Help:Editing
| Warning: Policy | 
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| This page is, or relates closely to, NeoDex policy. While not set in stone, changes to policy should be discussed on the relevant talk page. |
General
To edit a page, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of an article, and you will be brought to the edit screen where you can change what is on the article. After adding to or changing the wikitext it is useful to press "Show Preview", which produces a preview of your progress in the browser. Errors in formatting, links, tables, etc. are easier to discover from the rendered page than from the raw wikitext. Continue to make changes until you are satisfied, and when you are finished press "Save", making your edit publicly available. Depending on your system, pressing the "Enter" key while the edit box is not active (i.e., there is no typing cursor in it) may have the same effect as pressing "Save".
Edit summary
Before clicking "Save", it's always proper to write a short edit summary in the small text field below the edit box. This allows future editors to quickly know what you editted into or out of the article. It can also be used as a form or messaging, asking questions to future editors.
Minor and major edits
Whenever an editor saves an edit, it's viewed as a "major edit", which is an worthy overlooking by another editor, as a large change has occured in the article. A logged in editor has the option of flagging the edit as a "minor edit" when they don't want it to appear as a major edit. When to use this is a matter of personal preference, but it's a common rule to mark an edit as such when it's something small, such as spelling corrections, minimal formatting, and minor rearranging of text. This feature is important, because users can choose to hide minor edits from being seen on the recent changes page, reducing the volume of edits visable to a manageable level.
Each wiki-community has different ideas about when an edit is no longer minor, but it's a general rule that quick spelling/mark-up fixes do not effect the content of the article as a whole, and should be marked as minor. This could also be called Wikifying an article, or making it more encyclopaedic in voice and matching the style of the rest of the Neodex.
Editors who are not logged in to mark an edit as minor due to random IPs capable marking vandalism as minor, in which case it would stay unnoticed longer. This limitation is another reason to log in. Also, logged in users should never mark a major edit as minor, as it may confuse future editors.
Other edits
If the wikitext is not changed when an editor clicks "Save", a null edit occurs, which is useful for refreshing the cache. A null edit will not be recorded in the page history, recent changes, and the edit summary is discarded. A dummy edit is a change in wikitext that has little or no effect on the rendered page, but can save an edit summary. It is useful for correcting a previous edit summary such as accidentally marking a previous edit as "minor" (see below). The dummy edit summary can also be used for text messaging as a way of communicating with other editors. Text messages may be seen by IP number editors who don't have a user talk page, or editors who haven't read the subject's talk page (if it exists). Each edit summary can hold 200 text characters. A dummy edit should be checkboxed "minor" by logged-in editors.
Wiki formatting and markup
This section concerns itself with the use (and application) of formating techniques within the NeoDex.
Links and URLs
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The NeoDex has a Moehog article.
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The NeoDex has a [[Moehog]] article. |
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The NeoDex has many articles such as the one about Moehogs.
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The NeoDex has many articles such as the one about [[Moehog|Moehogs]]. |
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There are many Moehogs on Neopets. |
There are many [[Moehog]]s on Neopets. The [[Kau]] is somewhat [[Moehog]]<nowiki>ish. </nowiki> |
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See the NeoDex:Community Portal.
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See the [[NeoDex:Community Portal]]. |
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Sophie#Trivia is a link to a section within another page. #Wiki markup is a link to another section on the current page. #example is a link to an anchor that was created usingan id attribute .
Sophie trivia is a stylish link to a section within another page.
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[[Sophie#Trivia]] is a link to a section within another page. [[#Wiki markup]] is a link to another section on the current page. [[#example]] is a link to an anchor that was created using <div id="example">an id attribute</div>. [[Sophie#Trivia|Sophie trivia]] is a stylish link to a section within another page. |
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Automatically hide text in parentheses: Neopets. Automatically hide namespace: Community Portal.
