User:Ferretwings/Help

Source:Zarconian Wiki, Category:Help, however it appears to be a wikia.com article/blog from 2011, so some/much of this information is out-of-date. Better articles/blogs may be available on Fandom.

Special:SpecialPages
Contents 1 Special:SpecialPages 1.1 Maintenance reports 1.2 List of pages 1.3 Login/sign up      1.4 Users and rights 1.5 Recent changes and logs 1.6 Media reports and uploads 1.7 Wiki data and tools 1.8 Redirecting special pages 1.9 High use pages 1.10 Page tools 1.11 Wikia special pages 1.12 Other special pages 2 Logs 3 See also A special page is a part of the MediaWiki software that performs specific functions (such as showing a list of broken redirects, a table of all the articles on the wiki, or access to view user groups), and always begins with the prefix "Special:". The "Special pages" link in the toolbox in the sidebar leads to Special:SpecialPages, which lists all available functions in alphabetical order. You can include some special pages in other pages - see Help:Special page inclusion. Pages listed below in red are only available to sysops and bureaucrats, while orange signifies bureaucrats only (see Help:User access levels). These pages, when viewed on Special:SpecialPages will be denoted by bold links to those who can access them and will not appear at all to users who do not have the required user right.

Maintenance reports

 * Broken redirects
 * Special:BrokenRedirects : List of pages whose target article has been deleted (Help:Redirect)


 * Dead-end pages
 * Special:DeadendPages : Pages without any outgoing links (Help:Dead-end street)


 * Double redirects
 * Special:DoubleRedirects : List of pages that redirect to another redirect page (Help:Redirect)


 * Long pages
 * Special:LongPages : Pages that contain the most characters in descending order


 * Oldest pages
 * Special:AncientPages : Lists the oldest pages on a wiki


 * Orphaned pages
 * Special:LonelyPages : Articles not linked to or from any other page on the wiki


 * Pages with the fewest revisions
 * Special:FewestRevisions : Pages with the least amount of edits


 * Pages without language links
 * Special:WithoutInterwiki : Pages that do not link to any alternate language counterparts (Help:Interlanguage links)


 * Problem reports list
 * Special:ProblemReports : Display reported problems (Help:ProblemReports)


 * Protected pages
 * Special:ProtectedPages : List pages that cannot be edited by non-admins or non-autoconfirmed users (Help:Page protection)


 * Protected titles
 * Special:ProtectedTitles : Pages that have been protected from creation from non-admins (Help:Page protection)


 * Short pages
 * Special:ShortPages : Pages that contain the fewest characters in ascending order


 * Uncategorized categories
 * Special:UncategorizedCategories : Categories without category tags (Help:Category)


 * Uncategorized files
 * Special:UncategorizedImages : Images without category tags (Help:Category)


 * Uncategorized pages
 * Special:UncategorizedPages : Pages without category tags (Help:Category)


 * Uncategorized templates
 * Special:UncategorizedTemplates : Templates without category tags (Help:Category)


 * Unused files
 * Special:UnusedImages : Images that do not appear on any page (Help:Images)


 * Unused templates
 * Special:UnusedTemplates : Templates that are not included in any page (Help:Templates)


 * Unwatched pages
 * Special:UnwatchedPages : Pages that are not on any user's watchlist


 * Wanted categories
 * Special:WantedCategories : Pages that use a category that has not been created yet (Help:Category)


 * Wanted pages
 * Special:WantedPages : Most internally linked-to articles that do not yet exist


 * Wanted files
 * Special:WantedFiles : Most internally linked-to files (not just images) that do not yet exist

List of pages

 * All pages
 * Special:AllPages : A list of every page on the wiki


 * Categories
 * Special:Categories : List of categories (Help:Category)


 * Category tree
 * Special:CategoryTree : Use a category name to see its contents as a tree structure (Help:Category)


 * Disambiguation pages
 * Special:Disambiguations : List pages marked as disambiguations (Help:Disambiguation)


 * List redirects
 * Special:ListRedirects : List of redirects on a wiki (Help:Redirect)


 * Prefix index
 * Special:PrefixIndex : Display pages with prefix (Help:Subpages)

Login/sign up

 * Login
 * Special:UserLogin : Log in or create a new account (Help:User account)


