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KW:MANUAL

Welcome to the Editor's Manual! Whether you are new to editing Wikis in general or Kirby Wiki, or you are a veteran in the Wiki scene, this manual is the starting point to familiarize yourself with the techniques of editing articles in Kirby Wiki, as well as the styles and formatting used locally. We do realize it is a long article - it is not meant to be read as an article; it serves as a reference manual for stylistic approaches to editing.

Please note that this manual is written as a set of instructions, and uses the words "you," "your," etc. These words should not be used in articles, and should be replaced with "Kirby," "the player," or other words befitting the context.

Introduction[]

This manual is based off of Wikipedia's own manual of style, with adaptations for Kirby Wiki's content. Guidelines concerning user pages, behavior, signatures, or other content otherwise not related to writing articles are covered in Kirby Wiki's policy page.

Both Wikipedia and Kirby Wiki stress the keyword consistency. Style and formatting choices should be consistent within an article, if not across the whole Wiki. Editors should not change an article which follows the guidelines of style outlined in this manual to another without substantial and justifiable reason, unrelated to mere personal choice of style.

What is a wiki?[]

Smallwikipedialogo

If you're new to wikis, this section explains what they are. If you already use wikis or edit them frequently, then this section may not be that informative for you. For first timers, a wiki can seem like a large and complicated ...thing... that has all sorts of (weird) rules, conventions, and best practices which may or may not seem to be very limiting in what one can do at first. This should be understandable - the first time you cook, or draw, you wouldn't be using the exotic techniques or ingredients / materials either. Be fairly conservative if you're not certain, ask other editors and work with them (and read this manual), and it'll bring you up to speed in no time. In time, those rules and conventions would become your friend as they become a guide to what should or shouldn't be included, and let you organize articles intuitively. For now, let's stick to the basics: So what is a wiki?

The word "wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian - A wiki is a website that enables people and groups to work together and create a series of pages related to one another. Now, traditional websites' structures are designed using HTML, and other features such as styling, interactivity, databases and so on are added on through several other languages, most commonly JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets, and PHP (short for PHP Hypertext Protocol), and several others. For the uninitiated in website design and development, creating a presentable webpage can be a daunting prospect, much less a set of pages which link to one another and have database systems such as categorization and transclusion.

Wikis run special software to make creating such pages easier - editors just click the edit button and it lets us edit the page's content without worrying that much about page layout, formatting tags and all that. This is because the software that powers it uses a simplified language which it parses (in layman's terms, analyze) and converts to HTML and applies formatting specified in special pages although it's not as simple as using a modern text editor like Microsoft Word - there are technical aspects to it (and remarkable depth, complexity and flexibility to it if you dig deep) and special tokens (symbols) that do certain things - you're using a computer language now. There are several versions of software which are called "wiki" software, but the most common (though not the first) is called Mediawiki, released in multiple versions. Kirby Wiki, Wikipedia, and all Wikia wikis run on Mediawiki, so the wiki editing language in use here is the same as the one in use in Wikipedia, and most of it is completely interchangeable except for specific definitions in Mediawiki pages (let's not get too deep into details here). If you've edited on other wikis before, but it's not Wikipedia itself or one hosted by Wikia, then you may find that the syntax for the language in use here is different to the one that you're used to. If you're a seasoned editor at Wikipedia, then you'll understand the next bit - you might notice that there's far less "bureaucracy" involved here at Kirby Wiki than at Wikipedia, no 3RR rules, PRODS and all that's necessary to maintain 10 million articles. Here, we have fewer than 2,000 because this wiki is about Kirby and nothing else.

If you're completely new to wikis, take a look at Help:Editing first. That covers how you actually change the text displayed and so on. This manual covers the other aspect of the how - the stylistic approaches and conventions to editing on Kirby Wiki. If you already know the groundwork, great!

Sandbox[]

The Sandbox is a useful tool for editors to test out their edits without risking changing an article or page in a way that was not intended. At any time, if you are not sure about what a particular edit would do to a page, perform the edit in the sandbox to see if it gives the intended effect before applying it to the page.

Editing articles[]

Tiff4

Editing Articles

Articles are at the heart of every wiki, and they are the reason for the majority of readers visiting one. As such, Kirby Wiki has certain measures of quality control of what should be included in an article and what should not; they are along the lines of Wikipedia's own.

This section covers how to edit articles in Kirby Wiki. For the actual (technical) methods of editing i.e. how to add links, tables, etc, please see Help:Editing.