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Automatically hide text in parentheses: [[Neopets (website)|Neopets]]. Automatically hide namespace: [[NeoDex:Community Portal|Community Portal]]. |
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Jacob's secret Ninja Lair is a page that doesn't exist yet. (this is just an example. Do not create article)
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[[Jacob's secret Ninja Lair]] is a page that doesn't exist yet. |
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Help:Editing is this page.
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[[Help:Editing]] is this page. |
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When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should "sign" it with a signature. Three tildes add your user name: Four tildes give your user name plus date/time:
Five tildes give the date/time alone:
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When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should "sign" it with a signature. Three tildes add your user name: :~~~ Four tildes give your user name plus date/time: :~~~~ Five tildes give the date/time alone: :~~~~~ |
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Sometimes data in an article or the whole article itself needs to be redirected or moved to a page with a synonomous name (Faerie Quests redirects to Faerie Quest, Snow Faerie to Taelia).
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#REDIRECT[[Cooties]] Redirect[[Sophie #Trivia|Sophie Trivia]] |
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What links here and Related changes pages can be linked as: Special:Whatlinkshere/Help:Editing and Special:Recentchangeslinked/Help:Editing |
'''What links here''' and '''Related changes''' pages can be linked as: [[Special:Whatlinkshere/Help:Editing]] and [[Special:Recentchangeslinked/Help:Editing]] |
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A user's Contributions page can be linked as: Special:Contributions/Jacob or Special:Contributions/68.185.186.186 |
A user's '''Contributions''' page can be linked as: [[Special:Contributions/Jacob]] or [[Special:Contributions/68.185.186.186]]] |
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[[Category:Neopets]] [[:Category:Neopets]] |
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Three ways to link to external (non-NeoDex) sources:
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Three ways to link to external (non-NeoDex) sources: #Bare URL: http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Main_Page (bad style) #Unnamed link: [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Main_Page] (only used within article body for footnotes) #Named link: [http://www.pinkpt.com/neodex/index.php/Main_Page NeoDex] |
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Linking to other wikis:
Linking to another language's wiktionary:
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Linking to other wikis: # Interwiki link: [[Wiktionary:Hello]] # Interwiki link without prefix: [[Wiktionary:Hello|]] # Named interwiki link: [[Wiktionary:Hello| Wiktionary definition of 'Hello']] Linking to another language's wiktionary: # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour]] # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|bonjour]] # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|]] |
Character formatting
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Use italics to Emphasize text.
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Use italics to ''Emphasize text'' Use bold to give '''Strong emphasis''' Use italics and bold for '''''Even stronger emphasis''''' |
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You can use typewriter font by using monospace text or
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You can use typewriter font by using <tt>monospace text</tt> or <code>computer code</code> |
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You can use small text for captions. Better stay away from big text, unless it's within small text. |
You can use <small>small text</small> for captions. Better stay away from <big>big text</big>, unless <small> it's <big>within</big> small</small> text. |
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You can You can also mark
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You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>. You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new <del>logical</del> with the old <s><del>physical</del></s> markup. |
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Leaving comment on a page source will not appear when when viewing the page.
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<!-- comment here --> |
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Diacritical marks: À Á Â Ã Ä Å Punctuation: ¿ ¡ § ¶ Commercial symbols: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ Mathematical characters: ∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞
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À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ ¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ” ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω ∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇐ ⇓ ⇑ ⇔ → ↓ ↑ ← ↔ |
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Subscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ Superscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹
ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m. |
x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m. 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]] |
Other wiki formating
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Section headings
Headings organize your writing into sections. The Wiki software can automatically generate a table of contents from them. Subsection
Using more equals signs creates a subsection. A smaller subsection
Don't skip levels, like from two to four equals signs. Start with 2 equals signs not 1 because 1 creates H1 tags which should be reserved for page title. |
==Section headings== ''Headings'' organize your writing into sections. The Wiki software can automatically generate a table of contents from them. ===Subsection=== Using more equals signs creates a subsection. ====A smaller subsection==== Don't skip levels, like from two to four equals signs. Start with 2 equals signs not 1 because 1 creates H1 tags which should be reserved for page title. |
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To divide up sections, users can use a "dividing line" to break up the the article. The coding will only be recognized when it's at the beginning of a line ----. This is good to use in large debates in talk pages in order to keep things organized. |
To divide up sections, users can use a "dividing line" ---- to break up the the article. The coding will only be recognized when it's at the beginning line of text ----. This is good to use in large debates in talk pages in order to keep things organized. |
marks the end of the list.