 * Logout
 * Special:UserLogout : Log out of your account (Help:User account)

Users and rights

 * Block user
 * Special:BlockIP : Block a user or IP address. (Help:Blocking)


 * Blocked IP addresses and usernames
 * Special:IPBlockList : Blocked IPs and usernames (Help:Blocking)


 * Contributions
 * Special:Contributions : List of contributions of anonymous or logged-in users (Help:User contributions)


 * Deleted user contributions
 * View a user's or IP address's edits that have been deleted (Help:Deletion)


 * Edit count
 * Special:EditCount : Edit tally broken down by namespaces locally and globally (Help:Edit count)


 * Invite friends to join Wikia
 * Special:InviteSpecialPage : Invite friends based on address lists or otherwise (Help:Invite Friends)


 * Preferences
 * Special:Preferences : Set your user preferences (Help:Preferences)


 * User list
 * Special:ListUsers : List of people who have edited this wiki (Help:Active users)


 * User rights management
 * Special:UserRights : Use to appoint new admins/bureaucrats or to add/remove rollback users. (Help:User access levels)

Recent changes and logs

 * Gallery of new files
 * Special:NewImages : The most recently uploaded images displayed in a gallery format (Help:Images)


 * Logs
 * Special:Log : Logs of deletion, protection, blocking, image uploads and user rights settings


 * My watchlist
 * Special:Watchlist : Show the pages you are watching (Help:Watchlist)


 * New pages
 * Special:NewPages : List of new pages on a wiki (Help:Newest Pages)


 * Recent changes
 * Special:RecentChanges : The latest edits on a wiki (Help:Recent changes)


 * Related changes
 * Special:RelatedChanges : Changes made recently to pages linked from a specified page or to members of a specified category (Help:Related changes)

Media reports and uploads

 * File list
 * Special:ImageList : List of images uploaded that can be sorted by size or date (Help:Images)


 * File path
 * Special:FilePath : Returns the complete path for a file (Help:Images)


 * Import Free Images
 * Special:ImportFreeImages : Import properly licensed photos from flickr (Help:Import free images)


 * MIME search
 * Special:MIMESearch : Enables the filtering of files for its MIME-type


 * Search for duplicate files
 * Special:FileDuplicateSearch : Locate duplicate files based on filename


 * Upload files
 * Special:MultipleUpload : Upload up to 10 files to the wiki (Help:Multiple uploads)


 * Upload image/file Special:Upload
 * Upload a file to the wiki (Help:Uploading files)

Wiki data and tools

 * Statistics
 * Special:Statistics : Total number of pages and users


 * System messages
 * Special:Allmessages : Displays all pages in the MediaWiki namespace (Help:System Messages)


 * Version
 * Special:Version : The version of the software the site is currently running. Also displayed 'installed' extensions.


 * Wikia Statistics
 * Special:WikiaStats : Comprehensive statistical information about a wiki (Help:WikiaStats)

Redirecting special pages

 * Random page
 * Special:RandomPage : Redirects to a random page (Help:Redirect)


 * Random redirect
 * Special:RandomRedirect : Randomly taken to a redirecting page (Help:Redirect)


 * Search
 * Special:Search : Search the wiki (Help:Searching)

High use pages

 * Most linked-to categories
 * Special:MostLinkedCategories : Categories that have the most links to them in descending order


 * Most linked-to files
 * Special:MostImages : Images that have the most links to them in descending order


 * Most linked-to pages
 * Special:MostLinked : Pages that have the most links to them in descending order


 * Most linked-to templates
 * Special:MostLinkedTemplates : Templates that have the most links to them in descending order


 * Most popular articles (from database)
 * Special:Mostpopulararticles : List of the most popular articles


 * Most popular categories
 * Special:Mostpopularcategories : List of the most popular categories


 * Most visited pages
 * Special:Mostvisitedpages : Pages which have the most views in descending order


 * Pages with the most categories
 * Special:MostCategories : List of pages with the most categories in descending order


 * Pages with the most revisions
 * Special:MostRevisions : List of pages with the large number of edits in descending order

Page tools

 * Create a new article
 * Special:Createpage : Guided process to creating new pages (Help:New page)


