Wikizilla:FAQ
You're a part of the wiki!
When you first see a wiki, it doesn't seem like it could possibly work. If anybody can come along and change things, then how can the information be trusted? Doesn't it just get vandalized, or fall into chaos?
Once you start participating, you see that that "weakness" is actually a wiki's greatest strength. Sure, anybody can add anything -- and then everybody else gets to proofread it, and fix mistakes. Information that looks suspicious can be verified. Vandalism is almost always fixed within minutes. It's possible for someone to post errors, or nonsense -- but over time, the best wins out.
If you're reading these words, then you're an editor. If you see a problem on one of the pages, don't roll your eyes and complain about it. Just fix it!
Create a user name
Log in and create a user name -- it helps you (and everybody) keep track of your contributions, and it makes it possible to communicate with other contributors.
Talk pages
Sign talk posts with four tildes ~~~~ which automatically adds your user name and a date stamp. When you reply on a talk page, put a colon (:) at the front of your post to indent it.
Show your sources
When you are posting factual information, other readers should be able to verify the information that you post. If you find information in a book or on a website, tell us the title or the URL. If it's clumsy to put that information in the article, then add a "References" heading at the bottom of the page.
In the event that questionable information appears in a particular article, place the {{Citation needed}} tag after the appropriate text in such a way that the notation's inclusion is clear as to what needs to be cited. This will automatically place the article in the Articles in need of sources category.
How to upload pictures
Click on "Upload file" on the toolbar on the left. You can add your image to any page using this code:
- [[File:yourpicture.jpg|thumb|250px|Caption for your picture.]]
Images should not exceed 250 pixels wide for article tidiness.
Images are subject for deletion if they are not used.
How to add category tags
You can put an article into a category by adding this coden to the very bottom of a page: [[Category:YourCategory]]. You can change the way the article is alphabetized within the category like this: [[Category:Movies|Empire Strikes Back, The]].
Before you create a category, check the Category list to see if there's a similar category that already exists. If the category doesn't exist yet, then adding that code will create the category. You'll need to add some text to the new category page to make it work properly.
External links
You can add links to other websites by putting one bracket around the site's address. Put a space after the address, and then add a description of the link, like this: [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]. That'll look like this: Wikipedia.
History tab
Nothing is ever lost on a wiki! You can see all of the changes that have been made to a page -- and who made them -- by clicking on the "History" tab at the top of any page.
Setting your preferences
There's a lot of useful stuff on your Preferences page.
You can also change your time zone, and the number of items you see on the Recent Changes page or the Category list, and disable certain things such as the Multimedia Viewer for images.
Keyboard shortcuts
There's some helpful shortcuts to navigate around within a page. The following list is for PC users; Macintosh users should type Control-T instead of Alt-T.
Alt-T : Talk
Alt-E : Edit
Alt-H : History
Alt-R : Recent Changes
Dealing with vandalism
Vandalism isn't much of a problem on a wiki, because everybody has the power to fix it when they see it. See the page on vandalism for instructions on how to fix vandalized pages, and how to discourage the vandals.
