Talk: Gathering Intel

26 Feb 07.
I'm having difficulty understanding where I am supposed to be when selecting Edit to create a new page. I'm trying to follow the guidelines here under "Starting a New Page With Florence's Templates". The step-by-step is not clear where I should be when I "hit edit to open the edit window". Should I be on any page? a category? a template from Florence's Templates page? I have tried a few approaches and I usually wind up botching up the template, so I've tried to fix the damage I made, but the result is that I haven't created a new page. My specific example of trouble is in trying to create a brand new page for a server following the template. I tried it from the template, which resulted in a new server that looked like a server template instead of a server. Then, I tried it from the Category:Servers page and that did almost nothing. This whole use of "{{subst:}}" is baffling me.
So, please answer me this question - From what exact page should I click on "Edit"?
Thanks,
-Zagyg a.k.a Holman of Kithicor.

The key to beginning any new page is ensuring that the page doesn't already exist. Let's use an example of a server that doesn't yet exist and see if that doesn't help you create a new page. Test is one of the servers not yet listed, but let's take you through from the beginning of creating a page.

1. In the search box, type Test (Server) and click the Go button. Notice that nothing appears except a list of pages that don't relate to what you're looking for. But something does appear that you need. Way at the top is a bit of red text appearing just under the words "Search results". It says You searched for Test (Server). The fact that the text is red means the page doesn't exist. And right below, it tells you that when it says There is no page titled "Test (Server)". You can create this page.
2. Click on the red text in either of those lines. What should appear now is an editing window that's titled "Editing Test (Server)" with a bunch of icons at the top (these are the formatting buttons). This is where you want to start typing. And you can start typing any number of things. You could just type the text you wanted and let someone else edit it (we're ok with that!). You could open up one of the templates and use the Sample text as the basis for your page (I do this a lot). Or you could use substitution to insert the template information you wanted in your page. Since you asked about substitution, let's continue using that as an example.
3. In the editing window you still have in front of you, type {{subst:SvIx}} . The curly braces tell the system that you want to use a template to format your page. The text between those braces tells the system exactly which template you're going to use, in this case, the Server template.
4. In the Summary: box at the bottom of the page, type a brief bit of information about what you did. In this case, you could type "creating new page". It's important to type something in the summary box each time you edit a page so that people know what you were doing at the time.
5. Below the Summary box are two checkboxes: one indicating minor edits and one allowing you to watch the page. In this case you do not want either of those boxes checked. Uncheck them if they are checked.
6. Now, click the Show preview button to get a quick look at what you told the server you wanted. What should appear is a page that begins with Preview: This is only a preview; changes have not yet been saved! and then contains what your page will look like. It should also show you the basics of the Server pages, including a server information box, a place for guilds and characters specific to that server, and a place for EQ2i users to include themselves in the server list.
7. Assuming everything is in order, you can now click Save page and you'll have the beginnings of the Test server page.

That should take you through your first page creation. Let me know if anything here is confusing and I'll try to help you figure more out. I'll take a look at the previous editor's work on the Gathering Intel page and see what I can do to sort things out.-- Kodia 15:34, 27 February 2007 (CET)

Thanks. As it turns out, someone else answered my question on my own Talk page. For those of us not used to wiki editing, and for me in particular, the notion of searching for a non-existent page in order to edit it is counter-intuitive. Especially in cases where you have Categories of things like servers where there is already a very appealing "Edit" tab that doesn't really help. Thanks for the assistance here, hopefully my confusion will assist others who are new to wiki editing. -Zagyg