Editor guidelines: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 08:59, 4 September 2024

While it's recommended to read and understand these guidelines, you shouldn't worry too much about following them to the letter.

More experienced contributors are more than happy to help new contributors fix any mistakes they may make while learning how to use the system.

What to do?[edit | hide | hide all]

Look through the recent changes to see which pages have been most recently edited. It's always good to have new content double-checked by other contributors.

Browse through categories starting at the top level content to see if there are any areas you are interested in. There may also be areas you find lacking, or altogether missing.

Try to make sure a page doesn't already exist before creating a new one. Don't worry about this too much though, as a more experienced contributor will be able to see your new page when they check the recent changes and will help you resolve the issue.

Categories[edit | hide]

Categories help us keep the wiki organized. Every page should have at least one category, but can also belong to several categories.

The contributor resources category contains many resources you may find useful as a contributor.

Images[edit | hide]

If you find any articles missing images, or you have a better one, you are welcome to add it to the wiki!

To upload images, see: Special:Upload

Just like pages and categories themselves, images should be given a proper category to help keep the wiki organized.

Templates[edit | hide]

Templates help us keep the wiki more consistent. Secondary skills are a good example of this. We can use a single template that requires just the name and description of the skill. The template then uses the name to get the correct images, and then takes those images, the name, and the description, and puts them all together in a consistent manner for each different skill. Most templates provide instructions and examples to help beginners.

You can also study the existing templates on the wiki. When you open a page preview, you can scroll down to a line of text with a dropdown arrow that reads "Templates used in this preview". You can click this dropdown to show any templates the current page is using. You can read these templates and then study how they are used on that page.

For a complete list of templates, see: All Templates.

For help creating templates, see: Template Help

As a small example of what templates can do, here are a few text templates we use to keep our references to Heroes of Might and Magic III consistent throughout the wiki:

Template	Effect
{{homm}}	Heroes of Might and Magic III
{{roe}}	Restoration of Erathia
{{hommroe}}	Heroes of Might and Magic III: Restoration of Erathia
{{ab}}	Armageddon's Blade
{{sod}}	Shadow of Death

