User:Hrodulf/RevisedHowToPage

{{HowTo}}

Some advice about userpages, subpages, and their role in creating new content for Uncyclopedia

This is a short page of useful information for new users.

Unless you have a full-blown idea for an article that's completely written and in final form, it's generally a bad idea to put it into the uncyclopedia main space as a new article. This is because short material is generally deleted by other users for quality assurance.

If you have an idea, but don't have the time or the ideas to expand it into a full article, try adding it to an article that already exists instead of creating a new article. It is generally a lot easier to add to a new article and have your changes survive on the site than it is to create a totally new article.

If you still want to create a new article, instead of creating it in the main space, try putting the article on a subpage to your userpage. That way you can be free to complete it at your own pace without being subjected to deletion and NRV tagging of your work.

It is not necessary, but it is advisable for you to register and establish a userpage. Otherwise, you will have to use your ip address as your userpage. This is inadvisable, since other users could share an ip address with you.

You can create a user page by typing "User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs" in the search box to the left and up a bit, click the "go" box, and then click on the red link right at the top of the page, right after where it says "You searched for:."

Once you've created your userpage, you can type your page contents into the userpage like any other article on the site. Check out other people's userpages for ideas on how to organize and format your page.

You can create subpages to your user page also, just type in "User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MySubPage" in the search box, and create the page just like you created your user page. Make sure you remember to add a link to your subpage from your userpage by typing something like this somewhere on your user page: "here's how to get to my subpage: [[User:YourName/MySubPage|MySubPage]]". You can use subpages of your user page for anything, but a great way to use them is to work on articles without worrying about them being deleted.

Having a userpage and subpages is important, because it allows you to keep track of what you're writing, and to control the pace and quality of your own work, before finalizing it and eventually putting it into the main space. Even after putting a finished article into the main space, it may be a good idea to keep an archival copy on your userpage in case it gets deleted and you want to continue working on it.

Creating a Menu for your Subpages

Now that you have created subpages to your userpage, you need to create a menu, or else you'll lose track of them (they will be there, but you may forget where they are, and as you make more subpages, it can be problematic to link them all to your main userpage, as it tends to take up too much space).

Using the same procedure you used to create your subpage, create a page called User:YourName/Menu, and edit the page, typing something like "This is an index to my subpages" and then typing "My subpage [[User:YourName/YourSubpage]]. Get into the habit of updating your menu whenever you create a subpage. You can also organize the menu by type of subpage. See User:Hrodulf/menu for an example of how to do this.

Now you'll always be able to find your subpages. Be sure to put a link to your menu page on your main userpage also by typing [[User:YourName/Menu]] at the top, for easier navigation. Put a link to the menu at the top of all your subpages also, for the same reason.

Give UnNews a try!

An option, if you don't have time to write a lengthier article, or just don't have that much to say, is to make an unnews piece out of it. This is not to say that you can just write anything you want there and it won't be NRV'd or deleted, but generally unnews pieces are allowed to be shorter than uncyclopedia articles, so it's a great place for new users to flex their comedy muscles. Read other unnews articles to get an idea of the style and format you should use, and remember to focus on a fractured take on current events, or a zany event that isn't actually happening, but would make the world a more interesting place if it were.

Be timid in updating certain pages.

We in the cabal (there is no cabal) don't mind a little unannounced tweaking on a random page here or there. That's what a wiki does, after all. But some edits are more significant than others. So be timid in making certain changes.

To be more precise, before you click the "edit" tab, tell us what you're planning to do in the Village Dump (there's an easy to use menubar that allows you to create a new forum topic; don't forget to link to your forum from the talk page of any relevant article you may have already created so people can find it!) before doing something major (such as changing templates, namespace menu pages, reskins, and pretty much anything else that will affect the uncyclopedia experience of a substantial portion of the user population). It's not that we don't trust you. It's just easier if you talk to us first so we can participate in a discussion of ideas that will change uncyclopedia in a significant way. Collaboration works better than chaos, and changes that have a heavy impact are better discussed than simply done.

So remember, before you do anything, think to yourself: "will this edit more likely then not enter the uncyclopedia consciousness of substantially more people than myself and the admins reviewing the "recent changes" page? If so, take it to the Village Dump first. Who knows, maybe the idea will get even better than you thought it would be if you talk before taking action! You could say that having the courage to include others in your creative process is bolder than just making an edit out of the blue . . .

A few words about personality conflicts

During your time at Uncyclopedia, it's possible that you may have problems with other people here. Part of life is learning to deal with other people whose ideas or goals are different than yours. Just like in real life, other people on Uncyclopedia won't always be respectful to you, or nice.