 * Export pages
 * Special:Export : Exports the source of individual wiki pages, optionally with their histories, in a thin XML wrapper which includes metadata like time, etc (Help:Exporting pages)


 * Import pages
 * Special:Import : Import pages exported from another wiki in an XML file


 * View deleted pages
 * Special:Undelete : One way to undelete a page or review deleted revisions of pages


 * What links here
 * Special:WhatLinksHere : Find all pages that link to an article (Help:What links here)

Wikia special pages

 * Contact Wikia
 * Special:Contact : Send a message or inquiry to the Community Team (Help:Contacting Wikia)


 * WidgetDashboard
 * Special:WidgetDashboard : Control the display of widgets (Help:Widget Dashboard)


 * Widgets list
 * Special:Widgets : Display a list of widgets (Help:Widgets)

Other special pages

 * Book sources
 * Special:BookSources : Used when an ISBN is linked to on a page


 * Search web links
 * Special:Linksearch : Search web pages linked on the wiki based on different patterns.


 * Simplified upload
 * Special:MiniUpload : Simplified uploading

Logs
Block log - blocks and unblocks (Help:Blocking) Deletion log - deleted and undeleted pages (Help:Deletion) Import log - administrative imports of pages with edit history from other wikis Merge log - list of the most recent merges of one page history into another Move log - list of page moves (Help:Moving pages) User creation log - list of newly created accounts. Protection log - protected and unprotected pages (Help:Page protection) Settings log - changes to the default site skin</li> Upload log - list of images uploaded (Help:Uploading files)</li> User rights log - changes to user rights (Help:User access levels) </li></ul> Some extension also add new log types to the wiki (these will only exist if they are enabled at your wiki) <ul style="list-style:none; padding-left:0px;">Patrol log - log of patrolled revisions (Help:Recent changes patrol)</li> Problem reports - Logs of reported problems and changes of their status (Help:ProblemReports)</li> User Avatar - Logs of uploading/changing of avatars (Blogs) The toolbar is a bar on the bottom of your screen that follows you as you scroll through a page. It lets you place a number of your most commonly used tools—the edit, rename, history, and delete pages, to name a few—right on the toolbar so they are only a click away. The menu follows you from wiki to wiki as well, and tools you select will appear on the toolbar when they’re available for use (for example, “delete” would not show up on Wiki Activity).</li></ul>

Step-by-step
Your toolbar can be found at the bottom of your screen and it will follow you as you scroll. It anchors to the bottom of the wiki page once you cannot scroll any further. Toolbar customize default.jpg Your toolbar is very customizable. Clicking "Customize" brings up a dialog box with the Toolbar List on the left, and the Find a Tool area on the right. It also has all of the system defaults, to help you if you delete one and then forget how to get it back. Toolbar customize dialog.jpg You can use the “Find a Tool” search box to begin selecting tools. Simply type in the name of a page you want to use and click it in the drop down menu, which will add it to the Toolbar List. For example, typing in “History” will produce a history link in the search box, which you can then click on to add to the Toolbar List. You can also click “Popular Tools” to produce a list of commonly used tools. Each item you put into your toolbar list can be altered or removed. If you scroll over the name in your toolbar list, you will see a pencil icon, a trash can icon, and two arrows. This allows you to rename the item (pencil icon), delete the item (trash can), or move it up and down (arrow icons). To save your customization, click the “Save” button. The "reset defaults" link resets the toolbar and My Tools folder to the system default. If you add more tools to the toolbar than space allows, a "more" menu will appear in front of the My Tools menu with the extra tools.

My Tools
The My Tools menu can be found on the floating toolbar. You can add tools to this menu in addition to right on the toolbar itself. Click the Customize button and the My Tools menu will appear. By default, "history" and "what links here" are already in this menu. Once you have added a tool to the toolbar, you can use the aforementioned arrow buttons to drag the tool into your My Tools menu. Click the “Save” button to save your customization. The My Tools folder is the one element that can't be renamed, moved, or deleted from the toolbar. It will always be at the bottom of the Toolbar List. However, if you remove everything from it, it will disappear—but will reappear if you add something back into it.This text is stored on Wikia Help. Suggest changes here. Wiki navigation is the group of links found on top of all pages that provides links to the most important pages on your wiki. This group acts as the guide to the most important and interesting pages on your wiki.

