Creators Manual
The present Creators Manual give overall recommendations and tools to help you create and write an article on the GodWiki, and even more. For category-specific guides, see the Guidelines.
Writing an article
Step 1: Create or Edit
To start writing a new article, write the title of it in the search bar. Clicking on a red link will also open the window to start a new article. If the article does not already exist, it will give you the option to 'create page', so click it. If you want to edit an already existing article, just click the edit button at the top of the article.
Also consider that an article's name should be capitalised as it is in-game (See #Capitalisation for more details).
Step 2: Writing
Creativity is the most important adjective to keep in mind when writing an article on the GodWiki. Though, it is highly recommended to follow Guidelines' recommendations to help you create your article.
You may also want to use various Formatting and Templates to improve your articles.
Don't hesitate to ask for help to if you need some!
Note : Never sign an article or change you make to an article, unless you are in a talk page.
Step 3: Categorize
Make sure you write all the categories your article belongs (usually at the bottom of the article's page). Here is an example:
[[Category:Artifacts]] [[Category:Bold Artifacts]]
If you have used an infobox template, categorization is done automatically.
Capitalisation
As stated above, an article's name should be capitalised as it is in-game. In details that means :
- Monster articles should be capitalised as they are in diary entries. Generally this means each word is capitalised, including after a hyphen, unless the word is less than 4 characters long. Those cases are unusual, though, and evidence is expected.
- Equipment articles should be capitalised as they are in the equipment list. Generally this means only the first letter is capitalised, unless the equipment name contains a proper noun. Those cases are unusual, though, and evidence is expected.
- Artifact articles should be capitalised as they are in the inventory. Generally this means only the first letter is capitalised, unless the artifact name contains a proper noun. Those cases are unusual, though, and evidence is expected.
- Quest articles should be capitalised as they are in the stats block. Generally this means only the first letter is capitalised, unless the quest name contains a proper noun. Those cases are unusual, though, and evidence is expected.
- Skill articles should be capitalised as they are in the stats block. Generally this means only the first letter is capitalised, unless the skill name contains a proper noun. Those cases are unusual, though, and evidence is expected.
- Town articles should be capitalised as they are on the map.
- Tavern articles should be capitalised as they are in diary entries or the newspaper. Generally this means each word is capitalised.
- Guild pages should be capitalised as they are in the game, or links from the guild's page to the wiki will not work. The exception is that the wiki forces capitalisation of the first letter of all page names. The
{{DISPLAYTITLE:title}}
magic word can be used to correct the capitalisation of an article's title in these cases, but a link to the wiki for guild with a lowercase first letter will work fine either way.
- Heroine, hero, goddess and god pages should be capitalised as they are in the game, but of course it's up to you. The exception is that the wiki forces capitalisation of the first letter of all page names. The
{{DISPLAYTITLE:title}}
magic word can be used to correct the capitalisation of an article's title in these cases. Note that the value of{{DISPLAYTITLE}}
must be equivalent to the default title: only capitalization changes to certain parts of the title (not all) and replacing spaces with underscores are allowed. See Mediawikiwiki:Help:Magic words#Technical metadata for details.
Formatting
Text
To make text on the Wiki appear italic, bold, or both bold and italic, one must place a certain number of apostrophes at the beginning and end of the text to be formatted.
- 2 apostrophes at each end makes text appear italic. (''italic'')
- 3 apostrophes at each end makes text appear bold. ('''bold''')
- 5 apostrophes at each end makes text appear both bold and italic. ('''''both''''')
To make text appear crossed-out: mark it at either end with <s> and </s>
To make text appear underlined: mark it at either end with <u> and </u>
Both strikethrough and underlining should be used sparingly, as they can have a big impact on readability and accessibility for some users.
Paragraphs are separated by a blank line (press Enter/Return twice).
Headers
Headings should be used at the beginning of a new paragraph about a new topic.
==Level 2 Heading==
appears as:
There are various levels of heading which can be used to give structure to an article.
The heading you should use is the level two heading although you may also use smaller sub-headings. The level is decided by the number of equal signs on either side. E.g:
===Level 3 Heading===
appears as:
====Level 4 Heading====
appears as:
Links
Most of the time on a wiki, links are made to pages with the same name as the text. This is done simply by enclosing the words in double square brackets, [[like so]]
. For example, this wikitext:
An [[aura of audibility]] will help make sure that your [[hero]] listens to the [[voice of god]].
will result in this text in the page:
- An aura of audibility will help make sure that your hero listens to the voice of god.
In the event that you wish to link to a page with a title that doesn't match the text, place the title of the article to be linked to (which is case sensitive) behind a pipe symbol (also called a vertical bar symbol) before the intended text, like so: [[Article Title|text in article]]
[[Pets|All about pets!]]
Note: the pipe symbol is above the backwards slash key (\) on many keyboards, type Shift+\ to access it.
To create a clickable link to any page not on the Godwiki, encase the link in single square brackets then after the link, type a space, then write the intended text, like so: text in article.
[https://godvillegame.com/news The Godville Times]
Lists
How to write bullet points — write an asterisk at the beginning of the line
* Example
- Example
How to write a numbered list — write # at the beginning of each line. spaces will separate the number sequences.
