The EQMac Wiki:Introduction for Editors
From The EQMac Wiki
Welcome to the wiki! If you are reading this, hopefully you are interesting in helping out. The wiki is still brand new and as you know, EverQuest is a massive game, so there is a lot of stuff to do.
Whether it be zones, items, or guild history, feel free to focus on whatever sparks your interest.
Contents |
[edit] Creating an Account
The first step is to create an account and confirm your e-mail address. It is recommended that you use the same name as your in-game character for your account name, but it is up to you. We would have liked to have open editing like Wikipedia, but this is the only way to counter the spam bots that traverse the net. (The spam had already started before the site had even been made public!)
[edit] The Basics
- If you have never edited a wiki before, don't be too overwhelmed. Just hit the edit button and most things will be intuitive. Looking at the "code" for other pages on the wiki can probably answer most of your immediate questions. If you want to learn more about formatting and the various wiki editing syntax, check out Wikipedia's editors tutorial.
- Each wiki page has an associated talk page and this is where we can dispute posted information, agree upon a mechanic, etc. If you are reverting someone's edit, please explain why you did on the talk page.
- Whenever conversing with others, remember to sign your submissions, or the other person will just see a line of anonymous text. Automatically sign with the
button.
- Created accounts have user pages tied to them; you are free to do what you wish with yours. The talk page attached to the user page is the place to converse with that user, discuss their edits, ask them questions, and so forth.
- Please be careful when migrating content from Allakazam! Some things that would appear identical between PC EQ and Mac EQ may not be. For example, there are mobs in the elemental planes on Al'Kabor that are missing half of their loot table. If one was blindly copying over loot tables, we would have some inaccurate information. That said, please don't be overly conservative either, as we can always fix inconsistencies further down the line. Most of us have played EverQuest for many years; just use your common sense.
- To upload a file, there is a link on the main page. This is a fairly straightforward process.
- Use the summary box to describe your edit! This helps administrators and other users decypher what you are doing.
- Whenever you are making small edits or typo fixes, remember to mark your edits as minor, so they can be easily filtered on the recent changes page.
- On the same token, please make good use of the preview feature before you click the submit button. This will alleviate multiple entries in the recent changes page for the same edit.
- To create a new page, enter in the name in the search bar, click go, then click on the link to create the page.
- That's about it for the basics; have fun and thanks for contributing!
[edit] Templates
A template is a like a form for a page. A user inputs several values and then the template standardizes the data. For example:
{{IceCream
|Flavor=Vanilla
|Rating=8
|Container=Bowl
}}
might produce:
This is Vanilla ice cream! It has a rating of 8 out of 10 and comes in a Bowl.
Values are separated by a |, and the whole template is surrounded by {{ and }}. Simple, right? For an example of this in action, check out Lodizal Shell Shield (or any item) and click edit. There are many templates on the wiki, including one for items, spells, quests, etc. If you are an advanced user, you can examine the code of the template itself by going to the Template:TemplateName page.
If you think the wiki needs a template, feel free to request one.
[edit] Categories and Properties
The following information isn't really neccessary unless you are an advanced user, so keep that in mind.
[edit] Categories
There are two methods of sorting information on the wiki: categories and properties. The wiki's various templates will automatically assign categories and properties to pages. If you happen to be doing a page without any sort of template, then you will likely need to add a category manually. Read on!
Categories are simply a grouping of pages; most of the pages on the left-hand navigation box are categories. For example, since there is no skill template, when creating a new skill page you will need to manually add the skill category. This is accomplished by entering the following code at the bottom of the page:
[[Category:Skill]]
That's it. Simple, right? The code can actually be anywhere on the page, but please stick it at the bottom for continuity purposes. Now the new skill page will show up on the skills page.
[edit] Properties
Properties are a way of assigning values to a page. Properties are amazing because we can do searches based on whatever properties we want (see the item and spell pages). You shouldn't ever have to assign a property manually thanks to our templates, but in case you need to, here's how it works. Let's say we want to say that an item drops in Qeynos Hills. You would type:
[[DropsIn::Qeynos Hills]]
"DropsIn" is the property, and we use the double colon to define what the property is. Simple, right? In case you're wondering, you can define multiple values for the same property. In other words, having the same item dropping in two different zones works just fine.
You'll notice that defining a property this way creates a link to whatever you are defining it to. This is not always wanted. For example, say we have to define where the item comes from:
[[ObtainedFrom::Drop]]
This would create a link to the page Drop, which is pointless. Instead, we just type the word "Drop" and then use a parser function to define the property:
Drop{{#set:ObtainedFrom=Drop}}
In other words, its the exact same thing as [[ObtainedFrom::Drop]], but without the link. Not as simple as categories, but not rocket science either. =)
Remember, the various templates on the wiki automatically define properties from the information that you enter into the template form, which is why you don't see set functions for AC values and such on item pages.
[edit] Help each other out!
If you have any questions, you can ask on the open discussion page or contact one of the current staff.
