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Author Topic: THE WIKI - A How-To Guide  (Read 4363 times)

Aubrey Kedding

    (13/01/2015 at 01:04)
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So you want to Wiki. Good for you. We need more people like you. It's pretty simple; there are just things that you need to know and get a hang of before it starts making sense.


making a page.

The first thing you have to do before doing anything to the wiki, you have to get an account. Please open a helpdesk ticket under the wiki category, and include a valid email address and the character name you wish to use as your account name. Then, someone will be along shortly to set up your account for you! Come back to me when that's done and you've logged in.

It's done? You're logged in? Good.

Now, before you can do anything to a page, you have to first make the page. Let's take making a page for your lovely child character as an example. A hands-on, if you will.

(I'm sure you guys all know this, but humor me.)

Go to the search bar in the upper right hand corner of the wiki interface and type in your character's name exactly as you'd like to see it displayed-- proper capitalization and all.

Since there isn't a page for your character yet, there won't be any cohesive search results. There may be results relating to the name somehow, but in order to create a character page you need to click on the reddish-orangeish link that is your name. Where it says 'Create This Page.'


omg there it is.

Now that you've clicked on that link, you'll be directed to a big expanse of white blank page. And a swelling raaaage.

Like this:


What in the world do we do with this.

Because this is a character page we're creating, we're going to need to start with a template.

using premade templates.

A good way to get to know the wiki is to generally snoop around in it. Get to know the nooks and crannies. For instance, on the sidebar, toward the bottom, if you click on the link that says 'special pages' you'll get to a complicated looking page full of more links and it's just really kind of confusing. Most of the links on this page have to do with statistics, sort of, and things like that. The only link I want you to worry about at the moment is the one that says Uncategorized Templates.

For the sake of simplicity, I'll just say click here and it'll take you right to that page. You can get to know the special pages page later, if you want. It's a useful tool. You can also search for "Template:Infobox" and options will come up.

Anyway.

There are a lot of things in this list. Pretty much all you need to do is pick the template you want, click on it, copy it, and then paste it into your White Blank Page and then fill it out to your heart's content.

Since we're doing our child characters, click on Template:Infobox Child.


After you click on it, go up to the top where the blue tabs are and click View Source (or Edit).


Copy and paste the code into your White Blank Page like I said earlier, then fill out answers where you see things surrounded by the {{{ }}}. If you don't fill one out, (like when your very much alive character died) no worries! It'll stay hidden until you decide to answer it later! Wha bam. Now there's something on the page.

(All of the templates can be used for your respective characters: Gryffindor template for your Gryffindor, Adult template for your Elsewhere character, Beauxbatons template for your Frenchie. Et cetera. You may also notice that there's templates for organizations and also for families. These are used in exactly the same way, except... they're for organizations and families.)

You are almost an expert.

But wait!

Don't click save quite yet. There's a couple more things you want to do.

uploading and inserting pictures.

"MERRY THERE'S A PLACE FOR AN IMAGE BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO IMAGE HOW DO I IMAGE!!!!"

Well, first, calm down. We can't do much if you're yelling.

After you're calm, refer back to the sidebar. Remember the Special Pages link in the sidebar? Don't click on that. There's a link right above it that says Upload File. Click on that instead.


I'm sure you know how to upload photos. Browse your folders as you would if you were uploading a picture to photobucket or tinypic. But wait. Before you click 'upload,' is the filename something ridiculous?


If your filename is really long or has some words you'd rather not display in public in them, you can change what you call the file on the wiki in the box that I've circled for you. Make it something simple, like Hawthorne.jpg or merry_not_sherlock.png.

Then upload it. Remember that filename. Now go back to your template in what was previously your White Blank Page. Delete all the gross symbols that aren't brackets (the ones like this: {}) and then put in your simple filename exactly as you uploaded it, all capitals etc.


Now you have a picture. Feel free to press preview to admire your work.

But wait. There's more.

text and formatting.

Now you've probably noticed that the wiki doesn't use standard HTML or BBCode. Yes, it's kind of a pain in the butt to have to learn another thing, but it gets better. I promise.

The first thing you're going to want to do is start a subject under your template, say... biography. Because every character has a story. All you need to type in to achieve this is:

==Biography==

We have a winner.

To create a subarticle within that subject, say to talk about your character's childhood, is just to type something like ===Childhood=== with three equal signs rather than two somewhere after ==Biography==.

So this


will become


this.

So nice and tidy, mmmm.

I'm going to just list other formatting stuff, because it's easier that way.

Bolding: '''Like This'''
Italicizing: ''Like This''
For bullet points: * (if you need it indented, just keep upping the asterisks by one per pagebreak)
Link to another wiki page by name: [[Like This]]
Link to another wiki page: [[Page you are linking to|Name of Link]]

That last one is a little tricky. For instance, if I am trying to link to Astrid's mother's page (should she have one) but I just wanted to use the word 'mother' as the link, it would look like this:

[[Mama Bixby|mother]]

Wiki magic.

For putting photos in your articles for a little visual flavor, use this:

[[File:File.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Put Caption Here]]

You'll want to change the pixel size, if it suits you better, or maybe whether you want it on the right or left of your text. This formula's really good for wraparound stuff in the middle of really long articles, and the effect can be rather nice and professional looking.

We are wizards.

The other file input without all the bells and whistles, if you just want to stick a file in somewhere, for instance, is this:

[[File:file.jpg]]

You'll want to be careful with that, though, because it doesn't resize your photo for you. What you put in is how big it's going to be.

But yay. Nearly finished. We're going in for the home stretch. Let's move on to Categories and then you can save your article.

using categories

Still with me?

Cool.

