<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Contents 1 Wiki Parts: What are they? 1.1 Articles 1.1.1 Namespaces 1.1.1.1 Categories 1.1.1.2 Portals 1.1.1.3 Projects 1.1.2 Talk Pages 2 Articles 2.1 Types of Articles 2.1.1 Regular Articles 2.1.2 Disambiguation Pages 2.2 Primary Article 2.3 Category Descriptions 2.4 User Pages 2.5 Talk Pages 2.6 Portals 2.7 Project Pages 2.8 Article Creation and Editing 2.9 Submission Guidelines 2.9.1 Creating an Article 2.9.2 Title 2.9.2.1 Date Formats 2.9.2.2 Allowed Characters 2.9.3 Editing 2.9.3.1 Edit Panel 2.9.3.2 Tool Bar 2.9.4 Spell Check 2.9.5 Spoilers 2.9.6 Summary 2.9.7 Options 2.9.7.1 Minor Edit 2.9.7.2 Watch This Page 2.10 Filling It Out 2.11 Text Formatting 2.11.1 Article Title (In the Body) 2.11.2 Internal (Wiki) Links 2.11.3 Links on the Fly 2.11.4 Formatting Links to Appear as Hyperlinked Words 2.11.5 Book Links and ISBNs 2.11.6 External Links 2.11.7 Links to Categories 2.11.8 Suppressing Wiki Actions in a Link 2.11.9 Images 2.11.10 CSS 2.11.11 HTML 2.11.12 Tables 2.11.13 Stubs 2.12 Categorizing the Article 2.12.1 The Top Categories 2.12.2 Fitting Your Article into the Top Categories

Wiki Parts: What are they?

Articles

Articles are entries in the SCIFIPEDIA database intended to summarize general knowledge on a specific topic.

Namespaces

Namespaces are basically pieces of SCIFIPEDIA, as in any wiki, that contain slightly different types of content. Regular articles about the fantastic and its genres (the content of SCIFIPEDIA) are the default namespace and so you will see no modifier in front of article titles. A namespace modifier will follow the " index.php/ " in the address bar before an article title or it will appear at the top of a page along with the article title. In either case, it is separated from the title by a colon ( : ).

For instance, when viewing a Category Page's description, you are essentially reading an article in the namespace "Category." The description and summaries for the category Anime appear on a SCIFIPEDIA article called " Category:Anime " and this title, along with the "Category" namespace, will appear at the top of the page, with "Category" divided from "Anime" by a colon ( : ).

The basic namespaces or overall divisions of SCIFIPEDIA you may be concerned with are as follows:

Categories

Categories are subsidiary areas of interest within SCIFIPEDIA under which individual articles are listed.

There are fourteen primary categories in SCIFIPEDIA, into which all articles and sub-categories should be placed. They are: Art, Anime, Audio, Comics, ETs and UFOs, Fandom, Games, Internet, Literature, Movies, Paranormal, Science, Toys, TV.

Portals

A Portal in SCIFIPEDIA is essentially a combination of master guide or compendium organizing related articles, community meeting place and Project page guide, all for a particular topic that is highly complex and very likely the subject of lively debate. Examples would be specific genre subjects such as Star Trek or Doctor Who.

A Portal differs from a primary page in that whereas a primary page is just another article within SCIFIPEDIA, a Portal is a namespace. Consider it to be the SCIFIPEDIA field guide to your subject. You can talk about the science fiction or fantasy work at hand and also provide for other readers a centralized access point to the myriad related subjects involving media spin-offs, character biographies, timelines, bibliographies—it is up to you. You can also list resources for interested parties, a call for articles or clean-up tasks, and so on.

Projects

A Project is an organizational tool within SCIFIPEDIA for organizing projects relating to specific subjects that are themselves highly complex and multifaceted. It can also be an organizational tool for straightforward projects such as a wiki-wide clean-up project or an attempt to assemble a timeline. It is a place where the details of an ongoing project can be posted, discussed and undertaken in a clear, consensual manner. Ideally it would have an extensive Discussion resource and give a history of the project and the principal participants and SCIFIPEDIA contacts (if they use them).

