Help:Editing

Please read the AlthasWiki FAQ before reading further.

This page should cover all the basic information that an AlthasWiki article editor should need to know. It is strongly recommended that you read this guide, even if you have previous MediaWiki experience.

Content Creators Help

Creating a Wiki Article

Before you can create (or edit) articles on this wiki, you will need to be a part of the AlthasDev group. If you are not already, please ask on the User_talk:Admin page.

Now, before you create an article, make sure that it isn't already created:

• Go to the Search box (currently on the left of the page) and search for the article you want to create.
• If one exists, don't create a new one!
• If you have information that would benefit an already-created article, then Edit the article.

If you can't find an article on the subject, but do see it referenced in one or more articles, then you should probably create a new article for the subject. I say "probably" because not all subjects necessarily need new articles. Some may be irrelevant to the AlthasWiki (creating a general "world" page to explain what the word is) or could simply be added as a part of another page (in which case, please go to Edit).

If you truly feel this subject needs a new article (use your best judgement here), then read on to linking to a new AlthasWiki article. There is another method for creating an article without the need of a link, but it is not advised (and won't be covered in this guide).

Linking to a (New) Wiki Article

1. Add double brackets around the word that you'd like to create an article for (this will create a link to a new article, unless it already exists in the wiki).

[[article]]

     2.  Figure out a name for the article. As is mentioned in the FAQ, you should add "Lore:" or "SO:" as a prefix to your article name.

          If an article is related to the history, geography, etc of Althas, then it needs a "Lore:" prefix. If an article is related to the Lays of Althas: Sundered Order game, then it need an "SO:" prefix. If neither of the above, then do not include a prefix (this should be quite rare).

[[Lore:ArticleName]]

          If an article is dealing with the Lays of Althas: Sundered Order game itself (be it gameplay, quest, etc), then it needs an "SO:" prefix.

[[SO:ArticleName]]

     3.  With links, you need to have the name of the article first, then the word that will show up in the article (containing the link).

[[Lore:ArticleName|word]]

Discussion

To discuss about an article, go to the top of an article and click the "discussion" link. The main intention of an article's discussion page is to talk about the article in question.

Edit

To edit an article, go to the top of an article and click the "edit" link.

History

To see a history of past edits, click the "history" link. The following explains what you are seeing in an article's history page (from left to right).

• (curr | prev): "Current" and "Previous" show the differences between two edits. The two radio buttons you select (just to the right of these two links) will be the two edits that are compared.
• Time and date: The time and date of past edits to an article. You can click them to see what the article once looked like at that time.
• Username: The user responsible for the edit at the time and date in question.
  • talk: The user's Talk page.
• undo: Undo the changes in that specific edit. Not generally recommended.

Delete

To delete an article, go to the top of an article and click the "delete" link. An article can not be recovered after deletion, use discretion!

Move

To move an article, go to the top of an article and click the "move" link. Moving an article will rename the article and move all of its history to the new name.

Protect

To protect an article, go to the top of an article and click the "protect" link. This page will allow the user to effect the rights of who can/cannot edit and move the article.

Watch

To watch/unwatch an article, go to the top of an article and click the "watch" or "unwatch" link. By clicking this link, your account will be notified of edits to the selected article.

External MediaWiki Guides

• MediaWiki Formatting: Learn about formatting MediaWiki pages.
• MediaWiki Linking: Learn about links, and how to create them.
• MediaWiki Tables: A great source where you can learn how to create tables in MediaWiki.
• HTML: HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is supported by MediaWiki, which allows for special tag functions within articles. If you want to learn about this markup language, I suggest reading through this tutorial (don't be afraid to do your own research).
• CSS: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is supported by MediaWiki, which allows for special format editing options within articles. If you want to learn about this style sheet language, I suggest reading through this tutorial (don't be afraid to do your own research).
  • CSS Message Boxes: Until proper MediaWiki Message Boxes are created for Althas Wiki (like mbox), CSS message boxes will be used as placeholders.
    • CSS code for message boxes under MediaWiki:Common.css

Extensions

These are the extensions used on the Wiki:

• ConfirmEdit: To help fight against bot registration.
  • QuestyCaptcha: Plugin for the ConfirmEdit extension. Adds a question and answer captcha during user registration.
• CSS MenuSidebar: Allows additional sidebar elements as menus with "dropdown" items.
  • Modified MediaWiki:Common.css to allow dropdown menu items.
  • Modified MediaWiki:Monobook.css skin as dropdown menu items were cut off on body of wiki.
  • Access via MediaWiki:MenuSidebar
• Replace Text: Provides a special page to allow administrators to do a global string find-and-replace on both the text and titles of the wiki's content pages. (If you would like access to this extension, please contact Admin).
  • Access via Special:ReplaceText
• Talkright: The editing of talk pages is now a distinct action from the editing of articles.
• UserMerge: Allows wiki users with the usermerge permission (Bureaucrat in this case) to merge one Wiki user's account with another Wiki user's account.
  • Access via Special:UserMerge

See Special:Version for further details.

Skins

These are skins that are being looked into as options for the Wiki (aside from the MediaWiki default ones):

• Light Gray Vector

Please read the AlthasWiki FAQ before reading further.

