Contributing

Getting Started

The best way to figure out how to edit pages is to look at some examples. Go to a page you like and click edit, it will show you what the editor had to type in to make that page. If you have something to add, but aren't sure you completely understand all the editing features, just do your best. If it doesn't fit some format that we're following we can always change it. Poorly formatted information is better than no information at all. Recently we created some Templates to make it easier to create new pages. The idea is that you can quickly create a new page by copying a Template and filling in the blanks. See Templates for more information.

Creating A New Article

One thing that's very important to know is how to create a new article. The best way to do this is to edit an existing page, link to the new article that you want to create, and then follow that link. If you can't think of any pages that would be appropriate to link to your new page, don't worry, there's still two easy ways to create your article. The first is to use the search box to search for your new article. If it doesn't already exist you will be presented with a link to create your new page. If you create a new article in this method, be sure to put it in the appropriate categories.

The other way to create a new page is to edit any page at all, create the link to your new page, click "Show Preview", and then follow the link to create your new page. Once you're done writing your new page you don't need to permanently save the link you created on the original page.

The reason why there isn't another way to create new pages is because if you don't link the page from any existing pages nobody will be able to get to it. The page becomes what the wiki calls an "orphaned" page. Orphaned pages don't do anything helpful and are not really a part ot the wiki. So in review, figure out what page is going to bring people to your new page, make a link, follow that link, add to the page, categorize the page. That should be the work progression that everybody follows when making a new page.

Naming Pages

We have some simple guidelines in place for naming new pages. Omit any articles ("the" "a" "an") at the beginning of a name. Also, capitalize each word in a multi-word title. If you come across any pages that don't follow this naming convention, feel free to move them to the proper name by clicking the "move" button at the top of the page.

Categories

All areas, lists of gear or mobs, or other pages which logically "contain" other pages should be created as categories. Category naming follows the same rules as page naming, but use plural nouns when appropriate. Category:Mobs In Midgaard, Category:Gear In Apocalypse and Category:Hero Tank Gear are some example categories.

To put a page in a category, put [[Category: blah]] anywhere on the page (but preferably at the bottom). More specific categories are better places to put new pages.

To link to a category page without making the page you're editing a part of that category, do something like [[:Category:blah]] <--that. The important part is the colon ( : ) in front of the word Category.

If you think that having your link say "Category:" in front of it is ugly, you can rename the link with a pipe ( | ). For instance, by typing [[:Category:Gear In Apocalypse|Apoc Gear]] I've made this link to the same page as the one linked above: Apoc Gear. BTW, link renaming works for all links, not just those to categories.

Recently I discovered a short-cut for renaming categories. If you type in [[:Category:Gear In Apocalypse|]] the wiki parser will automatically figure out what you mean, and fill in the rest for you. Here's what it looks like: Gear In Apocalypse

Editing Secrets

Other than that we don't have any big secrets to making nice Wiki pages. To edit a page, click on the edit link at the top of the page. From there the Wiki software does a good job of explaining the editing features. You can also use simple HTML to format a page if you'd like. If you can't figure something out, try looking at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing.

Your First Contribution

If starting a new page seems daunting there are pages that currently exist but need fleshing out. Take a look at the Incomplete page for those that need a bit more information.

Spoilers

If you are adding something which is a spoiler, but which you feel the subject's author won't object to you revealing on the wiki, then you can use the

<spoiler> My spoiler text. </spoiler> tags, which would produce this:

<spoiler>My spoiler text.</spoiler>

Or:

<spoiler text='Step 1: Seek the Tall Gnome.'>He can be found in Zin's Oddities. </spoiler>
<spoiler text='Step 1: Seek the Tall Gnome.'>He can be found in Zin's Oddities. </spoiler>

The tags will happily work inside a table, and text can precede the tag to the left, but due to a hardcoded carriage return, cannot go on the right side of it.