Step-by-Step
Wiki navigation is found at the top of every page of your wiki, and can be edited by the wiki admins. If you are an admin, when hovering over the wiki navigation you will see a link "Edit this menu". Wiki navigation.png Clicking the "edit this menu" link will bring you to yourwikiname.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation where you can change the wiki navigation. The Wiki Navigation allows for 4 main headings, and 7 dropdown links. Mediawiki wiki navigation page.png You can link to any page, and it is important to think about what are the most important places for visitors to see when they come to your wiki. We recommend adding links to popular pages, and links to show where to find the wiki's community. People like clicking on article names more than categories or portals. People tend to click on character names, episode guides, walkthroughs, hints/cheats/tips and galleries. One way to make sure the navigation always shows the most popular content is to use a trick to autopopulate the fields with popular pages or the most linked category pages. This will autopopulate the 7 menu items with the most popular pages.
 * To do this, use # symbols around visited or category name.
 * For the top content on your wiki use #visited# (which is pulled from Special:Mostvisitedpages)
 * For categories, you use #category-name#. So for example, #category-food# will result in the 7 dropdown links being automatically filled with the most popular articles in the category "food".

Google ranking
Having a high ranking on Google is an essential way to attract readers and contributors to your wiki. There's a lot that you can do to get a higher Google ranking -- and improve your wiki at the same time! (see also: Help:Search Engine Optimization) <pre style="width:60%;">Contents 1 How Google works 1.1 Rich content 1.2 Use of keywords 1.3 High-quality links 2 Step by step 2.1 Step 1: Name your wiki after the topic 2.2 Step 2: Move the main page 2.3 Step 3: Start building content 2.4 Step 4: Submit your URL to Google 2.5 Step 5: Submit links to high-quality websites 2.6 Step 6: Post links on relevant wikis 2.7 Step 7: Add more pages 2.8 Step 8: Post on blogs and forums 2.9 Step 9: Create pages for other websites 2.10 Step 10: Don't give up!

How Google works
Wookieepic.jpg Your wiki's Google ranking is based on three things: rich content, use of keywords and high-quality links.

Rich content
This is the most important part of creating a wiki -- sitting down and writing some interesting content. That's what readers and contributors are coming to the wiki for, and that's what Google picks up on. The more content you have, the more likely your wiki will show up in search results.

Use of keywords
When Google indexes your pages, they take into account where the search phrase is on the page. If a phrase is in the page title, in a big heading, or repeated multiple times on the page, then it'll rank higher than another page that has that phrase in small type at the bottom of the page.

High-quality links
Part of your ranking is based on how many pages link to your wiki, and how high those pages are ranked. When important websites link to your wiki, that's a very helpful "vote" for you, so it's good to get as many links from popular sites as you can get. However, it's also important to remember that when you link to your own pages, that also counts as a link to Google. Create as many pages on your wiki as you can -- even stub pages are okay, as long as they link to each other. If you're spending a lot of time worrying about getting other websites to link to your wiki, consider whether you could use that time more effectively by simply adding more content. The following tips will help you raise your wiki's Google ranking, but the most important "trick" is just to work on your wiki, and make it bigger and more interesting.

Step 1: Name your wiki after the topic
Your page rank is partly based on what's in the title bar at the top of the page. So if you want your wiki to show up when people search for "charles dickens", then "Charles Dickens Wiki" is a better title than "Scroogepedia". Search for your topic's name on Google, and you'll see that the top ten results almost always have that phrase in the page title. That's where you want to be. Resist the urge to give your wiki a clever name, or a cute URL. "Ugly Betty Wiki" is always going to rank higher than "Modepedia". Also, the "-pedia" thing is tired. See Help:Pagetitle and Help:Description for more ways to customize and optimize your site's appearance in search engines.
 * Customizing MediaWiki:Sidebar

Step 2: Move the main page
This trick also helps to maximize the boost you get from having the topic in the title bar. Wikia now does this automatically for all new wikis when they're created, but if you are working on or adopting an older wiki, read on! First, move "Main Page", and give it the name of your wiki. Having "Charles Dickens Wiki" in the heading at the top of your main page will give you an edge. Then, go to MediaWiki:Mainpage, edit that page, and put in the name of your wiki there. (This ensures that the logo and the first entry in the sidebar menu link to your now-renamed main page, giving the page high-priority links from every page in the wiki and improving its page ranking.) Note: You won't need to alter the sidebar itself; the first item on the menu uses the sitename for the text and the pagename contained in MediaWiki:Mainpage for the link

