Guide to Editing the Wiki

So you wanna contribute to the wiki?

Well as easy as it sounds, wait what am I saying it is easy.

BUT There are still some things you should know.

The Basics

OK so first off you have to sign up on the wiki here After you create a account you should see that when you enter the wiki again you will have your name on the top right, if you don't wait a minute or 2 and refresh.

Alright now its time to starting figuring out how to understand basic wiki code. When you see the page you want to edit click the topish area that says edit and you will be taken to the editing panel. Here is where the magic happens.

When editing, please do not edit any Lore, SOP or Space Law pages without express approval from the Headmins.

General Guidelines

This is simply a quick list of introductory wiki editing guidelines for our Wiki.

General Wiki Etiquette

• Capitalize links and link names. This fits in better with how the Wiki supports article names at a software level, and proper nouns are supposed to be capitalized anyway.
  • Not every reference needs to be a link unless it's for internal navigation. Link the first couple references to another page, but refer to it in plain-text further down the page.
• After performing an edit, please fill out a general statement (it can be as few as 2 words) to let people know what you did.
• Minor edits are for things like typos, missing punctuation, or minor grammatical quibbles. Anything larger than that is not a minor edit.

Wiki Guidelines/Editing Tips

• Keep on subject. Try to keep articles related to the title. If you feel like you're going off on a tangent, try linking to a new article.
• Several pages use standardized colour schemes, structure, and templates. If you're creating a new page, please follow the structure/colours/templating of similar existing pages.
• Keep header names short and to the point. Lengthy headers make the Table of Contents ridiculously and needlessly wide.

Wiki Humour/Bolding

• Please refrain from using strikethrough, random bolding, scaled up text, or making excessive random jokes.
  • We strive to keep the wiki as a to-the-point and semi-serious resource. The occasional clever joke in an article is fine, constant strikethrough humour is not.
  • Bolding and text-scaling should be reserved for headers, disclaimers, or important notes. You should never be using bold text in the middle of a sentence.

Images and Image Use

Calling and Using Images

In order to use an image, you will need to call the [[File:]] command.

Here's the appropriate syntax for the command to call an image of a burger: [[File:Burger.png]]

This will display as:

Unless we're putting this image in a table, it's probably way too big! In order to fix that we need to add a size modifier.

To add a size modifier, we need to use the line identifier followed by a size in pixels: [[File:Burger.png|32px]]

This will display as:

If we wanted it even smaller for some reason, we would put: [[File:Burger.png|16px]]

This will display as:

As you can see, when we downsize to such a level we start losing a lot of visual fidelity. The same is also true if we upscale the image like so: [[File:Burger.png|96px]]

This will display as:

If we put all the images side-by-side, the loss in visual fidelity is immediately obvious when scaling above 64px (native resolution) or below 32px (native SS13 resolution).

92px (some loss):	64px (no loss):	32px (no loss):	16px (some loss):

When using the file command, you should always specify your intended filesize (either 32, or 64px).

Note: If you want a 64px version of an image but only a 32px version exists and you're unable to upload it yourself, it's still better to upsize to 64px and lose that visual fidelity. It will be an obvious and immediate indicator to any editor who comes across the page that the image needs to be uploaded.

File Modifiers

The [[File:]] command has a variety of modifiers that can be applied to it, sizing is just one.

[[File:Burger.png|center]] will align the image in the center of wherever it's placed (be it in a table or elsewhere). You can also align it using left or right instead of center.

[[File:Burger.png|frame]] will frame the image in a standard MediaWiki box and align it on the right-hand margin.

[[File:Burger.png|frame|caption]] will add a caption below the frame. Simply replace the word caption with your description.

[[File:Burger.png|link=Space Law]] will add a link to the image. You can now click the image to navigate to the page, in this case clicking the icon navigates to the Space Law page.

Here's what a captioned, centered, framed, and linked image call would look like.

[[File:Burger.png|link=Space Law|center|frame|oh wow this is pretty neat|32px]]

Centered Image	Framed Image	Image w/ Caption	Linked Image	All of the Above
		caption		oh wow this is pretty neat

• When uploading images, use .gif format for animated clips and .png for non-animated images. These image formats are not only lossless (unlike .jpg), they're also smaller than the larger .bmp format.
• Prior to uploading a new image, please ensure there isn't already a version of that image on the wiki. If you are updating an image to a superior version, maintain the same filename.

Uploading/Finding Images

Alright, but how do we upload images?

It's actually pretty straight-forward. On the left-hand margin of the web-page underneath the Paradise Logo you'll see a list of links. Click Upload File.

Once you've navigated to the Upload File page, at the top there's a link to view "List of Uploaded Files."

• Clicking it will bring you to a searchbar that can navigate/search for images.
• You can also find the File List in the Special Pages listing.
• You can also just click the words here to find it.

Now that we know how to reach the Upload File and Special:ListFiles pages, it's important that we run down a few important things when uploading images.