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Category: Wiki]]
+While it's recommended to read and understand these guidelines, you shouldn't worry too much about following them to the letter.
- '''Remember: These are just guidelines! ;-)'''
-== Templates ==
+More experienced contributors are more than happy to help new contributors fix any mistakes they may make while learning how to use the system.
-Templates gives you a fast way to create complex tables, infoboxes or texts while keeping the format the same. You can see the heroes wiki's complete template list from [http://heroes.thelazy.net/wiki/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&namespace=10 here], and some help to create templates from  [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Template here].
-=== Text templates ===
+== What to do? ==
-Here are a few text templates, that are mainly used in addition to text. All text templates can be found from [[:Category: Text templates]]. Most of the template pages include instructions how to use them.
-{| border=1 cellspacing=0
+Look through the [[Special:RecentChanges|recent changes]] to see which pages have been most recently edited. It's always good to have new content double-checked by other contributors.
-!Template!!Effect
-|-
-|[[Template:homm|<nowiki>{{homm}}</nowiki>]]|| {{homm}}
-|-
-|[[Template:roe|<nowiki>{{roe}}</nowiki>]]|| {{roe}}
-|-
-|[[Template:hommroe|<nowiki>{{hommroe}}</nowiki>]]|| {{hommroe}}
-|-
-|[[Template:ab|<nowiki>{{ab}}</nowiki>]]|| {{ab}}
-|-
-|[[Template:inab|<nowiki>{{inab}}</nowiki>]]|| {{inab}}
-|-
-|[[Template:sod|<nowiki>{{sod}}</nowiki>]]|| {{sod}}
-|-
-|[[Template:insod|<nowiki>{{insod}}</nowiki>]]|| {{insod}}
-|-
-|[[Template:hc|<nowiki>{{hc}}</nowiki>]]|| {{hc}}
-|-
-|[[Template:inhc|<nowiki>{{inhc}}</nowiki>]]|| {{inhc}}
-|-
-|[[Template:inabhc|<nowiki>{{inabhc}}</nowiki>]]|| {{inabhc}}
-|-
-|[[Template:insodhc|<nowiki>{{insodhc}}</nowiki>]]|| {{insodhc}}
-|-
-|[[Template:wog|<nowiki>{{wog}}</nowiki>]]|| {{wog}}
-|-
-|[[Template:inwog|<nowiki>{{inwog}}</nowiki>]]|| {{inwog}}
-|-
-|[[Template:Comboartifact|<nowiki>{{Comboartifact}}</nowiki>]]|| {{Comboartifact}}
-|-
-|}
-===Large templates===
+Browse through categories starting at the top level [[:Category:Content|content]] to see if there are any areas you are interested in. There may also be areas you find lacking, or altogether missing.
-====Creature Statistics====
+Try to make sure a page doesn't already exist before creating a new one. Don't worry about this too much though, as a more experienced contributor will be able to see your new page when they check the recent changes and will help you resolve the issue.
-'''Format:''' <nowiki>{{creaturestats|Town name|Attack|Defense|Shots|Damage|Health|Speed|Special Abilities|Picture|Basic Growth|Cost per unit}}</nowiki>
- <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:creaturestats|creaturestats]]<nowiki>|Rampart|5|3|0|2-3|8|6|None|C_nopic.PNG|14|70 [[gold]]}}</nowiki>
-produces
+== Categories ==
-{{creaturestats|Rampart|5|3|0|2-3|8|6|None|C_nopic.PNG|14|70 [[gold]]}}
+Categories help us keep the wiki organized. Every page should have at least one category, but can also belong to several categories.
-====Grail structures====
+The [[contributor resources]] category contains many resources you may find useful as a contributor.
- <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:Grail|Grail]]<nowiki>|Town Type}}
- *Specific effect</nowiki>
-produces
-{{Grail|Town Type}}
-*Specific effect
-====Skills====
+== Images ==
-The Skills template is also used in [[Spells|spell]] pages to show the effect of having a [[Secondary Skills|secondary skill]] in the relevant school of magic.
- <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:skills|skills]]<nowiki>|Damage|100%|110%|125%|150%}}</nowiki>
-produces
-{{skills|Damage|100%|110%|125%|150%}}
+If you find any articles missing images, or you have a better one, you are welcome to add it to the wiki!
-====Spells====
+To upload images, see: [[Special:Upload]]
- <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:Spelltable|Spelltable]]<nowiki>|Earth Magic|6|1 round for each [[Spell Power]]|1st}}</nowiki>
-produces
-{{spelltable|Earth Magic|6|1 round for each [[Spell Power]]|1st}}
+Just like pages and categories themselves, images should be given a proper category to help keep the wiki organized.
-====Town's Creature List====
-The following should be typed all on one line.  It's been broken up so as not to widen the page.
- <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:creaturelist|creaturelist]]<nowiki>|Centaur|Centaur Captain| \
+== Templates ==
- Dwarf|Battle Dwarf| \
- Wood Elf|Grand Elf| \
- Pegasus|Silver Pegasus| \
- Dendroid Guard|Dendroid Soldier| \
- Unicorn|War Unicorn| \
- Green Dragon|Gold Dragon}}</nowiki>
-produces
+Templates help us keep the wiki more consistent. Secondary skills are a good example of this. We can use a single template that requires just the name and description of the skill. The template then uses the name to get the correct images, and then takes those images, the name, and the description, and puts them all together in a consistent manner for each different skill. Most templates provide instructions and examples to help beginners.
-{{creaturelist|Centaur|Centaur Captain|Dwarf|Battle Dwarf|Wood Elf|Grand Elf|Pegasus|Silver Pegasus|Dendroid Guard|Dendroid Soldier|Unicorn|War Unicorn|Green Dragon|Gold Dragon}}
+You can also study the existing templates on the wiki. When you open a page preview, you can scroll down to a line of text with a dropdown arrow that reads "Templates used in this preview". You can click this dropdown to show any templates the current page is using. You can read these templates and then study how they are used on that page.
-==Categories==
+For a complete list of templates, see: <span class="plainlinks">[https://{{SERVERNAME}}/wiki/index.php?title=Special%3AAllPages&from=&to=&namespace=10&hideredirects=1 All Templates]</span>.
-Use categories to group pages.
-===Add page in a category===
+For help creating templates, see: <span class="plainlinks">[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Template Template Help]</span>
-Just add '''<nowiki>[[Category: </nowiki>''name of category''<nowiki>]]</nowiki>''' somewhere in the page.
- A page can have multiple categories.
- Just add more '''<nowiki>[[Category: </nowiki>''category''<nowiki>]]</nowiki>''' links on the page.
-===Create a new category===
+As a small example of what templates can do, here are a few text templates we use to keep our references to {{homm}} consistent throughout the wiki:
-Do exactly like when adding a page to a category. If the category doesn't exist, it will be created.
-===List of existing categories===
+{| border=1 cellspacing=0
-[[Special: Categories]] - Some of them may be removed later.
+!Template!!Effect
+|-
-==Images==
+|[[Template:homm|<nowiki>{{homm}}</nowiki>]]|| {{homm}}
-You can get a complete list of images at [[Special:Imagelist]].
+|-
+|[[Template:roe|<nowiki>{{roe}}</nowiki>]]|| {{roe}}
-===Upload===
+|-
-You need to be registered and logged in to upload pictures.
+|[[Template:hommroe|<nowiki>{{hommroe}}</nowiki>]]|| {{hommroe}}
-Once you are, go to [[Special:Upload]].  See also the [[Special:Log/upload|Upload Log]].
+|-
-===New images===
+|[[Template:ab|<nowiki>{{ab}}</nowiki>]]|| {{ab}}
+|-
-You'll find a list of newly uploaded images on the [[Special:Newimages]] page.
+|[[Template:sod|<nowiki>{{sod}}</nowiki>]]|| {{sod}}
+|-
-===Unused pictures===
+|}
-[[Special: Unusedimages]] - See if there's anything you want to write about
-==What to do?==
-===Most wanted page===
-[[Special:Wantedpages]] shows a list over the pages that have most links to it. This would be a good start.
-===Recent edits===
-Look through the [[Special:Recentchanges]] page and see if there are some spelling errors, some layout you could fix, some info you could add..
-===Short pages===
-[[Special:Shortpages]] shows the shortest pages in the wiki.
-===Surf around===
-Surf around. See if you find places you know something that's not in the text, look for red links, make a new page if needed.
-===Don't forget===
-Make sure there isn't another page like the one you make (a good example would be [[Knowledge Tree]] and [[Tree of Knowledge]].)
+[[Category: Contributor resources]]