LOTC:Wiki Guide

This guide contains all the steps required for a player, such as yourself, to gain access to the wiki and submit their first wiki page. It will help you on how to start browsing the wiki, how to get an account, and of course, how to create pages with proper formatting

Is it possible to work on the LotC Wiki?

Absolutely! Anyone who isn't currently banned on the server or the wiki can apply for a wiki account in the #wiki-account-request channel of the main LotC Discord, or apply for the Wiki Team here. After receiving your request, a Wiki Team Member will create a temporary password for you, which will be sent to the email you entered. With that, you can log into your Wiki Account and edit your password. You have now gained access to edit the Wiki!

What's the difference between joining the Wiki Team and just having a wiki account?

If you get an account through #wiki-account-request, you’ll get a standard wiki account. The differences between these and those provided to Wiki Team members are:

• Standard accounts can’t edit protected pages, such as the Main Page.
• Standard accounts do not have bot privileges, and can’t use automated editing tools.
• Standard accounts can’t create new accounts, block or delete accounts.
• And, standard accounts can’t delete, move, or protect wiki pages.

Otherwise, you can do anything not mentioned. You can edit and improve any unprotected page (94.9%, or about 100 out of 2500 are protected), create new pages, upload images you need for pages, etc.

Are there rules I should follow?

Wikis are all about everyone coming together to make a fantastic, collective source of information. But, there are a few rules we must follow, to ensure everyone can work together on this massive project. The full list of rules can be found on the Wiki Rulebook, but in short:

Maintain a neutral and unbiased point of view

This especially applies to pages on nations, wars, battles, and guilds. The pages should remain factual, clear-cut and neutral to avoid conflict with other players.

The wiki is not a battleground

The wiki is not about winning or losing. Holding grudges against other editors who disagree with you only creates unnecessary drama and negative effects that distract others from improving the wiki.

Be willing to discuss your edits with your fellow editors

No matter how mundane your edits or how right you think you are, there will be times when other editors will object to, revert, or otherwise question your edits. In these cases, you must be prepared to discuss and justify your contributions. This is the role of "Talk page" discussion, don't be afraid to use it or contact an editor directly if you disagree with their edit. Keep it civil.

Ignore all rules

The last, secret rule. Mostly for veteran editors, if a rule would prevent you from improving, or preventing harm to, the wiki, then just ignore it. However, be certain that what you are doing would really improve the wiki and is not just something that you want to do. Be prepared to justify your actions to anybody with a reasonable objection, you cannot invoke this rule as a catch-all defense.

How do I create a page?

To create the page, first search the title you want for the page in the search bar. Make sure to use the exact wording that you wish the final title to have. If a similar topic appears in the results and has already been covered, do not create a duplicate page. Once confirming that the page has not been created yet, the option to create the page should appear in red at the top of the list. Clicking on this red link leads to the creation box. From there onward use a fitting backbone as your new format!

What are Backbones and which should I use?

Backbones are pre-coded formats, which can easily be copied and pasted onto a page. The user will then be asked to fill in specific information and isn’t required to do any coding themselves, creating a far easier and simpler workflow for the users themselves. As such we are asking ALL users to use the backbones listed below accordingly:

• Minerals
• Cities
• Fauna/Animals
• Families
• Flora/Plants
• Games
• Locations
• Magic
• Characters/Figures
• Organisations
• Potions
• Races
• Wars
• Nations

If you need a new backbone, due to specific reasons, you should always inform a Wiki Team Member or make a request in the New Player Discord so that a Staff Member can check over it and bring the idea forward to the Wiki Team.

DO NOT CREATE ANY BACKBONES/FORMATS/TEMPLATES YOURSELF!

How do I format my text?

This part of the guide will help you to start properly formatting your page. Because the formatting and coding of wiki pages is a wide field of information, we've split it up into separate parts. Luckily most formatting is already being done by the backbones we are using, however, there are still some things you can format within your rows of text!

Italic and Bold

For italicizing and bolding parts of a text, simply select the part of the text that you wish to italicize or bold, then go to the top of the editing window, and click either the B for Bold or the I for Italic. Do note however that it is recommended to use this in moderation, for overusing this feature makes the page look less pleasing.

Collapsing Areas

While most often you won’t need the Collapse Option it can be quite helpful for lengthy Wiki Pages. By using this code {{Collapse|WRITE YOUR TEXT HERE.}} you are able to create collapsible text passages.

Links

A useful feature of the wiki is the easy way to link to other pages on the wiki. By putting two brackets around a word, a link is automatically created to a page with that title on the wiki. If you want you can even change the word that the link relates to! You simply need to do two brackets in front of the side you want to link to then add a | behind it and following up you write the word you want to show up instead. Now close the brackets again and you are good to go!

To link a web address, copy the address within single brackets. Put a space after the address and then a word to have that work link to the web address.

Images

Adding images to your Wiki Page can really help to make it look nicer, or help people to understand the page better, by giving them a picture so they can visualize the matter at hand. Upon starting using the Wiki, adding an image to your page can be somewhat tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it's actually very simple!

First off, to use any sort of image on your Wiki Page, you need to first make sure you have this image saved in your image files. If you have the image you want to be saved, then go to any Wiki Page, and scroll down so that the index on the left side of the screen (under the Lord of the Craft logo) shows the part "Upload File".

Once you're on that page, things are very simple, simply click the "Choose file" button. This will open your images folder, here you click on the image you want to use and then you click on the "Open" button. Now that your file is chosen, you can give it a file name, under file description, where it says "Destination filename".

Of course, you can also keep the automatically chosen filename. Keep this filename in mind or copy it, as you'll need to put it on the page you want to use it on. When you're done with that, simply click "Upload" on the bottom of the page, and then you've successfully uploaded your image!

Putting the image on your desired Wiki Page is the trickiest part as it involves coding. If you don't know how to use the HTML Coding, simply copy-paste coding from another page that holds an image, or use the simple form as shown below.

[File:FilenameExample|300px|center]

Note: You need to use double square brackets, single ones are used here for demonstration.

How do I add categories?

Adding one or more categories to the bottom of your page is essential. It makes things more organized, but that of course also means it's easier to find your page. To add a category simply put Category:categoryname within double square brackets at the bottom of your page. We are using the following categories for our pages:

How do I preview my page?

Preview all your changes to ensure they are appearing as intended by clicking the preview button. This is highly encouraged over saving multiple times to correct errors as this clogs the wiki records and makes sifting through them more difficult.

Can I post my page now?

After putting in all of your information, one last thing to do when using a backbone is to go to the very bottom and make sure to remove noinclude>Category:Backbone</noinclude if you haven't already done this. Again, this is to help with the organization and categorization of the wiki, as leaving it labels the page as a backbone, which it obviously isn't, why would you've put in all that work otherwise, hm?

Once that is done, do one final preview, and if it checks out, you can finally click the ‘Save page’ button.

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