AgeofWiki:Contributing FAQ
From AgeofWiki
This page of frequently asked questions is devoted to answering those questions commonly asked by contributors to AgeofWiki.
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Getting started
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How can I contribute?
- There are lots of ways! Create your own articles, expand current articles, improve article quality, fix links, spelling errors... the list goes on and on.
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Why would I want to contribute to this?
In the end, contributing to AgeofWiki directly benefits you. You'll be a part of the project, your voice will be heard. And you'll help us create a comprehensive guide to scenario design. Contributing helps everyone!
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Do I have to register to edit pages?
- No. Anyone can edit without any kind of registration (except disruptive users who have been banned.)
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What is the point of getting a user ID?
- There are many reasons: see this article.
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Do I have to use my real name?
- Real names are not required; some users use real names; some don't.
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How do I change my own username?
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Terminology
- On talk pages and in the edit summaries of a page history, you will often see editors using terminology and abbreviations which are unique to AgeofWiki. The terms most likely to be unfamiliar to a new user are;
- rv or revert, usually in an edit summary, indicates that the page has been reverted to a previous version, often because of vandalism.
- NPOV means working towards a Neutral point of view, whilst its opposite, POV, is used to suggest that an edit was biased.
- To Wikify means to add internal links and other formatting to an article which was mostly plain text.
- dab is short for disambiguation, or improving a link so that it goes straight to the relevant article.
- For a list of Design-specific jargon, see Design Dictionary.
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What is the difference between a page and an article?
- The term "page" encompasses all the material on AgeofWiki, including encyclopedia topics, talk pages, documentation, and special pages such as Recent Changes. "Article" is a narrower term referring to a page containing an encyclopedia entry. Thus, all articles are pages, but not all pages are articles.
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What is an orphan?
- An orphan is an article that no other article links to. These can still be found by searching the Wikipedia, but it is preferable to find another article where a link can be added. You can find a list of orphan articles here.
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What is a stub?
- A stub on AgeofWiki is a very short article, generally of one paragraph or less. Most people dislike stubs, even though they are probably a necessary evil. Many excellent articles started out as short stubs, thus existing stubs should be expanded into proper articles. For general knowledge regarding stubs, please refer to Wikipedia:Stub.
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What is disambiguation?
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What is a minor edit? When should I use it?
- When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option to flag an edit as "minor." Use of this flag is largely a matter of personal taste. A general rule of thumb is that an edit that corrects spelling or formatting, performs minor rearrangements of text, or tweaks only a few words, should generally be flagged as a "minor edit". A major edit, in contrast, generally performs a change that close watchers of the page are likely to want to review. Of course, if an edit performs a major semantic revision, but is limited to only a few words, then the edit should not be flagged as minor.
- This feature is important because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the Recent Changes page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.
- The reason for not allowing a user who chooses not to log in to mark an edit as minor is that vandalism may be marked as such, and as a result, may remain unnoticed for longer than is desirable. This limitation is yet another reason to create an account and log in.
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General
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Where do I find more information beyond this FAQ?
- You can start by reading the Introduction. The AgeofWiki:Help page has a useful selected index, and there are many other useful links both on AgeofWiki and on Wikipedia, which was the basis for many of our wiki guides.
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What is "Recent Changes," and what do the abbreviations used there mean?
- Recent Changes lists all the edits that have been made over a given time period. See Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Recent Changes for info.
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Are there any standard formats, for things like dates for example?
- See the Manual of Style, which applies to AgeofWiki as well. An AgeofWiki specific manual is coming soon.
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What do I do if I find two articles on the same subjects?
- Well, you could merge them yourself if you are feeling bold. Pick the most suitable page name (which may not necessarily be one of the existing ones!). If you're not sure which name to use, or whether the two articles should really be merged, mention it on the talk page of one of them (and put a quick note with a link on the talk page of the other), and see what other users think.
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Can we debate or talk about the subjects here?
- This is an encyclopedia that strives to present subjects from the neutral point of view. Debate intended to convince someone else of your point of view on a certain subject may take place on the forum. Discussion intended to improve articles is welcome here, however; it takes place in the Talk: pages attached to every article.
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I've found vandalism, or I've damaged a page by mistake! How can I restore it?
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Which languages can I use?
All content on AgeofWiki should be in English, non-English text should include a translation.
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Should I use American English or British English?
Either is fine. If you use one in your article title, however, you should create a title with the other spelling to redirect to your article. This makes it easier to find.
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How do I spell check a page?
- A spell checker has been requested for MediaWiki, but has not been implemented yet. When editing a larger article, it may be more convenient to paste the text into your favorite text editor or word processor first, edit and spell check there, and then paste back into your browser to preview. You can also use an online spell checker such as Spellonline (http://www.spellonline.com).
- There is a list of common misspellings, which you can use to check if a listed misspelling is on any page in the database. Unlike a spell checker, an unrecognized word is considered correct. Google (http://www.google.com) also doubles as a spell checker. Type the word into the search input window and Google will return with possible corrections if it is misspelled.
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Why are some links red? What are the ? links?
- They both indicate that a page with that name has not yet been started. Which one you see depends on your Special:Preferences. If you have "Highlight links to empty topics" checked, you'll see red links. Otherwise, you get the little blue question marks.
- Either way, you can click on that link and start a page with that name. But be careful -- there may already be articles on similar topics, or an article on the same topic under a different name. It's pretty important to hunt around for similar topics first. See Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Naming conventions for information on naming pages.