Writing[]

Kirby Wiki is a wiki that aims to document every aspect of the Kirby series as well as certain subjects related to Kirby professionally. Therefore, while most information added to articles are taken to have been added in good faith, in almost all cases, they are checked against sources for factual reliability, and any incorrect information is removed. It is oftentimes very helpful if the editor puts where the information came from within a reference (see the section #Referencing), or at least within the edit summary box before publishing it, since it would clear up any form of conflicting information from sources, and they can be checked against each other.

Articles should be written in clear and plain English, without unnecessary jargon, vagueness, or complex wording (for more information, see Wikipedia's guide on vagueness). Ideally, it should document the subject as clearly as possible without causing possible ambiguous interpretations. One particular thing to note is to avoid using the word "you". E.g. "You must press the B button to make Sword Kirby perform his basic attack". The word "you" should be replaced by "The player", or in certain cases, "Kirby", or the name of the playable character.

Guidelines on professional writing style:

What does not belong[]

Ep45 Scare Tactics2

What does not belong

Most of the time, information is removed because they fall into one of the following categories. These are things which do not belong in Kirby Wiki:

  • Fan art (See section #Images)
  • Commentaries
  • Expletives, language suggesting unnecessary violence
  • Personal signatures in articles (see section #Plagiarism)
  • Fanon
  • Information without a reliable source

Articles in Kirby Wiki document a particular subject, and aims for neutrality in point-of-view, presenting the facts as they are. Personal commentaries are subject to opinion, detract from, and are unrelated to the actual subject of the article, and so do not belong within the article. Kirby Wiki covers real subjects about Kirby, and therefore fanon does not fall within this category.

Sometimes when new information is added, it is of a nature which contests the information already within the article, or is otherwise at least slightly controversial. These are always cross-checked against existing sources before being passed as a valid edit, as otherwise the information can either be personal opinion or theory, or just being plain false. To give patrollers an easier time, and to make sure the information stays, cite the source where you got it from (see section #Referencing), since patrollers may not have checked it against a legitimate source where the information might have come from.

Plagiarism[]

Tac

Plagiarism

The licence used for Kirby Wiki on Wikia is the CC-by-SA 3.0 licence (for details, see Licensing on Wikia Central). What it means, without jargon, is that articles have no ownership, and it belongs to the Wiki and community as a whole. It allows anyone to edit the article, with good or bad reason, and it goes against the licence to prevent people from doing so, unless their point of intent is clearly not in the best interests of the Wiki. This licence also allows anyone to take the article in its entirety and post it anywhere they like. While this counts as plagiarism in most cases, and Kirby Wiki does have policies against plagiarism from Kirby Wiki (to a degree) and articles plagiarized from elsewhere, it is allowed under the licence for the Wiki.

Therefore, if you do not wish for your work to be allowed for countless duplications over the internet, then please do not put it inside the Wiki.

Regarding plagiarized content from other places, copying and pasting content directly as-is from Wikpedia is not allowed due to incompatible licences. However, this does not mean you cannot read and distill the information, and compose the article about the same subject on Kirby Wiki. Likewise, concerning sources from other wikis, blatant plagiarism and copy-pasting is not tolerated, and will be removed.

Formatting[]

Paint

Formatting

Kirby Wiki has relatively simple formatting guidelines compared to certain other wikis. For help on the actual formatting of text, see Help:Editing

Italicizing titles[]

In Kirby Wiki, all titles i.e. the names of games and the anime are italicized. This means when using the name "Kirby's Dream Land", you should put it as Kirby's Dream Land. Please note that this does not apply to sub-games, anime episodes, or any other subjects which may be taken as the name known, "titles".

e.g The Great Cave Offensive is fontally incorrect, as it is a sub-game in Kirby Super Star Ultra. It should be referred to as simply The Great Cave Offensive. Along the same lines, titles for the episodes of the anime, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, should not be italicized as well. e.g. Kirby Comes to Cappy Town is correct, while Kirby Comes to Cappy Town is not.

The italicizing is for highlighting small sections of text which refer to titles in a long paragraph, or in one with many links, as well as differentiating between what is being referred to by certain phrases. Although not encouraged, Dream Land is sometimes used as short notation for the 1992 game Kirby's Dream Land, while Dream Land now refers to Kirby's homeland. Squeak Squad refers to Kirby: Squeak Squad, while Squeak Squad refers to the band of mice thieves in the game, and the list goes on continuously.

