Help:TutorialFrom EncyClanPedia
Ready to start contributing? Find a page and start editing!
To give feedback on the site or ask questions, please see the Admin Notice Board. Welcome to the EncyClanPedia, a Wiki for the Gaming Community!
Building your Wiki: Read this first!Creating a Wiki page is simple. Just type in a word in the Search Engine, and it brings up a dead link. Click the red line that says "Create this page!" and voila, you've started your very own Wiki page. But what good is a wiki page that you don't know how to edit? Well, in my opinion, it's not good to simply create pages for the sake of it. Especially if you're new to the Wiki editing process. It's always best to start out with a goal in mind. Come up with an idea for a Wiki page in your mind, and then work towards creating the perfect page. You don't need to be a master of large databases of information, leave that to us crazy code monkies. Instead, [b]you[/b] our casual contributors just need to be able to create one well made page that is focused, and informative on the subject. So to begin, follow these four simple steps, they're both helpful in keeping you focused on the goal, and helpful in teaching you how to properly use the Wiki to reach your goal. Step #1: Know your stuffWe're going to assume that you know everything about your favorite game, or your favorite clan, but in the off chance that your knowledge in a particular game such as World in Conflict isn't absolute, it's always best to do some research. Now, there are plenty of sources on the internet that could help you better your understanding of your favorite game. The whole purpose of this Gaming Wiki, is to bring these resources together into one, easy to search through Encyclopedia for gaming. So, it is our job to scour the internet, and to archive it's knowledge. There are plenty of places to begin, and really, it's not my place to teach you how to search the internet. Try typing in keywords, such as "World in Conflict" and information that you need knowledge on. Such as tanks. So "World in Conflict Tanks" would be best. Finally. Blatant plagiarism is frowned upon. We understand that it is necessary sometimes, especially since this Wiki's purpose is the archiving of gaming information. So, if you absolutely must use another person's information on our site, give them full credit, and make sure to cite a source. Step #2: KeywordsKeywords are important. These are the little buggers that help your Wiki page show up on Google and Yahoo! Naturally, unless you're actively advertising your web-page on other websites, search engines are going to be the main source of viewers for your page.
This is simple HTML, so for those of you familiar with HTML, coming up with keywords will be a cinch. You'll notice that for our example, I used the EncyClanPedia's main page Keywords. Naturally since the EncyClanPedia, and ECP are two unrelated, yet vitally important keywords for the page, I used them. Since it's a Main Page, naturally I used that to. If you were going to do a keyword list on your Clan-Wiki, I would suggest using the same template of, Name, Abbreviation, Clan Type If you were going to do it on a game that is not obscure though, I would suggest not using the abbreviation, since search engines already know what it is. Instead, put the abbreviation inside of your Wiki at least once, so that the search engine can find it. If you were going to use Call of Duty 4, I would emphasize certain aspects that you estimate would be most searched for on the engines. I personally used Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, First Person Shooter, Wiki - of course, thats because I have inside information on where most of our google searches come from. You'll notice there are a lot of sub-pages for Call of Duty 4. I personally used only Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in each of them, while the two remaining choices have always been different. This is to increase the chances that one of the pages will show up in a search engine search. Try to follow the same example. Step #3: Plan an outline of your pageCreating a Wiki, is no different than writing an essay. Without proper structure, your Wiki page will look messy, so it's always a good idea, to have an idea of what you want your Wiki page to look like. This is especially important on the EncyClanPedia because, we're still small, and with so few contributors, there aren't enough editors to fix problem Wiki pages. So get it right the first time! A good way to start your outline is to use the Headline system. Start making headlines of every important aspect of the game, or clan you're writing about. Say you want to make a page about Call of Duty 4 - So you'll want to add a Summary, information about Perks, and Ranks, plus more. Trust me when I say this... You don't need to put down a huge outline right away, in fact, it's always better to add onto your outline as you build the page.
Step #4: Filling in the BlanksNow that you've done your research, and created your outline, it's time you started putting information in. But you don't know any of the code? MediaWiki is actually very easy to use. Especially if you're determined to give it a shot. Basic HTML knowledge, and a couple of quirk code lines from MediaWiki are all you need to excell at Wiki-page building. My biggest suggestion to help you get used to Wiki Code is to look over our Editing Help Page to familiarize yourself with the Wiki Code. HTML help can be found anywhere on the internet, and I'm sure I'll be using a lot of examples of HTML in this tutorial, so keep your eyes peeled. Finally, and I can't stress this enough. If you run into any problems what-so-ever. Make darned sure to contact Dairuka and ask a question! It is my job to help users get acquainted with MediaWiki, so that they can contribute too.
