Help:Getting Started
This page will help you better understand how Coppermind works and how you can contribute.
Your Account
The first thing you should do is create an account. The button to do this is in the top right corner, and it's very easy to do!
Next, contact the wiki staff on the 17th Shard and request editor rights. If you skip this step, you won't be able to create new pages and you will have to fill out a CAPTCHA for every edit you make.
Then visit the Preferences link (top right corner) and make changes to your account if you'd like.
Editing
In the top right corner you should see three tabs: Read, Edit, and History. Read is what you're probably familiar with; it's how you read pages, and it opens by default. Let's talk about the other two...
Edit Tab
Navigate to a page you want to edit and choose this tab to make changes. Editing uses a basic markup language for formatting, which you'll want to get familiar with. It's not hard! At the bottom of the page you can choose to see a preview, compare your changes with the existing version of the page, or save your work. Provide a brief summary of your edits before saving, and check the box if the changes are relatively minor--these steps will help other editors keep track of changes easier.
Note that you can also edit a specific section of an article by clicking the [edit] button next to a section title.
History Tab
The History tab lists all previous versions of the page you're on. You can see when the versions were created, who was responsible, the size of the changes (measured in bytes), and a few other details. You can also compare two versions directly against one another.
Creating New Pages
To create a new page, navigate to it first. You can enter the title you want directly into the URL, search for it in the search bar in the top right corner, or click a red link. Creating a page is just like editing an existing page--you simply begin with a blank slate.
Red Links
Links to other pages on the wiki which do not yet exist will show up in a red font. Clicking such a link will bring you to a page where you can search for something different or create the page.
Discussion Pages
Every page on the wiki has an associated discussion page, and it's accessible via a tab in the top left corner of the page. It's there to talk about changes, make recommendations, and so on. If you have a more immediate question about an article, you can alternatively post on the 17th Shard or Discord. For more on proper discussion page usage, see Help:Discussion.
User Pages
You can visit (or create) your own user page by clicking your username in the top right corner. Use this to tell others about who you are and what you're working on, if you'd like. You can also use it as a sandbox to play with new articles and chip away at more extensive changes before you edit the real thing.
You can create additional subpages as well. Just append a backslash (/) to the URL of your user page, followed by the name for the subpage.
Other Resources
A few other pages on Coppermind to be aware of:
- Contributions
- This link, in the top right corner, will give you a history of all changes that you have made.
- Recent Changes
- The Recent Changes page, towards the top of the sidebar on the left, will give you a list of all edits that have been made on Coppermind by all users.
- Editor's Corner
- The Editor's Corner, towards the top of the sidebar on the left, provides some basic statistics about Coppermind that editors may find useful.
- Special Pages
- Special:SpecialPages provides a very long list of other pages you may find useful.
- User Talk Pages
- Note that user talk pages (see "Talk" next to your username) do not work properly. Don't create or make use of user talk pages.
Namespaces
Every page on Coppermind is filed into a certain namespace. Look at your current URL... Do you see the Help: portion? This page is in the "Help" namespace! Here's some common namespaces to be aware of:
- Main
- This is the namespace where all of the articles are located. This namespace doesn't use any prefix--just the article name. (Note that all page titles are case sensitive.)
- User
- Every user can create a user page (and subpages) as described above. These page titles begin with
User:.
- File
- Images and other media files may be uploaded to Coppermind for use in articles. They each get their own page in the File namespace, where you can see metadata about the file. These page titles begin with
File:. For more on uploading and using files, see Help:Images.
- Category
- Every page should be sorted into categories. They help us keep everything organized and easy to find. Category pages are created on the Category namespace. The page will automatically populate with links to all the pages that reference that category. These page titles begin with
Category:. For more on Categories, see Help:Categorization.
- Template
- Template pages are where we create and define templates to be used in other pages. Templates are basically shortcuts to help simplify tricky or common formatting needs. The info boxes you see on the top right corner of many articles are created with templates. Citations make use of them as well. They're everywhere! These page titles begin with
Template:. For more on Templates, see [:Help:Templates].
- Other Namespaces
- This list isn't comprehensive, so you may notice other namespaces (like Help).
- Talk Namespaces
- For every namespace there's an associated Talk namespace as well. This is where the related Discussion pages belong.