Emphasis formatting[]

Bolded and underlined text is very, very rarely used in Kirby Wiki, primarily because they can be very distracting, and they are unnecessary. The one case bold is used is on the first length of text in an article which matches the article name. For example, on the article Kirby, the first word "Kirby" in the article is bolded.

Bolded, underlined, or italicized text, when used for emphasis, is to be used extremely sparingly. This is on grounds that not has the same meaning as the plain word "not", and it applies for every other word. The exception would be when quoting characters, since formatting would convey the stressed or more important words that the character is actually speaking. When it is used, it is preferably italics over any other type of formatting.

CAPITAL LETTERS are frowned upon in Wikipedia and likewise in Kirby Wiki. It is not the proper literal way to emphasize a point in English, and it is simply a lazy way to put emphasis on a length of text without formatting. One case where capitals should be used is when reproducing actual text which is capitalized in the game; capitals are sometimes used in-game for emphasis because game engines do not always support font styling.

Internal links[]

Links to other articles should be added within each article, so related subjects to the article can be navigated to. If you're not clear on what kind of linking can be used, please see Help: Editing. It covers internal links, piped links, and external links, the uses of which are discussed here.

Internal links should be used as often as possible. These are sections of words enclosed within double brackets [[ and ]]. Articles within Kirby Wiki should always be linked to using internal links. If the name of the link itself is not what is meant to be displayed, use piped links, which displays the link differently.

e.g.

[[Kirby Comes to Cappy Town|episode]]

gives episode - note it still links to the article "Kirby Comes to Cappy Town", but is seen as the word "episode"

Internal links with prefix[]

Links to Wikipedia and likewise other wikis can be performed using internal links, and this is greatly preferred over the external link format, as it displays the link via a tooltip.

To link to wikipedia, use the wikipedia: prefix

e.g.

[[wikipedia:Kirby (character)|Kirby]]

gives Kirby - a link to Kirby's page on the English wikipedia. Note that if we had used the external link format instead, which gives Kirby, the tooltip is absent, and the reader has no indication of where the link leads to unless he/she glances at the status bar on the browser.

External links[]

External links should only be used if internal linking is not an option - i.e. not possible. External links are enclosed within a pair of single brackets [ and ]. To put in an external link, copy and paste the URL of the target page into the bracket.

[https://www.nintendo.com/]

Gives a link to [1] - Nintendo's website.

Of course, this link is ugly, because it displays a single number and gives no indication whatsoever of what the target page is. To make it display a description instead, enter a spacebar character behind the URL, and enter the description, like this.

[https://www.nintendo.com/ Nintendo]

Gives Nintendo - much better. Note that it still lacks a tooltip, but this is the best we can do. For those fluent in HTML who might be thinking of using the <a></a> or anchor tag to put in a link with a tooltip, it is not supported in Mediawiki and so it is not possible to be used.

Images[]

Copy

Images

For seasoned Wiki editors, one thing to note is that Kirby Wiki does not have rules as strict as certain other wikis for image licensing. We also have contrasting policies with Wikipedia in particular, in the case of image resolution.

Image policies[]

While Wikipedia generally shrinks images posted on articles down to about 200 pixels wide to satisfy their fair-use license, Kirby Wiki encourages the use images of as high a resolution as possible. Wikipedia shrinks it down because the images are used for the purposes of illustration. Kirby Wiki's images are not only used as illustration supporting an article, but they are also a subject and a document in themselves, since the only images on the wiki only come from official sources on Kirby. Therefore it is logical that if Kirby Wiki chooses to cover Kirby material, and in this case, images, they should be of as high quality as possible, while heeding the fact that all of them are to be treated as being copyrighted material mostly owned by Nintendo as well as HAL Laboratory Inc.

One particular case where a higher resolution image is not desired is when uploading sprites used in-game. Sprites at their original size are the best - scaled ones e.g. one pixel becomes four - are less desirable, since it only blows up the image and the actual true resolution (the actual detail of the sprite) remains the same.

Personal images[]

This subsection deals with unofficial / personal images not relevant to this wiki's context uploaded with the explicit purpose of customizing a user's user page. These images are only allowed on user pages, but please bear in mind that Kirby Wiki is not a repository for personal images or a place to showcase them like DeviantArt, so if that's what you are looking for, please find alternative sites to host personal images.