I'll start this one off by saying this: There are a lot of categories. A lot. A looooot. Because there are lots of different types of characters, and that's cool.

You can have a look here, here, and here at categories that are being used on various pages.

The ones that you need to worry about, though, have usually to do with graduating year and house, and, in this case, that you're a ghost.

As a rule of thumb, categories always look like this: [[Category:(category)]]

For Meriwether, the categories I've used for his page look like this:

[[DEFAULTSORT:Throckmorton, Meriwether]]
[[Category:Ghost]]
[[Category:Ravenclaw students]]

Be sure to have that break between them, or it ends up all funky! And even though we're still in the 70s, funky isn't what we want. Format is good. Disco bad.

I mean what.

Oh yeah. Don't forget the Defaultsort for your character pages. It's useful. Organizes stuff.

For Astrid, it would look sort of like this:

[[DEFAULTSORT:Bixby, Astrid]]
[[Category:Class of '72]]
[[Category:Ravenclaw students]]
[[Category:Spellbound staff]]

You can use literally any amount of categories. There are never too many categories. Layer 'em up as needed. They go at the very bottom of your article.

"MERRY WHAT IF THERE ISN'T A CATEGORY FOR WHAT MY CHARACTER DOES AHHH!!!!!"

What did I say about yelling.

Just go ahead and create it, no big deal! I've been churning out pages and categories and articles for the past six months and no one's tried stopping me yet, so I'm assuming that it's okay to do pretty much anything. Within reason and the site rating, of course. I'd say that you should check in the existing categories for one that already exists though, so you don't just create a new one unnecessarily. Be sure to check the things.

finishing up.

WHEW.

Did I kill you guys. Sorry. I love you. It's two AM.

Okay, go ahead and click the save button. It's going to ask you for an answer. The answer is hoggies.

Simple enough.

... NOW YOU HAVE A PAGE WITH STUFF ON IT, YAY. Congratulations. Mazel tov. You are now the proud owner of an article you wrote yourself.

Happy article-writing. Write ALL the things.




All the credit goes to Hannah (Dacian Ellwood-Luxe, et al) for creating this guide. Thanks baby!
« Last Edit: 22/11/2020 at 21:33 by Julia Cole »
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Aubrey Kedding

    (16/01/2015 at 03:20)
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Retired Character Template

{| class="wikitable"

{{infobox Retired Character

|title =
 
|image =
 
|image_caption =

|full_name=
 
|born =
 
|birthplace =

|deceased =

|residence =
 
|nationality =

|blood_status =
 
|education =
 
|class =
 
|occupation =
 
|former_occupations =
 
|spouse =
 
|parents =
 
|siblings =

|children =
 
|wand =
 
}}

|}

{{DEFAULTSORT: Lastname, Firstname}}
[[Category:Retired Characters]]

Code: [Select]
{| class="wikitable"

{{infobox Retired Character

|title =
 
|image =
 
|image_caption =

|full_name=
 
|born =
 
|birthplace =

|deceased =

|residence =
 
|nationality =

|blood_status =
 
|education =
 
|class =
 
|occupation =
 
|former_occupations =
 
|spouse =
 
|parents =
 
|siblings =

|children =
 
|wand =
 
}}

|}

{{DEFAULTSORT: Lastname, Firstname}}
[[Category:Retired Characters]]
« Last Edit: 08/03/2018 at 16:57 by Calypso Ross »

Aubrey Kedding

    (16/01/2015 at 03:21)
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Adult Template

Code: [Select]
{|class="wikitable"
{{infobox Adult
|title=
|full_name=
|born=
|birthplace=
|deceased=
|residence=
|nationality=
|blood_status=
|education=
|class=
|honours=
|occupation=
|former_occupations=
|species=
|gender=
|hair_colour=
|eye_colour=
|skin_colour=
|spouse=
|children=
|parents=
|siblings=
|family=
|wand=
|patronus=
|special_ability=
|house=
|loyalty=
}}
|}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lastname, Firstname}}
« Last Edit: 14/05/2016 at 03:28 by Viola Ross »

GRYFFINDOR
blaze my own trails

Aubrey Kedding

    (16/01/2015 at 03:21)
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Hogwarts Student Template
Change the house as applicable: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw

Code: [Select]
{|class="wikitable"
{{infobox Gryffindor
|title=
|full_name=
|born=
|birthplace=
|deceased=
|residence=
|nationality=
|blood_status=
|education=
|class=
|honours=
|occupation=
|former_occupations=
|species=
|gender=
|hair_colour=
|eye_colour=
|skin_colour=
|spouse=
|children=
|parents=
|siblings=
|family=
|wand=
|patronus=
|special_ability=
|loyalty=
}}
|}

{{DEFAULTSORT: Lastname, Firstname}}
[[Category:Class of xxxx]]
[[Category:Gryffindor students]]
« Last Edit: 21/05/2016 at 14:14 by Viola Ross »
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Courage Will

Aubrey Kedding

    (16/01/2015 at 03:23)
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Child Template

{| class="wikitable"

{{infobox Child

|title =
 
|image =
 
|image_caption =

|full_name=
 
|born =

|birthplace =
 
|residence =
 
|nationality =

|blood_status =
 
|family =

|parents =
 
|siblings =

|education =
 
}}

|}

{{DEFAULTSORT: Lastname, Firstname}}

Code: [Select]
{| class="wikitable"

{{infobox Child

|title =
 
|image =
 
|image_caption =

|full_name=
 
|born =

|birthplace =
 
|residence =
 
|nationality =

|blood_status =
 
|family =

|parents =
 
|siblings =

|education =
 
}}

|}

{{DEFAULTSORT: Lastname, Firstname}}
ΙΟΠ
GRYFFINDOR

speak up.

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