Difference between revisions of "Getting Started"

Latest revision as of 15:53, 7 September 2014

Please read this page carefully! It contains important information on keeping this Wiki neat and tidy.

[edit] Welcome!

Welcome to the SimsWiki. We hope this Wiki will turn into a valuable asset for the Community. This page contains tips, tricks, suggestions, and a couple of rules.

[edit] Have fun, but be serious

If you've edited Wikipedia, don't worry. SimsWiki won't be as stuffy and rule-ridden as that. You can have some fun here, but remember, we're trying to build a usable history and database for the community.

[edit] Use the Talk pages

At the top of each article (or template, or image) is a "discussion" link. This'll take you to a Talk page for the article you're in. It's a good spot to discuss potentially controversial stuff you plan on doing, ask questions, etc. Remember to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). To start a new discussion on a talk page, click the + link at the top of the page.

[edit] Look at what others have done

No need to reinvent the wheel, right? Chances are, when you start editing, there are already some pages similar to what you want to wind up with. Use them to your advantage! Want to know how someone did that spiffy infobox? Click the "edit" link at the top of the page and look at the code. Hell, copy it wholesale.

This is a good way to learn Wikiformatting, too. Using proper bulleted and numbered lists, Wikilinks, section headers, etc. will go a long way to making the SimsWiki easily readable.

You can figure out what categories to apply to your articles this way, too. You're free to invent your own if you've ideas on how to improve the organization around here, of course!

[edit] Creating Pages

To create a page you can either use the Search box to search for the term, and then click the resulting "Create this page" link that shows up, or you can type the URL in directly, for example http://simswiki.info/MyPageNameHere (please replace MyPageNameHere with what you want your page to be called!)

[edit] Abuses

Chances are someone is going to be an ass and disrupt the Wiki. You can always reverse their changes - unless they're an administrator, they can't actually delete anything from the site permanently. If someone gets way out of hand, we're able to ban them if it comes to that.

That said, do try and resolve disputes in a polite, happy way. Think of how you'd act on the Forums. Pretend the moderators are breathing down your neck. Fighting over an article? Take a step back, discuss it in the Talk page, and maybe ask some others to come give their opinions on the matter. We're all here to improve the Wiki, right?

[edit] Editing Pages

The best reference on the Wiki formatting is available on WikiMedia, here: [1]