File Extensions/Image Sourcing

• Images must be in .png format, or .gif format for animated files. Never upload a file in .jpg or .bmp.
  • The .jpg extension is not lossless (it loses fidelity when uploaded) and .bmp has a larger file-size (which wastes wiki resources).
• Images should be sourced directly from the codebase .DMI files located on the GitHub.
• Once you have the appropriate .DMI open (BYOND will open it) and have found your image, right-click it, hit "Export As," and save it as a .png.

Resizing/Modifying Your Image

• Images should be scaled up from their 32x32 size to 64x64 either using no scaling filter, or nearest neighbour scaling.
  • Settings such as "Bilinear," "Bicubic," "Best Quality," and so on will cause a loss of quality when scaling SS13's pixel-art style.
  • If all you have is MSPaint, you should consider downloading a free editor such as Paint.net or GIMP. MSPaint causes artifacts (colour loss) when rescaling.
• Icons must have a transparent background. If you sourced from the .dmi, it already does so you don't need to worry about this. If it doesn't, edit out the background.

Naming Your Image

• Name your file something appropriate when uploading it so it can be easily found. "dragonsbreath" isn't ideal, but "shotgun_dragonsbreath" would be.
  • Unless using capitalization somehow clarifies the file-name, only the first-letter of the filename should be capitalized.
  • Try to keep the image name short and to the point "bananacake" is fine, "food_bananacake" is also fine, but "food_bananacakechefkitchensliceable" is not.

Assuming you followed these steps properly, you're all set to upload! If there's a duplicate file already on the wiki, you will be automatically warned. If the existing file is identical/superior, please use it instead of the file you're trying to upload (duplicate files not only create more work for everyone, they waste resources)!

Templates and Categories

Here is a list of all Categories and the important Templates we are using. If you make one, add it to the list (some templates automatically add categories to an article if you use them).

• Templates
• Categories (Note: Some Categories redirect to a wikipage. To get to the Category, click on the reference below the pagename)

Please read the description in every Category and add it to an article where appropriate.

Locations

• Obvious exits should not include cardinal directions to reduce page bloat. Simply list the exits in a flowing list, IE: Central Primary Hallway, Bar/Chapel Maintenance
• Access Level should list the exact access required to access that location. Higher level access (such as Captain) should not be listed.
• Clearance should list only the minimum job rank/most obvious job rank required to access a location unless the location page references multiple areas like Escape Pods.
• Clearance (when listed) should contain page links to the jobs put under clearance.
• Any text on the page should appear in the description field and not below the template. This includes Guide links.
• The Department field should match the section the area is found in under the Template:Locations template.

Templates

Templates are pretty much just a fill in the blanks dealio and there are a bunch of them here!

{| style="border:1px solid {{{bgcolor2|#bbbbbb}}};" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
 |
{|width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|align=center width="150" style="background-color:{{{bgcolor1|lightgrey}}}"|[[File:{{{image|{{{name|Unknown}}}.png}}}|50px]]
<br>'''{{{name|Item name here}}}'''
|'''Found in: '''{{{foundin|Places item is found in}}}
<br>'''Used for:''' {{{usedfor|What the item is used for }}}
<br>'''Strategy:''' {{{strategy|How to obtain or use the item properly}}}
|}
{|width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| style="background-color:{{{bgcolor2|grey}}};" |'''Description'''
|}Place description here<br>
{|width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
| style="background-color:{{{bgcolor2|grey}}};" |'''Contains'''
|}
  Put Pictures here if any

If you understand this then you can skip this section!

Otherwise, all of the above is the basic template for adding a item. Now all this you really don't have to know its just there to tell the wiki what to do. Other templates like this one:

{{Template:Location
 |headerbgcolor=darkblue
 |headerfontcolor=white
 |imagebgcolor=lightblue
 |department = General
 |name=Mint and Mint Vault
 |image=Mint.png
 |big_image=Mint_big.png
 |exits=[[Hallway|Hallway]] north, [[Maintenance|maintenance]] south, [[Maintenance|maintenance]] east
 |purpose=Production and storage of [[Coins|coins]]
 |access=Mint for reception desks and loading area, Mint vault for vault
 |contents=Coin press, Some Coins
 |clearance=[[Captain]], [[Head of Personnel]], [[Quartermaster]], [[Shaft Miner]], [[Chief Engineer]]
 |description=A semi-protected room, accessible from the south and east from [[Maintenance|maintenance]] and from the [[Hallways|main hallway]] in the north. 
Modeled to look like a bank, it is intended to stora money and other valuables. It's vault is a lot less protected than the [[Vault| main vault]] tho.
 |sec_level=Medium to high
 |style=Bank
 |balance=No major balance requirements
 |other=--
 }}

are more user friendly and can greatly help you in the long run, I will be using this as my example. Now when you apply this to a blank page it will look like this:

General Area

General

---

Obvious exits:	Hallway north, maintenance south, maintenance east
Purpose:	Production and storage of coins
Access level:	Mint for reception desks and loading area, Mint vault for vault
Noteworthy contents:	Coin press, Some coins
Clearance:	Captain, Head of Personnel, Quartermaster, Shaft Miner, Chief Engineer
Security Level:	Undefined.