Step 3: Start building content
Charlesdickens.jpg Before you do anything else to promote your wiki, you have to get down to the business of creating some pages. Start with 50 pages as your goal. That seems like a lot, but just go ahead and make a bunch of stubs. If it's Charles Dickens Wiki, then throw together a page for each of his books, and start making pages for the characters. Each page can be two sentences and a category tag. If you're fast on the keyboard and you know all the character names, you could throw together 50 stub pages in one evening. You know your subject, so coming up with those early stub pages is as easy as making a list of names. If it's the Solar System Wiki, then make a page for each of Jupiter's moons -- that's 63 pages right off the bat. If you've got a God of War Wiki, then make a page for each of the monsters. Don't worry about making those pages perfect, or even informative. Just get them started. The only thing you should worry about is putting them in relevant categories, and making sure that a reader (or a Google searchbot) can get from the main page to every page on the wiki just by clicking on links. Plus, adding all these stub pages will give your contributors something to work on when they show up! A wiki page that's half-finished is always easier to work on than a wiki page that hasn't been created yet. Building content is your #1 priority. Can't stress that highly enough. Don't move on to the next steps until you have at least 50 stub pages on your wiki.

Step 4: Submit your URL to Google
Submitting content to Google. If other sites are linking to your wiki, then Google will find you eventually, but you can sometimes speed up the process by submitting your site to them directly. "Add your URL to Google" is the page you need. You may want to bookmark that, cause you'll be using it again. You can find it from Google's home page by clicking on "About Google", then "Submit your content to Google", and then "Add your URL". All you do is cut and paste the URL for your wiki's main page, type in the word that it wants you to type, and hit the "Add URL" button. (Don't worry about the "Comments" line; you don't need to type anything there.) Now your URL is added to their list of websites to look at. It usually only takes a couple of days for a page to be listed.

Step 5: Submit links to high-quality websites
At this point, you can look for some of the major players in your topic area that allow people to post links. For a TV show or movie, you can submit your wiki to IMDB. Go to the page about your topic, click on "Miscellaneous links", and then click "Update" to submit your own link. (You'll need to log on as an IMDB user.) It can take a week or two, but the link should show up. When it does, submit that page to Google. Other good prospects for TV shows are TV.com and TVguide.com, both of which allow people to post links in forum postings. Go to the forum on the show that you're interested in, and post a brief description of your wiki, with a link. You can also submit your site to the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org). Just search for your topic, select the appropriate category from the list that comes up, and then click "suggest URL". You can submit the URL, and a brief description of your wiki.

Step 6: Post links on relevant wikis
Wikiindex. It can also be helpful to have links from other wikis -- and, due to the nature of wikis, you can post those yourself. But be careful with these -- if the people who are on that wiki think you're being overbearing about it, they'll block you and remove your links. Be cool about it, and only post links that are relevant. You can create a page for your wiki on WikiIndex. Those don't always get indexed by Google, so submit that URL as well. Fan History Wiki welcomes links (and founding information on wikis too) on just about every topic that has a fandom -- tv shows, movies, bands, books/authors and more. Beyond that, do a search for your topic, and see if there are other wikis where you can post relevant links. Don't spend too much time on this -- you don't want to get distracted from building your site -- but it's worth a few minutes.

Step 7: Add more pages
How many pages do you have by this point? See if you can get up to 100.

Step 8: Post on blogs and forums
Do a Google search for your topic, and see what comes up in the top results. If blogs or forums come up near the top, then post comments there, with a link back to your wiki. Try to make your comments intelligent and relevant; that'll make them more likely to stay up.

Step 9: Create pages for other websites
A wiki page about a popular fan website. If there are other fan websites on your topic that you admire, create a page about that site. Take a screenshot of the main page for an illustration. Write a few sentences, and post a link to the site. Once you've done that, write to the webmaster of that site, and send them a link to the page you've created about them. Invite them to come to your wiki and add more to their page. They may end up adding a link to your wiki, which would bring a Google boost and more potential contributors.

