User:RheingoldRiver/newbie guide

What is a wiki?
A wiki is a website that anyone can edit. Each URL you can go to on the wiki is called a "page." You can do a few things to pages:
 * Create them - go to a URL that doesn't have a page located at it yet, click "Create," and then save some content.
 * Edit them - go to an existing page, change it, and then save it.
 * Move them - change the name of the page, which also changes a page's URL.
 * Delete them - only available to wiki administrators, but pages can be deleted, which makes their URL no longer have any content.

You can also upload files (images, audio files, pdfs, etc) and include these files on other pages.

Elements of a page
Most pages will have an infobox, or a table of important information, usually located on the right side of a page. Infoboxes are an example of templates. The page can also have one or more "sections" of text. You can also include files you've uploaded onto pages.

How to create a page
There are 3 main ways to create a page:
 * Click a "red link" on the wiki. Links that are red are trying to link to a page that doesn't exist yet, so if you click one then you can create the page that should be there. For example, you could click this link and make a page: New Kittens Page
 * Editing your URL bar directly. Go here: Then try editing your location to say "New_Puppies_Page" instead of "New_Kittens_Page."
 * Typing the name of the page you want to create into a "new page" section on the wiki's front page. Not all wikis have this feature available. This is the same method as editing your URL bar directly, but it might be easier.

How to edit a page
You can choose to edit one section of a page by clicking the button that says  next to one of the section headings. If you want to edit multiple sections at the same time, or edit content that comes before the first section, you can click the button that says "Edit" or "Edit source" in the upper-right navigation next to the search bar. Some wikis may also say "Edit with form" on some pages, if this option is available to you then you should do that when possible.

Edit vs Edit source
If you click "Edit," the Visual Editor will launch. This provides a user-friendly way of editing the page, but it has some downsides too since it's very hard to program "what you see is what you get" editors like this. This is the easiest choice if you just want to correct a typo, but if you want to edit a table of data or a template, it might be hard to navigate.

The other option, "edit source," bypasses the visual editor to let you modify the wikitext of the page directly. Don't be scared by that! In most cases, 99% of the source will just be English (or the language of the wiki) words or pieces of information like weapon stats values or item sell prices. This option is a lot better if you're making indepth edits or are an experienced editor. You can click "edit source" some times and "edit" other times. If you want to disable the visual editor completely, you can do that in your preferences.

How to move a page
Hover the dropdown in the right navigation next to the search bar and click "Move." It will give you a couple options:
 * Do you want to leave a redirect behind? Leaving a redirect behind lets people keep their bookmarks for the old page, and still be taken to the new page via a "redirect." If you're moving a page because you decided on a better way to name it, you should do this. If you're moving a page because it was incorrect for it to be located there, maybe you shouldn't.
 * Do you want to move subpages? This option might not show up. If it does, you probably want to say "Yes."
 * Do you want to "watch" the source and target page? Checking this will add both pages to your "watch list." Read more about watch lists so you can decide for yourself if you want to do this or not. It has no effect on the wiki, only what you get notified about.

How to delete a page
This option is only available to wiki administrators. If you think a page needs to be deleted, you should contact a wiki administrator if there is one. If you are an administrator, you can hover the dropdown in the right navigation that says "More" and then click "Delete."

Sections
Sections are made like this: == Section Name Here == When a page has 4 or more sections, a table of contents is automatically created.

Putting different numbers of  makes different levels of headings. The minimum number is 2, because the title of the page counts as a one-equals-sign heading.

Templates
A template will look something like this: You will see two open braces, followed by some text which is the name of the template. The name of the template tells the wiki what kind of display you want to make, in this case an infobox about cats. Then you see a bunch of pipes with the information that's going to get displayed. Each piece of information is called a "parameter" or "argument." Sometimes you will see something like, where the template knows what to print based on the order you enter the information. Other times you will see something like, where the argument comes attached to a name.

Usually you can figure out how to edit templates by looking at examples. But if you aren't sure you can ask for help.