Help:FAQ
From Figure Skating Wiki
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[edit] You're a part of the wiki!
When you first see a wiki, it doesn't seem like it could possibly work. If anybody can come along and change things, then how can the information be trusted? Doesn't it just get vandalized, or fall into chaos?
Once you start participating, you see that that "weakness" is actually a wiki's greatest strength. Sure, anybody can add anything -- and then everybody else gets to proofread it, and fix mistakes. Information that looks suspicious can be verified. Vandalism is almost always fixed within minutes. It's possible for someone to post errors, or nonsense -- but over time, the best wins out.
If you're reading these words, then you're an editor. If you see a problem on one of the pages, don't roll your eyes and complain about it. Just fix it!
[edit] Create a user name
Log in and create a user name -- it helps you (and everybody) keep track of your contributions, and it makes it possible to communicate with other contributors.
[edit] Talk pages
Sign talk posts with four tildes ~~~~ which automatically adds your user name and a date stamp. When you reply on a talk page, put a colon (:) at the front of your post to indent it.
See Help:Talk pages for more details.
[edit] Fancy signatures
Here's how to make a fancy signature for your talk posts:
Click on the "preferences" tab at the top right of your screen.
On the Preferences page, put this in the Nickname box, with your User name and real first name plugged in:
- — [[User:Username|Firstname]] ([[User talk:Username|<font size="1">talk</font>]])
Then check the "Raw signatures" box underneath, and hit the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.
Then, when you sign your talk posts, you just have to type the four tildes, and the new signature will appear. You can tweak that code in a bunch of different ways; feel free to play around with it!
[edit] Show your sources
When you're posting factual information, other readers should be able to verify the information that you post. If you find information in a book or on a website, tell us the title or the URL. If it's clumsy to put that information in the article, then add a "References" heading at the bottom of the page.
In the event questionable information appears in a particular article, place the {{cite}} tag after the appropriate text in such a way that the notation's inclusion is clear as to what needs to be cited. This will automatically place the article in the Citations needed category.
[edit] How to upload pictures
Click on "Upload file" on the navigation bar to upload pictures. You can add your image to any page using this code:
- [[Image:yourpicture.jpg|thumb|300px|Caption for your picture.]]
Images should not exceed 300 pixels wide for article tidyness and copyright adherence.
If you upload an image in error, or do not intend to use it, tag the article with {{delete}} so that an administrator can remove the file from the wiki. Images are subject for deletion if they are not used.
[edit] How to add category tags
You can put an article into a category by adding this code: [[Category:YourCategory]] . You can change the way the article is alphabetized within the category like this: [[Category:Movies|Empire Strikes Back, The]].
Before you create a category, check the Category list to see if there's a similar category that already exists. If the category doesn't exist yet, then adding that code will create the category. You'll need to add some text to the new category page to make it work properly.
[edit] External links
You can add links to other websites by putting one bracket around the site's address. Put a space after the address, and then add a description of the link, like this: [http://www.wikia.com Wikia]. That'll look like this: Wikia.
[edit] History tab
Nothing is ever lost on a wiki! You can see all of the changes that have been made to a page -- and who made them -- by clicking on the "History" tab at the top of any page.
[edit] Setting your preferences
There's a lot of useful stuff on your Preferences page.
You can change your display so that links show up without the underlining. You can also change your time zone, and the number of items you see on the Recent Changes page or the Category list.
[edit] Dealing with vandalism
Vandalism isn't much of a problem on a wiki, because everybody has the power to fix it when they see it. See the Vandalism help page for instructions on how to fix vandalized pages, and how to discourage the vandals.
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Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to be a tech wizard to edit a wiki. If you can use a word processor, you can probably edit a wiki.
Just follow these instructions and you'll be editing in no time!
- Before you begin...
- You may wish to visit our online demos page for videos demonstrating all of the Wikia basics and much much more - see Help:Video demos!
About Wikis
What is a wiki?
A wiki is a website that you can edit. The word comes from "wikiwiki", a Hawaiian word for "fast". Wikis are designed to be collaborative so people can work together on a wiki project, so it's possible to build up a lot of content very quickly.
Find out more about the background of wikis on Wikipedia.
Getting started
Creating Your Wikia Account
While most Wikia wikis can be edited anonymously, creating an account allows you to keep track of your edits and only takes a moment.
- Click the "create an account" link in the upper right hand corner of the page.
- Choose a username and a password in the newly opened box.
- Provide your birthdate. This is both a safety precaution and as a means of preserving the integrity of the site while complying with federal regulations.
- Type in the word you see in the "captcha" image shown. This shows us you are a real person!
- Choose whether to provide an email address - it's optional, but if you don't give a valid email address you will not be able to recover your account if you forget your password.
Using the wiki
Finding Articles
All pages (on the Monaco skin) have a search box at the top left. Just enter your search term here, and click the search arrow. An alternative is search suggest, simply start typing in the search box and it will try to guess articles based on what you're typing.
Recent Changes
Recent changes is one of the most important pages on a wiki. It lists every edit that's made, tells you who made the change, and shows you what edit summary they added. So, it's a great way to get an idea of what's going on in your wiki and what pages are most active.
You can get to the recent changes page by clicking on the "Recent changes" page in the toolbox on the left or by going to Special:RecentChanges. You can get to Recent Changes on any Wikia wiki by typing Special:RecentChanges after the /wiki/ part of a Wikia URL. For example, to get to the Recent Changes page for Recipes Wiki, you would type http:/recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Special:RecentChanges.
