User:CIA391/Welcome/TutorialBeginner

So you want to help us at Halopedia! You may have a lot of questions or thoughts on the matter such as "Halopedia has everything", "I don't understand what all the code means", "I'm worried my edits will get reverted or I'll break something.", or "All these editors seem scary". This tutorial (inspired by several Wikis such as Wookieepedia) is here to answer all your questions plus more! This guide is focused on the very basics of editing a wiki, as viewed from someone editing for the first time! If you already feel familiar with everything on this page, please see TutorialIntermediate for more advanced features and techniques.

Where to start

Many people just assume Halopedia has everything there is to know about Halo, and so they see no reason to even try adding anything. This couldn't be further from the truth. There are thousands of articles in need of updates, cleanup, expansion, improved citation, images, and so much more. There are even thousands of articles that still need to be created! The Halo universe is massive, and it's unlikely that Halopedia will ever have every single piece of lore in its database. There's always room for improvement!

New editors also often get intimidated due to a presumed lack of personal knowledge or Halo reference material. Nobody knows everything there is to know. If all you have is one book, it's almost guaranteed that there is something in the book that is missing from the wiki. Most editors prefer to focus on specific topics that they are very familiar with instead of attempting to tackle the entirety of lore. If you're having trouble finding missing information on the wiki, narrow the site down to one topic you're familiar with (for example,... list media)

If at the end of the day you still don't see anything new you can add, then feel free to fix typos and grammatical and spelling errors! This helps the wiki appear more professional, which is the goal! Just remember that, per the Manual of Style, all in-universe Halopedia articles are written in past tense and from an in-universe perspective. Our articles are meant to act as if the events actually happened, excluding the "Behind the scenes" section.

Common code and templates used across the wiki

On Halopedia we use something called Wikitext language, or wiki markup. In simple terms, this how the wiki knows to make stuff happen such as make text bold, make text italics, add links, and many more things. Here we will go over the most common Wikitext you will come across on the wiki, and even templates you will come across that you'll need to know! We won't lie, it may be daunting to do this first, but with practice it will become second nature like it has for many existing editors.

Text

Text on a wiki can be both both and italized.

In order to bold text, such as the first time a topic is mentioned on an article, simply place three apostrophes on either side of the text you want to be bold, like so:

'''John-117'''

This produces the following: John-117.

In order to italize text, such as the names of Halo media, simply place two apostrophes on either side of the text you want to be bold, like so:

''Halo: Combat Evolved''

This produces the following: Halo: Combat Evolved.

You can also combine the two to create text that is both bold and italicized, simply place five apostrophes on either side of the text you want to be bold, like so:

'''''Halo: Combat Evolved'''''

This produces the following: Halo: Combat Evolved.

Links

Links are a vital part of navigation on a Wiki,