  • Every new user in this respect (fewer than 50 edits on Kirby Wiki's mainspace - article edits) is allowed one personal / unofficial image outside of this wiki's context which can be put on their user page.
  • If you have been with us for some time and have over 50 edits, then you are allowed normal editors' maximum limit of 3.

This simple rule is to prevent people with no intention to stay to clog up the wiki's image library with irrelevant images. Please note that if the images are uploaded but are not being used, they run the risk of deletion as unused images are cleaned out every once in a while.

Image criteria[]

Images can come from anywhere, but it must satisfy the following conditions before it is considered suitable for an article:

  • Not ripped from another Kirby Wiki - unless you can find the actual source where they got it from and get it from there, or ask permission from them nicely and get their approval to use their image
  • Official art - Kirby Wiki's articles only uses images relevant to Kirby, drawn by artists in Nintendo or its development studios. If an unofficial one is found to be in use, it should be removed, while saying which source hosted the unofficial image or otherwise prove it as a non-first party piece of work.
  • Illustrative - The image serves its intended effect. If it is a map, for example, if the resolution is too low to make out the details, then it has no practical use

Uploading images[]

Before you upload an image, first check to see whether the relevant articles already have a version of the image you have in mind that can be used. If it is of lower quality, head to the image page, and replace it (as long as both of them have the same file extension). Otherwise, use an existing image or upload one if the Wiki doesn't have one. Additionally, you must try to ensure that the image has an appropriate name for ease of use before uploading to the Wiki.

Including images[]

Wikipedia has a really in-depth article on how to include pictures within an article. See Picture Tutorial

File extension / MIME type[]

Images are most commonly formatted under .jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .tiff, and several other extensions. Ideally, Kirby Wiki prefers images formatted under the extension .png (in lower-case), although .jpg and .gif images are commonly found and used on the Wiki. This is because .png images support transparency, and .gif images are limited to 256 colors. It goes without saying that .jpg or .jpeg images are subject to compression, jpeg artifacts and loss of quality.

Likewise, .bmp and .tiff images have unnecessarily large file sizes for the purposes of images in this wiki, and should be avoided.

Image extraction[]

Images can be saved into the PC right from HTML-based pages. However, certain website's contents are contained within a flash document, usually .swf (Small Web Format) files. These files are usually protected.

To find this document's source from within the HTML page, inspect the page (using Firefox / Chrome / otherwise) and browse the resources for .swf files. Certain pages load multiple .swf files using JavaScript only when they are triggered. Save the .swf files onto your computer.

Now, even if you own a copy of Adobe/Macromedia Flash, you cannot open these files to access their assets and scripts directly because they are protected. In order to bypass this protection, get a flash decompiler program (see here) and extract the assets through the decompiler. Just bear in mind that all contents from the protected file are almost always copyrighted material - that's why the file was protected in the first place. If being used on this wiki, please make sure it qualifies under fair use.

Page moving[]

Users are capable of moving/renaming pages for a few reasons. A page may be split or merged, which may result in a name change to be more proper. A new name may be revealed, to which an article can be renamed to be more inline with current information. However, renaming articles should not be taken lightly in most circumstances. A rename can have a potentially adverse affect on the wiki, as almost all links and occurrences of the old name will have to be updated as well to properly reflect the change; by default, the old page will become a redirect to the newly-named page, but this should not be used as an excuse not to change the links when appropriate.

Renaming[]

Pages may be subject to renaming for various reasons. In the case where a page's title is conjectural, obtaining new information such as a Japanese name, file name, or official localization may constitute a name change. If a page has an officially localized name, but it is outdated due to a more recent official source using a different name, the page may be renamed for this reason; however, if this new name is infrequent compared to the usage of the old name, it may be wise to not do so immediately.

Regardless of why a name change is relevant, it is important that such matters be discussed with other members of the community before initiating the process, preferably in the article's talk page. Evidence should be used to support reason of a page rename; a proposed rename should not be blindly trusted. If the decision is made to rename the page, it is important to view all articles that have a link to the page before renaming it; the links can be changed before renaming the page, allowing the user to easily find and fix the links before changing the page's name. On articles that are linked to frequently, this may pose a challenge, and so it is advised to be careful before deciding to rename. Templates should be dealt with first, as they may be on various pages as well, causing links to appear in those locations.

Users renaming a page have the ability to turn off the option to leave a redirect behind. This means the old page will cease to exist, and all unchanged links will turn red, as the page they linked to is no longer available. This option should not be used unless the user has already changed the links beforehand.