Keeping Track of Changes to an Article
Every page has a "history" page to go with it. This lists the usernames of everyone who has edited the page, and tells you when it was edited. It also gives you links to old versions... nothing is lost when a page is changed, you can always recover previous versions. To see the history of a page, look for the "history" link above each article.
Knowing when a Page is Changed
You can "watch" any page, by adding it to a list of pages kept for your username. To do this, click the "watch" link at the top of the article you want to watch. If you want, you can set your preferences to have an email sent to you each time a page on your watchlist is edited.
Logging In
Click the "log in" link at the top of any page. This will open a box where you can enter your username and password.
Tip: You might want to leave "Remember me" unchecked if using a public computer.
Note: You must have cookies enabled to log in to Wikia (for more information please see the link below).
Changing Your Email, Password Etc.
Almost everything you might want to change about the way Wikia sites display and function can be found in your preferences. To get there:
- Click the "MORE" button in the upper right (between the "Watch list" and "Logout" links).
- Choose "My preferences" from the drop-down menu that appears. You can also visit Special:Preferences.
If password reset does not work, please Contact Wikia for help.
Editing
Changing a Wiki Page
Editing a page is easy:
- Click the "Edit this page" link above any article. Doing so will open a window that looks like a word processor document.
- Type your changes in the text box. Tip: It's a good idea to preview your edit to be sure the changes look the way they're supposed to. This allows you to see and fix mistakes before they get saved onto the wiki. If the article looks, good, click the "save" button at the bottom of the text box.
There's no way to break a wiki, so feel free to dive in and start making changes right away!
Undoing an edit
Keeping bad content off the wiki is just as important as adding good content. That's why it's important to know how to revert back to a previous version of an article.
Every edit made is stored on a Wiki, that means it's easy to go back to an old version if an edit is a mistake or vandalism. To change an edit for an article, go to the article's "history" page. Each date/time listed on the history page is a link to a different version of that article. Just click the version you want, then click edit, followed by the save button. Wiki admins have a shortcut link for this, and can "rollback" the most recent edits with one click.
Formatting text
The rich text editor makes bolding and italicizing as easy as selecting text and clicking a button. There's also wikitext code that will work as a shortcut if you prefer to keep your fingers on the keys:
- Bolding: Surround a word with three single quotation marks (''').
- Italicizing use two quotation marks ('').
- Putting it together: You can make text bold and italic with five quotation marks (''''').
Linking to another page on a wiki
As with formatting, there's more than one way to link to another page. In the rich text editor, select the text you want to turn into a link, then click the "Link" button (with the chain links) to pop up a dialog box which makes it simple to link internally to other pages on the wiki, or externally to sites elsewhere on the web.
The wikitext shortcut for internal page linking works in either the rich text or source editing box. To link to a another page, you put the page title in double square brackets. So to link to the page "Example", you would type [[Example]].
Once you know how to link to other wiki pages, you're ready to learn the pipe trick.
Starting a New Page
To start a new page you can use three basic methods:
- Click the "New page" link next to the pencil icon in the sidebar.
- Click a red (broken) link. A broken link is a link to a page that doesn't (yet) exist on the wiki.
- Use an inputbox -- an article creation box that can be place on the wiki's main page.
Remember to do a search for your topic before creating a new page. This is especially true of large wikis where there is a high probability that the subject you want to write about has already been added to the wiki by someone else.
Renaming (moving) Pages
Any logged in user can move pages. To do so, use the "move" link above the article:
- Click "move".
- Enter the correct title
- Click "Move page".
Note: It's a good idea to explain your move in the box provided.
Using Templates
A template is a page with text ready to be used on many pages without having to type it in each time. It looks like a normal page, but the title starts with "Template:". Templates are good for content that has to be added to many pages on the wiki, since they save you the time and effort of having to write the same text and wiki code over and over again.
To use a template, you just need to type its title inside curly brackets. So {{name}} will add the text from the page Template:Name.
Templates can get very complex, but at their simplest they are just pages that can be used many times using a simple form.
Adding an Image
There are three ways of adding an image:
- Upload it to the wiki using the Add image link, next to the painting icon, in the toolbox. You will be able to choose an image from your computer, and save it on the wiki. Then you can add it to an article by editing a page to add the image name in the form
[[File:Name.jpg]].
- Add an image while you are editing a page. Just click on the upload button
and you will see a form to upload and insert your image. See Help:Add Images for more on this method.
- The Import Free Images Button: Import free images allows you to upload freely licensed Flickr images without leaving your wiki! All you need to do is go to Special:Importfreeimages and type what you are looking for in the search box. Click search and thumbnails of Creative Commons licensed Flickr images matching your search terms will appear. Click on the (import this) link below an image to upload it to the wiki.
Categorizing Pages
The gray "Add category" button at the bottom of the text box makes it easy to search among existing categories or type in new ones.
To add categories in wikitext, add [[Category:Name]] to the article. This will add the category to the bottom of the page. If you want to link to a category, rather than add a page to it, you need to add a colon inside the brackets: [[:Category:Name]].
Where next?
There are many places to get help on Wikia. If you have not seen our video demos yet, check them out at Help:Video demos. Also, many wikis have a forum where you can ask questions of admins and other regular contributors. Alternatively you can contact the wider Wikia community at the Central Wikia forums. If you need more help, see Contacting Wikia.
