Help:Getting started: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:18, 21 April 2013

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Project: Redcap.

Learning to Use the Wiki

First, we have a few (currently, very few) Help pages.

Project: Redcap uses the popular MediaWiki engine -- the same software that powers Wikipedia. So, if you know how to edit Wikipedia, you should be right at home on Project: Redcap.

Let's suppose you don't know how to edit Wikipedia. There is plenty of good tutorial information on the Web. In fact, most introductory material for MediaWiki is better than what the Project: Redcap maintainers could write themselves. So rather than do a poor job of re-writing documentation that other people have already written, we'll refer you to some starting sites:

The MediaWiki Beginners' Wiki
Wikipedia Help Contents including the Plain and Simple Guide
Help:Basic formatting has some basic tips, including on how to place and label internal links (links to other pages, like Order of Hermes) and external links (like this one to the Atlas Games website).

If you are looking for something beyond the basics -- how to include an image, for example, or how to use templates -- then the quickest thing to do may be to Google (or use any other search engine) for keywords like "mediawiki image" or "mediawiki template."

Also, the Project: Redcap maintainers are very eager to get some help, any help, updating and maintaining this site. You can always contact us if you have made a basic effort to find documentation, but are still lost. We'll be happy to help!

User Registration

You do not need to register in order to contribute to Project: Redcap. Every page has an "Edit" link at the top and any user can click on that link to edit the page's text. Be sure to submit your changes when you are done!

If you are not logged in, the Wiki will challenge you to prove you are a human who knows something about Ars Magica, not a spammer or a spambot. It will ask you an easy question about Ars Magica, and if you answer correctly, your edits will be accepted.

You can also register as a user if you would like. The benefits of user registration are:

You'll get acknowledgement for your contributions. Your user name will appear in the version history of each page, so the community will see what contributions you have made. (Visitors can also look up the edit history of an individual user if they are so inclined.)
You won't have to answer the "are you a bot" quiz.
Only registered users can upload files to this site. This is necessary to keep the evil spammers away.

So, if you want to create an account, that's easy. There is a link in the upper-right corner of every page on this site, like this:

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 * [http://mwhelp.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page The MediaWiki Beginners' Wiki]
 * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents Wikipedia Help Contents] including the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Plain_and_simple Plain and Simple Guide]
-* [[User:Inquisitive|Inquisitive]], one of the users here, has put some basic tips for placing and labeling internal links (links to other pages, like [[Order of Hermes]]) and external links (like this one to the [http://www.atlas-games.com Atlas Games website]).
+* [[Help:Basic formatting]] has some basic tips, including on how to place and label internal links (links to other pages, like [[Order of Hermes]]) and external links (like this one to the [http://www.atlas-games.com Atlas Games website]).
 If you are looking for something beyond the basics -- how to include an image, for example, or how to use templates -- then the quickest thing to do may be to Google (or use any other search engine) for keywords like "mediawiki image" or "mediawiki template."