NSWiki:Tip of the day archive

Tip of the Day

Linking common terms to Wikipedia

There are a number of red links to 'common' topics, such as communist or language. Rather than fill up our NSwiki with a bunch of (probably-contested) terminology, it makes sense to link such things directly to the Wikipedia entry. The easy way is like this:

"It is a [[Wikipedia:communist|]] nation."

→ "It is a communist nation."

Or make it specific to a nation, as Constantinopolis has done.

"That Constantinopolite is a [[Communist Party of Constantinopolis|Communist|]]."

→ "That Constantinopolite is a Communist."

Take special note of the pipe ( | ) symbol before the final brackets. Add the pipe, and the word after the colon gets piped directly out. You don't see the Wikipedia or Constantinopolis reference. If you prefer, you can change the text after the pipe:

"Our national language is [[Wikipedia:Sindarin|Elvish]]."

→ "Our national language is Elvish."

{{stub}}

This article is a stub. You can help NSwiki by improving it.

Have you ever clicked that stub link? I hadn't. I thought it belonged on every article that needed more information. Not so, as it turns out. Click it and read.

This is a wiki. Every page could stand improvement. If you add a stub to every short page you post, they don't count in our page count. It's not that big a deal, but leaving off unnecessary stubs helps give us a better understanding of the progress we're making in building the wiki.

In short (stubbishly, you might say), don't use gratuitious {{stub}}s. Even this one's a fake, just so the Village Pump doesn't disappear into statistical oblivion.

Graphics with Wrapping Text

Adding text wrap in graphics is easier than you think. You just need a small table. For example, here's a simple pictureframe:

{| align="right" border="1"

| http://www.paranoia.ru/mn/x-files/images/ftr1d.jpg

|}

Creating New Categories

For some of us overly-organized types, there is a tendency to want to categorise everything. In fact, a quick visit to Uncategorized pages should show only a very few pages. Categories are one of the best ways to organize articles in the wiki, and all community members are encouraged to add every article to an appropriate category (or occasionally more than one). There's a place for everything else, and everything is in its place.

Others don't want to stop there, and that's where we need some good old NSwiki consensus. It's possible that Hell Bovines want a lettuce category for all their different brands, or SAG Weapons Corporation needs a complete catalog of handguns. Well, they both can, at present, by adding those items to their factbooks. What we're trying to avoid is the existence of standalone categories for Lettuce and Handguns.

If you want to create a new factbook for your main nation, go right ahead. Instructions are posted in Category:Factbooks. Before creating anything else, though, post a comment in the Village pump, bring it to #nswiki, or drop a note on the Talk page of one of the sysops. Thanks.

Custom NSwiki Signatures

To add a custom signature, you can go to your Preferences panel (the link is on the top of the standard skin). There you will see a box with "Your nickname (for signatures): Here you can insert code to add more than just your User name.

Don't go overboard! This is more for convenience than for making some glorious sig that will awe and amaze your fellow NSwikians. Here's a suggestion for a simple modification that will make it easier for a fellow reader to click directly to your Talk page:

]]|[[User talk:YourUserNameHere|<small>talk</small>

Looks a bit funky, but that's how you code it. Yes, it really is supposed to start with the ]] facing that way. You may prefer to use a Greek (I use Θ because it looks like a little frisbee), Cyrillic or some other fun ♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ symbols instead of the <small>talk</small>.

Now be sure not to leave YourUserNameHere intact, please! Change it to your User name, which may or may not be the same as your Nation name. It's the name you log in with.

My resulting sig shows up as Frisbeeteria|Θtalk, and the talk link takes you directly to my Talk page. When a message is placed on your User talk page, a banner shows up stating that you've got new messages. Beats telegrams anyday, at least within the wiki.

iCapital!

Are NSwiki entries case sensitive? I'm just asking for the reason that I love things to be, Capitalized for some reason, and tend to turn many things into a proper noun. I created an entry regarding the Multiverse, realized there were entries linking to it, and went about Capitalizing the word Multiverse in all those entries. Anal retentive? Yes. While doing this though, in the page on Earth, I saw the couplet "fractal reality," and couldn't help but change it to "Fractal Reality." I did, but then the link wouldn't work! So I had to settle with "Fractal reality." Ahem. The point- Case sensitive NSwiki? --Fodian Federa 00:52, 25 Oct 2004 (GMT)

The first character of any NSwiki page is capitalized by default. Pages will link to the article regardless of whether it was linked in lower or upper case.

Beyond that, NSwiki IS case sensitive. One possible solution would be to make Fractal Reality a redirect page to Fractal reality. Another would be to use the | symbol in links to pipe link results to a differently capitalized page. → Frisbeeteria Θtalk

Sneak preview

While editing a page, you can use the show preview button (located right next to the Save page button) to see in advance what your edits will look like. This lets you check your work periodically without filling up the page history by making lots of smaller edits. The preview function can also help you avoid mistakes, such as when using an unfamiliar type of wiki markup. The preview will appear together with the edit box you have been working in (either above or below it, however you prefer).

When to use subpages

Subpages are pages which are separated with a "/" from their mother page, for example, User talk:Frisbeeteria/Archives. When you visit a subpage you will see an automatic backlink to the mother page. Subpages are allowed in the User:, Talk: and NSwiki: namespaces, and with care and forethought may also be used in the main namespace. Plan your subpages beforehand. You don't want to build a subpage structure too deep, as it makes it harder for others to link to relevant pages. Subpages can be useful for organizing and archiving content. You can create a subpage by typing [[/Name]] on the page in question, and if you end the link with a slash - [[/Name/]] - the slashes are hidden in the output.

To serve and to protect

Among other things, administrators can protect pages from editing using the link "Protect this page" in the sidebar. This happens when a page has been the subject of an edit war or is the target of repeated vandalism. Admins have no special rights over Wikipedia content and policy states they should not protect pages in which they are personally involved. Admins only edit protected pages when absolutely necessary. An exception is the Main Page and a few widely used templates, which are permanently protected because they are highly exposed targets. On protected pages, non-administrators see a "view source" link in place of "edit this page", allowing them to see and copy the wikitext.