Help:Start a page

From STNE Wiki

STNE is a Strategy and Role Play Game. You can play here.

Before you begin

Search for existing articles

STNE-Wiki has a lot of articles. Before creating a new page, you should search the wiki to ensure you will not be duplicating the efforts of other contributors. If you find an existing article which covers your chosen topic, but you think people will more likely look for it under a different name or spelling, you can add a redirected page using that name. Adding redirected pages is another good way to help improve our wiki.

Consider adding content

If a specific page does not exist, you should consider whether adding your information to an existing page is more appropriate than creating a new page. For example, if you want to write an article about a particular command used within the IRC system, it would generally make more sense to add that information to the existing article.

Consider a category description

This is a good choice when the subject of the proposed article has only limited depth. For example, the concept of "terrain" - or "colony surface" - is important to properly understanding STNE colony development, but the topic can be addressed within the context of the category description of terrain. Since it is one of many categories of various gameplay components used in STNE, it should probably be treated as such within the wiki.

...and, at last

If, on the other hand, no suitable articles already exist for your chosen subject, and it has sufficient depth or importance to merit its own article, then you should definitely start a new article.

Selecting a page name

Choosing a page name in the STNE-Wiki is often easy enough. Articles about starships simply share the name of their respective ships (e.g. DY-500). Other articles require a little more thought. The page for farms could be named either "Farm" or "Farms", but there are few relevant options. At times, the German-language legacy of the game does provide an additional challenge when we attempt to name terrain features such as "grassland"/"meadow" or "woods"/"forest". Fortunately, the selection of names remains fairly limited, and the standardization of English terminology used in STNE is continually improving.

You will encounter a larger challenge in naming a page whenever you address a game concept which has no standard terminology. Simply think of all names which would appropriately describe your topic, then choose the name which you think will work best in a keyword search. Just make sure the full name of your page complies with our standard naming conventions.

If you have difficulty determining the best name for your article, chose the name you prefer. The content of your article is probably more important than its name - simply because the page can later be renamed/moved.

How to begin writing

After you have chosen a unique name for your article, you can open a "Create/Edit" window to begin writing. This can be done in any of several ways:

1. Add a link on an existing page using your page name. After you save your edit, the link will be colored red until the new page is active. Click on the red link to open the page editor. This method is particularly useful to avoid creating orphaned pages.

2. Submit a page search using your page name. A wiki search for a truly-unique page name will generate the message, "Create the page "(page name)" on this wiki!", where "(page name)" is a link to a blank page link generated by your search. Click on the red link to open the page editor.

3. Submit a URL address to your browser using your page name. You can enter a URL for your new page, "http://wiki.en.stne.net/index.php?title=(page name)", where "(page name)" is your article name. The wiki software will return the message, "There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, search the related logs, or edit this page. Click on the edit this page link to open the page editor.

What to include

The very first thing you should include in a new article is the STNE-Wiki menu. This is done by including the text "{{menu}}" on the first line. The article should also be categorized (preferably in an existing, applicable category) with the text "[[Category:(category name)]]" on the last line, where (category name) is the actual name of the category which corresponds to your page.

At this point, the page can be just saved for later editing. Wiki pages are typically created through several drafts, so just beginning the process with a page "stub" can be an adequate starting point for an important article. The page stub reserves the name, and makes its links (from other pages) appear active. This is the minimum requirement of the page development process.

When you are done writing, press "Show preview" to take a look at how the page will appear. Try to fix any formatting errors, then press "Save page". Your article is now part of Wikipedia and may be edited by anyone.