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* ''Unordered lists'' are easy to do: ** Start every line with a star. *** More stars indicate a deeper level. *: Previous item continues. ** A new line * in a list marks the end of the list. * Of course you can start again. |
A new line marks the end of the list.
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# ''Numbered lists'' are: ## Very organized ## Easy to follow A new line marks the end of the list. # New numbering starts with 1. |
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The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: → |
<nowiki> The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: → </nowiki> |
The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: → |
<pre> The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: → </pre> |
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Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets Wiki markup and special characters: → |
Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets ''Wiki markup'' and special characters: → |
Proper editing style
As a worldwide Neopets encyclopaedia, it is essential the NeoDex articles are easy to read, easy to edit and consistent in style to retain an encyclopaedic voice. Creating concise, unbiased writing is the most important part of the encyclopaedia, and while there are no rigid rules, there are some assumptions, conventions and considerations involved in writing NeoDex articles.
Headings and sections
Headings divide a topic up into different sections, allowing for presentation of a specific facet on the topic, rather than have all the data collected into bulk paragraphes. Sometimes there may be little to put under certain headings, but they should still be present to better present an article, and make it easy for future editors to return and expand each section.
A good article should begin with a brief introduction (or "lead")of the article that summarizes key points of the article (subject, dates of events, use of the articles subject if applicable), after which are followed by headings/sections which expand on those key points better. Common headings include:
- "Plot summary" or "Plot summaries" (where applicable)
- Trivia
- External Links
For each page with more than three headings, a table of contents (a TOC for short) is automatically generated from the section headings, unless:
- (for a user) preferences are set to turn it off
- (for an article) in the edit box the code __NOTOC__ is added
With __FORCETOC__ or __TOC__ in the wikitext a TOC is added even if the page has less than four headings. The TOC is put before the first section header, right after the brief introduction. Although usually a header after the TOC is preferable, __TOC__ can be used to avoid being forced to insert a meaningless header just to position the TOC correctly, i.e., not too low. Preferences can be set to number the sections automatically.
If a page has a template with sections, the sections in the template are numbered according to their position in the rendered page, i.e. if the template tag is in the third section, then the first section of the template is numbered four. Any text in the template before its first section shows up as part of the section with the template tag, and any text after the tag before a new header shows up as part of the last section of the template. This may be done deliberately, but can be avoided.
Use of Capital Letters
Initial capital letters should be used for proper nouns and words at the beginning of sentences but not as a means of emphasis. This also includes heading titles, which should have the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns in the heading capitalized, while the rest remain lower case.
Due to technical constraints, all article titles on the NeoDex must begin with a capital letter. When using a wikilink in the middle of a sentence, it may not be appropriate to use a capital letter. This can be overcome in several ways, either by setting up a redirect on the page without an initial capital letter and wikilinking to that article, or by putting the proper name of the article in the wikilink, followed by a vertical bar, followed by the text to be displayed, i.e.
[[Proper article name|name without capitalisation]]
This technique can also be used to wikilink to a page without using its actual name.
Wikilinks
Wikilinks connect properly titled articles together, allowing for easy connections between certain subjects. Almost all proper nouns from Neopets have their own article, and should be wikilinked if they appear in an article. Even if that article is not created yet and is a dead link, it should be wikilinked, for another editor may create it in the future. If in the event the text being wikilinked exists under a different article name, the wikilink can be created as a redirect.
It is not recommended to link to a specific article more than once per article. Ideally, the first occurance of a word in the article should be the one wikilinked. A wikilink should not appear in a heading. If necessary, the first sentence under a heading should be written to contain the word or phrase in the heading that should be wikilinked, and this occurance of the word used as the link.