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OK, what about the pale blue links?
- Those are external links; i.e. those that link to pages outside AgeofWiki. They look like this (http://www.example.com).
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What happens when two users edit a page at the same time?
- This is called an "edit conflict". You'll get a conflict screen that displays both versions in separate windows, along with a summary highlighting the differences (typically showing the edits of both users, except those which both have made exactly the same), and instructions on how you should proceed. It's virtually impossible to lose any data.
- The MediaWiki software developers have suggested that there may be a more advanced system that automagically merges in the future.
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What happens if my computer or browser crashes mid-edit, or if the server does not respond?
- In case of a crash you'll lose your edit. To some extent, you can guard against this by editing in a text editor, for major work (but note that with regard to a system crash this does not help, unless you save frequently to disk).
- When you get a time-out when you try to save, you might or might not lose your edit depending on your web browser. Some browsers (e.g. Mozilla Firefox) will recover the text you have tried to save if you use the back-button. In other browsers you will lose your edit. You can protect against this by copying the text (at least to the clipboard of your system). If you did not do this, you can at least recover the latest reviewed version by using the back-button and refreshing the page.
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How do I learn about changes to certain topics without having to go there from time to time?
- If you are a logged-in user, on every page you will see a link that says "Watch this article". If you click on it, the article will be added to your personal watchlist. Your watchlist will show you the latest changes on your watched articles.
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What file formats should I use for pictures/videos?
- For images, use JPEG for photographs, and PNG for drawings, logos and the like. GIF can be used instead of PNG, but it is discouraged because of patent reasons. As for video, good question; it hasn't come up yet.
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What file format should I use for sound?
- Multiple encodings are encouraged. WAV and Ogg Vorbis are allowed.
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One of the contributors is being unreasonable. Help!
- See Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Staying cool when the editing gets hot and Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Dispute resolution, as these Wikipedia policies mirror our own.
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Can I change the default number of contributions displayed in the "My contributions" list?
- Currently, no. You can, however, change the setting on the page and bookmark the resulting page.
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Why was the article I created deleted?
- New articles are deleted for not following AgeofWiki Policies. If your article was deleted, future contributions from you are still welcome.
- The reasons that may lead to the quick deletion of an article are:
- A very short page with little or no definition or context (eg "He is a funny man that has created Factory and the Hacienda. And, by the way, his wife is great.").
- No meaningful content or history (eg "sdhgdf"). See patent nonsense.
- A test page (eg "Can I really create a page here?").
- Pure vandalism (see dealing with vandalism). Note that if you're not being malicious, then your article probably didn't fall under this category.
- Reposted content that was previously deleted.. This does not apply to undeleted content.
- A page created and edited solely by a banned user, after they were banned. This is slightly controversial!
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Why was the edit I made removed?
- There are a variety of reasons (some common reasons). The first thing you should do is look at the history page for the article you edited. This will tell you who changed it, when they changed it, and hopefully a short reason why they changed it. If it says something like see talk, then you should look at the talk page for the article. Also, you should look at your own talk page to see if you have a message there. If you don't find a reason that is satisfactory, politely ask in the article's talk page about your proposed change, and maybe you will get suggestions about changes that you can make so that your change will go in, or you may get reasons why your change should not happen.
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Copyrights
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I have, or can get, special permission to copy an image or article to AgeofWiki. Is it OK to do that?
- The text and images of AgeofWiki are covered by the GNU Free Documentation License. Unless an item is covered by the same or a similar license, or is in the public domain, it cannot be used on AgeofWiki. So you have to ask the copyright holder of the material to license it under GFDL. Note: Screenshots are considered fair use under the United States Copyright Act.
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I have an out-of-copyright image (or text) that is reproduced in an in-copyright book. Can I scan / type it into AgeofWiki?
- Providing they haven't altered the image then they can't claim a copyright on it. If it was in the public domain before they used it, it's still in the public domain afterward.
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Does using a GIF image in AgeofWiki violate the GFDL because of its patent?
- No. The patent of the LZW compression algorithm used with the GIF format has expired.
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Under the copyright law in Japan, copyright holders cannot make their works public domain, therefore there is no public domain in materials covered by Japanese copyright law. What can I do?
- Technically, there is still expiration in Japan too. So if the works exceeded expiration term, they are considered public domain. Otherwise, they cannot be public domain.
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Miscellaneous
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AgeofWiki is great but I no longer have a life. I feel the urge to spread this affliction to my fellow human beings. How do I spread the word?
- Wikipedia has an article on this, see Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Building Wikipedia membership for some ideas. Good luck with your insidious plot. Bwahahaha!
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How do I donate to AgeofWiki?
Currently the only way to donate is to mail money to:
HeavenGames LLC 28 W. Sunset Ave Lombard, IL 60148 USA
You can, however, make a purchase through the Merchant (http://www.heavengames.com/ads/affiliations.shtml) page, which will send a commission to HG.
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Can I really change whatever I want on AgeofWiki?
Yes, you can. And your changes will be reflected instantly.
- (Actually, this isn't completely true. There are some pages on AgeofWiki that are protected, so that only administrators can modify them. This includes pages like the Main Page, which are permanently protected, or normal articles which are temporarily protected during the resolution of an edit war. However, the vast majority of pages on AgeofWiki are editable by anyone, at any time.)