Step 10: Don't give up!
From here on, all you have to do is keep adding content to your wiki. You've done everything that you can do to bring attention to your site, so now you can focus on making it bigger and better. By now, if you've got a good title, 200 pages and a bunch of links, you should be moving up the Google listings. And with 200 pages, you may also qualify for a Wikia Spotlight, advertising your project on other active Wikia sites! If more contributors haven't joined you yet, then they'll be coming soon. So just keep building your wiki -- and when contributors start showing up, make sure you say hello to them, and welcome them to your site. You've put a lot of work into building the wiki. Make sure the new contributors know how much you appreciate their help -- see Advice:Building a Community for more good ideas!
 * Advice:Will Wikis Work?
 * By Danny Horn (User:Toughpigs), Community Development Manager and founder of Muppet Wiki. Small wiki (DannyH (on mw), DannyH (on meta), User:Toughpigs)
 * Advice:Building a Community
 * The first revisions of this article were by George Pribul (User:Kirkburn),
 * The first revisions of this article were by George Pribul (User:Kirkburn), Wikia Staff member and admin of WoWWiki. (Kirkburn (community), Kirkburn (wowwiki))

The successful wiki
<pre style="width:50%;">Contents [hide] 1 Content and pages 1.1 What is the wiki's aim? 1.2 The Main Page 1.3 The articles 1.4 Structure 1.5 Templates 2 Administrative matters 2.1 Administrators/sysops 2.2 Policies, guidelines and user help 2.3 Branding 2.4 Special pages 3 The community 3.1 Internal Public Relations (PR) 3.2 External Public Relations (PR) 3.3 Site discussion pages 3.4 IRC channel 3.5 Community teams

The following article describes a collection of tips on how to make a successful wiki.

What is the wiki's aim?
Perhaps obvious, but still important to consider!
 * Make sure you know what the wiki is for. More importantly, make sure the users know!

The Main Page
First impressions count. This is the page almost everyone will see when they first arrive at your wiki and is therefore extremely important. If you have nothing on the Main Page, people will assume you have no articles and won't go searching for them
 * Give it a clean design -- it doesn't need to be fancy. Make sure the code is correct!
 * Link to all the important sections (especially on a smaller wiki) -- * Write a short intro paragraph telling people what the wiki is (and what it is for) will help.
 * But don't go protecting it at this stage, small wikis don't really need protection until they attract more people and get vandalized often. (See Protection for details).

The articles
The "meat" of your wiki, and second only in importance to the Main Page. For wikis not started by a group, it's usually the job of the creator to write the bulk of the early articles. This may be daunting but remember there's no need for articles to be perfect on the first version, you and others can rewrite articles later!
 * Keep articles tidy and create hyperlinks to other articles, wikis, Wikipedia, etc.
 * Articles don't need to be huge essays first go - one or two sentences and a category works wonders.
 * Only copy from sources that specifically allow it and make sure you cite them.
 * Don't let people try and take ownership of pages.
 * Try and keep articles neutral.

Structure

 * Outline a structure for your wiki.
 * Use categories -- an easy way to navigate and find info.
 * Create basic articles and style-guides off which users can base other articles.

Templates

 * Copy good examples from elsewhere; Wikia Templates can be a good source.
 * Make sure people know which templates exist -- make a list, like WoWWiki:Templates.

Administrators/sysops
The guiding hands behind the project.
 * Think about creating new admins -- try to choose them based on trust, ability, and frequency of visits.
 * For a small project, around five reasonably dedicated admins should be enough.
 * Admins are not a requirement for a wiki to do well. WoWWiki had very few for a long time.
 * Admins should try to avoid acting as unilateral decision makers; they should work with the community.
 * Note: Being an admin does not make your opinions more valued than others'.