Description

---

A semi-protected room, accessible from the south and east from maintenance and from the main hallway in the north.
Modeled to look like a bank, it is intended to store money and other valuables. It's vault is a lot less protected than the main vault tho.

When you change around the wording you will get different results, if you want you can try it out by click your name in the top then click on your profile page edit, after that copy the lines of code up there and change around the wording to see what happens.

Categories

Categories categorizes the pages and files of the wiki to help people find them easier, but the search bar works a little better.

Uploading a file to the Wiki

Uploading a file is as simple as one two three, just follow this and you will see!

Step: One

Go Here

Step: Two

Click upload file and find the file you wanna upload. Just make sure that it is either has a .PNG, .GIF, .JPEG, or .JPG format because those are the only ones you can upload. Also make sure to give it a appropriate name and a possible summary. If it is contradicting with another file make sure to look at both and decide which is better then update or not update the old file accordingly.

Step: Three

Now you can add it to anything your heart so desires just make sure it goes with the page. To add it simply put this code in [[File:imangename.png]] and it should place the picture like this:

Now if you happen to use a .png format then you can add special tags on it like this [[File:Paradise.PNG|500px|thumb|left|alt text]]

Picture with tags

The 200px means how big it will be and will not work if you add the thumb tag.

The left means that the picture will be placed on either the left side, right side or the center of the screen.

The thumb means that it will place it in a thumbnail and put the alt text on the bottom.

The Alt text means that when you hover your mouse of it or if the the pic is broken it will show whatever you wrote for it.

Tags

Now the Wiki uses basic HTML with some BBcode elements, if you dont know what HTML is then click [here]. BBcode is just a way to simplify HTML to make it more user friendly. You might of used BBcode if you were ever the HoP or the Bartender because the paper writing system uses basic HTML and BBcode! Read the top of this Guide to Paperwork. As you can see if you made a menu or a job app then you already know some basic things, the following tags are just a extent of HTML that this wiki will understand and you can use it to help make the pages prettier.

Word Tags

=text= creates the largest headline

======text====== creates the smallest headline

<b></b> Creates bold text

<i></i> Creates italic text

<tt></tt> Creates teletype, or typewriter-style text

<cite></cite> Creates a citation, usually italic

<em></em> Emphasizes a word (with italic or bold)

<strong></strong> Emphasizes a word (with italic or bold)

<font size="3"></font> Sets size of font, from 1 to 7

<font color="green"></font> Sets font color, using name or hex value

Links

[[Page Name Here]] creates a hyperlink

[[File:Filename.filetype|sizepx]] creates an image/link

[[Page Name Here#Subsection Here]] creates a target location within a document

[[#Subsection In Page]] links to that target location from elsewhere in the document

Formatting

<p align="left"> Aligns a paragraph to the left (default), right, or center.

<br> Inserts a line break

<blockquote></blockquote> Indents text from both sides

<dl></dl> Creates a definition list

<dt> Precedes each definition term

<dd> Precedes each definition

<ol></ol> Creates a numbered list

<ul></ul> Creates a bulleted list

<li></li> Precedes each list item, and adds a number or symbol depending upon the type of list selected

<div align="left"> A generic tag used to format large blocks of HTML, also used for stylesheets

<img src="name" align="left"> Aligns an image: left, right, center; bottom, top, middle

<img src="name" border="1"> Sets size of border around an image

<hr /> Inserts a horizontal rule

<hr size="3" /> Sets size (height) of rule

<hr width="80%" /> Sets width of rule, in percentage or absolute value

<hr noshade /> Creates a rule without a shadow

Tables

<table></table> Creates a table

<tr></tr> Sets off each row in a table

<td></td> Sets off each cell in a row

<th></th> Sets off the table header (a normal cell with bold, centered text)

Table Attributes

<table border="1"> Sets width of border around table cells

<table cellspacing="1"> Sets amount of space between table cells

<table cellpadding="1"> Sets amount of space between a cell’s border and its contents

<table width="500" or "80%"> Sets width of table, in pixels or as a percentage of document width

<tr align="left"> or <td align="left"> Sets alignment for cell(s) (left, center, or right)

<tr valign="top"> or <td valign="top"> Sets vertical alignment for cell(s) (top, middle, or bottom)

<td colspan="2"> Sets number of columns a cell should span (default=1)

<td rowspan="4"> Sets number of rows a cell should span (default=1)

<td nowrap> Prevents the lines within a cell from being broken to fit

• HTML Reference

Useful pages

Categories Used, unused and wanted

Templates Used, unused and wanted

Files: All, unused and wanted

All pages: All existing pages and Wanted pages