Guide:Wiki Maintenance

Step Wiki User Guide

Step's Wiki Standards, instructions, and tips for wiki editing

by: Step Modifications  | Forum Topic

This is a reference for editing the Step Modifications Wiki, which is designed to be maintained by the community. However, only registered members of the community have privileges to edit the wiki, so it's essential to sign up and become a member. Once a member, log in to the wiki to start contributing. Additional general information is linked where it's relevant, and links to the most valuable references for using Mediawiki and Semantic Mediawiki are provided.

Deprecated Content

• deprecated guides

Primary Wiki Editors/Maintainers
Always looking for others!

• z929669
• DoubleYou
• TechAngel85

Recently-Active Contributors

https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/Special:ActiveUsers

Navigation & Tools

• Forum - Link to the Step forum
• Gamespaces - Links to game-specific home pages
• Game Guides - Links to official game modding guides
• Navigation - Links to important reference pages ... and others:
  • Home - The Step wiki "Main Page"
  • Step Portal - Entryway for mod and guide maintenance
  • Games - The Games Category Tree providing an overview of all supported games
  • Guides - The Guides Category Tree (top-level)
  • Recent Changes - View the most recent edits to the wiki
  • Random Page - Loads a random page on the wiki
  • Help - General Mediawiki reference
  • Contact Us - Links to Step's contact information
  • Search - Links to Special:Search, where one can refine search parameters
• Tools - Several standard tools for finding information related to the current page as well as the Page information tool. The Browse properties tool is provided by Semantic Mediawiki, which is an important extension driving the functionality of this wiki.
• Edit - Edit current page (if this icon is absent, the current user does not have permission to edit the page).
• - Maintenance links within the context of the current page. Similar to Tools:
  • <Namespace> - Only appears when in 'edit' mode. This links back to the page being edited.
  • Discussion - Link to the 'Talk' page of the current page
  • History - Link to view the edit history for the page
  • Delete - Link to delete the page (if current user has permission to do so)
  • Move - Link to move (rename) the page (if current user has permission to do so)
  • Protect - Link to protect the page by restricting who can edit (if current user has permission to do so)
  • Watch / Unwatch - Enables current user to keep tabs on edits to the page via Special:Watchlist
  • Refresh - Link to refresh (soft edit) the current page (if current user has permission to do so)
• - Several User-specific tools
• Search - Quick search for finding pages. Use tools under Special:SpecialPages#Lists_of_pages for more focused searches.

General Information

Writing Style

When writing content outside of the user-space, use the third-person writing style. Other writing styles are acceptable, depending upon the particular context of the article; however, any factual content created to serve as an informative article (e.g., guides and references) should be written in the third-person. This perspective is easier to understand, more professional, and not as prone to degenerating into multiple first and/or second-person perspective related reversions. Any content existing outside the user-space not written in the third-person should be corrected accordingly. Examples:

• First-person: "I first must click on the 'edit' button ..."
• Second-person: "You first must click on the 'edit' button ..."
• Third-person: "First, click on the 'edit' button ..."

  NOTE: Addressing "who" is, more than often, redundant. Please be succinct to avoid creating wordy statements:

  Example: "First, users should click on the 'edit' button ..."

  Example: "First, click on the 'edit' button ..."

Notating Edits

When editing a page, remember to add a brief descriptive comment in the Summary box below the editor before saving. This summary will be logged on the Recent Changes page and helps everyone to know what exactly was added/changed. Discussions of major changes to content should occur on the page's 'Discussion' forum (if linked) or 'Talk' page. It's also appropriate to contact the page's creator/editor and/or a staff member and point them to the discussion when proposing content or stylistic changes.

Simple corrections to grammar don't require notification or discussion on the Forums or Talk pages. For these types of small edits, it's appropriate to tick the This is a minor edit checkbox. Doing so will prevent the edit from showing in the Recent Changes list, unless the list is filtered to show Minor Edits.

Table of Contents

Include a table of contents (TOC) on long pages. Step uses a template for this that adds a styled TOC that is compatible with the wiki themes. See the Templates section for more details.

