Help:Editing primer: Difference between revisions

This page will go over information specific to the wiki and also give instructions on how to perform basic functions that may not be intuitive.

Creating pages is simple, yet unintuitive. One simply uses the search bar at the top right of any page and makes a search for the page (spelling and character-case matter) they would like to exist. A new page will appear telling the user the page does not yet exist and ask if they wish to create it. The user will click the red text that is the new page name, and then edit normally. Once the first edit to the page is published the page goes live.

Unlike traditional word processing systems, such as Google Docs, MediaWiki uses the title of a page as it's internal database identifier. Page names are not cosmetic. The changing of a page's name in any way is called, in MediaWiki terminology, '''''moving''''' the page. This is because the edit history and meta data have to be '''''moved''''' to the new page name as well. This is accomplished by hovering your mouse over the button that says "More" and selecting "Move".

Something to keep in mind when moving a page is that any links on the wiki which point to it will, by default, break. So if a page titled [[Gummybears]] is moved to [[Gummy bears]] any page with a link to [[Gummybears]] will lead to a now non-existent page. This issue is mitigated by, when using the move tool, ensuring the checkbox for "Leave a redirect behind" is ticked. This then makes [[Gummybears]] automatically redirect a user that goes to it to [[Gummy bears|Gummy bears.]] This is generally the acceptable means of handling this issue in 99% of cases. If a situation comes up where this is ''not'' desirable, then every page that links to [[Gummybears]] will need to be manually edited to lead to [[Gummy bears]].

Non-regular editors of the war game wiki are encouraged to seek guidance from a wiki administrator or seasoned contributor before moving pages.

== Warning on edit publication ==

{{Ambox|type=speedy|image=|text=This section is '''very''' important.}}

Every edit, the content of the edit, who made the edit, and when the edit was made is publicly logged. Every version of a page after every edit is similarly logged. This makes this website incredibly resilient to breakage, but also means that it's difficult to truly delete information. Simply editing the information out and clicking "Save changes" is insufficient. Anyone with an internet connection can check the page's history and still find the information.

If an edit is published to a page with information that the user does not want to be publicly accessible, then the information should still be edited out, but then a wiki administrator must be notified so they can delete the edit from the public archives. '''This notification should be done privately to avoid the [[wikipedia:Streisand effect|Streisand effect]]'''. For details on how wiki administrators do this, check out [[mediawikiwiki:Help:RevisionDelete|Help:RevisionDelete]].

 

Certain automated filters are in place that will detect when particular public information that is likely inappropriate to add has been introduced into an edit and either warn the user to exercise caution or disallow the edit entirely. Editors are encouraged to take such warnings seriously.

A category is a special kind of page that easily groups pages together for navigation and classification purposes. A list of all categories is available at [[:Category:Categories]]. Any new page added should be given a minimum of one category, and it should be the most specific category available. Editors unsure of where to place a page should at a minimum place the page into [[:Category:Categories]] and then post in some public place they did so, that way a more seasoned contributor can more appropriately classify it.

 

Categories are added in the Visual Editor by clicking the [[wikipedia:Help:VisualEditor#Editing categories|3 horizontal bars]] to the left of the "Save changes..." button and selecting "Categories". In markdown mode, add the text <code><nowiki>[[Category:<category-name>]]</nowiki></code> anywhere on the page. For stylistic reasons, it should be at the very bottom.

 

 

* '''Interface administrator''' — Can edit pages which dictate the look of the website (e.g [[MediaWiki:Editnotice-0-War game rules]], which dictates the message shown to all editors that edit that page) and import pages from other MediaWiki instances to this wiki.

For an exhaustive list of all user permissions, and what each permission can explicitly do, see [[Special:ListGroupRights]].

Any user with an account may request one of the above from Sirdog of whom may approve or deny such requests at his discretion. Those with prior history editing Wikimedia projects are considerably more likely to receive such permissions, though the biggest factor is level of editing activity, knowledge of wiki construction, and willingness to learn.

Fleff, due to his nature as the gamemaster and curator of the game this wiki is dedicated too, is entitled to all above permissions at his request.

=== Why can I mark edits as minor? ===

The intended effect of the box that says "This is a minor edit" is to allow those that review page history to differentiate between edits which are negligible, such as fixing spelling, punctuation, or grammar, from edits which actually add, remove, or edit content. This is somewhat useful on larger wikis (though even the English Wikipedia debates it's usefulness<ref>On their own page for the subject, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Minor_edit Help:Minor edit], it's written "''It's acceptable to never mark a single edit as "minor". If other editors complain about your use of the "minor" edit flag, then it's likely a good idea to stop using it.''"</ref>), but for the purposes of ''this'' wiki, it is '''irrelevant'''.  

It is encouraged that editors never tick the box, regardless of the edit's content.

=== Should I use edit summaries? ===

Absolutely. This is the box that appears when clicking "Save changes..." which gives the copyright text (see section "Edit copyright"). This box should be used to, in general terms, explain what the edit is doing. This could be as simple as "grammar", "spelling", etc. The wiki does not enforce with technical measures using them, but if problems being to arise out of editors making strings of edits without summaries making them difficult to review, wiki administrators may contact such an editor and mandate their use.