See also: Help:Administrators' how-to guide

Policies, guidelines and user help
For a new wiki policies may not seem important at first, but as it grows, you will find yourself needing them more and more frequently.
 * They do not need to be comprehensive -- at first you may wish to just link to another wiki's policies, such as Wikipedia. Next, start creating policies that are specific to your site. As and when they become important you can create policies for most other things and eventually replace all offsite policies.
 * Don't make policies too restrictive, and do allow them to be bent. Common sense can often be better than bureaucracy. Admins should not be deterred from taking action against those clearly out to sabotage the project, even if they somehow manage to wriggle around the policies.
 * All the guideline pages must be easy to find and understand -- make sure links exist somewhere on the main page. New contributors must be quickly introduced to how your wiki works. A summary help page will be useful (for example, WoWWiki:How to edit a page).

Branding
For the wiki to be easily identified and to give it a more professional look, a good wordmark is recommended. Wordmark - the image that appears top-left
 * See wordmark for detailed information
 * The wordmark can be either a text or an image and appears on every page. Users can navigate to the main page of the wiki by clicking on the wordmark on any page.
 * Text wordmark:
 * The wordmark text is originally set to the wiki's sitename. To change it, click the edit button.
 * To modify the font, choose from the dropdown menu of 15 font options, along with the size of small, medium or large.
 * Graphic wordmark:
 * You can create and upload your own graphic wordmark through the theme designer
 * Graphic wordmarks can only be .png files and must have 250x65 pixels.
 * The workmark graphic file is stored at File:Wiki-wordmark.png.
 * Theme designer - wordmark tab.png

Favicon - the little icon that appears in toolbars
 * Create a 16x16 image using an image program or online favicon generator.
 * Upload the image as favicon.ico.
 * This should be very simple and easy to see.
 * It may be possible to use a smaller version of the main logo, or some part of it.

Special pages
Personalise the wiki, without editing skins!
 * Wikis have a page called Special:AllMessages with lists all special MediaWiki pages.
 * This page can be used by admins to edit the standard text that appears on the wiki, such as text on the delete, upload and edit pages. To find the one you want it's usually easiest to search for the exact text.
 * One especially useful page to edit is MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation. You can use this to add special links to the top navigation bar
 * Another useful page is MediaWiki:Pagetitle. This is the site name as it will appear in the titlebar and on searches. Make it short and snappy, and include the subject of the wiki in it! For example, "WoWWiki, the Warcraft wiki". Perhaps include some keywords like "quest database".

The community
Your wiki's community and attitude is important. People should feel welcome, free to edit, and able to have fun. After all, your wiki exists to help people!

Internal Public Relations (PR)
Welcome those who visit!
 * When people do come to edit, consider creating a 'welcome' template to paste on their talk page to introduce them quickly to some of the more important aspects of the wiki.
 * Have private and direct conversation with users, ask them to help, motivate them, introduce them to the wiki concept, and basically make them feel wanted!

External Public Relations (PR)
Naturally, get the news of your wiki out there -- if few places know of your wiki, you are unlikely to attract people.
 * Advertise on related wikis, forums and mailing-lists, announce it in-game, tell your friends, and let them know that they can help out.
 * Request your wiki to be put in the Wikia Spotlight rotation.
 * Submit your site to search engines! This allows you to specify more info about your site, such as sections (for example, WoWWiki on Google).
 * If you have some good articles, you can try linking big articles from Wikipedia to your wiki (do not spam it!)

Site discussion pages
Consider creating a general discussion page for the whole site - e.g. a 'village pump'.
 * WoWWiki talk:Village pump is one good example.

IRC channel
Having an IRC channel is an excellent way to help a wiki. It allows much easier chatting and discussion and allows users to really get to know one another.
 * Advertise it on the Main Page.
 * Make sure everyone is welcome.
 * Freenode (irc://irc.freenode.net) is an excellent location for your IRC channel. Wikia, Wikipedia, WoWWiki and many other wikis have channels there.
 * Important decisions made on an IRC channel must be relayed to the wiki before being put into action -- not everybody can, or will, use IRC.

Community teams
Once you have a fair few users, you may want to try creating community teams. For example, a team for the history of the subject, a team for checking for vandalism, basic things.
 * Keep them simple -- if the teams are too specific, they will fail.
 * Keep definitions 'loose' -- teams should not 'own' territory.


 * If this all seems like a lot to look at, don't panic! A lot of it can be done very quickly, and if you get one or two helpers, it becomes much easier!
 * Remember, you can find much more on Help:Contents! Check out pages such as Common mistakes, Wiki configuration and Improving your Wikia.