Help:Article Creation
Article Creation
- Commonly used synonyms are article, page, document, and text-file.
This article is about the process of creating a new article, in general terms. A brief oversight of different pages types follow but for detailed information, see the boilerplate for each type respectively.
- Please read Help:Names before creating any article!
Creating an article, i.e. adding a new page to the Wiki, is a two step process.
Step 1: Check the Name
- Check spelling, special characters, dashes, and capitalization of the proposed page name before creating it
- Search for the proposed name and verify it does not exist already. Maybe it exists but with a "name specifier", described in Help:Names. Or maybe it exists but is misspelled.
- For many pages types, "name specifiers" are very common, e.g. for items. Please, follow any guidelines
- When certain about spelling and uniqueness, continue with the next step
Step 2: Use Article Creation Tools
For the convenience and to promote uniformity we have developed Article Creation Tools. Those tools cover the most common article types, and greatly simplify, standardize, and speed-up the creation process.
Lotro-Wiki provides the following article creation tools:
- For "Location", see next section.
Tips: As long as you do not save, you can try any tool already now.
Using any of those tools, first you provide the name of the upcoming article (from Step 1 above).
The following page will provide a standard "template" and a skeleton for the page type within an open wiki-editor.
Above the edit panel is a commented boilerplate, additional sections along with pre-determined formatting, and information for the created article. Copy and paste what is needed into the upcoming article. See also Category:Boilerplates for alternatives.
Add values to the template by best effort, and flesh out the skeleton parts.
Preview repeatedly until satisfied. Notice though, the commented boilerplate disappears when clicking preview, so you may want to open it in another browser tab.
The template will handle all required tasks related to categorization upon save.
These "Article Creation Tools" are also found on the Help page, in the Article Creation section.
Without Creation Tools
Using article creation tools is the recommended way to create new articles. However, for example "Create new location" is not really an article creation tool, yet. And how to create a page in general? The following steps will work:
- Search for the name of the upcoming article (from Step 1 above)
- Click the red link on the search result page and a wiki-editor will open with an empty page
- From the appropriate boilerplate, copy & paste the template and the "clean copy" onto the upcoming page
- Continue as described in the previous section
Special Characters in Page Names
If an article name contains special characters, a little extra work is needed. See next section about "Creating Redirects".
Creating Redirects
See Help:Redirect for more information on that.
Namespaces
A "namespace" is kind of a container for pages of a certain type, at least that is how the wiki-engine treats such pages. For simplicity, think of it as a "prefix" that is prepending a page name. For example "Item:Chicken Pie" where "Item" is the namespace (the prefix), and the colon separates it from the real name of that tasty item.
Lotro-Wiki is using namespaces for the following page types (and a few more):
- "Item:Item-name" - All item pages should use this prefix
- "Quest:Quest-name" - All quest pages should use this prefix
- "User:User-name" - All user pages should use this prefix.
Note: Namespaces should not be confused with categories, which are containers indeed; see Help:Categorization.
Note: Users can search for namespaced articles either with or without the specifier.
Using "advanced search" users can specify which namespace(s) to search, or select 'Main' for pages not in any namespace.
Article Types
All page types are in constant need of attention because each game upgrade brings forth new stuff, changes existing stuff, or removes old stuff.
Crafting
Articles include recipes and their crafted items, recipe index pages, and other aspects on crafting. See Help:Crafting.
Creatures
Articles include anything from harmless beings to creatures of different species to mobs and very powerful bosses. Lore-masters are particularly helpful with their ability to inspect any of those beings. See Help:Creatures.
Items
Articles include loot drops, crafting items, recipes, scrolls, quest rewards, reputation, and any other items of the game. See Help:Items.
NPCs
Articles include NPCs wherever they are found. Newer locations usually need most attention but also "old" NPCs may need a makeover. See Help:NPCs.
Quests
Articles include quests, tasks, skirmishes, and raids. Randomly bestowed quest pages in high-level instances often need to be added or improved. Also, walk-throughs, optional dialogs, and alike can always be improved, as well as verifying important data, etc. See Help:Quests.
More
There are more article types which also need attention. But also existing articles which may need images or replacement of lesser-quality ones. Location pages may lack quests, NPCs, or other detail.
See the "Projects" section on the Help:Contents page for more inspiration.
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