UDWiki:A Guide for Newbie UDWiki Users

Simple Guidelines

Be polite!

Being polite. This really goes without saying. As with real life, politeness will get you a lot further here than rudeness. Don't forget, the user you insult today may be the user you need something from later. Remember to thank people who help you, and asking politely is usually the best way to get results.

As a general rule, most people will treat you politely, with a few exceptions. If someone is rude to you, the best policy is not to take the bait. They may be having a bad day, after all. The best policy if you're angry about something someone has said to you, or about you is wait 5 minutes before posting your reply. Something said in anger can easily lead to a bitter row, which no-one wants.

If someone is continuously rude to you, will not leave you alone and you have tried and failed to negotiate with them about it then you may have a case for Arbitration. This is really to be used only as a last resort, as it requires an independent user to negotiate a solution between two users who are no longer communicating usefully. Arbitration should ALWAYS be the last resort to resolve a discussion, since it usually escalates the discussion through several other parts of the wiki.

Common sense

Ah, common sense... In this context, this can best be defined as asking yourself a few questions.

• Is what I'm doing useful to the wiki?

If it isn't this is not necessarily a bad thing, It rather depends on where you post it. Inane ramblings about your pet cat are fine to put on your talk page, but posting them on the suggestions page is going to be frowned upon!

• Is what I am doing going to create unnecessary conflict? (Drama)

Drama on the wiki, and bitter feuds between users may seem very exiting to new users, but to (most) veteran users it grows stale very fast. You will lose a lot of respect in the community as a whole if all you seem to do is to propagate drama and conflict between users.

• Can people read what I am posting?

No-one is going to be too bothered about the odd typo, or grammar mistake, however if your spelling is so bad that it makes what you write hard to read, consider putting your typing through a spell-check. "leetspeek", "aolspeek", "4chanspeak", all-caps and over-use of abbreviations is also frowned upon for the same reason.

How do I..

...make a group page?

• See How do I create a group?

...make a suggestion?

• Have a look at two pages. Frequently suggested and Peer rejected suggestions. This might give you some Idea of what not to suggest.
• People aren't very friendly if you put your first suggestion up for voting straight away. Try placing a basic idea on the Discussion page. You will get a much better welcome, and helpful feedback on turning your idea into a proper suggestion. Don't forget to give credit to anyone who really helped you develop it!
• Make full use of the templates when placing suggestions, and make sure you have fully read the guidelines. Everyone appreciates a conscientious editor.
• Make full use of the show preview button. This helps you out by showing a preview (strangely enough!) of the change you're about to make.
• Don't forget to sign your posts! You can do this by two ways. Either use the Your signature with timestamp button (the second to far right button on the top-left of the editing window) or by adding four of these (~)little symbols to the end of your vote.

...update the danger level of a suburb?

• See How to Update a Suburb Danger Report

...update the danger level of a building?

• Visit that buildings wiki page.
• Check to see if that building even has a danger report template -NTs do, but many other buildings do not. The template should have a smiley face in a colorful rectangle.
• Follow the "update" link on the right of the image.
• Then, follow these instructions.

...post news on suburb pages?

• Go to a suburb page
• Scroll down to the recent news section and press 'edit'
• Add a new entry at the top in the same format as previous entries.

• Be brief, and don't let your point of view get in the way of stating the facts.
• Useful things to include are approximate zombie numbers, general state of the suburb, barricade levels etc

...deal with veteran users?

Veteran users can be scary and helpful users, it all depends on who and where you decided to mess with. Some of them are here ever since the beginning of the game. They have seen it all: they have fought battles of epic proportions, they have endured the most annoying dramas against users whose opinion were antagonized by all others, they have worked ways to improve the game and the wiki, they were hardly praised for their constant glories and regularly punished for their own mistakes. Some of them might be just a little tired of all this and have short patience for mistakes.

And, because of that, it's highly encouraged that you ask these veteran users how to make things right, instead of trying to fight your way against them. If a veteran user tells you that you are wrong, face it: you might be wrong. Ask them where you are wrong, how you can make things right, and who to address for more help. Most won't deny to answer your questions, and will even try to help you in the future.

But if all fails and you see yourself in the middle of heated discussion with several veterans users... calm down, remain polite, try to see in the lines what they are trying to tell you. Sometimes in the middle of an insult there might be a really helpful advice...

