Guide to contributing to the wiki
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Welcome
We're happy you've shown interest in contributing to the wiki. We welcome all editors and assume good faith for all edits made, so there are very few protected pages.
This is a quick guide to how you can help us make this wiki more helpful for players like you!
Editing Access
Only users with accounts registered to this mediawiki instance can make changes to pages or add new ones. If you would like to have an account, contact a staff member on the Discord so that you can be directed to site admin, who will create an account for you.
The time that you are waiting to gain access is a great time to review what you need to know to edit a wiki.
Wikitext (AKA Wikicode)
Wikitext is the strange syntax used by all Mediawiki pages including this one. If you don't know it and are prepared to learn, you can read the Wikipedia page here. (Keep in mind that Wikipedia is actually a mediawiki instance, and that mediawiki is the technology that actually hosts content in wiki form. Wikitext is the language you write wiki content in. Using mediawiki and wikitext as search terms will get you more effective learning resources than using wikipedia as a search term.)
If you don't want to spend your life learning this markup, then fret not, you can still help. The wiki now has a visual editor for those who do not know how to write in wikitext. The visual editor is the default editing tool once you start creating a page or revising old ones. You can activate the visual editor by using the "edit" button at the top right instead of the "edit source" button. The image here shows you what the button looks like when the visual editor is active.
Keep in mind that the visual editor is not always going to be available for use. It may error out and force open the wikitext editor in certain environments. It also is not effective for making templates. Use the visual editor if you are writing articles, making changes to articles, or starting out. Once you get more skilled in wiki writing, it will be helpful for your wiki editor journey to start small with wikitext and learn more as you need to use more elements.
What needs doing?
New pages
New content is constantly being added to ss13 which needs tutorials and such. Before you start to write a page, search for it and if you can't find it, start one yourself. We welcome all contributions to the wiki and trust all edits to be made in good faith. As a recommendation if you wish to work on a page uninterrupted and not worry about other users edits while working, make it in your personal sandbox area or anywhere in your own pages. If you don't know wikicode, you can create a unformatted page and ask someone else to format it for you.
Content revisions
A list of pages which need revisions can be found here.
Updates are frequent and we need people to update the information on the wiki. To do this simply edit the page with new information. If you don't know wikicode you can write the new, updated content on the discussion page without formatting.
Images
Uploading new images
If you have new, relevant images then upload them and add them to the page they're intended for. It is appreciated if the pictures of items you add have a blank background and are in the .gif or .png format. The easiest way to add images of items is to download the source code, open the icons .dmi files and export images as .gif's or .png's from there.
Then upload them here: Special:Upload
Updating existing images
It is possible for an image to become depreciated following an update to the source code. To update an existing, obsolete image you can visit the upload page, upload your new image, and then add the file path of the old image you want to substitute. You can also visit its page on the wiki (by either clicking the image itself or searching for its name using the "File:" prefix in the search bar), click on "upload a new version of this file" under "File history", and selecting your new image on the upload page.
All depreciated versions of the image will remain in the File's history page for posterity.
IMPORTANT: Images can only be updated with files of the same format: .png images cannot be updated to .gif, and vice versa. This is because files are saved on a page which include their format in its name.
Tabs
Any page can have tabs added to it through the <tabs> function. This function has the known problem of displaying correctly in a page edit preview, but incorrectly once an edit is applied. To fix this, the page's cache has to be flushed; One easy method is adding ?action=purge at the end of a page's URL. If the problem persist, leave a post on the forum.
Marking for revision and deletion
If a page is up to date when you read it, please put the following tag at it's top (with the correct date):
{{Lastrevision | date = 15. 1. 2012}}
If a page is out of date or doesn't have a reason for existing, add one of the following tags to the top of the page:
{{Needs revision}}{{Needs revision | reason = Out of date.}}or
{{delete}}
Talk Pages
Talk pages are spaces to discuss an article's meta-details (as in, how it's written, problems with it, and recording discussions about how the page is evolving.)