This page should cover all the basic information that an AlthasWiki article editor should need to know. It is strongly recommended that you read this guide, even if you have previous MediaWiki experience.

Content Creators Help

Creating a Wiki Article

Before you can create (or edit) articles on this wiki, you will need to be a part of the AlthasDev group. If you are not already, please ask on the User_talk:Admin page.

Now, before you create an article, make sure that it isn't already created:

• Go to the Search box (currently on the left of the page) and search for the article you want to create.
• If one exists, don't create a new one!
• If you have information that would benefit an already-created article, then Edit the article.

If you can't find an article on the subject, but do see it referenced in one or more articles, then you should probably create a new article for the subject. I say "probably" because not all subjects necessarily need new articles. Some may be irrelevant to the AlthasWiki (creating a general "world" page to explain what the word is) or could simply be added as a part of another page (in which case, please go to Edit).

If you truly feel this subject needs a new article (use your best judgement here), then read on to linking to a new AlthasWiki article. There is another method for creating an article without the need of a link, but it is not advised (and won't be covered in this guide).

Linking to a (New) Wiki Article

1. Add double brackets around the word that you'd like to create an article for (this will create a link to a new article, unless it already exists in the wiki).

[[article]]

     2.  Figure out a name for the article. As is mentioned in the FAQ, you should add "Lore:" or "SO:" as a prefix to your article name.

          If an article is related to the history, geography, etc of Althas, then it needs a "Lore:" prefix. If an article is related to the Lays of Althas: Sundered Order game, then it need an "SO:" prefix. If neither of the above, then do not include a prefix (this should be quite rare).

[[Lore:ArticleName]]

          If an article is dealing with the Lays of Althas: Sundered Order game itself (be it gameplay, quest, etc), then it needs an "SO:" prefix.

[[SO:ArticleName]]

     3.  With links, you need to have the name of the article first, then the word that will show up in the article (containing the link).

[[Lore:ArticleName|word]]

Discussion

To discuss about an article, go to the top of an article and click the "discussion" link. The main intention of an article's discussion page is to talk about the article in question.

Edit

To edit an article, go to the top of an article and click the "edit" link.

History

To see a history of past edits, click the "history" link. The following explains what you are seeing in an article's history page (from left to right).

• (curr | prev): "Current" and "Previous" show the differences between two edits. The two radio buttons you select (just to the right of these two links) will be the two edits that are compared.
• Time and date: The time and date of past edits to an article. You can click them to see what the article once looked like at that time.
• Username: The user responsible for the edit at the time and date in question.
  • talk: The user's Talk page.
• undo: Undo the changes in that specific edit. Not generally recommended.

Delete

To delete an article, go to the top of an article and click the "delete" link. An article can not be recovered after deletion, use discretion!

Move

To move an article, go to the top of an article and click the "move" link. Moving an article will rename the article and move all of its history to the new name.

Protect

To protect an article, go to the top of an article and click the "protect" link. This page will allow the user to effect the rights of who can/cannot edit and move the article.

Watch

To watch/unwatch an article, go to the top of an article and click the "watch" or "unwatch" link. By clicking this link, your account will be notified of edits to the selected article.

External MediaWiki Guides

• MediaWiki Formatting: Learn about formatting MediaWiki pages.
• MediaWiki Linking: Learn about links, and how to create them.
• MediaWiki Tables: A great source where you can learn how to create tables in MediaWiki.
• HTML: HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is supported by MediaWiki, which allows for special tag functions within articles. If you want to learn about this markup language, I suggest reading through this tutorial (don't be afraid to do your own research).
• CSS: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is supported by MediaWiki, which allows for special format editing options within articles. If you want to learn about this style sheet language, I suggest reading through this tutorial (don't be afraid to do your own research).
  • CSS Message Boxes: Until proper MediaWiki Message Boxes are created for Althas Wiki (like mbox), CSS message boxes will be used as placeholders.
    • CSS code for message boxes under MediaWiki:Common.css

Extensions

These are the extensions used on the Wiki:

• ConfirmEdit: To help fight against bot registration.
  • QuestyCaptcha: Plugin for the ConfirmEdit extension. Adds a question and answer captcha during user registration.
• CSS MenuSidebar: Allows additional sidebar elements as menus with "dropdown" items.
  • Modified MediaWiki:Common.css to allow dropdown menu items.
  • Modified MediaWiki:Monobook.css skin as dropdown menu items were cut off on body of wiki.
  • Access via MediaWiki:MenuSidebar
• Replace Text: Provides a special page to allow administrators to do a global string find-and-replace on both the text and titles of the wiki's content pages. (If you would like access to this extension, please contact Admin).
  • Access via Special:ReplaceText
• Talkright: The editing of talk pages is now a distinct action from the editing of articles.
• UserMerge: Allows wiki users with the usermerge permission (Bureaucrat in this case) to merge one Wiki user's account with another Wiki user's account.
  • Access via Special:UserMerge

See Special:Version for further details.

Skins

These are skins that are being looked into as options for the Wiki (aside from the MediaWiki default ones):

• Light Gray Vector