TGMC:Guide to wiki contributing

This page is a part of the TGMC wiki. TGMC is a project based on the CM-SS13 codebase.

Introduction

We're happy you've shown interest in contributing to the wiki. A wiki is an encyclopedic repository for knowledge about a subject—in this case, the TerraGov Marine Corps server.
We welcome all editors and assume good faith for all edits made, so there are very few protected pages.

Linking Your Forum Account

You will need to link your Byond account to your tgstation forum account to be able to edit the wiki.

1. Create a Byond account (if you haven't)
2. Create a tgstation13 forum account. Pressing Log In at the top right will take you to the tgstation13 forums directly to make an account.
3. Link those accounts. There are multiple ways of linking accounts:
   1. Connect to a normal /tg/ server and click the "Link Forum Account" button under the OOC tab
   2. Join a dedicated Byond server for account linking. byond://byondoauth.tgstation13.org:31337

You should now be able to see "edit" buttons on the wiki when you're logged in.

Wikicode

Wikicode is the syntax used by all wikipedias, including this one, a combination between markdown, HTML and CSS. Our wikicode page provides good examples on how to insert headers, templates, tables, images, and more. If we don't have what you're looking for, try the Wikipedia page here. Learning wiki markup is not mandatory, you can still help without even using it by using the Visual Editor.

Preliminaries

When making edits, there are a few things to keep in mind. These are the scope, spirit, and style of edits.

Scope of Edits

Different pages will need different amounts of editing, and this is tracked in the page history in bytes; though sometimes a quantitative value doesn't indicate the significance of the change well. We ask that when editing a page, you consider the scope of the project.

1. Small edits to fix grammar or changing formatting are visual edits and can be marked as minor edits; you can add a note in the summary of changes to indicate what you edited, but otherwise for anything flagged as a minor edit, it will auto-populate "Visual Edit" in the page history
2. More significant edits like changing massive portions of content or documenting new mechanics should not be marked as minor and should include a note in the summary box on what was changed
3. Very big editing projects, like rewriting a page, should be done on a sandbox page first and pasted over onto the main page, as the usability of the page will decrease while it's under construction
   1. To set up a sandbox, click on your userpage in the top right (linked to your display name)
   2. On your userpage, open the editor and set up a page in the structure of [[Username:Sandbox]] to create the new working page where you will do all your content editing
   3. Click the orange link to the sandbox page to generate it, and then open the editor to add content and create the page

Spirit of Edits

Ecyclopedic writing is a type of technical writing with a specific audience in mind, and with the specific intent of effectively communicating detailed knowledge in a broadly understandable way.

Opinion versus Fact

Unglamorously, in a team death match server, we're all trying to find the best ways to win. This means many of us have cultivated narrow but detailed knowledgebases about certain mechanics or objects. It's important to be able to represent these knowledges in an unobtrusive and objective way, to ensure the quality of the wiki and that players have the opportunity to experiment with developing their own knowledgebases and ways of playing.

With this in mind, we ask that opinion and fact stay distinctly divided. You're allowed to infuse humor into areas, but when documenting a mechanic or object, please keep the content of primary sections dedicated to mechanics or values ascertained from the code. If you do want to add opinions about what contributes to greater success in a job role, for example, you can add a section at the end for Tips and share your approach there.

Some examples:

• When writing about Transport Officer:

1. "Mimir is the best module and the only one you should use" is an opinion
2. "Mimir is useful to increase your acid and gas armor against xenomorphs that may try to target an enclosed space like the Tadpole" is a fact

You explain the function of the Mimir module and situations it would be useful in.

This is threefold:

• it conveys information in an objective way to maintain the integrity of encyclopedic writing
• it gives guidance to players without giving demands and still encourages a degree of experimentation and—well—play!
• it gets right to the explicit information of what might make Mimir so good: saying "it's good" begs the question "why?", so we've cut out the middleman and gotten directly to the "why"

• When writing about Smartguns:

1. "SG-29 is the best gun" is an opinion
2. "SG-29 provides greater mobility than the SG-85" is a fact

We can look at the source code of the game to determine that the movespeed penalty on the SG-29 is less than that on the SG-85, ie, you can move faster; so saying it provides more mobility is correct. But there are other reasons to want to play with other Smartguns and either of the other two might appeal more to a player and what they want out of their experience if they don't particularly care about being very fast.

Style of Edits

Many organizations that contribute writng will have a manual or style guide to exemplify best practices for writing for that body, so that all contributors are working cohesively together. This project isn't too different, in that regard!
Here are a few meta-notes about writing for a wiki:

Linking

• The first mention of something on a page where there exists another page for that content should be cross-linked; the idea is to build an interconnected web of knowledge that players find navigable and accessible

• For example: if I write about how the Captain can depend on their Synthetics for help, I should link the page to Synthetics at the first mention of them within a section so that players can go learn about Synthetics
• To insert a link to another page, you'd type it as [[TGMC:PageName|page link appearance in the text]]
• We share a wiki server with the greater tgstation13's wiki, but our pages aren't relevant to their server; all TGMC-specific pages are housed under the TGMC category, so any new page you make should include the TGMC category (this is what the TGMC: is in the wiki links, so [[TGMC:PageName|page link appearance in the text]]

Capitalization

• Names for distinctive roles or objects should be capitalized wherever they appear; names for mechanics don't need to be

• For example: a Synthetic is a distinctive role, as is a Transport Officer, and the Tadpole is a distinctive vehicle. But surgery is a general mechanic that entails a lot. Another example might be a specific gun, you'd want to write SR-127 Bolt-action Sniper Rifle.
• This draws attention to the thing being discussed and is helpful to keep the topic in view

• The second word of a hyphenated set doesn't need to be capitalized (SR-127 Bolt-action Sniper Rifle)

Section Headers

• Section headers should be in Snake Case (every major word capitalized)

• You may notice some variance between whether the === before and after a section header have spaces around them and the header name, and the short of it is: it doesn't matter! It won't affect how the header displays to a reader, so do whatever makes it easiest for you to read. Likewise, spacing before or after doesn't matter either way, just whatever is workable for you.

