Tips to Editing the Wiki
 

Since there is a massive overhaul project with respect to the Wiki going on, I thought I might throw out a few pointers to those interested in editing or contributing to the ongoing Wiki project.

Table of Contents

1. Edit Summaries
2. Anonymous/Registered Users
3. Orphaned Pages
4. Unencyclopedic Content
5. Minor/Major Edits
6. Credits
7. The "Show Preview" Button
8. Advertising
9. Scholarly Language
10. Discussion Pages
11. Signing
12. Notability
13. Vandalism
14. Uploading
15. Edit/Reversion Wars

1. Edit Summaries

A great majority of the Wiki edits that occur in the Wiki do not contain an edit summary. Whereas it is not mandatory to enter a summary upon editing, it is considered good etiquette to do so. A brief edit summary is better than no edit summary.

Uploads are no different. Again, it is considered good etiquette to attach an edit summary to a certain upload that you might make.

The reasoning behind this? Sometimes it's best to let people know what you did.

2. Anonymous/Registered Users

Previously, users were able to edit the Wiki using their IP addresses as identification, resulting in significant levels of spam. This problem has been corrected, as you are now required to log in to edit the Wiki.

As of 11 August 2009, however, this was deactivated due updates to the Wiki software. It may or may not be implemented in the near future, depending on the spam levels.

This was deactivated 11 August 2009.

3. Orphaned Pages

Recently, it has come to light that users with the intent of doing good often create "orphaned" pages, or pages with no links redirecting to them. These orphaned pages are often individual pages dedicated to a certain item or occurance. Since neither are likely to have the exact same outcome more than once, these pages are generally considered obsolete and therefore unnecessary.

4. Unencyclopedic Content

There have been occurences in the past where individuals have created pages that are dedicated to guilds, people, or other various in-game entities. Whereas there is no harm in doing so on your own user page, keep in mind the Wiki is like an encyclopedia: It is for strictly instructional purposes, not a database for free advertising.

5. Minor/Major Edits

Minor edits are edits that do not affect the integrity of the main passage very much. These edits are generally grammar fixes, disambiguation edits, or other formatting issues that need to be fixed.

Major edits are edits that directly modify content inside the passage. These edits are edits that introduce new content, or corrections to old content that has either become incorrect or obsolete.

6. Credits

Since the Wiki is a collaborative project involving multiple users, it is considered unnecessary and insofar as bad etiquette to include a small post about yourself as the author. As the history of each article in the Wiki can be viewed by everyone, it naturally is redundant to include a credits section in each page.

This page will be updated as more issues come to mind.

7. The "Show Preview" Button

One of the most uncommonly used buttons is the "Show Preview" button, which is to the right of the "Save Page" button as shown below:

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5...summaryow0.png

This button, unsurprisingly, allows you to see a preview of the results of your edit session. The use of the button goes deeper than that, however. As each edit logged in the server takes up a little more memory, over time these insignificant edits will begin to add up, and start to slowly eat away at the memory. The memory usage may appear to be minor, but as stated before - it will add up. Basically, the use of this button avoids a large number of insignificant edits, and allows edits to be more meaningful and more constructive.

8. Advertising

A Wiki is an informational encyclopedia, provided under the GNU Free Documentation License. Consequently, only informational content should be provided. Consequently, it is not a place to submit content in regards to specific guilds, personages, help pages, or the like. Pages like such that are created will be deleted, and multiple occurences may result in a temporary or permanent ban.

9. Scholarly Language

As stated prior, a Wiki is an informational encyclopedia. As it stands, the language within should be of the definition of "scholarly." That is to say, the language inside should be like what you would find in an encyclopedia: formal diction. Granted, there is no offense for typing in colloquial terms, such as shorthand, all capitals, etc; however, you should strive to maintain an officious and pompous tone, as it is considered better to sound like a textbook rather than an informal conversation with a friend.

