Help:Basic Guide Creation
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What is wiki?
Basically wiki is a simplified markup language for documents that share a single website, as opposed to HTML which is designed to create relations between documents spread over the entire World Wide Web. Sure, wiki does have methods to do links to external documents but that is not it's core function.
Most wiki markup tags have some more complicated options that make them capable of doing nearly everything HTML can do, but the simplest forms of wiki markup are intended to be easier to remember and use.
Do I Have to Know Wiki to Write a Guide?
No, not really. If you can write in a forum post and make yourself understood, you can quickly learn to do the same within the wiki.
So, let's get started with how to start a new guide, how to mark bold and italic text, how to add a few simple links to other pages within the ZAM Wikibase, and how to make sure our guide does not get lost in all those wiki pages.
Starting a New Guide
write this section later, as Cody says we are adding a new function to make it easier for users to define new guides and their URL.
Emphasizing Text
Adding emphasis to text can help get your meaning across while also making the page look less plain, giving it a texture that makes it less boring to read. The simplest ways of adding this is using italic and bold text.
In HTML you would need to use opening and closing tags like <i>this</i> but in wiki we can use a simple repetition of the same character on both sides of the text, two single-quotes for italic and three single-quotes for bold.
| Emphasis | HTML | Wiki | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italic | <i>italic text</i> | ''italic text'' | This is italic text. |
| Bold | <b>bold text</b> | '''bold text''' | This is bold text. |
| Bold Italic | <i><b>bold italic text</b></i> | '''''bold italic text''''' | This is both bold & italic text. |
Simple Links
Internal links, ones that direct users to other guides or wiki pages on ZAM, are created with two brackets — like [[page_name]] — on each side of the name of the page you wish to link to.
So, lets get right to two simple examples. Both of the the following examples are taken from a user-written guide, Role Playing.
Link Displaying the Name of the Page
Here is the simplest form for a link, consisting of just the page name inside the double square brackets.
What was typed:
The Role-Play Coalition is a group of role-players for the [[Final Fantasy XIV]] universe.
How it displays:
The Role-Play Coalition is a group of role-players for the Final Fantasy XIV universe.
[[Final Fantasy XIV]] links to what is called the Main Page for the Final Fantasy XIV game's wiki. This is actually one page lower than the top news page for the subdomain which would be http://ffxiv.zam.com (to link there you would use what is technically an external link format, [http://ffxiv.zam.com http://ffxiv.zam.com], but we aren't gonna talk about external links right now).
Link Displaying an Alternative Name
Here I mention talking Out-of-Character but don't want to take the time to fully explain what that means. We do have a page in the wikibase that does explain it (OOC), so lets link to it! that way, if the reader does not know what Out-of-Character means they can find out with a simple click. In the following example the page name is the common gamer abbreviation for the term (OOC) but we want to display the full name of the term (Out-of-Character) while still linking to the abbreviated name.
What was typed:
Metagaming refers to knowing something [[OOC|Out-of-Character]] (OOC) and applying it as In-Character (IC) knowledge without any logical explanation. When stories are posted on the forums, they are all considered OOC knowledge unless somehow specified otherwise (such as newspaper clippings). This applies to other OOC sources as well. Don't use OOC tools to gain IC knowledge.
How it displays:
Metagaming refers to knowing something Out-of-Character (OOC) and applying it as In-Character (IC) knowledge without any logical explanation. When stories are posted on the forums, they are all considered OOC knowledge unless somehow specified otherwise (such as newspaper clippings). This applies to other OOC sources as well. Don't use OOC tools to gain IC knowledge.
[[OOC|Out-of-Character]] displays a different text than the name of the page we are linking to.
We can describe this format more precisely as follows:
Internal Link Usage: [[pagename|alternate_text]]
For those that always jump to the end of the book to see whodunit, complete (and complicated) examples of internal and external links can be seen at Links.
Style Note: In the examples only the first occurrence of the word is linked, not all of them. This is generally considered good practice as the same word linked over and over actually reduces readability. One link per paragraph or section for the same word is the rule.
Attaching Your Guide to a Game
Before we talk about this, we need to define subdomain. Many, but not all, of the games we cover here at ZAM have their own subdomain, a specific sub-site under our top-level domain. Examples of this are http://eq2.zam.com, http://lotro.allakhazam.com and http://guildfans.com. A subdomain has it's own color scheme and style. It is also easier to do special things, like limiting search results to a single game, when on a subdomain. Conversely, many other games, such as Runes of Magic and DC Universe Online, do not have a subdomain and "live" on the http://www.zam.com domain.
Most guides written here will be specific to a single game. Since the wiki is one big space, we have a method for specifying which game the page is a part of: we put the page in a game's master Category. This makes it search-able from pages within that game's subdomain (assuming it has one). So, a page that refers to Everquest II would be added to Category:Everquest II. Then, so long as you are on the http://eq2.zam.com subdomain anything you typed into the Search box would find results only within the EQ2 portion of the wikibase!
To help keep this simple, each game we support has a Game Tag template that, when put anywhere in the text of a page (preferably at the top or bottom, please), will add it to the correct game category. Except for Everquest, all Game Tag templates have the same name as the GameID (an abbreviation of the game's name). See GameID for a list of all GameIDs used.
Game Tags also support a few simple options to add the page to certain other categories as well, such as Guides. If you add |g inside the {{gameid}}, such as {{gameid|g}}, the Game Tag will add it to the category for guides for that game in addition to the game's top-level category.
Here are a few examples:
- World of Warcraft uses {{WoW|g}} to add pages to Category:Guides (WoW) and Category:World of Warcraft
- EverQuest II uses {{EQ2|g}} to add pages to Category:EQ2 Guides and Category:Everquest II
- Rift:Planes of Telara uses {{Rift|g}} to add pages to Category:Guides (Rift) and Category:Rift-Planes of Telara
- Wiki regards colon (:) in a special way so in cases where a game name contains a colon we change it to a dash (-).
For generic pages that apply to ALL games, we use {{ZAM}} to add pages to Category:ZAM Network. This makes the page search-able from anywhere on the main News domain, http:/www.zam.com. {{ZAM|g}} will also add it to Category:Guides (ZAM).
Full documentation of all options available with each Game Tag can be seen on the Game Tag's template page (See Game Tag Templates).
Note: All pages can be linked from any page within the Wikibase, regardless of what subdomain the page is on. Visibility is only an issue when using Search.