Splitting[]

Split

Splitting an article

Some pages may be split because they cover content that may be better suited for two pages; this can be proposed by typing {{Split}} on the top of an article (see how to use the Split template here).

Before an article is split, it should be discussed with the community on the relevant talk page to verify whether this action should be taken. If it is agreed upon that a split should take place, a new, second page will need to be introduced, featuring content that is migrated from the first page; a draft of this second page can be created beforehand to allow other users to view and determine if it is worthy of a proper second page. Once the pages are split, most information on the second page should be removed from the first page in order to prevent the two from overlapping too much. It may be appropriate to rename the first page to better reflect its new subject matter.

Some pages may be very large. However, this alone does not make them a candidate for splitting.

Merging[]

Merge

Merging articles

Some pages may be merged because they cover very similar content, or because they are small, stubby articles that would be better suited as a larger article; this can be proposed by typing {{Merge}} on the top of an article (see how to use the Merge template here).

Before two (or more) articles are merged, it should be discussed with the community to verify whether this action should be taken. If it is agreed upon that a merge should take place, there will need to be a second decision to decide which page will contain all of the information, while the other pages are either changed into redirects or deleted (with the help of an admin). There is no true "merge" function, so content from the page(s) being "removed" should be migrated onto the "main" page. Once this is done, one page will have content from all of the articles in question. It may be appropriate to rename the "main" article to better reflect its new subject matter.

Some pages may be small. However, just like before, this does not always necessitate a merge.

Referencing[]

All information comes from a certain source. There is a highly subjective line of what can generally be accepted as a fact when taken as-is, and what should have its source cited. Kirby Wiki does not have strict guidelines on the citation of facts, but generally information under the likes of release dates and those of controversial nature should have a link to their source, so readers can check for themselves whether the information is good or it is of dubious nature.

To make a reference, insert ref tags behind the statement, and put the external link within the tags. Finally, create a section called References at the end of the article, and put the <references /> references tag under it like this:

For example, if you want to prove where the name for the item Pep Brew came from, you would do this:

[[Pep Brew]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180123210558/http://kirbysrainbowresort.net/games/dreamland/instruction/dl1516.jpg ''Kirby's Dream Land'' instruction booklet]</ref>

and then create the References section at the end of the article with:

==References==
<references />

It gives Pep Brew[1]. Clicking on the number would direct the reader down to the reference section, where they will find the link to the source of the information. In this case, it links to a screenshot showing that Pep Brew is the name for the common food item in Kirby's Dream Land.

If the word in front of the reference tags have some sort of punctuation mark, like a period/full stop ".", insert the ref tags after the punctuation mark. This follows standard citation formatting in Wikipedia and scientific papers.

For example:

Energy Drink is also called Pep Brew[2]. It restores a third of Kirby's health. (incorrect)

Energy Drink is also called Pep Brew.[3] It restores a third of Kirby's health. (correct)

For an in-depth explanation on adding references, see wikipedia's help article on citing sources

Title abbreviations[]

The Kirby series library of games and other media is extensive. While abbreviations of titles to their initials should not be used within articles, they are highly useful internally in template calls and parameters, since it bypasses the need to key in the entire title. Where applicable, these abbreviations tag images as well, so the most relevant ones to a particular title can be searched for by searching for the abbreviation. Please note that the abbreviations are case-sensitive.

The template where abbreviations are particularly relevant is Template:PortalLogo, where it transforms whichever title or abbreviation that is input into the title's logo. Check the template's documentation to see which titles are supported with logos, as well as abbreviation suffixes.

