View source for A Wiki Editor's Manual

{{Guide
| name = A Wiki Editor's Manual
| image = AWikiEditor.gif
| description = A Wiki Editor's Quick-Reference Guide
| season = 3
| status = Started
| complete = 1%
| authors = [[User:Henry|Henry]]
| chapter = Table of Contents
| chapters = [[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Content Standards|Content Standards]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Collaboration|Collaboration]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Basics|Basics of Editing]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Changelogs|Changelogs]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Special Pages|Special Pages]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Images|Images]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Templates|Templates]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Categories|Categories]]<br>[[A Wiki Editor's Manual: Tables|Tables]]
| notes = 
}}

'''BEFORE YOU BEGIN''': It would be best to play this game a lot first. Go enjoy it! Yes, you'll find  things in-game that are not on this wiki yet, and that may bug you, and you may really want to help fix it. But don't let it bug you at all - just keep playing. Go fight some tough quests! Go fight some [[Telltale]] bosses! Collect [[Cute Little Puppet|Puppets]] and access new locations! Go craft a giant pile of the best gear ever! Join a strong faction and do some [[Town Control]]! Then, if you still want to do editing work here, start by reading this manual. When you're sure you want to pour your time into editing, '''shout''' to [[User:Henry|Henry]] in Discord chat - provide a login name and password.

==Introduction==
A work in progress...

This is presented as a quick-reference guide for '''FOnline: Reloaded''' wiki editors, meant to clarify standards for consistency and how-to procedures for editing this particular wiki. It is not comprehensive instructions for all-purpose editors of other MediaWiki projects. For that, click the '''Help''' link to left.

= Content Standards =
* Add a User Page for Yourself (so other editors can talk with you directly on wiki)
* Ownership, Attitude and Etiquette
* Upper Case vs Lower Case
** Notice the standard for page names here is much like Book Chapters: use upper-case for important words
** For example, "Raiders bases" should be "Raiders Bases", and a Redirect is in order.
* Details: Where to Draw the Line (Follow Cannon, Avoiding Excess Info)
** We could easily type too much info, and overwhelm readers with great walls of text.
** Some developers did not even ''want'' a FOnline wiki, due to risk of spoilers.
* Page Names: An NPC's name might be simply "Joe" but no page should be simply called "Joe".
** There might be 10 different people named "Joe", so every "Joe" page should be more descritpive:
** Examples: Joe the Raider, Joe the Farmer, Trader Joe, etc. (but not simply "Joe").
* As a rule, do not add Player Factions to wiki. New players try the game, start a team, and want a wiki page. So many times those same players disappear 2 weeks later with no comment, and these pages linger here, giving subsequent new players the false impression they can join the faction. Let a faction mature first before quickly adding a page here for them.
** Or...add Player Faction pages like there's no tomorrow, because who cares if those players quit - any page can be deleted anytime.
** Or...allow them with little-to-no restriction, but set them up with their own account here, so they can do it themselves. (Up for debate).

= Collaboration =
* Chat with other editors during editing, like via '''Discord''' chat, or [[Radio]]s
* Use Talk pages, leave comments, and use Summary field at bottom of Edit page.

= Basics of Editing =
* '''View''' the page, '''Edit''' the page, '''View History''' of a page's edits, and '''Discussion''' between editors
* Headers, Bullet Points
* Page Links! The core function of an effective wiki!
** Use brackets to surround text, like this:<nowiki>[[link example]]</nowiki>
** Your ability to link pages well, will depend on how familiar you are with pages on this wiki, so read a lot
* Bold, Italics, Alternate Colors, Strikethroughs, Underlining
** '''Bold''' is done with <nowiki>'''Bold'''</nowiki> (3 ticks surrounding text)
** ''Italics'' is done with <nowiki>''Italics''</nowiki> (2 ticks surrounding text)
**<span style="color:blue">Different colors</span> is done with <nowiki><span style="color:blue">Different colors</span></nowiki>
** <s>strikethrough</s> is done with <nowiki><s>strikethrough</s></nowiki>
* Redirects: '''<nowiki>#REDIRECT [[the right page]]</nowiki>'''
* Expandable Spoilers:
** <nowiki>{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable"
! Expandable Spoiler Code
|-
| Typing this...
|}</nowiki>
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable"
! Expandable Spoiler Example
|-
| ...will produce this!
|}
* Previewing Your Edits First, then Saving Your Edits, and Reversing Edits
* The wiki engine auto-generates a Table of Contents (TOC) on any page that has headers surrounded by '''<nowiki>=</nowiki>''', like this page, but the auto-TOC can be suppressed by adding '''<nowiki>__NOTOC__</nowiki>''' anywhere on the page.