Bullets

• Text that comes after a bullet point should have a space between it and the bullet point
• Bullet points that are a single sentence shouldn't end with a period. But multi-sentence bullet points should.

Templates

• Templates are useful ways of using static formats across multiple pages. Editing a template page will edit how it appears on all the pages where it's used, saving time in manually updating pages.

• There's a templates category for the wiki broadly but we don't use every template that's there. The templates that are of importance to this project are:

• The job header template and skills table template for job introductions
• The damage type templates for BRUTE, BURN, TOXIN, OXYGEN, CLONELOSS, ORGAN, and STAMINA damage
• The key template for input keys
• The radio commands template
• The template for TGMC jobs
• Templates for various squads
• Templates for other aspects like environmental damage types and building materials

All templates used across both this wiki and the tgstation13 wiki can be found at the Templates category, but be aware that not all of them are used by the TGMC wiki.

Breaking the Code

• If working on a particularly long page or section, like a tabbed table, it can be useful to use markdown comments as dividers to break things up so editors in the future can more readily find different sections

• To do so, you just need to make a line that looks something like this:

<!----------------------------------------- this is a line break in the code ------------------------------------------------>

This won't appear anywhere on the page, only in the code, but is helpful for editors

Marking for Revision and Deletion

If a page is out of date or doesn't have a reason for existing, add one of the following tags to the top of the page:
{{Needs revision | reason = Out of date.}}
or
{{delete}}

Images

Uploading new images

If you have new and relevant images, then upload them and add them to the page they're intended for. It is appreciated if the pictures of items you add have a blank background and are in the .gif or .png format. The easiest way to add images of items is to download the source code, open the icons .dmi files, and export images as .gif's or .png's from there. If you intend to take a screenshot from the game and edit it, it's best that you adjust your Icon Settings in the top left and set them to anything that isn't autostretch to fit. This ensures that when you take a screenshot, the pixels don't end up blurry because they're a standard size that preserves the ratio of the original sprites.

Updating existing images

It is possible for an image to become depreciated following an update to the source code. To update an existing obsolete image, you can:

• Visit the upload page and upload your new image with the same filepath as the old image.
• Visit its page on the wiki (by either clicking the image itself or searching for its name using the "File:" prefix in the search bar), clicking on "upload a new version of this file" under "File history", and select your new image on the upload page.

All depreciated versions of the image will remain on the File's history page for posterity.
IMPORTANT NOTICES: Images can only be updated with files of the same format: .png images cannot be updated to .gif, and vice-versa. This is because files are saved on a page that includes their format in its name. Due to caching issues, updating existing images may take up to a week to actually update.

Good Pages

A good page needs, by order:

• Brevity, which Shakespeare tells me is the soul of wit; a page should convey key points. And remember: key points means the important stuff you need to know to meet minimum expectations at the start of the round. You should be able to read and understand key mechanics and roles within 5 minutes.
• A more detailed section describing the game mechanics in depth. This includes more advanced information, but it should still be clear and concise.
• Helpful images of a high-quality so players see how the mechanics will be represented to them in the game
• Hyperlinks! Remember to add links to different jobs and essential guides you mention! It's better to do it during the proofreading stage at the end so as to not waste any time actually writing the article.
• Well-integrated and visually appealing tables, thumbs, and other visual elements. Visual aids are fast ways to digest complex information, like the stats of a specific gun.
• Appropriate whitespace to make reading text easier

An example of a bad guide would be a giant wall of text that's overly fluffed up and/or full of uninformative opinions.
This will scare away new and veteran players alike. Try not to overload or intimidate newbies.

Jokes

Some references (and even entire pages) are designed to be entertaining. However, a newbie might not realize something is a joke or sarcasm, even if it's blatantly obvious to the rest of us. This is especially important when writing guides. Think about where jokes fit and where they don't, and if they're actually funny. Please be tasteful and consider common sensibility and offenses when writing jokes. If it's not a joke you'd make in an office workspace, then don't make it here.

Useful pages

1. Categories, which provide groupings of alike pages and serve as a sort of "Table of Contents" for everything on the wiki itself

Categories: Used, unused

2. Templates, which provide form structures for common and recurring elements on pages

Templates: Used, unused

3. All Pages, which provides an index of everything and Wanted Pages, which includes pages often linked to that don't exist yet

All pages: All existing pages and Wanted pages

Talk Pages

Within the wiki, articles have a discussion page and users have a talk page. The use of these pages is uncommon, but they are usually used for communication between users (obviously), and suggesting edits, especially on protected pages.
When writing on a discussion or talk page (for example Talk:Main_Page), there are a few things you need to know.

Signature

Always end your message with your signature, so everyone knows who wrote what (without having to check the edit history).
This should be done by writing ~~~~ after your message. You can customize your signature on your user preferences page.

Indentation

When replying to another user's message, be sure to indent your message so it is visibly a reply to the above message.
This is done by simply adding : at the start of the line.

Headline

If you are starting a new topic, add a headline with the name of the topic. If a talk page is used a lot, it can become confusing if the topics aren't separated with headlines. It also allows for section editing, which makes editing long talk pages a lot easier.
This is one of the most basic and commonly used features on a wiki. It is used by typing ==Topic== on the line above your message. Just replace "Topic" with whatever it is you're talking about.