10. Discussion Pages

Discussion pages are pages where users can confer with one another in terms of what needs the page in question has. For instance, a discussion page may contain the debate as to what information is or is not needed, or changes that may be requested for a page that has been restricted from editing access by unregistered and/or registered members. To respond to a person's comment, use one extra colon : more than the person above you. For example:

I think the Wiki needs to be updated more often. Person A
:There are people already working on it. Person B
::Yes, but more people should work on it. Person A

If you wish to create a new subject for debate, add three equal signs === around the title of your new discussion. For example:

===More admins?===
We need more admins. Person A

11. Signing

Signing is generally considered good etiquette when in the midst of a discussion. Granted, it is possible to determine who said what, but it is generally much easier on everyone if you simply sign your name. Your default signature can be triggered, along with a time stamp, with the use of four tildes ~~~~. The formatting for a typical comment and signature are as follows:

There should be more pictures. ~~~~

What this will translate to is:

There should be more pictures. Your name xx:xx (time), Day Month Year CDT

The admins generally try to tag all unsigned comments, but it cuts down the work for us if everyone signs their comments.

12. Notability

What is or is not notable is often an issue of debate. This issue is relatively simple. Only content that is related to the actual gameplay of Fiesta itself is considered notable; information such as individual personages, guilds, or staff of any company pertaining to Fiesta is not considered meritorious for an article in the Wiki. Whereas this is not a bannable offense, please refrain from creating pages that are insignificant. You may feel something is important, but when observed from the scope of the entire consumer base, it is insignificant. Repeated violations may result in a temporary ban.

13. Vandalism

Spam, disparaging comments, racial slurs, advertising, and various other forms of editing generally found unacceptable on the forums are equally unacceptable in the Wiki. The Wiki is an encyclopedia, not a messaging board. Failure to comply will result in the following penalty system:

First offense: Warning.
Second offense: Two week reprieve of editing privileges to read the rules.
Third offense: One month reprieve of editing privileges to read the rules.
Fourth offense: Two month reprieve of editing privileges to read the rules.
Fifth offense: Permanent ban.

Any advertisement of pornography will result in an permanent ban.

14. Uploading

Many of you may have noticed that the Wiki is comprised of hundreds of high resolution images. This is intentional—PNGs and GIFs have a high picture resolution that bitmaps have, but aren't huge like bitmaps. There are certain guidelines, and they will be addressed below.

First, it is best to use PNGs or GIFs when uploading—avoid JPEGs, as they have a lower quality resolution. Ideally, Adobe Photoshop® or Adobe Fireworks® is recommended to edit pictures. Use Paint only as a last resort.

Now, for tagging. The guidelines are as follows:

Icons: "Icon-" prefix.
Items: "Item-" prefix.
Loading screens: "Loading-" prefix.
Maps: "Map-" prefix.
Monsters: "Monster-" prefix.
NPCs: "NPC-" prefix.
Skillls: "Skill-" prefix.

Example: Uploading a Recipe's image should be named:
Item-Recipe X.png

Finally, personal uploads. Users are welcome to upload their own personal images to the Wiki, provided that they remain tied solely to their user page and/or user talk page. We should not be seeing, for example, Rightclaw's Hamtaro advertisements popping up on every page of the Wiki. :laugh: Sorry Rightclaw, you're the scapegoat for this part.

15. Edit/Reversion Wars

In simple terms, these are battles in which a minimum of two parties repeatedly revert, or undo, each other's work. These are generally pointless and a waste of time, not to mention a waste of memory. If you want to take someone's ideas, first ask, and then give credit, or it's plagiarism.

So... For Edit Summary... it is to make a note about what we've changed??

How do we do that? i never knew that we could make a note about our edit..

At the bottom of each page, you will see this:

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/5...summaryow0.png

Type your summary into the box.

ohh right.. wat is considered to be a "minor" edit?

just add a line or two?

Minor edits are edits that do not affect the integrity of the main passage very much. These edits are generally grammar fixes, disambiguation edits, or other formatting issues that need to be fixed.

Major edits are edits that directly modify content inside the passage. These edits are edits that introduce new content, or corrections to old content that has become either incorrect or obsolete.

Mention the use of [[Name here]] codes.
They add to the whole list of wanted pages.
My thoughts: use [[Desired Topic Name|what to display]] instead; refrain from creating links to pages that will unlikely have enough content to become a standalone page. Examples of these are links to a specific necklace or a green equipment of a particular name - point these to the Necklaces and Weapons or Armors sections instead.

I'll get to that tomorrow, lol.

That reminds me, on the actual Wikipedia page for Fiesta, someone wrote a ton of BS about "clans" (no, not guilds, according to them). Apparently it's a feature in foreign versions if Fiesta!!!!11 Oh, wait, kFiesta? No. BK? No. Shine? Not if kFiesta has a 'no'.


They also put a few "examples" such as their guild name. Lol.

Updated 13 April 2008.