Citations

It's expected that any information added to the wiki is cited where applicable as in this example. Citations only apply when providing evidence or advice that is not well known or not obviously subjective or is speculative. Feel free to write what might or might not be factual as long as it's obvious to the reader, but qualify (cite) what is intended to be factual. See the Templates section for more details.

Moderated Content

Many pages of content are considered "Moderated Content". This means they are either watched more closely than other pages or editing the page restricted via user groups. Below are the different types of Moderated Content found on the wiki.

Namespaces | There are several namespaces on the Wiki that are restricted to specific staff user groups. These include:

• Project
• STEP
• Template

Guides | The wiki is home to many guides that are considered official content, as such, these guides are also "Moderated Content". Step exerts a level of control over this content, which ensures the general look and feel of the content is maintained. Any major changes to these guides will be posted to their topics on the Forums.

User Namespace

The simplest way to get started on the wiki is to begin by playing around under the User namespace: https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/User:Username

Registered members can do anything they desire within their User namespace, as long as it's in accordance with the guidelines dictated within the Community Citizenship Guide. Step encourages members to edit their user page by adding some information about themselves for others or a link to their Nexus or forum profile is a good start.

Please avoid editing another members' User pages without permission; doing so is a breach of etiquette. This does not apply to User_talk pages where it is expected that others will leave comments.

Advanced Topics

The remainder of this guide covers wiki basics. More advanced topics are provided on an ancillary page to cover those topics in more detail: Advanced Editing Topics

Page Management

Creating Pages

Creating a new page on a wiki is not immediately intuitive to the novice wiki editor; however, it's very simple once the method is understood. Regardless of where on the Wiki a new page is being created, the method is the same. Navigate to any URL by typing in any string after https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/ and hitting the Enter key. If the page does not exist, a message will appear that includes an option to "create this page". To create a new page on the wiki in the User namespace:

1. In the URL type https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/User:YourUserName
2. Hit Enter to load the page.
3. To create the page, either click the "create this page" link in the displayed text or click the icon on the navigation bar. Note that to save, there must be content in the editor box.

Edit/Delete/Move/Rename

Delete a Page

From time to time maintenance warrants the removal of pages, however, this shouldn't be a routine task. Users should be aware deleted content is not actually "deleted", but rather "archived". Thus, deleted pages can be restored. Pages are only truly deleted when old archives are purged during maintenance (performed a couple times a year...maybe). To delete pages:

1. Click on the icon on the navigation bar.
2. Click [Delete]
3. One the page that loads, select a reason for deletion.
4. Enter additional information, if applicable.
5. Click the [Delete page] button.

Move/Rename a Page

Moving and renaming a page is the same process. This is because you can only rename a page by moving. Whenever pages are moved, a redirect should always be created. The redirect allows any links linking to the old page to be redirected to the new page, seamlessly. To move/rename a page:

1. Click on the icon on the navigation bar.
2. Click [Move]
3. On the form under New title, select the namespace from the dropdown box (this typically matches the original namespace).
4. Under that within the input box, type the page name of the page.

   This box is where users can rename the content, if desired. Either type the same page name or provide a new one.

5. Within the input box under Reason, provide a short explanation why the page is being moved.
6. Ensure the boxes are ticked for Move associated talk page and Leave a redirect behind.
7. Click the [Move page] button.

Categories

Categories are used to topically associate wiki pages. They also provide a simple means to navigate and view associated pages. Simply scroll to the bottom of any page and follow the category links to view more pages within that same category. Assigning a page to a category is as simple as adding [[Category:<CatName>]] when editing the page. Categories can be referenced on a page without adding that page to the referenced category by adding a colon to the beginning of the code as such: [[:Category:<CatName>]]. Users are asked to:

• Read about how to use categories.
• Assign pages to the proper existing categories.
• Avoid creating new categories --leave that to the site admin. Just let one of the administrators know.
• Place the category code at the TOP of the page for consistency and to make it easy for other users to find.

Using Forms

Placeholder.

Mod Pages

Edits to mod pages default to the Page Forms editor, but the wiki editor can also be accessed under the ellipse to the right of the edit asterisk on mod pages. The wiki editor should only be used by those who understand the format expected by Template:Mod.