You have to decide for yourself how to deal with this, but keep in mind that if you let a few people you don't get along with get to you, you're going to find it difficult to deal with many real life situations involving people not related to you.

Remembering a few simple rules will help avoid major personality conflicts:

1)If you're really mad, just turn the computer off for awhile. Don't type mad. Remember, you might not be mad forever, but whatever words you save here will be here forever.

2)Remember that this is a comedy site, a parody of Wikipedia. It isn't the most important thing in the world. Try to keep things in perspective.

3)If you're still upset, take it to the village dump and get other people's perspective on your problem. This may help you understand the other person's point of view, and diffuse any major problems you have with other people here.

4)Don't make it personal. Chances are you don't know the people here, and they don't know you. What's the point of getting mad at people you don't even know?

How to Upload Images

As for how to upload images, log in, click upload file from the left hand menu, and fill out the form that pops up. It's easy! Just be aware that if you upload a lot of stupid images that other people don't find funny, it could get you banned. Be aware that if a file you upload is for your userpage, let people know that so it will be less likely to get erased (there's a comment box to explain why you're uploading the image in the form).

How to make your own userpage userbox templates

First, don't actually create them in the "template:" namespace! They will get erased!

You have to understand that any code at all can be a template. You can insert any code from any page onto any other page just by putting the name of the page between double brackets. For instance, {{User:Hrodulf/ExampleTemplate}} will copy this "dummy" example template anywhere you want it, like this:

This is a test

See, it's that easy!

And you don't have to do it with userboxes, images, and text: any code from any page you put in between double brackets will be put anywhere you place the double bracketed pagename. Not that you should go around doing that willy-nilly, that's vandalism and will get you banned, but it can be useful for things like creating userbox templates for your userpage. Here's how to do it:

Type in User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate into the uncyclopedia search box

Click search, and click on the red link at the top of the page that says User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate.

Now you can edit the code for the page. I recommend you cut and paste the example template code for now. Cut and paste the following into your new page:

<div style="float: left; border:solid black 10px; margin: 1px;">
{| cellspacing="0" style="width: 338px; background: orange; font-size: 26px; font-family: impact"
| [[Image:Testpattern.jpg|200px]]
| This is a test
|}</div>


Now you can edit the code! Change the image from Testpattern.jpg to whatever you want, change the image size (200px means 200 pixels) to whatever you want, change the background color from orange to whatever you want (experiment and look at other pages' codes to figure out the details), change the border from solid black to another color, or make it invisible by making it white instead, or change the font codes (the text doesn't doesn't have to be large and bold, again, look at other articles to get ideas about how to format your text). If you can't figure out how to do something, ask for help in the village dump, or look around until you find something you like, and copy and paste the code for it.

Click save to save your template.

Now anytime you code {{User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate}} into a page, your template will appear.

Another way to use templates

Want to invoke a template code, but don't want a link from the template page to the page you're editing? Invoke the template this way: {{Subst:User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/MyTemplate}}. It will have the same effect, only instead of linking the template page to the page you're editing, it will actually insert the template page code natively onto the page you're editing. This can be useful if you want to change part of the template every time you use it, for instance, if it is a signature template, and you want to change the time and date every time you make use of it. That reminds me, I forgot all about . . . .

Signature templates

Notice how some users have lots of cool colors and pictures when they sign on talk pages and in the village dump? Well, you can have that too, if you want! Just create a user subpage called User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/sig, code your signature template (don't use it until it's how you want it to be, you can check out other users' signature templates if you need to get ideas for colors and formatting (don't swipe sig templates wholesale, this is just if (like me) you're clueless about wiki coding and need some code you can modify by changing colors, text and images)), and then when you sign a page, insert {{Subst:User:TheNameYouRegisteredAs/sig}} instead of clicking the signature button or typing four tildes.

Doing this will require you to either manually insert the time and date, or to update the time and date in your signature template every time you use it, unless you put some special code into your template that allows tildes to be subst:ed into the page you're editing. The tildes will be converted into the current time and date on the page you're editing when you click save, resulting in a signature template with the date and time stamp built in. See User:Hrodulf/sig for an example. (The code that adds the date and time stamp to the template is "<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>").

The tildes must be surrounded by the "<nowiki></nowiki>" flags in order for this method to work, and the template must be invoked by the subst: method.

Another reason why you should use subst instead of directly linking- if you make changes to a directly linked signature template, without meaning to, you are effectively editing every page you signed with that template. This can create obvious problems, such as losing date and time information).