This doesn't mean you can let yourself be a sitting duck for abuse. If a veteran user refuses to be polite to you when asked, ask for help of a SysOp. If the veteran user IS a SysOp, ask another! But always keep your cool and politeness.

This is not the norm, of course. There are several users who will gladly help you. Some of them are not so veteran as those described above, but they know a lot about the wiki, and how to manage your way through the system. There is little to say about these guys, they usually are the ones who will contact you before you even think about asking for help.

Remember: even these veteran users were newbies once!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a SysOp? And a Bureaucrat ?

SysOps, or System Operators, or "Wiki Janitors", are users who are trusted by the Urban Dead Community to do the job of deleting pages and files, moving things around, undeleting pages (sadly files cannot be undeleted), protecting pages, and warning and banning users.

Bureaucrat is a special class of SysOps, with the same abilities plus the powers to grant SysOp and Bureaucrat powers to other users. The Urban Dead wiki has two active bureaucrats in most of the time.

Both SysOps and Bureaucrats are usually veteran users who know how this wiki works, therefore their advices and warnings should be treated with the highest respect. But their opinions weight the same as other veteran users, and they are not like Forum Moderators, who can do anything at their will answering to no one. There are several bureaucratic process a SysOp must go before deleting a page or banning a user from the wiki, most of them asking the opinion of the community through vote, or notifying their peers of their actions.

How can I become a SysOp?

Any user can become a SysOp, it only takes time and relevant contributions to do so.

In this page you will find all information about how to become a SysOp, but basically you'll need to be approved by the active wiki community. If they judge your actions as fair and right, you'll get enough vouches to be promoted.

A SysOp can only be promoted to Bureaucrat during a Bureaucrat Promotion Round. These rounds usually occur every three months, and all active SysOps are eligible to be promoted. The one who get the most votes from the community, wins. This page has more info about these rounds.

What are templates and how do I create one?

Templates are pages that are designed to be included in other wiki pages. They are useful when you want to make a complicated design once, and then use it many times, all over the wiki. To include a template in a page, you type {{The template's name}}, so for instance if one types {{Anime}} on a page then

	Anime Lover
	This user loves anime and is a devoted otaku.

appears in place of the text. This is called a template call.

More information is available at Help:Templates.

Can I upload copyrighted images?

Copyrighted images have a long history of discussions and debate in the Urban Dead wiki. The official rule in this wiki is that Copyrighted Images should NOT be uploaded. But this rule takes into account that this wiki is a commercial site, which it isn't. Therefore, the Administration team has decided to allow copyrighted images to be uploaded to this wiki, as long as these images folow these simple rules:

• The copyright owner of the image MUST be recognized

We have a template, {{Copyright}}, which recognizes the copyright owner of an image. When uploading your file, add this template in the summary with a link to it's owner site.

• The image must NOT be used in the mainstream community pages of the wiki

These images can be used to advertise your group, decorate your user page, or create a funny template that you will send to a friend. But they should not be used in pages such as Suburbs pages, Suggestions, Administration pages, Item descriptions, and several other pages that belong to the entire community.

Something else to consider when uploading images is that some images are forbidden here. Uploading pornography onto the wiki is definitely a no-no. In some occasions really soft and sensual images can be uploaded, but it is the best to ask the opinion of a sysop first.

Excessively gory images are also forbidden, with the exception of obvious makeup (for example, you and your mates made up as zombies for Halloween). We find that most users are mature enough to not consider breaking these rules in the first place, this is just a reminder.

I need more help, where can I get it?

Being a newbie, someone should have posted the {{WelcomeNewbie}} template on your talk page. Make sure to read through both it and the pages it links to thoroughly; they're full of useful tips for getting started on the wiki. If your questions still haven't been answered, look up an experienced member of Project Welcome or Project Mentor for advice. Those two groups are all about giving newbies a hand - they'll be more than happy to help. Alternatively, you could post a question on the Wiki Questions page. This has an added benefit of attracting multiple users' attentions, so you'll usually be inundated with answers to your question.

Help! I've accidentally made a big mistake! What do I do?

Fortunately there are not that many mistakes that cannot be fixed. If you are unsure of how to do this, then contacting a Sysop is probably the best option. Don't worry! If the mistake is a genuine error it is exremely unlikely that anyone will hold it against you. We all make mistakes after all!