Vaporstory:Getting Started
From Vaporstory
So you've decided to start contributing to Vaporstory. That's great! We're glad you're here and we're glad you want to help. However, there are some things you should know. This page is designed to answer all of your questions.
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Can I write anything I want?
Yes and no. Vaporstory is fictitious, so its content should be logically based on reality, but not true. For instance, the inhabited world on which most of its events take place is called Minerva; the details of Minerva's geography, history, and political structures are made-up, but based on Earth's. There will probably soon be a country based on the United States, and maybe one on Britain. We do, however, value originality, so don't make anything that's real with only the name changed. (See this website for a free name generator if, like me, you have trouble thinking up good-sounding names.)
Don't be afraid to contribute! There is very little in the database right now, so by all means, pour your ideas into the site! If they contradict something else that's already been created, we can work it out later. Remember that Vaporstory is a wiki, and that means contributions from everyone, including you.
How do I make a page?
If you've gotten the idea for the page from an existing page, click the red link and it'll take you to a new page that you can edit any way you like. If you want to start something brand new, type it into the search box at left. When nothing comes up, you'll see a message at the top that reads "No page with this exact title exists, trying full text search." Click the words "this exact title" and a new page will appear.
Text is largely "what you see is what you get," so you won't have much trouble with that. You can make new headers by putting your text in its own section, like this:
==Your New Section==
To put a link to another article in Vaporstory into your article, surround the text you intend to link with two brackets on either end, [[like this]]. If you want to link to Page A but have the link read with different text than the title of the page, write it like this: [[Page A|your text]]. The separator is something of which I do not know the name (sorry), but it can be found all the way on the right of most keyboards, just above Enter. (You have to push Shift to get it to work right.) By the way, if anyone knows what that's called, by all means, please let me know.
Most other stuff that you'll want to do can be done using the blue boxes at the top of the edit screen. Using ' 'two apostrophes' ' in a row will produce italics, and ' ' 'three' ' ' will make text bold.
Are there any rules for talk pages?
Yes. PLEASE SIGN YOUR POSTS. As a longtime user of Uncyclopedia, I know how frustrating it is to have to look up a page's edit history just to see who left that comment on that obscure talk page. Signing your posts is a way of letting people know who wrote that comment and when.
Signing your posts is also very easy. See those boxes in the upper left corner? Well, obviously you don't now, but when you edit you will. The one second from the right will automatically produce your signature, which contains a link to your userpage.
Also, when posting a reply to something already written, it is polite to indent your remarks so that they can be read more easily. You can indent your posts by putting colons before them. An example:
First message
- Second message
- Third message
...and so on.
How come that one administrator gets a cool signature and I don't?
You can change your signature by going into Preferences (top right corner of the screen), putting {{User:(YOURNAMEHERE)/sig}} (leave out the parentheses) into the "nickname" box, checking the "raw signature" checkbox, and then creating the article User:(YOURNAMEHERE)/sig (again, leave out the parentheses). You can then make your signature anything you like, and any time you sign your posts, what you put on your "sig" article will appear there. (Please note that any posts you made before changing your preferences will not have your new sig.)
How do I make my own userbox?
If you want to make a new userbox for your userpage, type "Template:YOURUSERBOXNAMEHERE" into the Search bar at left, and click "this exact title" like you would for a new page. Then put in {{userbox|(OUTER COLOR HERE)|(INNER COLOR HERE)|(ABBREVIATION THAT GOES ON THE LEFT HERE)|(TEXT THAT GOES ON THE RIGHT HERE)}} (still no parentheses) as code into the new page. Then all you have to do is put the code {{YOURUSERBOXNAMEHERE}} into your userpage, and voila! you've made yourself a userbox. Yay!
The parts of this procedure that involve making a new template can also be used to make all kinds of other templates, but those tend to be more complicated, so for new users, just stick to userboxes.
What if I have a question and you're too stupid to answer it here?
If you have any questions, ask an admin, and don't forget to sign your post!