Notice how there is bold text, and plenty of Wiki-links? This is important because it not only beautifies your site, but it interconnects it. The whole purpose of a Wiki is so that information is interconnected, and easy to access. This was done using Bold Text - and Internal Links or Wiki-links. Using Wiki-links is otherwise known as Wikifying your Wiki-page. Step #5 Adding your page to a CategoryLots of people have been building their pages, and they often forget to add it to a category. How else are people going to find your page, without a search engine, if you don't add your page to our category trees? Plenty of browsers tend to go through the category trees for fun, so it's imperative that you add your page to our category trees! Take some time to search through Category:Categories and Category:Clans for anything that relates to your current Game-Wiki or Clan-Wiki! We literally have four hundred plus Categories built already, and half of them are still empty, all we need are people to add their pages to them, to truly make them comprehensive! Once you find a category that suits your page. Say your page is Call of Duty 4, well, you'd do the following:
If you wish to add a category, feel free to. We encourage it actually. Just note that it will be edited mercilessly by the administrators of the site to fit the needs of the existing Category Tree. It will be moved, renamed, or even deleted. Clan CategoriesYou can add your Clan-Wiki to as many Clan-pages as you feel are important to advertising your Clan in that particular area. Therefore if you play Call of Duty 4 Competitively, but play Battlefield 2, and Call of Duty 2 only casually, add the following:
Finally, once you're absolutely finished your Clan-Wiki, add Category:Clans to your Clan-Wiki's Category list. Then contact Dairuka or Webs961 for access to our Clan-Liaison program. This will protect your Clan-Wiki from vandalism, and make it so that only YOU and up to two clan members can access that page from then onward. This is so you can edit your page, without fear of it being tampered with from outside sources. Haven't got a clue of what to write about?Surely there is something you know about! Something you want to add to the Wiki-site. Say you're a huge Call of Duty 4 fan, and you have a love affair with Captain MacMillan. Well. Why don't you write up a Wiki-page about him. He is after-all important to the game's storyline, so he certainly deserves a page of his own! While you're at it, why don't you do a page on Captain Price too? Heck, throw in Gaz, Yasir Al-Fulani, Paul Jackson, "Soap" MacTavish, and the rest of the cast too! There is no limit to what you can add to this Wiki site, so long as you have the knowledge, and the drive. The administrators here at the EncyClanPedia encourage people to expand as much as is humanly possible to already existing Wiki's. You don't need to write up a comprehensive database to feel special here. We appreciate every single person contributing to this site, and trust me. We have a tendency to reward those who're especially determined. We'd love to grant more people Trusted User Status which gives people more access to pages that're generally protected and unaccessable by most users. We'd also love to update the Community Main Page more often, to tout our contributors and staff; but that won't happen until people start contributing on a regular basis. RedirectsThis is a very important part of a Wiki. People have misspelled words ever since the first written word was created, so it is really up to us to make sure that they can still find the information they are looking for in the search engine, even if they aren't completely capable of spelling things correctly. So if somebody is looking for Battlefield 2 - but they keep spelling it Batlefield 2, obviously they won't find the site. Therefore it's up to us to do searches (or click the red links) on mis-spelled words, or abbreviations such as BF2 to bring up the Edit Page. This is so we can add the following:
Do this as often as you want. In fact, the more you re-direct, the better our Wiki will work. This is why the creation of Wiki Pages is rewarded so greatly on our Social Rewarding Ranking System. It's to encourage more people to add more re-directs. Ask Questions!!!!!!I don't think I've stressed this enough, but every single user should know that there are Administrators out there who are willing to help new users get used to MediaWiki. So once more, I'm going to say this. ASK QUESTIONS PEOPLE!!!! Look to your left right now. You see the side-bar? On the sidebar it says Contact Admins, underneath that you'll see Dairuka - Webs961 - CaptainKirk Click any one of those links, and ask a question. I guarantee that as soon as that person gets on, they'll respond to your question. If you're feeling a little less patient, and require an answer right away, try asking a question on our EncyClanPedia Community Forums - We have plenty of knowledgeable users who'd easily be able to answer even the simplest question to our new users. It's also a great place to meet the people behind the EncyClanPedia. Don't be shy around us. We're all community minded people. I myself (Dairuka) am so accessible, that I accept X-fire invitations (Screen Name:Dairuka) from ECP contributors, so that they can ask me questions face to face. The ECP is a community, so feel free to join in anytime. HTMLHTML works very well on MediaWiki, and it is the perfect way to beautify your site. I encourage it's use, and welcome any users with prior HTML knowledge. For newer users who have yet to learn the art of HTML, please visit Help:HTML and Help:Tables Helpful TutorialsTheres a great deal of helpful tutorials on our Help:Contents page. Make sure to check them out! |
 |
|