Help:Quick Start

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Quick Start

Start a new page. Type first, stylize last.

Everyone’s an expert on something; DCCWiki aggregates that expertise and makes it available to everyone.

The Basics

Nearly all pages within the DCCWiki are editable by anyone. If you see something needs adjust, go ahead and edit it. When you're on the page you want to edit, click on the edit icon at the top right.

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The wiki markup syntax will be displayed inside an editable textarea. This contains all the text, templates used, and another formatting. The basic syntax is pretty easy; however you might want to check out the wiki syntax article at some point.

Once you are done editing, click on 'Show preview'. This will display the text with the edit box below. Once you've reviewed the changes, enter an a short summary of what you've done in the 'edit summary'. Examples include 'edited spelling', 'added XYZ section', 'removed spam'. People can easily see the detailed changes using review tools. When you’re satisfied with your changes, press the “Save Page” button. Your changes will appear immediately. Note: It can take a little while for non-logged in users to see the changes due to page caches.

Before you hit the Save button for the first time, enter a line summarizing it. Are you deleting spam? Linking text that should’ve been linked but wasn’t? Adding a section? Say so in the Summary field.

Also know that it’s good practice to check off the “minor edit” button for, um, minor edits. A typo or formatting correction or rearranging of existing text all qualify as minor edits. (Note: you must be logged in to see the minor edit checkbox.)

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Once you save the page, your change will be noted in DCCWiki’s Recent Changes which lists all the changes. Any revisions can be rolled back and diff’ed against other versions of a page. That’s the beauty of DCCWiki: anything can be done and undone and corrected and added in realtime. There are also full logs of all of the activity, time-stamped and available for everyone to view and review. Don’t think your change will go unnoticed, because it won’t. The place is crawling with readers and writers and your change will be swept away immediately if it’s not correct or legit.

To read more about editing a page, see How to edit a page article. Then, to give it a try yourself. Want to play around? Head over to the The Sandbox. This is a special page set up for new DCCWiki editors who want to practice - but not on a real article. Once you're done, please empty the sandbox.

Basic Formatting and linking conventions

This is a very quick summary of the wiki markup syntax.

Headers

Links and formatting within is done using special Wiki markup. For example, a section header is denoted with equal signs, like so: == Section Header Name == A subsection is: === Subsection Name ===

Note: Limit section headers to 4 levels deep

Linking

It's import to link articles together so users can find related items. You can link to an article that doesn't exist, however, it's typically best practice to create the article when doing this.

Internal

To link to the 'command station' article: [[Command station]] If you want to change the label for the link: [[Command station|see command station]]

External

An external URL like this - Lifehacker - would be achieved like this: [http://lifehacker.com Lifehacker]

Just the facts, ma’am

DCCWiki isn’t a place for opinions, judgments, self-promotion, spam, rumors or speculation. DCCWiki instructs:

Always use a neutral point of view, as DCCWiki is not a place to promote points of view. Write as if the information is a non-judgmental news article. If needed, include multiple view points.

Cite your sources

At first writing like a reporter may feel awkward to non-journalists, but presenting cited facts and not opinion is core to making DCCWiki a legitimate source. Unfounded opinion or subjective observations in an entry will be deleted.

Your DCCWiki user page

A user account is your community identity, which will be listed next to your changes, and in turn will list all the edits you’ve made throughout the site in one place.

A history of worthy edits will build your reputation as a DCCWikipedian. See more about user accounts at the Why create an account? page.

Be bold but not reckless

DCCWiki’s advice to editors is be bold but don’t be reckless:

Don’t be afraid to edit pages on DCCWiki—anyone can edit, and we encourage users to be bold…but don’t be reckless! Find something that can be improved, either in content, grammar or formatting, then fix it. Worried about breaking Wikipedia? Don’t be: it can always be fixed or improved later. So go ahead, edit an article and help make Wikipedia the best source of information on the Internet!

So poke around and be bold, but not reckless. You never know what stray facts you may have rattling around in your head that might benefit everyone in a DCCWiki article.

Where help is needed

If all this linkage is overwhelming, then simply start here at the DCCWiki Tutorial, a step-by-step guide to editing, formatting, registration and other wiki functionality.

Open Office can export MediaWiki text files, allowing you to quickly create tables without getting into the arcane details.

Welcome to the world of contributing to DCCWiki. Happy editing!

Where to next