For mediawiki instances like ours, talk pages are rarely used as we have Discord as a platform to collaborate on articles. You can use them if you wish, but you will find more collaborative success by using the Discord server to talk with your fellow contributors. If you decide to contribute to other wikis however (including Wikipedia), Talk Page etiquette and procedure will be helpful to know and practice.
There are a few things you need to know when writing on a page or user's talk page, such as Talk: Guide to contributing to the wiki (The talk page for the article you are reading right now, which you can also access with the talk button at the top of the page).
Signature
Always end of your message with your signature, so everyone knows who wrote what (without checking the edit history).
This can be done easily by using ~~~~ after your message. You can customize your signature on your user preferences page.
| Code: |
Look. ~~~~ |
|---|---|
| Result: |
Indentation
When replying to another user's message, be sure to indent your message so it is visibly a reply to the above message.
This is done by simply adding : at the start of the line will cause this effect.
| Code: |
Look. - [[User:Deantwo|Deantwo]] ([[User_talk:Deantwo|talk]]) 10:35, 30 November 2013 (CET) |
|---|---|
| Result: |
Headline
If you are starting a new topic, add a headline with the name of the topic. If a talk page is used a lot, it can become confusing if the topics aren't separated with headlines. It also allows for section editing, which makes editing long talk pages a lot easier.
This is one of the most basic things on a wiki, and are used by typing ==Topic== on the line above your message.
| Code: |
==Look at this tutorial== |
|---|---|
| Result: |
Look at this tutorial [edit] |
Jokes
Some pages are intended to be entertaining but when writing guides, remember that a newbie might not realize something is a joke or sarcasm, even if it's blatantly obvious to the rest of us. Think where jokes fit and where they don't. Also, if you're updating someone else's joke, think whether yours is actually funnier.
Guide to Writing and Revising a Guide
Always keep in mind what these guides are for; they're so newbies can quickly skim across them so they can have half an idea what they've just been selected for.
A good guide needs, by order:
- A brief one-two paragraph description of what the mode is.
- A bullet point list of short to the point key points of key mechanics, these should be no longer than two sentences each. And remember: key points means the important shit you need to know to atleast bumble fuck your way around at round start, you should be able to read and understand it within 5 minutes.
- A more meaty section detailing the game mechanics in depth (this is where you explain what all runes and talismans do, including the ones that are barely used), it should still be clear and concise.
- A summary of the key points, yes - one at the start and one at the end. Reiteration helps to hammer things home. This one will more or less be simple list to remind the reader of things, it wont explain them.
- Further reading - this is where you link to the pages that detail advanced strategies for fighting for and against the cult. No you don't put them on the main page because that will clutter it.
- Links! Remember to add links to game modes, antagonist roles, jobs, items and guides you mention! Simply do it when you re-read your content before submitting.
A bad guide is one that's a giant wall of text that's overly fluffed up and full of opinionated bullshit.
A newbie is going to take one glance at it and shit their pants out of fright, and advanced player is just going to go "Yeah.... I'm not reading someone's sperg page".
[At the moment]Template:Citation needed Security's guides are good. Corporate Regulations is unfluffed and tells plainly the basics of what a security officer needs to know to start patrolling and robusting greyshirts. The Guide to security is more fleshed out and explains things more in depth and lists strategies to counter antags.
Cult, Malf, and Traitor are bad because they're giant imposing walls of text that reads like a newspaper: squished up text that obscures the facts with needless opinions and blurbs that you don't need to know off the bat.
So remember:
- Facts good, opinions bad.
- Keep your facts clear of irrelevant fluff and other bullshit.
- Keep the basic guide basic, keep the advanced stuff on a separate page.
- Important stuff first, depth and explanation and unimportant things second.
- White space, tables, sections, and formatting are essential for ease of reading. We're not print media, space isn't at a premium so use it freely.
- Links!
- I just used the above template to write this guide.
Useful pages
Categories: Used, unused and wanted
Templates: Used, unused and wanted
All pages: All existing pages and Wanted pages
Skyrat wiki specific markup
To create a BYOND hyperlink, use the <byond> tags. The specific syntax is <byond server=servername.com port=4000>Link text here</byond>.
The wiki also supports the features of the ParserFunctions extension.