Help:Wiki Crash Course
Greetings, and welcome to the ranks of Starbounder's contributing members! This is a brief introduction to all the components of the wiki necessary to be an effective editor. This guide will act as a primer to the wiki's structure, what things mean, where to find them, why they're used, and when to use them. Confused already? Great! Lets get started.
Most Importantly
Editing a page is as easy as clicking the edit button at the top of every article. Only users with registered accounts are allowed edit, which helps prevent vandalism and spam.
When starting out, find a page that is similar to the one you're editing. Look at how it's structured, copy/paste if you must, then edit the page.
Styling Syntax
This is a subject that deserves its own help page. It's not necessary for everything, but it adds a lot of value and functionality to your edits. The linked guide explains how to insert images, tables, several forms of links, styling text, and inserting references. Lots of detail, lots of examples, and pretty much everything you'll need to make your edits look great.
Creating a New Page
In the searchbox, type the item name exactly (Caps matter). This will check to see if the item already exists. If it does not there will be a link in the search results "Create the page "ITEMNAME" on this wiki". Select the link for the item name you'd like to add there.
Namespaces
The wiki is made of several namespaces. Think of them as rooms in a library, each specifically made for one type of function.
- :Main:
- The part of the wiki most folks use when they come to the wiki. All pages that aren't deliberately put elsewhere end up in the Main namespace. Think of it as the main 'reading room' of the library. It's likely to be the part of the wiki you're most acquainted with already.
- :User:
- This is you're own private corner of the wiki, like a locker-room where you keep your personal projects, prototypes, and acts as a space for social exchanges. Everything you make under your name, you 'own'. Other can still edit it, but it's yours to do whatever you want. Keep it Starbound related, PC, PG, and without copyright violation.
- :Help:
- This is where resources for and about the wiki go. Guides and references that are useful when editing and such. Remember, this is stuff pertaining to the wiki, and should not be confused with the next namespace:
- :Guide:
- Here, we write guides, tutorials, tips, and other game-specific references here.
For the majority of editors, the previous namespaces are most useful, and won't ever need to go elsewhere. But there are three more namespaces that intermediate editors should at least know about:
- :Data:
- There are things called wiki-bots that automatically input a lot of information from the game to auto-populates pages, and this is their playground. Leave this space alone, because they'll overwrite everything you contribute anytime there's a change in-game. That, and they don't miss much, so it's probably as complete as it can get. Although, if you're looking to mod the game, or looking for an item-reference-name, it's a very valuable reference.
- :Template:
- Templates live here, which are explained in the next section. Only users with special permissions can edit here.
- :Special:
- Like the name says, this namespace is very different from all others. There are no articles. Nothing to edit. Instead, tools and references that are very useful for wiki-super-users. For example, there's a page that finds all pages that link to any other page. One for all images that aren't used. Lists of pages that are the oldest, longest, shortest, link to nothing, and nothing links to. Pretty useful stuff, but only used by more advanced editors.
You may come across other namespaces if you go looking for them, but leave them be. The wiki automatically makes them. There's no content to speak of, and nobody goes there, and nobody should go there.
Templates
Light
The torch flickers softly.
50
Templates are magical bits of wiki-code that can be inserted into pages, copy-and-paste style, to add a lot of content. They're a lot shorter to call (or 'summon' in magic terms), so you can focus more on adding unique content. Have you ever seen the section on item pages that list what the races say about something? That's a template. Those boxes that show what armor-sets look like? That's a template. The table where race specific stuff is shown for multiple tiers? That's a template too. All templates are surrounded by {{ and }}. Most take some parameters, so you can customize them to the page you're using them on.
The most important templates are documented in the :Template: namespace, look them up there for more details. Also, here's a Help page listing the top commonly used templates.
Evey time you've looked up an item, there's been a box in the top right showing the name, image, icon, price, rarity, etc. This is the {{Itembox}} template. In fact, all new items pages center around this template. A boilerplate page-starter (you can copy/paste this) is:
{{Itembox
|name=
|icon=
|image=
|objectname=
|rarity=
}}
'''{{PAGENAME}}''' is
{{IngredientFor}}
{{RaceQuotesOutput}}
Most (if not all) item pages have already been made, but it's good to know what things mean when editing source pages. You may come across pages that have a many, many more parameters. That's because this template automatically pulls information from the :Data: namespace. It didn't always used to be this way, so everything was entered manually for a long time. The only parameters needed now are name, icon, image, objectname, and rarity. objectname is necessary for the template to look up the right info in the :Data: namespace.
The prominent {{PAGENAME}} is where you should start the body of your article. The template being used is an easy way to call the title of the page, useful for making boilerplates like the one here, so it'll work on any page.
The {{IngredientFor}} and {{RaceQuotesOutput}} also pull from the :Data: namespace, the same way the {{Itembox}} does.
If you can effectively use this template, than you can figure out the {{Armorbox}}, {{Weaponbox}}, and {{Gunbox}}. They're all very similar.
One last thing that's nice to add to the very end of the page is the item's version history. The boilerplate is:
{{Ref
|versionhistory={{History|VERSION_NAME_HERE|COMMENT_HERE}}
}}
This can adjust for multiple updates. For example:
{{Ref
|versionhistory={{History|Perturbed Koala|Added}}{{History|Upbeat Giraffe|Adjusted price}}{{History|Pleased Giraffe|Updated appearance}}
}}
A list of the most commonly used templates can be found here.
If you understand namespaces, how to use templates, and how to format and style with the wiki's syntax, you can understand and edit 98.5% of the pages on this wiki. No kidding.
Tips and Tricks
- The searchbar searches the :Main: namespace by default. You can tell it to search a different namespace by first typing the name of the namespace, followed by a
:.
Example: Template:Itembox
- Using the searchbar's autocomplete feature can help you check the proper names for templates without needing to run a search.
- When editing a page's source code, a list of templates can be found below the main editing text-field.
- If you find a page needs to be moved, post on the forums to get someone with the permissions to move it for you.
- Special:WhatLinksHere is your friend.
- Check out what the wiki needs at 'How can I help the wiki?'
- Get to know the :Special: namespace.
Related Help Pages
- Unpacking Game Files
- Making Imagebox Images
- Making Icon Images
- Resizing Images
- Uploading Images
- Wiki Color Reference
If you're looking for a way to help, check through the links on the community page
