Help:How to contribute

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If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That is the guiding principle behind this help article ;)

The wiki runs on MediaWiki, the same wiki software that powers Wikipedia and probably every other wiki you've come across on the internet. As a result, countless other people have written guides far better than we could ever hope to write about how to contribute to the wiki. So, no point in reinventing the wheel with this one.

Please try to keep in mind the specifics of how contribution will work here. None of the policies of Wikipedia or any other wiki applies here, we have our own policy articles. We are not written from a neutral point of view, referencing guidelines are fairly relaxed and humour is encouraged in articles wherever possible for entertainment value to the reader. But as for syntax and the technicalities of editing, you can't get much better than what's already written.

Remember that if you're using templates such as {{templatenamehere}}, a lot of them will not work unless the template has been copied over to here in the Template namespace. Bear that in mind if something doesn't work properly :)

Formatting

Using Wikitext

Wikilinks

Try to use wikilinks when writing articles. You can write wikilinks like this:

[[Article]]

That will produce Article. You can also produce red links, that look like this - this is good for indicating to other editors that an article on this topic needs to be written, and doesn't exist yet.

Everything else

You can find all the information you've ever wanted on how to use Wikitext to write articles effectively at Wikipedia.

Wikipedia help article on how to format articles using Wikitext (very recommended)

Styling of articles

You can find a far, far better crafted Manual of Style at Wikipedia than we could ever have the time or enthusiasm to write. Here it is, in all of its glory.

Definitely feel free to ignore anything that is more related to being an encyclopedia, we are not an encyclopedia, we are a vision improvement resource, first and foremost, full of funny jokes. You will find a lot of information about how to stylise articles in a cool way there though.

EndMyopia specifics

There is an apparent consensus at the time of writing that 'EndMyopia' should be the consistent capitalisation of how the name is referenced. Please refrain from using different capitalisations when referring to EndMyopia in articles. Consistency is important.

Creating new pages

Creating a new article

To create a new article, enter in the URL of the article you would like to create. You'll be taken to a page where you will be asked to create the article if it doesn't exist already.

Alternatively, create a redlink, like this. Then click on the redlink to create the article. You can place loads of redlinks in articles that are already written to indicate to others the articles that need writing.

Creating a redirect

Redirects move anyone who lands at that page to another page. This is used for terms that are similar, like Myopia and Shortsightedness. This is really important in preventing duplicate articles covering the same topic, and to aid in navigation of the wiki.

To create a redirect, type the following in the entire body of an article, and nothing else:

#redirect [[ArticleName]]

Using talk pages

Talk pages are 100% completely identical to normal pages in how they work. You can use all wikitext markup tricks in talk pages, the software does not handle them differently. The following are the basics:

Reply under subject headers. Indent your messages in responding to other editors using colons. Sign off your posts with your signature of ~~~~ as standard. For example, a fictional conversation between two editors you might find on the Differentials talk page:

==Difference between diffs and normalised==
Hey guys, what should be the advice given about differentials? ~~~~
:Differentials should be 1-2 diopters below your normalised prescription. We should put this in the lead section of the article. ~~~~
::Oh great, many thanks! ~~~~

Will be rendered as (with the section two heading with ==Difference between diffs and normalised== removed):

Hey guys, what should be the advice given about differentials? -NottNott (talk) 13:58, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Differentials should be 1-2 diopters below your normalised prescription. We should put this in the lead section of the article. -NottNott (talk) 13:58, 20 May 2020 (UTC)
Oh great, many thanks! -NottNott (talk) 13:58, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

As you can see, using talk pages is ridiculously easy. Just remember though: anything you can do, Wikipedia can do better Click here for Wikipedia's explanation about talk pages..

Signatures

Signatures can be configured using the Preferences button in the top right. It's better to keep this as simple as possible, and there's literally nothing wrong with the default signature. Definitely check out Wikipedia's page on how to customise signatures if you want to leave your mark a bit more on every talk page you visit. Who doesn't like a colourful talk page?

Again, none of WPs policies apply to signatures, except please do not include images or files in your signatures as they cause unnecessary server load and make talk pages look horrible.

Posts can be signed off with four tidles or three. Four is by definitely what most people should use in most circumstances. Here's the difference:

~~~~

-NottNott (talk) 14:08, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

~~~

-NottNott (talk)

Forgetting to use signatures will leave everyone confused really quickly, so please make it a habit to include ~~~~ at the end of all your messages on talk pages! :)