NOTE

Mod page 'Recommendations' are transcluded into ModGroup tables of mod-build guides, so special conventions apply to markup and HTML syntax used on these pages.

When adding/editing Mod Recommendations ...

• Keep it basic and don't get fancy. The primary purpose of these pages is NOT to be pretty but rather to convey info on guides.
• DO NOT use wiki or HTML headings, as they will contribute to guide ToC. Instead use:

  <div class="mpheading">headingText</div>

• DO NOT use Template calls other than Template:Fomod. They contribute drastically to the wiki transclusion limit of guide pages.
• DO NOT use <pre> tags to show multi-line code examples. Wiki and PHP do not play nicely together when transcuding this syntax, resulting in an error on the guide. Instead use:

  <p class="mpcode">My multi-line
  code
  snippet
  </p>
  

Formatting

This will hold the do's, don'ts, and good habits regarding formatting.

Font Colors and Sizes

To maintain optimal compatibility across site themes, templates are utilized to maintain control over the font colors and sizes. See Templates section for details.

Instruction Sets

Follow these guidelines when writing instructions:

• Instructing to 'tick', 'click, or 'select' any UI element - Use Template:Ui:

  Click {{Ui|this}}, then right click {{Ui|that}}, and select {{Ui|OK}} Click [this], then right click [that], and select [OK]

• When referring to messages in the UI: Italicize the UI message, and do not highlight it in any other way.
• Inline headings - When the first text in a list or a paragraph is acting as a heading (see "Top Menu" tab in this guide):

  {{Fc|ilheading|InlineHeading}} InlineHeading

Magic Words

Magic words are special 'text strings' that are used by the wiki software to return values or functions. A full description of them can be found on the MediaWiki website.

Common Magic Words

__NOTOC__	Hides the table of contents (TOC).
{{FULLPAGENAME}}	Prints the Namespace and full page Title (including all subpage levels). Result: Guide:DDSopt/DDSopt_INI
{{NAMESPACE}}	Prints the Namespace. Result: Guide
{{PAGENAME}}	Prints the full page Title (including all subpage levels) without the namespace. Result: DDSopt/DDSopt_INI
{{SUBPAGENAME}}	Prints the subpage Title of the current page. If not a subpage, defaults to {{PAGENAME}} behavior. Result: DDSopt_INI

Symbols

Special characters and symbols can be displayed using character codes as demonstrated here with the copyright symbol. Unicode is not supported.

• Hex code - © ©
• HTML code - © ©
• HTML entity - © ©
• Font Awesome - <i class="far fa-copyright"></i>

URL Links

Internal

By definition, internal wiki links point to another page on the wiki. They use the following format: [[Namespace:PageName#HeaderTitle|Link Text]]

• Namespace - the namespace the page resides in as found in the page's URL
• PageName - the name of the page as found in the page's URL
• HeaderTitle ^(optional) - directs a link to a specific header within the page, commonly called anchors. Replace HeaderTitle with the header name.
• |Link Text ^(optional) - the link's displayed text. If not included, either the PageName will display, or HeaderTitle, when present.
• Note the syntax used to build the link between each element, which is not optional when the element is present: [[:#|]]

A completed link to this section would look as such: [[Guide:Wiki_Maintenance#URL_Links|How to create links!]]

Special Page Links

Since the syntax for applying categories and other elements to pages is the same as the internal link syntax, it must include a special escape character ( : ) at the beginning of the link:

• [[:Category:CategoryName|Link Text]]
• [[:Template:PageName|Link Text]]

Red Links

If the link is blue, the page exists. If a link is red-orange (referred to generally as "red links"), the page has not been created. Feel free to click on red links to create their corresponding pages by adding something relevant and saving. Wanted Pages is a special page that houses a list of red-link pages that have been referenced from other pages.

External

External wiki links point to locations outside the wiki's domain. They use the following format: [URL Link Text]

• URL - the address to the external page
• Link Text ^(optional) - the link's displayed text. If not included, the link will be displayed as a sequential, numbered link. When multiple links exist on a page without Link Text, they will be numbered in the order listed on the page: [1], [2]...[5]

A completed link to the Step Forums would look as such: [https://stepmodifications.org/forum/ Visit the Step Forums!]

