Wiki Editing

Here you'll find all the information you need to start editing the Thrive Wiki.

Editing Permissions


To gain editing permission on this Wiki, you'll first have to submit an application to join the team (see Application Process). If you intend to edit the Wiki as part of your role within the team, it's best to have some experience with technical writing, online promotion or some other background in Wiki maintenance, though it's not necessary.

Most members who mention the Wiki in their application will be sent an invitation to join the editing team. If you don't already have one you'll have to set up a Wikidot account when accepting the invitation. If you've been part of the team for a while involved in another development area, feel free to ask if you can join — the most important asset to have when editing this Wiki is an intimate understanding of the project, something which can only be gathered from a time spent within the team.

Wiki editors are classified into three categories: admins, moderators and members. Currently there is very little distinction between the abilities and permissions of each group. Members can create, edit and delete pages, for instance. Therefore, anybody who accepts an invitation to edit this Wiki must be trusted to act responsibly. The more extreme examples are obvious (don't delete major pages without permission from others), but we're also counting on you to keep the Wiki updated to a high standard into the future.

Using the Wiki


Wiki Functionality

This is a brief overview of how Wiki editing works. For more detailed information, see the official Wikidot documentation.

To edit pages, click the 'Edit' button at the bottom of the screen (you must be logged in to do this). You'll have a lock on editing that page for 15 minutes, which means no one else will be able to edit the same page until you've either saved and finished or done nothing for 15 minutes. Use the 'Preview' button regularly to see how your changes are affecting the page. 'Save Draft' will save the page but won't make the changes public. 'Save & Continue' saves your changes and allows you to keep working, while 'Save' records changes and takes you to the page in outside of edit mode to see what's changed.

Headings can be added with various numbers of + symbols at the beginning of lines, followed by a space. Bold text is wrapped by two asterisks on either side, italics by two forward slashes, underlined text by two underscores and strikethrough by two dashes. Bullet points have * followed by a space at the beginning of a line, and numbered lists have # followed by a space (though the latter must have no more than one line break between items for numbering to work properly). Superscript uses two carets (hats) on either side, while subscript uses two commas. Horizontal lines are created with six consecutive dashes. All these options and more have associated buttons, so you can work out the rest by experimenting.

Links are added with [ followed by the link address, a space, the link text and ]. Page links are the same, except they use three square brackets on either side and have | and another space between the link and link text. Images can be added with [[, the word 'image', a space and ]]. Replacing [[ with [[= centers the image, [[< left aligns the image, [[> right aligns it and [[f< or [[f> does the same but allows text wrapping.

Try editing some existing pages to see all these and more in action. All can be found in the reference page of Wikidot's documentation.

Formatting Guide

Following on from that, here's a styleguide for formatting on this forum:

  • Every page should begin with a plaintext description. If the page has more than one heading, include a table of contents immediately after with [[toc]].
  • Main headings (with a single +) must be followed by a horizontal line (six dashes) on the next line for the sake of readability.
  • Secondary headings use ++. Use bold text for tertiary headings rather than +++ since it's easier to distinguish from secondary headings.
  • Bullet point lists can have one or no extra line breaks between items, though we recommend one for lists where each item is essentially a paragraph.
  • For consistency's sake, use American English since that's the language used by most of the community. Sorry English people.
  • Lists of headings which are likely to change repeatedly in future should be bold paragraph text, not headings. This is to prevent confusion over links within tables of contents.

Links

Wikidot gives each heading a hyperlink but names them by order in the table of contents. Some links in the Wiki and other Thrive online resources go straight to particular headings. If headings are removed, added or reordered their links will change and people will get thoroughly confused. As a guideline, don't change any of the headings on our main pages (those shown in the left sidebar).

Tags and Categories

There are no hard rules about tags and categories, but we do have some guidelines. Pages should generally be tagged using existing tags if possible, although new ones can be made if it's appropriate. Tags must be one word (so 'new members' will be split into two tags, whereas 'newmembers' won't). Categories generally only apply to main pages or groups of pages which can be put together, such as gameplay stages or development teams. Use your judgement to decide which categories a page should go under.

Information on the Wiki


What should be put on the Wiki? This is again a place where your own judgement is the best tool. Read our development forum regularly and take note of ongoing discussions. If a discussion ever reaches a conclusion or decision, it should go in the Wiki. Most of the time many posts in a thread will be deliberating over the specifics of a mechanic or a concept, so it's helpful to have a place where the final conclusion can be seen without having to trawl through entire threads. Add as much detail as is necessary, but don't go overboard with irrelevant content and ideas which were subsequently refuted. It may be useful to link to the relevant thread though.

In some cases, discussion may concern a mechanic which already has its own Wiki page. In these cases, edit the Wiki page to reflect any changes in the consensus, but be aware you may also be required to edit pages which reference it. For instance, the Microbe Stage GDD is meant to be a self-coherent document. If you make a change to one part of it, we ask that you update references to that mechanic or feature elsewhere in the GDD so that it remains as such. If a mechanic contradicts one already in place, bring it up with the developers responsible for the discussion — either the change should be reconsidered or other mechanics will have to be adjusted to match.

Thrive is an ongoing project and it's likely concepts will change considerably into the future. We're relying on Wiki editors to keep everything up to date and functional as reference for developers and fans alike.

Questions


See something on the wiki that you think is wrong or out of place, but you're not sure and someone else wrote it? Try to message the person who wrote it to clarify if it is correct, and if not feel free to bring up any questions here.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License