For example, SCIFIPEDIA:Authors would be a project whose objective might be organizing and improving articles about authors and writing, looking for entries that have the category tag Category:Authors and a proper name and modifying the tag so that the name will be alphabetized in Category summaries, perhaps maintaining lists apart from the article Authors sorted any number of ways, and keeping unambiguous the article Authors.

Talk Pages

Associated with each article is a related page, the Talk Page (the tab for it is labeled "Discussion"), in which comments and suggestions are exchanged about how the article can and should be developed and changed. Every namespace (regular articles, User pages, Categories, Portals, Projects, Help, and SCIFIPEDIA) supports talk pages for each of its articles or pages.

Articles

Types of Articles

Regular Articles

Articles are entries in the SCIFIPEDIA database intended to summarize general knowledge on a specific topic.

Disambiguation Pages

A Disambiguation Page is a special page. The purpose of a Disambiguation Page is to help users distinguish the difference between two or more subjects that have the same name. For information on creating a Disambiguation page, go to [Help:Disambiguation].

Primary Article

Primary Articles or Creator Pages are articles written about specific creations by the person or persons involved in the creation of said work. These articles are protected from editing. However, the intention is not to close participation on the subject: Primary Articles are set aside in a namespace separate from the Regular Articles which are open to editing by all. The only requirement is that the Regular Article always maintain a link to the Primary Article.

Category Descriptions

Categories you create should have a descriptor page. It should explain the intent behind the category and its relation to the overall structure of SCIFIPEDIA. It should not be lengthy—leave that for a regular article with the same name.

User Pages

User pages are where users may post information about themselves and their take on topics in SCIFIPEDIA.

Talk Pages

Talk or Discussion pages are associated with every article in SCIFIPEDIA, including all regular articles about the genres of the fantastic and their related subjects, all Creator pages, all Category pages, all Help pages, all SCIFIPEDIA (Project) pages, and all Portals.

Talk pages are the heart of any wiki, and SCIFIPEDIA is no exception. This is where consensus is reached on articles in need of revision, expansion or re-organization. Making sure all views on some controversial subjects are part of an article, without judgement, comes from what is hashed out in a rather more partisan fashion on Talk pages.

Talk pages are also important resources for communication and organization, as well as standardization.

Portals

A Portal in SCIFIPEDIA is essentially a combination of master guide or compendium organizing related articles, community meeting place and Project page guide, all for a particular topic that is highly complex and very likely the subject of lively debate. Examples would be specific genre subjects, such as Portal:Star Trek or Portal:Doctor Who.

A Portal differs from a primary page in that whereas a primary page is just another article within SCIFIPEDIA, a Portal is a namespace. Consider it to be the SCIFIPEDIA field guide to your subject. You can talk about the science fiction or fantasy work at hand and also provide for other readers a centralized access point to the myriad related subjects involving media spin-offs, character biographies, timelines, bibliographies—it is up to you. You can also list resources for interested parties, a call for articles or clean-up tasks, and so on.

Project Pages

A Project is an organizational tool within SCIFIPEDIA for organizing projects relating to specific subjects that are themselves highly complex and multifaceted. It can also be an organizational tool for straightforward projects, such as a wiki-wide clean-up project or an attempt to assemble a timeline. It is a place where the details of an ongoing project can be posted, discussed and undertaken in a clear, consensual manner. Ideally it would have an extensive Discussion resource and give a history of the project and the principal participants and SCIFIPEDIA contacts (if they use them).

A Project Page is a namespace in SCIFIPEDIA. Add the prefix SCIFIPEDIA to the project's name (with a colon). For example, [[SCIFIPEDIA:Authors]] would be a project whose objective might be organizing and improving articles about authors and writing, looking for entries that have the category tag [[Category:Authors]] and a proper name, and then modifying the tag so that the name will be alphabetized in Category summaries. Perhaps maintaining lists apart from the article Authors sorted any number of ways. Perhaps keeping unambiguous the article Authors.

