' ====Bullet lists==== To make a bulleted list, simply make a list and prefix everything with an asterick ('*'). For sub-items or intention, just add more. <nowiki>This list... *Series **Season 1 ***Space Pilot 3000 **Season 2 **Season 3
will be displayed like this:
- Series
- Season 1
- Space Pilot 3000
- Season 2
- Season 3
- Season 1
Headings
To insert a section heading, enclose the heading name in '=' signs. Similar to bullet lists, more = signs makes it a lower heading. On this page, "Wiki Formatting" is a level 2 heading (==Wiki Formatting), Headings is a level 3 (===Headings===)
Levels 1 and 2 have an horizontal seperator line below them. Higher level numbers make for progressively smaller heading text. By using headings through your article, a table of contents will automatically be inserted at the begining of the page.
When using headings, make sure you don't skip a level. I.E., don't use a level three heading without first using a level two heading. (Since the title of the page is a level 1 heading, there is no need to start with a level 1 heading.)
Preformatted text
Preformatted text can be created by preceeding each line with a space, like so:
\\|//
-@-@-
------oo00-(_)-00oo------
Which will output the following:
\\|//
-@-@-
------oo00-(_)-00oo------
This can be useful for presenting code, such as HTML, or for preserving the spacing of ASCII art (like above).
House Rules
Like every site on the internet, we have some house rules around here. Here's the general rules of style and conduct you need to follow while you're here.
Working template
When doing any significant edit of a page, you should mark the page with the Working template first. To do so, you simply add the following text to the top of the page and save.
{{Working}} This will insert a large banner across the top of the page. If you encounter a page with this banner, you know someone else is editing it and should not try to edit it yourself. This goes for creating long, new pages as well - you should immedaitely save the page with just the working template, so no other users try to create the same page.
Not your personal playground
Remember that this is a community project. If you have an drastic idea that requires significantly changing or reorganizing multiple pages, suggest it a discussion page, explaining your intention. If people generally agree that it's a beneficial change to make, the whole community can then pitch in to making the changes. Not talking about changes and coming to a consensus could lead to stylistic tug-of-wars, where two or more people are trying to change the Wiki in conflicting ways.
Vandalism
If someone has blanked or vandalized a page, you can repair the page yourself. Every page has a "history" tab at the top; by clicking it, you can view past versions of an article. Only an administrator can officially "roll back" an edit, but anyone can edit the archived version to copy and paste it back over the vandalized version. If you find a page that has been vandalized, tell an admin (currently Buddy 13 or Gopher) and the offending user will be banned, 1 week for a single offense or permanently for multiple offenses.
Don't Fret!
If you're ever unsure about how to format something, don't sweat it! Try to emulate the existing styles, but if you're not certain, just use your best judgement. If you make a mistake, someone else can correct it later. If you don't know a piece of information, you can omit it and someone else will fill it in. In these cases, you might want to make a brief comment about it in the edit summary. Every time you edit a page you can attach a summary line explaining what you did. You do so by simply typing into the "Summary" box, located just below the main edit box on every editing page. As long as you're trying to be correct and helpful, hack away! Even if you mess it up badly, fixing a poor or incomplete article will take a lot less time than starting one from scratch. The more contributors we have, the faster we can make progress on this herculean undertaking!
Questions
If you have any questions about wiki editing, just edit this section and add them here. We'll try to come back and answer them in a timely manner. If appropriate, a new section will be added addressing the topic, and after a few days the original question will be removed.
Q: How do you create templates, like Working or Buddy13's sig?