The Point of a Wiki
When editing, the purpose of the wiki should always be borne in mind. Anything you add, any changes you make when editing, should always be done with the following purposes in mind:
- Deliver information to the reader
- Enable others to edit/add to your content easily
- Enable others to find the information you create
A wiki will never grow if others find it intimidating to add content, and there is no point in it growing if it doesn't tell anyone anything.
Edit Summary
Whenever you make an edit or create something new, always put a short synopsis of what you did in the Edit Summary box to the top right of the page. Put in anything a subsequent or previous contributor might need to understand what you did, or why you did it.
For example, the summary for this edit right now is "Added Edit Summary section - important for other contributors to know what was done to page."
Separate Style from Content
The function of Templates and Classes and Styles is to apply uniform formatting across the entire Wiki. By using templates, classes and styles, rather than hard-writing format into the structure of your page, one update to a template, class or style can update every page that formatting is used on, rather than having to update each page individually.
Templates rock! Learn how to use them. If you have any issues, contact a member of the GoTA Wiki Staff for help.
Avoid Duplication of Effort
- Name each page as exactly as possible after the in-game property it discusses. Thus, if a page already exists, you will see it immediately.
- Before uploading a new image, check if the image you need is already in the database. Read the Image Naming Conventions section below to avoid creating duplicates of the same image.
- When in doubt, post on a Talk: page or ask someone in the wiki chat. But remember, if it all goes horribly wrong, someone can always fix it later. It's a wiki, it works like that.
Categories
Categories are an important means of organizing wiki content. A page is added to a category in one of three ways:
- Type the category name in the Categories box to the left when creating or editing a page.
- Type the category name in the Categories box at the bottom of a page you are viewing, press enter and save.
- Place [[Category:''Category_Name'']] in the page source.
All pages placed in a category are automatically linked on their master Category page.
When creating a category, think about the category page and how people might use it. People may want to see a list of items affecting a given stat (Category:Battle, Category:Trade or Category:Intrigue), or items which go in certain slots (Category:Weapons, Category:Armor or Category:Units).
For example, [[:Category:Brown Items]] might be quite a correct repository for things which are brown, but it is utterly irrelevant to the vast majority of users in Game of Thrones: Ascent. (In a fashion game, this might be an excellent category to have.)
===Category Inheritance===
Categories are hierarchical - a Category can itself be made part of one or more other Categories, by going to the Category page and placing it in those categories just like any other page. Any item in a subcategory is automatically also in all categories it belongs to.
Always place a page in the most precise category of the tree it belongs to.
For example, the Gold Necklace is an item granting a bonus to Trade and an item of Armor. It therefore falls in Category:Trade Armor
Category:Trade Armor is a member of Category:Armor and Category:Trade. Any item in Category:Trade Armor is already a member of those two categories and does not need to be listed separately in them.
===Other Uses of Categories===
It is not always possible to do all the work on a page that you want to at the time of creation. You can keep paper notes of pages you want to revisit later (after a bug is fixed, for example), or list their links on your user page. Or you can just create a Category to add them to. Then you can simply check that category page when you have the data you need and hop to the pages you want to fix, removing them from the Category when the work is done.
For example, Category:Missing Resale Value holds all items where we don't currently know what they're worth when sold.
Using Categories in this way allows other users to see where and what work is needed and help with your list.
Image Naming Conventions
Items, be they Equipment, Boons or Resources should be named exactly as the item is named in the game.
- Spaces should be included.
- All major words should be capitalized (not "of", "in", "and" or "the"). For example: Milk_of_the_Poppy.jpg
- Words following a hyphen should not be capitalized. For example: Steel-shod_Warhorse.jpg
- Where the game makes a gramatical mistake in naming an item, follow the game. For example: Book_of_Account.jpg
To prevent filename clashes:
- Images used in Character Backgrounds should have the image name prefixed with "Background_". For example: Background_Merchant.jpg
- Images used in Achievements should have the image name prefixed with "Achievement_". For example: Achievement_Harrier.jpg
- Images used for Talents should have their image name prefixed with the name of the Talent Tree. For example: Aid_Direct_Route.png
- Images used for building upgrades should have the name of the building, then the name of the upgrade. For example: Warehouse_Cargo_Wagons.png
For more information about Images, check out the Image Guidelines.
Wiki Coding
If any of this talk of Templates and Classes and Styles seems esoteric to you, check out Wiki Coding 101 Tutorial to help you get the hang of some of the basics.