Article Creation and Editing

Submission Guidelines

Submissions to SCIFIPEDIA should be written in English, should be based on facts, should relate to the topic at hand, should not contain copyrighted material owned by others and should be delivered via a Neutral Point of View (NPOV). Read the full SCIFIPEDIA Submission Guidelines for more information and to stay on top of revisions.

Creating an Article

Title

The Title of an article should be accurate and to the point and should not needlessly duplicate another article title.

Date Formats

Although different date formats are allowed by the software, the preferred format for SCIFIPEDIA is the form Month Day, Year; for example, January 1, 2006.

Allowed Characters

All alphabetical characters are allowed. The following characters should not be used in Article Titles: :  ; & @ # .  !  ?

Editing

When you click on the "Edit" tab at the head of an article, the Edit Page will open and you will be able to make changes to what already exists, add new material, change or add categories or otherwise edit the article, or create an article should there be no prior material on the page you're examining.

Edit Panel

When you click on "Edit," a new page opens, showing a white space enclosed by a border. This is the Edit Pane. What is written within the Edit Pane is what will be displayed as the Article when you click the "Save Page" button.

Tool Bar

Above the Edit Pane is a set of icons called the Tool Bar, which allows a contributor to apply special wiki formatting to selected text such as style, link creation, etc. The components are as follows:

• Bold = Makes selected text bold.
• Italic = Makes selected text italic.
• Internal Link = Makes selected text a link to a SCIFIPEDIA article. This places double square brackets before and after the selected text ( " [[text]] " )
• External link = Makes selected text a link to a Web page outside of SCIFIPEDIA by placing single square brackets ( " [text] " ) around the selected text. Use this on fully described URLs (e.g., http://www.scifi.com/ )
• Level Two Headline = Makes selected text a level two headline (surrounds text with two equal signs on each side ( " =text= " )
• Insert an Image = Makes selected text the name of an image file in SCIFIPEDIA, without the file extension. ( " [[Image:text]] " )
• Insert a Media File = Makes selected text the name of a media file (media files are not supported in SCIFIPEDIA at this time).
• Mathematical Formula = Makes selected text into a math formula (adding the math tags before and after), using LaTex ( " <math>text</math> " )
• Ignore Wiki Formatting = Makes selected text, including wiki tags, plain text by inserting <nowiki> tags before and after. ( " <nowiki>text</nowiki> " )
• Insert Signature = Inserts the user's handle with a time stamp.
• Insert Horizontal Line = inserts Wiki code for a horizontal line ( " ----- " )
• Spell Check = checks all text in the editing pane. Highlights suspected misspellings; each highlight has a drop-down of suggested spellings and an option to add a word to your private dictionary. To turn Spell Check off, click the again.

Important Note: Spell Check is not supported in Safari at this time.

Spell Check

Spell Check is the button marked with a red S, at the end of the row of tool buttons. To use, click the red S button. It should stay depressed, indicating that the check is in progress.

Spoilers

You know how you hate it when somebody tells you the ending of a movie or a book before you've had a chance to experience it for yourself? Many Articles will contain plot summaries and those will often reveal the surprises that a director has carefully planned into a movie or that an author has written into a story. For the sake of the many people coming to an Article that may not yet have actually seen what is being discussed, we have a handy template

which is essential when writing about any story: novels, shorts, movies, comics. People should be warned that if they want to experience what the creator of the piece intended, they should stop reading.

Just before you reach the point in your article where you're about to give away a carefully crafted surprise, please insert:

{{spoiler}}

When you do that, the wiki software will automatically insert a box with a spoiler warning so that readers will know that they're about to learn more than they might be ready for.