There's been some improvement with respect to edit summaries, but many people are still neglecting to include one when editing.

Wow how did I miss this? Nice guide Triumph.

Nice guide ^^

Updated 17 April 2008.

Necropost, doublepost, and updated 20 June 2008.

Necroposting a Sticky? Oh my god, how could you!

A quick note on wat you updated / added?

I suspect it's Section 13.

Aha, a Wiki Admin failed?!

Section 13, Vandalism. Note on warning policy.

Though I note your edit summaries are becoming increasingly...humorous.

I didn't know you had a sense of humor. :uhoh:

LOL!!!!!!!! i was thinking of that.. u want me to put a summary for you but you dont give me to me LOL

Glad to know that it's not just myself I am amusing :cutielove:

The Block only deprive the recipient of editing privileges? Is the principle here prevention rather than punishment? -shock-

I have been criticized for being too harsh in the past.

:sigh:

For the curious, these are the actual numbers of enforcements of Section 13 currently recorded:

Entropy - 50 counts, Triumph - 29 counts, Icy - 23 counts, Rightclaw - 4 counts, Fullback1719 - 3 counts.

Of the 50 instances of enforcements exercised by Entropy, 12 were 1-month bans, while Icy has only handed out 2 1-month bans out of 23 total.

Not all show a correlation between the total number of enforcements carried out and harsh deliverance like Triumph, who handed out, amongst his 29 total, one 1-month ban and 4 infinite bans.

Notably Rightclaw, who has only ever given 4 bans, only delivers infinite bans.

As for Fullback1719 who comes at the bottom of the list in reverse order of the total number of enforcements with a meagre total of 3, all were infinite bans, and on a very special note, 2 of them were delivered to the same ill-fated person. (meanie!)

So, I don't think you're harsh, Triumph.

Updated 24 June 2008.

I've decreased leniency a bit.

Actually, seeing as how blocks only restrict editing privileges, I am all for lots of infinite bans. Hurray to your decreased leniency.

Not to rain on anyone's parade but..

Six months later, finally an update!

Sections 14 and 15 added.

Icy review

True.

Depends on how the parties perform this.

Depends on code size - most of the time this is irrelevant.

Still an act of copycat, nevertheless...

Fixed to make the frostbitten one happy.

I know it's said to include a 'edit summary' but is it absolutely necessary to include one every time?


For example- I don't want to always be putting "I changed 'teh' to 'the' or "I corrected punctuation" etc.

My suggestions?

(Triumph is lame)

(I write this to please Triumph)

(Keeping Triumph happy)

(Nothing to declare)

(zzzzzzz)

I think you screwed up :uhoh:

To make urself look good for Tri... yes.. you need an edit summary for every thing..

just "updated" or "edited" or "grammar" or "typo" or "fixed" is fine...

A simple line like "Grammar fix" or "Fixed typo" suffices.

Because when I, or others, go through the lists of edits, it is known that edits tagged as "grammar fix" will be just that, grammar fixes, and not substantial edits.

Since Icy loves to click on each individual edit, he thinks edit summaries are stupid. I'd rather not click through all of them.

Even grammar fixes can go wrong.

You're taking a leap of faith with your laissez-faire approach in believing what anonymous or less frequent users of the wiki claim to have changed.

I don't read edit summaries, true. I look at the entity make the edits. Low risk entities escape my scrutiny.

I'm American. What do you expect?

Nothing more. Shame on you. Keep your Americanism off the wiki management.

My talk page was spammed. I war spammers now.

Edit: Judging from Triumph's reaction towards the spamming of the talk page of a wiki bureaucrat i.e. through implementing preventive measures on his own talk page, he acknowledges my point.

I would have to agree with Icy about checking the edits. I myself make quite a few grammar mistakes and have been known to correct something incorrectly only to have to fix it again. I follow alone the line that Icy does and check all edits that have been made if made by certain people I will look at it but will assume they have the correct facts from their involvement with the wiki. In other words if they are a normal contributor I'll assume any facts I don't know to be correct, if they are an anonymous user I'll recheck the information that they add just to be sure.

Your user page was vandalized too. I reverted that one, seems like they targeted you first.

And a war was just fought on my user page, there's no need to have more aerial bombing on it.

Hence the protection.

Okay, I don't wanna sound like a broken record but how come unregistered users are actually allowed to edit the wiki?

I think this is why.



but then...

So what you're saying Icy cannot change that because his admin clearance is not high enough?