= [[Changelogs]] =
* Copy/Paste from Forum, format for wiki
* Add Green Checkmark/UserName <nowiki>[[File:Yes_check.png]] [[User:Henry|Henry]]</nowiki> (example) to items you edit

= Keep a Watchful Eye on [[Special:SpecialPages|Special Pages]] =
* [[Special:ActiveUsers|Active Users]] '''and their edits!''' Proof-read each other's edits.
* [[Special:LonelyPages|Orphaned Pages]] are pages not linked anywhere, so no pages point to them.
** Orphaned pages can easily be overlooked and never found, so find related pages and add some links.
* [[Special:DoubleRedirects|Double Re-Directs]]
* [[Special:WantedPages|Wanted Pages]] are "missing pages" which represent a place where some editor thought it logical to point to a page, but where such a page does not exist yet, for various reasons:
** Sometimes a Wanted Page is the result of a simple typo, so correct some spelling and it's fixed
** Sometimes a Wanted Page is a typo, but it's a ''common'' typo, so add a REDIRECT and it's fixed
** Do not create pages to simply reduce the list of Wanted Pages, unless you have complete data; it can be a ''good'' thing that such a page shows up in the official Wanted Pages list, like a hot item to watch on a radar screen, but if you add the page, it disappears from radar, so don't add them if you're missing most of the data.
* [[Special:DeadendPages|Dead-End Pages]] are pages that do not link to other pages. Normally, this is a fail in wiki terms, though you'll notice some Player Faction pages are on the dead-end list.

= Image Files =
* Avoid large images, like full-window screenshots. These often do not render properly.
* Find an image in [[Special:ListFiles|the existing list]] that is already uploaded
* Avoiding Duplicates by browsing the list of existing images
* Upload a New Image, but watch for matching file names, a clear indication of a duplicate
* Where to Find Missing Images: '''Titanium FRM Browser'''
* Maintain File Type Standards: NPC angle should be southwest - see [[Avatar Gallery]]

= Working with Templates =
* Find/Lookup Existing Templates
** Use '''Search''' and type "Template:" (including colon) to see a partial list of templates 
* Copy/Use an Existing Template
** For example, if you're adding a Quest page that was missing, go to an existing Quest page, go into '''Edit''' mode, and copy the whole thing. Then you can paste it into the new page, and change the data. This is an easy way to set up a quest page so that its format matches the rest of the quest pages, including the Quest template. Use the [[Avatar Gallery]] to find the right NPC image file.
** Or, if you're adding an NPC page that has been missing, one easy way is to go to the [[Avatar Gallery]] first, find the right image for that NPC, right-click it and choose "Open Link in New Tab". Then on that page, look in the '''File usage''' list to find an existing page that already uses that same NPC avatar image. Go to ''that'' page, go into '''Edit''' mode, copy the whole page of code, and paste it into your new NPC page. Then change the data accordingly. You'll have your new NPC page set up lickity split, with the right avatar image, with Category links at the bottom, and the NPC template. Thus your new NPC page should be set up with a standard format that matches the rest of this wiki.
* Add a New Template

= Working with Categories =
* See the List of [[Special:Categories|Existing Categories]]
* Add a New Category

= Working with [http://community.wikia.com/wiki/Help:Wikitext/table_examples Tables] =
* Begin Table with Border, Table Header, Tabled Row, Table Cell, End Table
{| border ="1"
!Header
|-First Row
|Row 1 Column 1<br>Row 2 Column 1
|}

[[Category:Guides]]