Wiki Templates

Templates Explained

Templates are standard wiki pages whose content is designed to be transcluded (embedded) inside other pages. Step utilizes templates for creating standardized elements (alert boxes, galleries, side boxes, spoilers, table of contents, etc.), which are used across the wiki for all content. Templates are also used for creating some of our framework and guide structure. Since they are essential for our guides and basic website elements, templates have restricted editing rights; only certain staff groups can edit these pages. However, all users can utilize the templates for their content and are encouraged to do so where appropriate.

Templates can be found from the navigation "Tools" menu by clicking: Special Pages scroll down to Page Forms heading Templates

Common Templates

Some of the more common Templates that are used on the STEP wiki are:

• Template:Alert | creates a large, centered alert box
• Template:AlertSmall | creates a small, inline alert element
• Template:clear | used to clear floating elements
• Template:Fomod | creates a graphical representation of FOMOD instructions
• Template:GallerySimple | adds images to the page in a standardized format and allows the creation of simple galleries
• Template:Icon | places a small icon for specific uses
• Template:Quotation | creates a stylized blockquote
• Template:Sidebox | creates a stylized box to the side of the content
• Template:Spoiler | creates an element with hidden content that reveals when a title is clicked
• Template:Video | embeds a YouTube video on the page

Citations

Citations only apply when providing evidence or advice that is not well known, not obviously subjective or is speculative. The following extensions are installed to aid in citing:

• Cite makes adding inline citations and references easy.
• CiteThisPage adds a link in the Tools navigation bar menu for citing a current page.

Font Color and Size Templates

To maintain optimal compatibility across site themes, use:

• Template:Fc | modifies font color to a pre-defined color
• Template:Fs | modifies font size. Accepts any valid CSS.

Custom CSS classes are available for coloring text, backgrounds, and borders. See the Step Color Pallet for details about using these classes.

PageTitle Template

Template:PageTitle is used to create a consistent and standardized title header at the top of the page. This template must be called at the beginning of the first line in the editor to avoid creating a block of white space before the title (exception: "behavior switches" and Categories can be added before this template call).

Table of Contents

Include a table of contents (TOC) on long pages. Step provides a template that floats a styled TOC to the right of the page and is compatible with the wiki themes. To include a TOC use the following template: Template:TOC

The TOC template will appear on the page at the position the template is placed. Therefore, it's possible to have elements (such as an Alert) above the TOC. In general, TOC template should be placed directly after the PageTitle template or categories.

DO NOT

• DO NOT use inline styling like the following: <span style="color: #ff0"></span>

  Instead use Bootstrap and custom CSS classes (see the site color palette for the available classes): <span class="orangetx"></span>

• DO NOT use heading tags ( <h2></h2> ) to make text bigger or bolder.
  • Instead use wiki markup and/or the Font Size Template.

Resources

Wiki Resources

• The Wiki's forum topic.

Mediawiki

Home Page - Entry point to lots of relevant info, including reference and help as well as latest development and news

Help - MediaWiki's Help directory

Cheat Sheet - List of the most commonly used mediawiki markup

Tables - Wikitext syntax for tables

Magic Words - Behavior switches and variables

Parser Functions - Functions meant to provide more advanced logic

Semantic Mediawiki

Semantic Mediawiki - Documentation about Semantic MediaWiki ()see lower portion of middle frame).

Semantic Forms - Documentation about Semantic Forms, which provide a form-based interface for maintaining relevant SMW pages and content.

Semantic Forms Inputs - An extension for Semantic Forms

The Step Modifications Wiki

(top bar) TOOLBOX > SPECIAL PAGES - Links to all kinds of information about The Wiki.

(top bar) WIKI > RECENT CHANGES - Links to all of the most recent edits on The Wiki.

Software used on this wiki - Software and versions with links to documentation.

HTML and CSS Resources

CSS Resource - Not all info on this page is relevant but it contains various keywords that can be used

HTML Resource - Not all info on this page is relevant but it contains various keywords that can be used

Need Help?

For help using this wiki, to offer up suggestions, or to report problems, post on the Wiki Support forum, or private message one of us.