Guide to contributing to the wiki
PRIORITY: High
Assigned to: kannthus
Wiki Rules
Before anything is detailed, explained or discussed in this guide I first want to establish the rules and make them clear before you start contributing to the wiki.
The rules are the following:
- Edit in good faith (Do not vandalize or otherwise deface pages. Your wiki account will have its access revoked and may be escalated outside of the wiki)
- Do not mention IRL politics, people or organisations. The wiki is simply not the place for that.
- Do not start or partake in edit wars against other contributors (e.g: Going back and forth against another contributor deleting or reverting their edits while they do the same to you)
- Any forms of discrimination against other contributors, people, players or groups will not be tolerated.
- Do not make joke pages or upload memes in the form of files.
- Remain Professional - Jest is fine here or there, but refrain from using "meme lingo" or the like, as it diminishes the servers integrity. (e.g: "Shitcurity", "Tiders")
- Please refrain from putting your own identifying flourishes on posts, (e.g: "John was here" or "Similar to how [Character Name] Does").
- This ruling vaugely includes User Pages, please refrain from making your User Page some kind of personal landing page.
The Wiki
Disclaimer: This guide only covers the source editor (Text editor) For a guide on the visual editor see: Mediawiki's guide
Hello! And welcome to the Nova Sector wiki, I'm glad that you have shown interest in contributing to this project and this guide should help you get your feet wet when it comes to basic wiki editing. It will show everything from the most basic things like editing a page and down to the boring but sometimes complex wiki Syntax. If you ever find yourself struggling to figure something out on the wiki feel free to check for a solution here or simply ping a wiki maintainer on the [Discord]!
All resources relevant to contributors can be found in on the Contributor panel Along with a list of various stats about the wiki. So if you ever find yourself looking for a template or a specific category be sure to check with the Contributor panel
If you ever find yourself lost or without a clue on what to do or what to update on the wiki, the Needs revision category will always have plenty of work that needs doing. Everything from outdated pages and images are listed here so its great to regularly check back here to see if there's any potential projects to pick up. The actual revision tag should always tell you what is wrong with a page and if you find an outdated page on your own feel free to mark it with Template:Needs revision.
Gaining Access
Updated 09/06/2024:
At the present time, the recommended way to request joining the Wiki team is opening a Staff-Help Ticket. It is preferred that people have a reason for having an account, a goal in mind (e.g: "I really wish there was a guide on XYZ" or "I noticed a lot of outdated pages I have interest in"). There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to join without a goal, but more questions and insight may be required before approval.
Previously:
As you may have noticed the wiki is a closed project. What this means is that we do not allow just anyone to create an account and start editing, its sort of similar to how Nova Sector is a whitelisted community in-large. The requirements for entry are very low however, you wont need to be a software expert or the best writer on the planet to get an account on the wiki. The only thing we would like to see is a want to contribute and you're golden. An account can be made by anyone that is an admin on the wiki, these are usually staff members but the head wiki maintainer should also have these permissions. Please apply to the "wiki team" in #staff-application or ask around in #player-staff-chat for access. And while you wait for your account to be created you have a good opportunity to read up on this guide and how to contribute to the wiki.
General Wiki Standard
To keep things looking consistent on the wiki we have an established standard for most if not all things. These are just small simple things such as naming conventions or where and how to use capitalization or emboldening of text. These are sort of pseudo rules but they do not always have to be followed if it helps with the page you are working on.
Some basic things that fall under the standard to keep things looking consistent are:
- Media (Things such as files, .png's .gif's, etc) Should either be uploaded in 64x64 or 32x32 (64x64 being preferred, exceptions are made for sprites larger than this of course)
- Secondly when you upload a file please include some key words in the summary box on the upload page. This will help the wiki's search functions locate the file easier. See: Uploading files For more details on how to upload files.
- Names for files and other media should always be to the point, short and descriptive of the Icon or image. (So if you're uploading an image of a wrench call it wrench.png and not tool.png)
- Do not use excessive emboldening of text in articles. Keep it isolated to stuff like headers or text that is of high importance. Avoid using it in the middle of a paragraph as much as you can.
- Small jokes and humorous bits of strike-through text on pages are fine but it should stay contained to that. Do not make entire joke pages as this is a violation of the Wiki Rules
- The first letter of a page name should always have capitalization applied to it.
- Try to keep articles and pages to the point and on topic. User pages and talk pages may be used to how you see fit.
- Try to avoid uploading duplicate images where possible and if you find a duplicate Slate it for removal please.
Basic Editing
This section of the guide to wiki contribution will cover some of the basics. Things such as creating new pages, editing existing pages and articles along with uploading files.
Creating new pages
A quick and easy explanation on how to create new pages. For making stuff such as guides or whatever your project is!
Editing a page
A detailed explanation on how to edit pages with the two different editors.
Uploading files
Where and how to upload images and other files onto the wiki in a quick and easy guide.
Basic Wiki Syntax
The syntax available to wiki contributors is not usually well presented so a repository of tutorials and information is needed here. This provides the most basic tools a wiki contributor will need in order to fully edit the wiki. 99% of the time, the average wiki contributor will not need more than this (in addition to templates later).
Text Formatting
Text by itself is extremely boring and often hard to read, so you can use text formatting to make your words really POP!
References
It is very important the articles link to each other so we have a web of information. In order to do this, we can reference articles and link keywords to those articles.
Images
Images are extremely important for the wiki, without them people wouldn't know what icons/mobs would look like or get a visual representation of what they're supposed to do.
Tables
Put data and other info into tables cause it helps readers digest information more betterer
Using Templates
On the wiki we have a large variety of templates, all serving their own unique function and purpose to how the designer saw fit. A good comprehensive list of all of our templates can be found in the templates category where they are all sorted and dived into sub categories depending on their use. But enough about that, let's actually get down and learn how to use a template!
A template can be called on and shown on a page by entering the following syntax:
{{TEMPLATENAME}} - You can also feature the namespace and it will still work, like so: {{Template:TEMPLATENAME}}
Depending on what template is used you might find yourself having a few parameters to customize when you use the template on a page. A short list of customizable parameters can usually be found on the page of the template (If it has any)
To give a nice example we'll take Template:Needs revision and show you how to use it. To feature the template on your article or page simply add the following to the page:
{{Needs revision}} - This will cause the following to show up:
PRIORITY: Not defined
Something that instantly becomes clear is the reason and priority are undefined. To correct this simply go back to where you added the template in your page and add this:
{{Needs revision| reason = Example! | priority = Example!!}} - This will cause the following to show up on the page:
PRIORITY: Example!!
To explain it in simple terms all you have to do is this:
{{TEMPLATE NAME| PARAMETER NAME = DEFINE (The define can differ per template so be sure to check with other uses of the same template}}