User:FastLizard4/Hitchhiker's Guide to Wikitroid

 About this page:

This is my little attempt at collecting all of Wikitroid's policies, guidelines, and practices and summarizing them in one location. Eventually, if I actually get anywhere with this, it will be moved into the Wikitroid: namespace. All users are welcome to add to this; however, make sure that you only add existing policies, guidelines, and common practices (this isn't the place to rewrite policy). And, yes, the title is tentative, and will probably change by the time it's ready to be moved into the Wikitroid: namespace. Poke me if you have any questions.

Editing Basics

 * Editing pages can be tricky. Wikipedia has a nice little tutorial that explains the dynamics of editing pretty well.
 * A quick guide to the wikimarkup syntax used on this wiki can be found, again, on Wikipedia. Or, for more advanced users, see this guide, which is more in-depth and complex.
 * If you need help with editing, you can ask at the Help Desk, or you can get on IRC (see the section below for more on that).

Usernames and Accounts

 * You do not need to have a user account to edit Wikitroid. However, there are many benefits to getting one; for example, it hides your numerical IP address, which increases your privacy.  Best of all, it's completely free!  Click here to create an account, or to log in if you already have one.
 * Wikia accounts are global. If you already have an account at another Wikia wiki, you can log in using the same username and password here.
 * You do not need to use your real name as your username. Pseudonyms are perfectly acceptable; however, do not use an offensive username or one that is deliberately confusing (such as random letters); these will generally be blocked, and you will be asked to create another account with a different username
 * Creating an account or logging in hides some of the advertisements!

Signing your Name
When you edit a page that starts with talk: (for example, Talk:Samus Aran, User talk:FastLizard4, Template talk:W, Forum talk:Watercooler, etc.) or a page that starts with Forum: (for example, Forum:Minor Metroid News), you should sign your name and the current time by typing four tildes, like this:. Remember, however, that you shouldn't sign your name like this on articles.

Spelling and Grammar
Remember that we expect all users to use proper English spelling and grammar at all times on this wiki. This makes articles more readable, and help people understand each other. Note that we allow both American and British English variants; however, most articles here are written in American English, and we ask that all contributors, even those that use British English, try to use American English for consistency's sake.

Manual of Style
Wikitroid has a manual of style - that is, a guide that dictates how we expect articles to be written. First to be noted here is that we expect articles to be written professionally, no "txt speak" or "1337 sp3ak" or that sort of thing, but much like one would write a report for a class. A good idea here is to read over a few articles before you start editing, to get a feel for how it's done. The Manual of Style also specifies a couple of other important stylistic guides:
 * The names of games, series, films, books, etc. should be italicized. This is done by surrounding the text to be italicized with two apostrophes, like this.

For Wikitroid's abbreviated Manual of Style, see here. Wikipedia's Manual of Style, which is much more detailed and is very similar to ours and is a pretty good example, can be found here.

POV Policy
Wikitroid generally treats the Metroid universe as if it actually existed. We call this the "in-universe point of view". Some articles, however, such as those about the Metroid games themselves, treat their subjects from a real-life perspective, or as we call it, the "out-of-universe point of view". Also, we do not allow the use of pronouns such as "you" on this wiki (instead preferring, say, "Samus" or "the player", depending on the perspective of the article/section), nor do we allow battle guides. More details about the POV Policy can be found here.

Images
It is possible for users to upload images to the wiki for inclusion in articles (you must be registered or logged in to do this; see the section above). However, we do have rules regarding images.
 * Duplicate files should be avoided. Check the article on the subject you are uploading an image of to make sure that the image you are uploading hasn't already been uploaded.  After you upload, go to the image's description page (usually the first one that appears after you upload an image) and make sure that no files are listed as duplicates (the list would appear towards the bottom of the page).  If you find that the file you uploaded is indeed a duplicate, do not use it - instead, use the already existing image, and tag the one you just uploaded for speedy deletion by adding this text to the image's page (using the Edit This Page button):


 * Images should be given descriptive names. An example of a bad filename is AF9803DE3982.jpg, and an example of a good file name is Metroid Other M Boxart.jpg
 * Filenames are case sensitive, including the file extension (the portion after the ".", for example, jpg or png).
 * You need to supply a license tag for the images you upload. This is pretty simple, and is done using the Licensing dropdown selection box on the image upload form.  For most images (those of Nintendo games, for example, screenshots from a Metroid game), you'll want to select the Fair Use tag.  The full list of possible licenses and when you would want to use them is on the Images Policy.
 * In the box provided on the upload form for describing the image, please remember to indicate where you found the image, preferably, by providing the full URL (website address) for where you found it.
 * We prefer that you do not upload screenshots taken by pointing your small digital camera at your TV screen and taking the picture. These are very poor quality, usually too poor to be actually used.

What Wikitroid is Not
Wikitroid is an encyclopedia of Metroid information in the wiki format. However, it is important to note that:
 * Wikitroid is not a social network
 * Wikitroid is not a message board
 * Wikitroid is not a forum (except our Forums Area)

The reason why we aren't all these things is because we are a wiki. In addition, there are sites out there that do these things much better than we can with the software we use. The Metroid Database offers forums that are far superior (and much more active) than ours, and we would prefer that you kept social networking on your Twitter or Facebook. Also, it's important to note that Wikitroid is not your personal webhost, nor is it your personal blog*. Finally, as mentioned above, Wikitroid is not a strategy guide.

* Wikitroid does provide blog capabilities to our users; however, this is secondary to our goal of providing a Metroid encyclopedia.

Chat Channel
Wikitroid offers an IRC chat channel for users and non-users alike to discuss Wikitroid and Metroid in general. Sometimes, we don't even discuss Metroid, and instead move to off-topic subjects. The channel also provides a basic recent changes feed, notifying users of new pages, new image uploads, etc. You can get more information about this, including how to access the channel, here.

Recent Changes Feed
Wikitroid also has a second IRC channel that people don't chat in. What it does have is a live feed of every edit made to Wikitroid as it happens. Unlike the feed in our main chat channel (described above), this feed is unfiltered - every edit and log action is dumped here (only important or critical ones are also forwarded to our chat channel). Note that conversation is not allowed in this channel, so the only thing actually talking is the feed itself. You can get more information about the IRC recent changes feed, including how to access it, here.

Administrators
Wikitroid has a team of administrators - users with powers normal users don't have - that watch over the wiki. Unlike normal users, they can delete pages, protect pages (that is, prevent them from being edited), block users from editing (also called bans), and patrol edits. Their primary job is to stop vandalism and preserve order on the wiki. Generally, they will warn you if you do something wrong, and point you in the right direction. However, administrators aren't necessarily the best editors on a wiki, simply those that have requested - and have been granted - extra tools. A full list of administrators and a better description of what they do can be found here.