#point #pointy #pointer #pointthesecond
-->
- point
- pointy
- pointer
- pointthesecond
Collapsible Tables
First, read the wikipedia article on tables
This code will make a collapsed table:
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="text-align:left; |- ! colspan="6"| Words to Appear Before Expansion |- ! scope="col" | Column 1 Title ! scope="col" | Column 2 Title ! scope="col" | Column 3 Title ! scope="col" | Column 4 Title ! scope="col" | Column 5 Title ! scope="col" | Column 6 Title |- || A1 || B1 || C1 || D1 || E1 || F1 |- || A2 || B2 || C2 || D2 || E2 || F2 |}
- which produces
Words to Appear Before Expansion | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Column 1 Title | Column 2 Title | Column 3 Title | Column 4 Title | Column 5 Title | Column 6 Title |
A1 | B1 | C1 | D1 | E1 | F1 |
A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 |
- Options
- To make the table initially expanded replace the word "collapsed" with "expand"
- To change the number of columns, add columns like a normal table, but change the "6" to the total number of columns so that the "Words to Appear Before Expansion" spread across the whole table.
References section
Footnotes and citations can be added with <ref> tags like this:
There are 600 cows<ref>as of 2012-09-15</ref> which roam the fields.
appears as:
There are 600 cows[1] which roam the fields.
Note that there's no space between cows
and <ref>
.
Then at the very end of the article, add this:
== References == <references/>
which appears as:
- ↑ as of 2012-09-15
Making text invisible / only visible when editing
Useful for comments to be seen by editors only. To exclude text from the page, but leave it visible in the "edit" tab, place it inside an HTML comment.
Comments start with <!--
and end with -->
. Note that if the comment is on a line of its own, the software will count that as a blank line, which can affect formatting.
Templates
Overview
You may want to use Templates in your article.
Most templates you're likely to use will have documentation about how to use it, and if you use the What links here special page (listed under Tools in the sidebar to the left) you'll see a list of pages that use that particular template, so you can see it in action.
It is very important that you don't edit any page with Template:
at the start of the page name. Editing the templates is not how you use them; putting the name of the template in double curly brackets {{like this}}
in the page you want to use it is what you need to do.
See: List of Templates
Infoboxes
Those special templates allow to display information in an aesthetic box. Always appearing at the top of the page, they allow to categorize instantly the page they are in and so their use is highly recommanded in articles.
See: Infoboxes
Some commonly used templates
{{Usergod}}
used on your user page to present a nicely formatted summary of yourself as a God or Goddess of Godville
{{Monster}}
used as a basis for most articles about the monsters that appear on Godville
{{Hero}}
used to present a nicely formatted summary of your hero or heroine's stats
{{Diary}}
used to write like if it was a diary entry from your superhero page.
{{GE}}
used to easily convert from A.D. date to g.e. date.
{{Quote}}
used to write quote in a more aesthetic way.
{{Talk quote block}}
used to quote other Deities in a talk page discussion.
{{Top}}
add floating "Back to the Top" and "To the Bottom" to the page, in the bottom left of the screen.
A list of available templates can be found on Category:Templates
Images
Uploading
Image files must be uploaded to the Godwiki server in order to be used in an article. They can be uploaded either before or after editing the article where the image will be used.
To upload images, visit the special page Upload file and use the form there to place images on the server.
Please note that images should only be uploaded if they are for immediate use in an article. Godwiki is not an image-hosting platform, and images should never be uploaded "in case they're useful" or "to be used at some point". Images which are not used in articles may be deleted without notice.
Placing in articles
- More information: See Help:Pictures on The Other Wiki.
Images can be used in articles by typing the name of the image file into different codes.
As the display of the full version of the file will rarely look very good, it is highly recommanded to use parameter which will allow the picture size to scale according to the screen size:
- For a picture with a border and the possibility to add a caption:
[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|Your caption is here.]]
- For a picture without border but without caption:
[[File:Example.jpg|frameless|As you can see there is no caption]]
- If you still need to change the size of picture (will still scale) add
|upright=X
parameter and replace X with the wanted value, 1 being the default size, 0,5 being half size, 1.5 being 50% bigger than default, etc.:
[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|This picture is half-sized]]
- If you want to add a picture to an infobox, you'll only need to add the name of the file after the infobox image parameter as following:
|image = Example.jpg |caption = Caption of the infobox picture if you want one.
Infobox Example | |
---|---|
| |
Linking
You can also add a link to the image without displaying it:
- Link to the file page of the image:
[[:File:Example.jpg]]
- Link to a full version display of the picture
[[Media:Example.png]]
Talks and Help
Signature
When you write in a talk page, it is useful to leave a signature so readers know by whom and when it was written without consulting the historic of the page. To do it so, add two dashes -
and four tildes ~
at the end of your message.
--~~~~
Example of display:
--WardPhoenix (talk) 16:11, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
Signature is only meant to be used in talk pages.
Help:Requests
The special page Help:Requests is the place where you can ask for help if you need some for the writing of your GodWiki article, whether it is for English language assistance or for the formatting of your article.
It is also used for the full reviewing of articles during GodWiki events.
Conclusion
Now that you know enough to write a good wiki article, you can contribute! Thank you for reading.
The first version of this guide was originally developed by Spode and was updated by many contributors since.
GodWiki Guidelines | |
---|---|
General | Godwiki Guidebook • Rules • Creators Manual • Help:Requests • GodWiki's Lore Compendium |
Main content | Artifact Articles • Aura Articles • Equipment Articles • Geography Articles • Monster Articles • Quest Articles • Skill Articles • Tavern Articles • Town Articles |
Divine content | God Articles • Guild Articles • Hero Articles |