Project:Page Creation Guide

A commonly asked question is how to create new articles on Pluralpedia. Pluralpedia uses software called MediaWiki (the same one used by Wikipedia), which works in a particular way, and this guide should explain how to use it.

Prerequisites
You'll need to have a Pluralpedia account, which you can create at Special:CreateAccount or sign into one you already have at Special:UserLogin. Once you're logged in, your username will show in the bottom left corner (if using the default skin).

In order to be able to edit pages, you'll need to have a verified email address. You can find your email settings on your preferences page here: Special:Preferences.

Unfortunately, some email providers like Outlook reject emails from Pluralpedia, and you'll need to use a different email address for these. For other providers, it may show up in your spam box. In either case, it should appear pretty quickly.

Editor Types
MediaWiki has two types of editors. One is the visual editor, which offers a Google Docs-like interface where you have controls for setting headings and bolding text and can see what the page looks like as you edit it.

The other is called the source editor, which provides a purely text-based interface. In order to use this interface, you'll need to be familiar with something called WikiText. A guide for how to use WikiText can be found here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Wikitext_examples

Creating a Page



 * 1) Type the name of the page into the search bar. If all goes well, you'll get a page with no results, with some text saying "Create the page "YourWordHere" on this wiki!". The word will be in red, indicating a link to an empty page. Click on that link.
 * 2) If you're signed in, it should immediately open the visual editor. Otherwise, it will probably show "There is currently no text in this page." and you can use the Create and Create source links in the top right. These correspond to the visual editor and the source editor respectively.
 * 3) Once you've opened the editor, the page won't actually be created until you press Save. You can switch between visual editor and source editor without losing progress by clicking on the pen icon with a dropdown arrow.

Using the visual editor

 * 1) (optional) You can add the term infobox by going to Insert → Template → type in Term and then filling out the fields, then click Insert. Descriptions for these fields can be found at Template:Term.
 * 2) Write in the definition as best you can. Follow the style guide as best you can, but don't worry too much, as other contributors can always help improve the page.
 * 3) To add additional sections, start a new line and then click the dropdown that says Paragraph. From there, you can select Heading to make the line designate a new section. (Like the "Using VisualEditor" one above.)
 * 4) When you're happy with the page, click Save page... which will give you a space where you can optionally describe your change (such as Created the page).

Using the source editor
Not recommended for people new to editing wikis, but it can be easier to use for some of our contributors.


 * 1) (optional) You can add the term infobox by clicking the puzzle piece icon, typing in Term, then clicking Add all parameters, then Insert. You can fill in fields either before or after pressing Insert.
 * 2) Write in the definition as best you can. Follow the style guide as best you can, but don't worry too much, as other contributors can always help improve the page.
 * 3) While you're editing, you can click Show preview to make sure the formatting worked the way you were expecting. You won't lose any progress doing this.
 * 4) When you're happy with the page, click Save page.

Along the top, there are buttons for inserting formatting. These will insert special text that gets turned into formatting when the page is displayed, and you can use these to learn the syntax yourself if you'd rather type it in than click through the toolbar.

Getting Help
The best way to get help is to join the Pluralpedia Discord server, where we have channels where you can ask for help. Check out #help in particular.

There's also a lot of documentation written for MediaWiki (not Pluralpedia specific), which can be found here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing_pages

It's also fine if the page isn't perfect, as there's plenty of people who can help fix up pages after creation.