Title Abbreviation
Kirby (series) Kirby
Kirby: Right Back at Ya! KRBAY (English)
HnK (Japanese)
Main series
Kirby's Dream Land KDL
Kirby's Adventure KA
Kirby's Dream Land 2 KDL2
Kirby Super Star KSS
Kirby's Dream Land 3 KDL3
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards K64
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land KNiD
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror KatAM
Kirby: Squeak Squad KSqSq
Kirby Super Star Ultra KSSU
Kirby Wii (for old logo) KWii
Kirby's Return to Dream Land KRtDL
Kirby: Triple Deluxe KTD
Kirby: Planet Robobot KPR
Kirby Star Allies KSA
Kirby and the Forgotten Land KatFL
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe KrtDLD
Spin-offs
Kirby's Pinball Land KPL
Kirby's Dream Course KDC
Kirby's Avalanche KAv
Kirby's Block Ball KBB
Kirby's Toy Box KTB
Kirby's Star Stacker KSSt
Kirby's Super Star Stacker KSStSt
Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble KTnT
Kirby Slide KSlide
Kirby Air Ride KAR
Kirby: Canvas Curse KCC
Kirby's Epic Yarn KEY
Kirby Mass Attack KMA
Kirby's Dream Collection Special Edition KDCol
Kirby Fighters Deluxe KFD
Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe DDDD
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse KatRC
Team Kirby Clash Deluxe TKCD
Kirby's Blowout Blast KBlBl
Kirby Battle Royale KBR
Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn KEEY
Super Kirby Clash SKC
Kirby Fighters 2 KF2
Kirby's Dream Buffet KDB
Super Smash Bros. series
Super Smash Bros. SSB
Super Smash Bros. Melee SSBM
Super Smash Bros. Brawl SSBB
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS SSB3DS
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U SSBU
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate SSBUl
Unreleased titles - seldom used
Kid Kirby KK
Kirby Air Ride (N64) KAR64
Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble 2 KTnT2
Kirby GCN KGCN
Other titles - seldom used, incomplete listing of titles. See Kirby (series)#Other Titles for all titles
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror Sound Plus KatAMSP
Kirby Air Ride Business Trip Sound Test KARBTST
Mario Kirby Masterpiece MKM
Kirby Manga Mania
Kirby Family KFam

New Articles[]

KirbiesMassAttack2

New Articles

So, you want to create an article. That's great! However, there are a few things to keep in mind to minimize hassle on your end as well as new page patrollers. Wikipedia has a short article on the creation of new pages titled "Editors are not mindreaders". It is highly recommended for anyone looking to create a new article.

Before you create an article, please familiarize yourself with the guidelines above about editing articles first, since creating an article from scratch requires at least some degree of knowledge about all aspects. Then, ask yourself whether you have enough to say about the subject of the article, and whether you can make the article at least presentable when finished, with links, proper formatting, sectioning, images, and if need be, references. It never is good practice to leave an article half-finished in writing or formatting or otherwise for someone else to clean up - to the readers, such articles are poorly written when compared to the rest of the Wiki, does not present itself well, and more often than not, ends up being deleted.

A good idea of what a new but short article should look like if it is created is this link to the first edit of the article on the Cats-Eye Lighthouse.

Along the lines of that example, a new article should aim to provide a comprehensive, if not detailed overview of the subject when created. If that is not possible, you probably don't have enough to say about the subject to create the article.

Name[]

Naming articles is important, as the name is what people are going to associate with the article's content. Naming can sometimes be difficult, as official names aren't given; our wiki prioritizes article names as such (in order from most preferred to least preferred):

  1. Officially localized name
  2. Name derived from Japanese
  3. Name derived from files
  4. Conjectural name

The wiki has separate derivative name templates for a Japanese name ({{Derivativename}}) or a file name ({{Filename}}). If the Japanese name can be verified and the file name can be considered a reasonable translation of the Japanese name, the derivative name template for a Japanese name should be used; if, however, there is no Japanese name that can be verified (such as the name is never used in the game itself or in any official material) and it can be assumed that the Japanese name is also based on the file name, then the derivative name template for a file name should be used.

Tags[]

Of course, sometimes certain articles are presentable, but require something specific. If that's the case, they should be tagged with templates which automatically categorize them into maintenance categories, so other editors know what to do about it. The list of tags available at Kirby Wiki is here. Usage instructions are within the tags' pages themselves.

Categorization[]

New articles should be categorized at the start (however, all too often, they are not). Before categorizing it, check similar articles for their categorization and see if the new article fits. If it does, categorize it under the same category, checking for correct capitalization, since categories are case-sensitive.

Templates[]

Kirbycolors

Templates

Templates are a feature of the PHP code powering Mediawiki. They enable the creation of pages which are meant to be used within other pages, and can feature some form of scripting in the form of parser functions. They are highly useful to include something multiple times in a page, conditional display of certain items, and features along those lines, but are generally not needed in a typical article (besides the infobox, which is a good example of a template)

Using templates requires somewhat more advanced understanding of the wikicode syntax than what is covered so far, and they are best edited using source mode. Since they are essentially scripts, a single syntax error in the form of a misplaced punctuation mark can make the whole template break down, so test for effect within the sandbox if you are not confident with the code before saving the change.

Using templates[]

Existing templates can be called within an article by enclosing the template page's name within double curly brackets {{template}}. Make sure to read the template's documentation on the template page on how to use them.

