Help:Contents

New to wikis? You've come to the right spot. We understand that this page is probably something you'd rather not read; there's a lot of text and it's telling you a lot of what you can and can't do. On the other hand, we need everyone to follow these rules in order for the wiki to look and be at its best. Therefore, we've bolded the key sections. If you're saying to yourself "This is too long", at least read the bolded text, please.

Getting Started
A wiki is "a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor". In other words, all the pages here, including the one you're reading, are interlinked to the Main Page. Wikis are a haven for freelance writers who are knowledgeable about certain topics; in this case, the video game Magicka.

Navigating the Site
Navigation around the site is as straightforward as navigating any other site, but there are a few key areas you should check first:
 * The Community Portal is a source of various lists and topics brought up by the community. If you need advice or need to make an announcement, put it up on the Community Portal and see if you can get some help.
 * Current events is where you should look for information affecting the entire community that do not particularly pertain to the wiki. An example of an item found under Current Events includes the launch of a tournament, the creation of the Magickawiki Community Steam Group, or other events.

Creating Pages
Clicking on a red link will allow you to start a new page. However, before you do that, you should ask yourself several questions.
 * Is the information I want to cover in the page already covered? There's no sense in having the same information in two different areas. This confuses both standard users like yourself and our readers, who rely on us to not just be reliable, but also easy to navigate and accurate too.
 * How much information is available? Creating a page about a character like Vlad makes more sense than creating a page for Shams. Do not start a new page if there is insufficient information to actually complete the page.
 * Is the information I want to cover better put into another page? If you want to mention all the wizards in Castle Aldrheim, it would be better to have "List of wizards in Castle Aldrheim", or have a subsection of Castle Aldrheim refer to all of its residents, instead of an individual listing of each and every resident.

Once you've made your mind up that you really do intend to make the page, start writing, but while you do so, consider the following:


 * First Person is prohibited. Never ever use personal pronouns, like "I" or "we". This makes the page look unprofessional and makes it read out strangely. This is not a personal guide, like GameFAQs, but a collaboration.
 * Do not sign ordinary pages. Putting your signature on ordinary pages falls under the above "first person" rule. Attribution to individual authors is handled via the History page, not the article.
 * Use English. Not chat, 1337, Chinese, or Klingon. This wiki, for now, is English and only English.
 * Find pictures to back your ideas up. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so always use an image where possible.
 * Insert links judicially. Oftentimes, in order to illustrate a point entirely, you'll have to refer to another page. However, if you're doing a walkthrough, having links to Havindr every time you mention it clutters up the page. As a rule of thumb, have no more than two links to the same page per article; one if the two links are very close. There would be no sense in creating another link to Havindr when you can click on the other link a few lines up.
 * Avoid HTML. The wiki uses its own syntax, and using HTML will result in editors scratching their heads for a bit while they figure out what you're doing. The wiki has its own syntax for a reason; use it.

Templates and Categories
In the likely event you want to leave the page for now and get some sleep, play Magicka, do homework, or something else, add at the top; this lets everyone know that the page is being worked on.

If it's a short article, put to call in some help for fleshing the article out.

Upon completing the first edition of your page, be sure to categorize the page. The wiki is host to several categories that you can put it in. Categorizing pages will help users find pages, and it will make them easier to find for when a skilled wiki user who's capable of programming a bot.

Uploading Images
As mentioned previously, "a picture is worth a thousand words", so wherever possible, have a picture. However, you should ask yourself these things when uploading a picture.
 * How big is it? File size isn't too big of an issue (yet), but a picture that's too big will look really small when the thumbnail of the picture appears on the site. Readers should not be scanning around the picture, trying to find the subject of the photo for more than 5 seconds.
 * Does it need to be cropped? As mentioned above, a picture that's too big will have readers squinting their eyes to find what the subject of the picture. If it's too big, use the graphic tool of your choosing (even Paint works for this) to crop out sections that aren't relevant.
 * Do not sign files. The history gives attribution where necessary; signatures should appear only on Talk pages.
 * Can I cover more than one subject with a given picture? Like anything else, pictures are bad if overused. If you can, try to conserve white space by mentioning two things with one picture.

Just like pages, images have categories. Be sure to categorize your picture under one of the many image categories. You don't need to write a paragraph describing how awesome your screenshot of the dead moose is; a category for it under "Screenshots", however, is. In this example, simply type into the summary and it'll get categorized once it's uploaded.

Talk Pages
Each page has a section called "Discussion". This is also known as the "Talk" page. This is the page where other editors can come in and discuss where the page should be going. Any considerable additions and discussion should be on the relevant talk page.

This does NOT mean that you should ask about every edit. If you see a way you can really improve the page, do so. If someone reverts you, go to that person's talk page (or the article's talk page) and start a discussion there as to what is the correct way to go. Reverting them in turn will result in an edit war and bad feelings all around.

Once you've written a message, use the Signature button to put your signature at the end of your message. This is how we track who says what on the wiki. Troublemakers beware; even if you don't sign your vulgar insult, our mods can always check the user name or your IP address via the page history and get you that way.

If you're replying to a discussion, put colons to intent your section in so that it can be distinguished. If there start to be too many colons, then start working backward. Take a look at talk pages and mimic the processes of others in order to be successful.

If your talk page gets too long, consider archiving the large page under something like User talk:USERNAME/Archive 1. Although you can always just delete your entire talk page, archiving the page will make it more accessible to other users who may need to access your talk page for the answer to a question, for example.

The Final Word
Note that these are simple rules followed by all wikis. If you have any questions, contact one of the admins (S3n5ai, Realchaos1, or Dethklok) or look on our IRC channel for additional help.

Happy editing!