Varying forms of English
In the english-speaking world, there are several acceptable forms of English. Due to Neopets being founded by citizens of United Kingdom, spellings and writing traditions were kept British despite the fact the head office is based in the United States. To maintain consistency, articles written for the NeoDex should use the British-English forms of the words (where applicable). This rule is in place to avoid reversion warring. If, as is the case on occasion, a form of a word has been used on Neopets to describe something not the British form, then this form should be used instead. For a list of all collected proper spellings, see the misspellings list.
Dates
Neopets has their own calendar which follows the Gregorian calendar, although sometimes Neopets dates events from happening in "Year 5", which begun on November 15, 2003 and ended the following year. To avoid confusion and be more precise, exact dates from the Gregorian calendar should be used when speaking of a timed event. This also allows be for comparison of data when browsing the New Features page.When presenting the date on an article, it can be displayed in two fashions...
- May 31, 2006 - Americian variation
- 31 May 2006 - British variation
The year does not need to be included if it has already been mentioned shortly beforehand.
Use of pictures
Whenever possible, a picture which better describes the article's topic should be included at the top section of a page aligned to the right. With multiple pictures, they can either be staged across the page right and left, or kept all right aligned. For more information, see Help:Images.
Pace of writing
When writing a long sentence, it's important to make proper uses of commas (the "," symbol) and "full stops" (a moment while reading out loud in which you can take a breathe). If if sentence sounds too long to you while being read out load, it's best to arrange the pace of the writting with commas or make it a shorter sentence. This makes it read easier, and simplifies writing. As a rule, a full stop can in most cases be used where a comma would go. New subjects can also be noted with making a new paragraph, or a more signifigant full stop than a normal end of a sentence.
Spam and vandalism
Due to the nature of a Wiki and how easy it is for anyone to edit, spam (refered to a meaningless and hurtful material) and vandalism (destruction or deletion of data) will sometimes be placed by editors. Spam includes random comments and gibberish which aren't proper on the article, but can also include spammed links to outside websites, which could most likely be dangerous to view. Vandalism sometimes involves spam, in which case it replaces wiki text of the article.
If you should find either of these in any aritlce, revision of the wikitext is nessesary. As all revisions are recorded in the page history and on recent changes, a quick fix can be done by any editor. Administrators of the NeoDex patrol the NeoDex as well, removing spam and correcting vandalism on a daily basis. Any editor who takes part of spam or vandalism can and will be blocked at the discretion of an administrator.
Templates
Some parts of an article may correspond in the edit box to just a reference to another page, in the form {{name}}, referring to the page "Template:name" (or if the name starts with a namespace prefix, it refers to the page with that name; if it starts with a colon it refers to the page in the main namespace with that name without the colon). This is called a template. For changing that part of the page, edit that other page. Sometimes a separate edit link is provided for this purpose. Note that the change also affects other pages which use the same template. For all of the NeoDex's major templates, see NeoDex:Templates.
Variables
A variable is a predefined template, built into the coding of the NeoDex and brings up data which change by time, number of articles, etc.
- {{CURRENTDAYNAME}} - Shows the current name day (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)
- {{CURRENTDAY}} - Shows the current day of the month
- {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}} - Shows the current month
- {{CURRENTYEAR}} - Shows the current year
- {{CURRENTTIME}} - Shows the current time
- {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} - Shows the current number of articles in the NeoDex
- {{NAMESPACE}} - Shows the namespace the article is under
- {{PAGENAME}} - Shows the name of the current article it's on
- {{SERVER}} - Shows the server the wiki is on
- {{SITENAME}} - Shows the name of the wiki
Page protection
In a few cases the tab labeled "Edit" is replaced by the text "View Source". This article is protected and can only be edited by means of an Administrator. Should you find something which is not on the article, bring it up on the articles discussion board, and an administrator may edit the artile accordingly.
See also
- NeoDex - Categorization
- NeoDex - Research resources
- NeoDex - Sandbox
- NeoDex - Templates
- Help - Images
- Category - Under Construction