Creating templates[]

Template pages can only be created in source editing mode, and can be significantly more complicated than actually using the created templates. It is not recommended for beginners, and is not particularly relevant to the content covered in this manual.

Infoboxes[]

Infoboxes are templates that typically appear in the top right corner of many pages, such as those for characters, enemies, items, Copy Abilities, vehicles, locations, etc. Infoboxes contain an image and various additional content depending on what the article is about. In regards to the image in the infobox, our wiki prioritizes it as such:

  1. Official artwork/images
  2. Ripped sprites/ripped and properly rendered models
  3. Personal screenshots of content

Talk page[]

Talk pages are for discussing about an article or to contact a specific user. To access a page's talk page, click the Talk link near the Facebook button if you're using the Oasis skin, or the Talk tab if you're using the Monobook skin.

If you have ideas about how the page can be improved, or wish to contest certain content within an article, or wish to suggest a page split, merge etc., raise the issue within the talk page of that article. Personal opinions e.g. "I love this game!" are not outright rule-breaking, but they are not constructive to the article and are frowned upon and strongly discouraged.

There is something very important about talk pages that does not apply elsewhere to the wiki that you have to know before you put content inside:

  • Material cannot be removed from a talk page (any and all talk pages) unless it qualifies under spam, advertisements, off-color material, expletives, purely inflammatory / derogatory statements, personal threats etc. where that said material degrades the quality of the page by simply being there. If someone else posts such content on any talk page, please notify an an admin. This does not include the statements of other people who disagree with you or administrator messages or block notices.

Any other material cannot be removed, so pick your words wisely when talking to other people! If you wish to cancel a previous statement, enclose it within strikethrough HTML tags <strike> ... </strike>, like this:

<strike>This statement needs a strikethrough.</strike>

Gives:

This statement needs a strikethrough.

If you wish to cancel a picture or a link (blue or red links), enclose it within pre tags, like this, so it appears as its original code:

<pre> ... </pre>

User namespaces[]

A namespace is a special code given to pages of a certain type: e.g. "Template", or "User", "User_talk", or "User_blog". Any editor's user page (the page contained in your profile tab) can only be edited by him / herself or another editor with administrator privileges. Everybody's talk page is public and can be edited by anybody else - this is everyone's primary means of contact.

Your user space is your own private space to express yourself and is not subject to the majority of restrictions on the rest of the site, but there are several things to take note of:

User page[]

  • There should be no spam, ads or off-color material on the user page - these should not be anywhere on the site or they will be removed by administrators
  • Images not relevant to Kirby or unofficial images are limited to "a few", usually 3-5, and these can only be used on your own profile page. See #Image policies. If you wish to exhibit your own art gallery or otherwise non-official material, simply upload them to an alternative site as detailed under Image policies and post the link on your profile page. This is the preferred method, as it does not flood the wiki's image library with fan art and unofficial images.
  • There is no limit to how many user sub pages you can create, but these are subject to the same rules that govern your profile page. Generally people use these to contain their signature or use them as personal sandboxes.

User talk[]

This is everybody's primary means of contact. The guidelines which govern this namespace is almost identical to article talk pages (See #Talk page), but since this is users' talk pages, small-talk, opinions etc. are alright.

The Help Out portal[]

Now that one is familiar with the general guidelines, one can help with the Wiki's pages by visiting the Portal page, or browse through articles and improve on just about anything.

Dynamic Lister[]

Every wiki has maintainence categories, most commonly stubs, articles requiring clean-up, images, and things like that. These are covered by the #Tags section before. On the help out portal, there is a dynamic lister that lists articles requiring such maintainence by type, so those are the places which requires the most attention. It does not list all the articles in a category, since there'd be about a hundred in each category. Rather, purge the page by clicking on the purge button and a different set of four will be displayed. Should one choose the see the whole list, click on the letter C beneath the image of the category.

Category Maintenance[]

This page dynamically lists all the articles which are not categorized as within the dual-categorization system.

What dual-categorization means is that for any article belonging within the major categories, it should belong in at least one of its subcategories as well, although this does not apply to all articles. Now, before this statement is interpreted too loosely, let's see what it means in detail. Please remember that category names are case-sensitive. The major article categories of this wiki are:

If you browse within any of those categories, you will see that they have subcategories allocated to them. Strictly speaking, within this section of the manual "subcategories" mean examples like Category:Enemies in Kirby's Epic Yarn being a subcategory of Category:Enemies. There are other categories less significant for navigation purposes which are technically subcategories as well, but they are not considered part of the dual-categorization system.