Summary

Below the Edit Pane is a smaller white box, labeled Summary. Once you've finished editing an Article, please summarize the changes you've made in this box. This will be attached to the record of your changes on the History Page.

Options

Minor Edit

There is a check box below the Edit Pane labeled "Minor Edit." If you have made only small, cosmetic changes to an Article, you should check this box.

Watch This Page

There is a check box below the Edit Pane labeled "Watch this page." If you want to be informed when new changes are made to this Article, check this box.

Filling It Out

Text Formatting

Article Title (In the Body)

The title of the Article should be included as early in the first sentence of an Article as possible, preferably as the subject of the sentence. Its format should be either in bold typeface, or in bold italic typeface for titles.

Internal (Wiki) Links

To link to another SCIFIPEDIA Article, enclose the name of the Article in square brackets, like this:

[[Article Name]].

Links on the Fly

You can add links while writing articles by simply enclosing the key words in double square brackets, like so:

[[Isaac Asimov]]

This will generate a link in your document to either an existing article or, should one not exist, to an editing window for beginning a new article with that exact title.

Of course, before creating links for nearly everything in an article, you should do the following:

• Check to see if an article already exists. The best way is to simply search SCIFIPEDIA (At the top of the page, type keywords rather than an exact phrase, then choose "All Results").
• If it does, use the exact same title in your link. If you feel this title is inaccurate (say, someone entered a book title in mostly lower case), raise the issue of moving (that is, renaming) the article on its Discussion Page. In the meantime, use the link as it stands and put a watch on your article. Check back to see if consensus is reached, and adjust your linked article accordingly.
• Carefully consider if an article is justified and how it relates to your link should you not find one.
• Be cautious of ambiguous links. For instance, if you link "Mars" in your article, you will probably find that there are many articles on Mars and most likely there is a Disambiguation Page titled "Mars" with links to all sorts of articles concerned with the planet or the god. Make your link directly to the relevant article, not to the Disambiguation page.
• Avoid linking every eventuality. Names, titles, years, specific dates, general concepts, and so on are all fair game, but sometimes an article loses focus as nearly every component is essentially linkable to another SCIFIPEDIA article. Link only things that strengthen the article and enhance its clarity.
• Avoid linking every instance. If your article repeatedly refers to a particular subject, like the name of a character, a place, and so on, do not link every occurrence of the subject, no matter the length of your piece. Always try to link the first instance of the subject in your article. Thereafter, make judicious use of redundant links to bring home a point. Likewise, if your article is a long piece, use the occasional linking of the subject as a way to help your reader stay focused on the subject.

Formatting Links to Appear as Hyperlinked Words

Sometimes you don't wish to have the full wiki link appear in your text, but instead want a word or phrase to be linked to another article. To achieve this, you simply add a pipe after the SCIFIPEDIA page link, then type in the words you want and close the square brackets.

For instance, to link the word "here" in the following sentence, you would edit it like this:

For more information on Watership Down, click [[Watership Down|here]].

Which produces this sentence:

For more information on Watership Down, click here.

Book Links and ISBNs

By including the ISBN number after a book entry, an automatic link to the Scifipedia book sources page is created (no brackets are used). Here there are links to online bookstores. The ISBN is remembered and when you click on one of the bookstore links, it takes you directly to that book's page. Use the 13 digit ISBN as it is replacing the old 10 digit one, which may at some point become inoperative. The format for one such book is as follows:

The Face in the Window and Other Alabama Ghostlore by Alan Brown. University of Alabama Press (1997). ISBN 978-0817308131

Also, do not include any punctuation or additional characters between the term ISBN and the 13 digit number because that will cause the link not to appear.

