Wikibase (FAQ)  

We are going to try to do something different, here. We are going to take the most-commonly mentioned gripes about our wiki and try to answer them, very simply, but with a pointer to the Documentation page that explains it in greater detail. Perhaps this way we can remove some of the wall of text that seems to be separating many who would like to contribute her, but just can't seem to get the hang of our system.

This page was started as a direct response to some of the comments in this thread on our FFXI forums, about how hard it is to get started using the wiki.

What is a Wikibase?

To put it very simply, Wikibase is the word we coined for the integration of a classic database for maintaining all the hard data for a game, with a wiki so that users and admins can easily create guides and content as a community.

When I was working at one of the other wikis, a few years ago, again and again my greatest wish was that we actually had a database that I could keep all the game data in and a way to access it from the wiki. When Allakhazam asked me to join the team, here, that was exactly how he got me. He offered me my dream. A wiki IS a database, but it is a database for words (in pages). It is very hard to make a wiki searchable for related data. That is the job of a database. So here we let the database do what it does best, and the wiki do what it does best. --Bludwyng

How do I edit a page?

Across the top of the Wiki Panel (what we call that portion of the page layout that is the wiki) you will see the wiki menu bar: View, Edit, History, Media, and Discuss. If you click on Edit it opens up the Wiki Editor. This is just a simple text editor and should be familiar to anyone that has ever edited a wiki.

At the Bottom is the Edit Summary line and three buttons: Save Changes, View Changes, and Preview. We do not force you to enter an Edit Summary but this is useful when many editors are working in the same game and would like to know, just from the Recent Changes page, what everyone has been working on.

When you are done making your changes just press the Save Changes button to send it to the wiki compiler and everyone can see your changes immediately.

How do I write Wiki?

At it's simplest, wiki is just text. Sure, there are ways to markup the text to make links to other pages and to db records, but that can come later.

Right now, let's just create your User page, ok? Every user here has a page in the wiki that belongs just to them. For Bludwyng, this would be http://www.zam.com/wiki/User:Bludwyng. To link to it from another page he would use [[User:Bludwyng]]. So, right now, edit the url at the top of your browser and replace everything to the right of wiki/ with User:Your_ZAM_Account_Name and press enter. You will get a blank page and a message that you can press Edit to create this page.

Now, just write! Be sure to put a blank line between paragraphs, but we will leave all the tops and tricks for later. Just tell us a little bit about yourself: Where are you from? How long have you been playing MMOs? What was your first MMO? What do you play, now?

When you are done, just click on Save Changes at the bottom. Congratulations, you have just created your first wiki page!

Can I make my User page more useful? It looks pretty bland.

Sure. Lets add a few links, ok? Press Edit again, now find the names of the games you play, such as Everquest II or World of Warcraft. Now, put [[ on the left of the name, and ]], so that it now says [[Everquest II]] or [[World of Warcraft]]. Hit Save Changes and you should now see those words highlighted. Clicking on them will take you to the Main Page of the wiki for that game!

How do I link to a Wikibase page?

Wiki uses a prefix, such as User:, Category: or Template:, to identify special kinds of pages. This part to the left of the colon is called a Namespace. Here, in the Wikibase, we use game-specific namespaces to tell the system that we want to refer to an integrated wiki/db page. The format of these namespaces is always the same. First is the Game ID, such as EQ2 or WoW or FFXIV, followed by the name of the type of record, such as a Mob or Quest or Item. So, [[EQ2 Quest:Kill 10 Rats]] creates a link to a quest in Everquest II (assuming a quest actually exists by that name). Even if it doesn't, ot will still link to the page but it will be what is called a redlink. A redlink is a link in a wiki that points to a page that does not yet exist.

Go ahead and try it. Try linking to an item that you just got on a raid last night. Remember, the name of the item must be entered exactly as it appears in-game.

Good, and I gotta say, your Sword of a Thousand Truths looks totally awesome!

For more information, see Link

This FAQ will grow as we round up your questions.

ZAM Network Wikibase™ Guides