Help:Frequently asked questions

Greetings, fellow WikiBound editor! I trust you're new, and need some help on how it all works. Here are some commonly asked questions to get you started with this wiki, WikiBound, or wikis in general. We can't think of every question people will have so feel free to ask any questions on this article's talk page by clicking on the talk button at the top of this article or by clicking here.

What's a wiki?
A wiki is a unique kind of website with contents that can be edited by anyone. WikiBound, like most other wikis, is designed to provide everyone with up-to-date information about something. The best-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia.

How do I edit and contribute?
To contribute to a page, just click "Edit this page" at the top of the page's contents. Sometimes it may be a good idea to make a new page. While editing a new or existing page, you can format text, and insert links, tables, and many other useful things. The formatting buttons above the editing section can help with that, and you can also click the "preview" button at the bottom of the page to preview your work. Wikis use a special set of symbols called "Wiki markup" to render pages, and you can learn more about them on the editing help page.

Isn't this just like Wikipedia?
Not at all. Wikipedia provides general information for virtually everything, but does not focus specifically on the Mother/EarthBound series. Here you can find instant information about these games. See WikiBound:About.

What's a "sysop"?
Sysops are essentially the moderators of WikiBound, appointed to keep everything in order. They can make advanced edits to the structure of SmashWiki and block users who endanger or vandalize its safety. To meet these ends, sysops are entrusted with powers beyond those of a normal user. For a list of sysops, see Special:Listadmins.

Sweet. Can I be one?
Only a handful of sysops are chosen for WikiBound. If you really want to be a sysop, make yourself known as a dedicated and active contributor, and make noticable improvements to the wiki to be considered.

eh.. I probably don't have anything to add anyway..
Nonsense! There's always something that needs improving at WikiBound, and it could be you who does it. You could add character information that hasn't been added, improve on pages that haven't been worked on, or even make pages you believe should exist at our wiki. Even if you don't know much about the game, every positive submission is a step in the right direction, no matter how little it is. Here are some lists of pages that may need your help: Category:Stubs, Category:Articles in need of cleanup, Special:Shortpages, and Special:Wantedpages.

Nice, thanks!
You're welcome!

Remember, if you still have any problems, chat with us at the community portal, or feel free to message one of our friendly admins at their talk page.

Hope to see you there!

What's with the different coloured links?
There are four different coloured links.
 * Blue links are internal links. They link to other pages on the wiki.
 * Purple links are visited links. If you've visited an internal link, then it will become purple, showing you've visited it before.
 * Red links are pages that have not been created.
 * Light blue links are external links. They link to sites outside the wiki.

What do the numbers mean in the recent changes?
You'll see some numbers in the recent changes after the time an edit was made. This number indicates how many characters were added or removed from the article. If the number is red, then characters were removed. If the number is green, then characters were added. For example,

(diff)(hist). . Help:Frequently asked questions; 00:00. . (+1,000). . User (talk | contribs)

would indicate 1,000 characters were added to this article by a user named User, whereas

(diff)(hist). . Help:Frequently asked questions; 00:00. . (-1,000). . User (talk | contribs)

would indicate 1,000 characters were removed from this article by a user named User. These coloured numbers help indicate if users are vandalizing articles or helping contribute to them.

What is NIWA?
The Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance (NIWA) is a group of wiki communities creating free content with the MediaWiki software. These are hosted for free by NIWA.

NIWA began as an organization with the unification of Zelda Wiki.org, Bulbapedia and the Super Mario Wiki in early 2010. For the full story of NIWA, please see the NIWA about page.

Any other helpful pages?

 * Learn what user pages, talk pages, and other types of pages are