Now, let's have an example: Waddle Dee is a regular enemy in Kirby's Epic Yarn. Therefore, it belongs in both Category:Enemies as well as Category:Enemies in Kirby's Epic Yarn. But wait, what about Category:Kirby's Epic Yarn? This is where the term dual-categorization comes in.

Note that the Waddle Dee article only belongs in the category of its "Type" as in Category:Enemies since "Waddle Dee is an enemy" is true, and it belongs in the subcategory of its type, which is Category:Enemies in Kirby's Epic Yarn, as it appears within that game. It does not belong in the category of the Game or Title that it appears in unless and only unless it does not belong to any of the "types."

The reason for keeping the "Game" or "Title" category clean is because it makes it easier for people looking for something within categories. If they are looking through "Types", they are probably looking for a specific member of that "Type", e.g. Waddle Dee, and if they know what game it appears in, they can just look under the subcategory of that type. Now, if they are looking through a "Game" category, it certainly is not as helpful to jumble together everything that appeared within that game regardless of their relation to one another. Note that the category "Category:Enemies in Kirby's Epic Yarn" is both a member of Category:Enemies and Category:Kirby's Epic Yarn in itself, so the user looking at the game in category navigation gets sorted information, and whatever loose article that does not belong into any of the major categories appears right within the container category of that game, which makes it easily found.

How the Database is arranged closely mimics how the articles are dual-categorized, and it makes maintenance of the database a lot easier by mirroring the category structure.

Nerve Center[]

The Nerve Center is essentially a transcluded Special:RecentChanges, but with sorted RSS feeds of most recent changes to pages categorized by namespace. Most users wouldn't need this, but it allows for patrollers and seasoned editors to check out the latest changes to the wiki by namespace

Resources[]

Information helpful to editing, but not relevant to any particular article is found under this category. There's more to this section than it looks, especially if one is new to editing wikis.

Closing words[]

KNIDWave

Poyo!

This manual explains the basic essence of editing at Kirby Wiki, and while it provides a good foundation, it is not comprehensive. The community at Kirby Wiki is largely friendly; so if there is any uncertainty, simply approach a user or an admin and ask.

The community of Kirby Wiki appreciates you for taking the time to read this. We hope that you enjoy your stay here. (return to Help Out portal)

Extra reading[]

Technical[]

The following sections are oriented towards more technical wiki users. That's to say if you love understanding what other power-user tools you have to edit with or the nitty-gritty underlying workings of the wiki, then have a look through the things covered under here. Sections below assume that you're already at home with the basic built-in tools and editing in source mode. If you're not, then these sections will not be of particular relevance to you as an editor, since they concern batch / semi-auto editing and a whole lot of formatting / script / other code which are not relevant to traditional content-adding using the built-in editor.

AutoWikiBrowser[]

AutoWikiBrowser is a MediaWiki editor for Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / 7. It is capable of semi-automating edits as well as other functions like Regex (Regular expression) typo fix.

To enable AutoWikiBrowser at Kirby Wiki, first download and extract the zip file off its page on Wikipedia and run AutowikiBrowser.exe. Under "options" on the menu bar, select preferences.

There's 2 equivalent steps next; if the first one doesn't work, try the second.

  1. On the window that pops up, select the "site" tab. Under the project combo box (drop-down box), select "wikia". Under the "http://" combo box, type in "kirby" without quotes. Click on the OK button to close the window. If you get an error message, it means it did not connect to the server successfully.
  2. Alternatively, select the "site" tab. In the project combo box, select "custom". Under the "http://" combo box, type in exactly "kirby.wikia.com" without quotes.

Now go to "file" under the menu bar, select "Log-in / Profiles". Either perform a quick login by typing in your username and password directly, or to add them for later use, click the "add" button.

Users without administrator privileges might have to be registered under a special page before AutoWikiBrowser can be used. (It remains untested). If that's the case, just contact an administrator and we will try to fix it.

Wikia's source code[]

Nuff said. This is all the code behind this whole thing. Megabytes of it too - .php, .js, .css, and a whole load of other stuff. Not much reason to delve into this unless you're looking for something specific, like in the several sections listed below:

Make sure to back up through the list up to the "releases" level to check for new releases every now and then just to be sure that you're looking at the most current version of whatever you're looking at.

Example reference[]

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