Help:Contents

From The Acaeum Wiki

Introduction and Scope

The Acaeum Wiki is a project initiated by the Acaeum community to develop an online encyclopedia of role-playing games. The goal is to build one of the best online resources on RPG publications providing basic information on the items as well as print variations and values. It is being built by Acaeum members and anyone interested is welcome to join the Acaeum and the project. As this is a work in progress, many item lines are not yet complete - but will be with your help! The wiki is supplementary to the rest of the Acaeum, so we don't cover 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons, Judges Guild, or Planescape.

Registering

The wiki is open to Acaeum forum members. If you don't have a forum account, start by creating one. Then create a wiki account with the same login you use on the forum. On the forum PM HermitFromPluto with a request to be made editor.

Creating an Article

To create an article, you need a copy of the item that will be the subject of the article, and you need to scan the item and resize the image to web-friendly size. Don't take images from other websites to create an article. Restricting article creation to a person who has the item in possession increases confidence in the authority of the description.

If the article is on the Requested Articles page, you can click on the link, and you will be put into the form to edit the article. You can edit the Requested Articles page and add a link to the article you are about to create.

Use the Printing template to describe the item.

{{Printing
|name=NAME
|title=TITLE
|subtitle=SUBTITLE
|author={{CL|AUTHOR}}, {{CL|AUTHOR}}
|publisher={{CL|PUBLISHER}}
|date={{CL|YEAR}}
|game={{CL|GAME}}
|setting={{CL|SETTING}}
|format=SET_TO_FORMAT
|cover_artist={{CL|ARTIST}}
|product_category={{CL|PRODUCT_CATEGORY}}
|pages=PAGES
|product_code=PRODUCT_CODE
|preceded_by=[[PAGE_NAME]]
|followed_by=[[PAGE_NAME]]
|image=IMAGE_FILENAME_WITH_SUFFIX
|image_back=IMAGE_FILENAME_WITH_SUFFIX
}}

The subtitle, setting, product_code, and image_back attributes don't apply to some products and will not display if left blank.

You can familiarize yourself with the markup by clicking the edit tab for an existing article and looking at the source. For complete documentation visit mediawiki.org. For a description of the templates specific to this wiki visit Help:Templates.

Printings vs. Products

If two items belong to the same game system and share a title, then treat them as printings and describe them on the same product page. Even if the title differs, it may make sense to treat the items as different printings of the same product. Use a redirect to map the other title of the product to the title the product page is under.

Printing Attributes

title is the name that is printed on the item

subtitle can be left blank if there is none

name is the name of the printing. For products with a single printing it can be the same as the title.

author pages are usually under first and last name for consistency. Pipe tricks can be used to display an author's name as credited on the work. E.g. {{CL|Marc Miller|Marc W. Miller}}

setting is not used if all products for the game belong to a single setting

format can be hardcover, staple-bound softcover, perfect-bound softcover, box set

pages are the actual number of pages, which is not necessarily the highest page number. For staple-bound softcovers and perfect bound books this is usually a multiple of four. For softcovers, do not count the cover, and for hardcovers, do not count the flyleaves. For pamphlets the cover is included in the page count.

preceded_by and followed_by are links to the page of a preceding and following item. Use them for sequential products like magazines or a series of modules.

Some product_category examples are rulebooks, adventures, and supplements. There are lots of possible synonyms: adventures, scenarios, modules. Use the terms that are printed on the product or are standard for the game.

Categories

Category pages contain browse lists and are an aid to navigating the wiki. You do not add a product to a category list by editing the category page, you do it by editing the product page and adding the appropriate category tag.

The {{CL|Sandy Petersen}} template both tags the page it appears in as belonging to the Sandy Petersen category and creates a link to the Sandy Petersen category page. The category page will automatically have a list of all the products with the {{CL|Sandy Petersen}} template, presumably the products for which Sandy Petersen is the author.

Each person (author or artist), company, game, and year has a category page. The category pages themselves are categorized. For example, on the category page for Sandy Petersen, you will see [[Category:People|Petersen, Sandy]] in the markup, which identifies Sandy Petersen as a person and causes him to be listed in the Category:People page. The text after the pipe puts the link to Sandy Petersen under P instead of under S.

Category Sort Order

Items appear in category lists alphabetically by page name. There are two common cases where this produces an undesirable order: (1) the item name begins with the definite article: The Adventure Begins, or (2) the item is part of a series with numbers: Dragon 17. In the latter case, alphabetical sort order puts Dragon 2 behind Dragon 17.

The solution is specify the default sort order in the pages with {{DEFAULTSORTORDER:Adventure Begins}} and {{DFAULTSORTORDER:Dragon 02}}.

Uploading Images

Images need to be resized via Photoshop or a similar tool to a web-friendly size. The wiki does not permit images larger than 250k to be uploaded. On the other hand, images smaller than 60k are usually too low of quality. The dimensions of the image should be about 450 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall. The wiki will automatically make a thumbnail of the image when it is uploaded.

Moving, Redirecting, and Deleting Pages

If an article is created under an incorrect name, you can move it to the correct location. This will create a redirect from the old to new name.

You can create a redirect to an existing page by putting this in the alias page: #REDIRECT [[EXISTING_PAGE]]. If someone follows a link to the alias page, they end up on the existing page. This is useful for items that have variant spellings. It is also useful to redirect a category with a single item in it to that item.

If you would like to have the old name removed, make the contents of the page empty except for {{C|Delete}}. This removes the page from all categories except for the Delete category. An administrator will occasionally go through that category and delete the pages.

Other Help Topics

Unanswered Questions?

Post your question in the wiki's dedicated forum thread or email the wiki administrator.