External Links

External links are constructed like regular wiki links in SCIFIPEDIA, with two differences:

1. The link is the full URL (http://www.scifi.com)
2. Piping is not supported. To alter the appearance of the link, include a space after the last character in the URL, followed by the wording you wish to use for the link's appearance, and then close the square brackets. For instance, to link to SCIFI.COM but have the link read as "SCI FI," you would do this:

[[http://www.scifi.com SCI FI]]

Links to articles outside of SCIFIPEDIA appear as internal footnotes and can appear in a list at the bottom of the article. They should not appear as their native URLs, but should be formatted to describe the website and the topic. Thus: [www.websiteaddress Subject], that is opening and closing square bracket, with the URL followed by a space, followed by the subject under discussion that will be covered in the externally linked website.

For External Links relating to media properties, we've developed a ranking order for how multiple entries should be listed and it is as follows:

1. Official sites for titled project
2. Official sites for creative participants (actors, producers, writers) in the titled project
3. Reference sites (IMDB, etc.). Please note here that we don't choose to include links to other online encyclopedias, like Wikipedia. Since we're covering a subset of the material they cover, we could be seen, in a sense, as being in competition with them and we don't wish to send contributors and visitors away from SCIFIPEDIA. Their reputation and location are well-known and their material can easily be found. It is our view that external links to Wikipedia don't serve the same purpose as links to dedicated-subject wikis which would more appropriately be referenced here when they exist.
4. Fan sites for the project.
5. Fan sites for the participants.
6. Fan fiction sites.

Please note that we do not allow site banners or images to accompany links listings. If you wish to post site banners, you should contact our advertising department but we do not include advertising within the body of the Article content area.

Links to Categories

To link to a SCIFIPEDIA Category, enclose the name of the Category, preceded by the word Category and a colon, in square brackets: [[Category:Name of Category]].

Suppressing Wiki Actions in a Link

Suppose you are writing a tutorial piece or help file and wish to show the wiki code without actually making it active. You can achieve this with the use of <nowiki> tag. Like in HTML, the tag is enclosed in less-than/greater-than symbols and has a beginning and end (which is indicated by adding a forward slash in front of "nowiki").

For example, let's say you wish to show how to tag an article with the category Literature, but don't actually wish to list the article you are writing in that category since you are writing instructions, not a regular article. You will want to suppress the automatic filing of your how-to article in the Literature category. You do this by enclosing [[Category:Literature]] in the <nowiki> tags like this:

<nowiki>[[Category:Literature]]</nowiki>

Images

At this time, contributors cannot post images to SCIFIPEDIA. As soon as image posting is possible, instructions will be provided. Read more here.

CSS

Basic CSS 2.1 is allowed. SCIFIPEDIA already has basic formatting built in with Wiki commands and that should be used whenever possible. CSS is most useful when constructing a new Project Page or a Portal. See the Style Guide for more.

HTML

Very basic HTML may be used for formatting purposes. However, SCIFIPEDIA is based on MediaWiki, which has a wide variety of formatting tools available to the user. Bold and italic font styling, article divisions, hyperlinking within or outside of the Wiki and even table construction have support in MediaWiki.

Tables

Tables work more or less as they do in regular HTML. You indicate columns and rows with the placement of pipes ( | ) and curly braces ( { and } ). Tables can also take many of the values you would give tables in HTML, mainly headers for rows and columns, vertical alignment, horizontal alignment, size, spacing, padding, and so forth. You can even apply background colors or graphics through HTML table expressions. And of course all of the above can also be achieved through direct CSS, although the usual problems with CSS vs. HTML table formatting also apply in a wiki environment.

Stubs

A stub is a very short article or the beginning of a longer article put in place by a participant who either doesn't have the time to write a full article or who lacks the necessary knowledge to deliver an attempt at complete coverage on a subject. Stubs are tagged by use of a template. Read more here.

Categorizing the Article

The Top Categories

There are fourteen primary categories in SCIFIPEDIA, into which all articles and sub-categories should be placed. They are: Art, Anime, Audio, Comics, ETs and UFOs, Fandom, Games, Internet, Literature, Movies, Paranormal, Science, TV, Toys.

Fitting Your Article into the Top Categories

An Article can fit into more than one top Category but should be placed in a minimum of one of the top Categories.