Help:Getting Started
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[edit] Welcome
Thank you for showing interest in collaborating on collaboration. Once you have a few basics under your belt, contributing is very quick and easy. Whether you received an invitation, or have found your own way here, we welcome and encourage your participation.
[edit] Registration
Any and everyone is eligible and invited to contribute on this wiki, without registration, although it is prefered that you do. Registering takes only a second and the only information you are asked to give is a valid email address (your address will remain confidential and will enable people to contact you through the website without you having to reveal your email address to them, and it can be used to send you a new password if you forget it).
In order to give credit where credit is due, we do ask that you register with your real first and last name. Also, though not required, we strongly urge new participants to post a short biography, or a link to one on their user page (accessible via a red link that reads your loggin name at the top of the page once you've registered).
If you'd like to register, you can do so by clicking here. If you'd like to read more about MetaCollab.net before you make your decision, have a look at About Meta Collab.
[edit] Editing & Contributing Basics
Once you've registered, you may wish to take the Tutorial for an short introduction to using this wiki (MediaWiki), or, just begin editing and learn as you go.
[edit] New User Log
After registering, you may wish to say hello on the New User Log. This gives you the opportunity to provide some initial feedback, as well as making your self known to the other new users coming to the site.
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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 few minutes.
- 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! It's a good idea to enter your email here too.
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. 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 can be found in your preferences. To get there:
- Click the "MORE" button (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, then to save your changes, scroll down to find the "save" button and click to save. This allows you to see and fix mistakes before they get saved onto the wiki.
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
- 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
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 four basic methods:
- Click a red (broken) link. A broken link is a link to a page that doesn't (yet) exist on the wiki.
- Create a red link in an article by enclosing a word in double brackets, then hit save. Clicking on the red link will then take you to your new page.
- Use an inputbox -- an article creation box that can be place on the wiki's main page.
- Utilize Special:CreatePage (info)
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 first 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 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 upload link 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
Categories are added in a similar way to making links. Just 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.