Help:New article

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Creating new articles is easy. Once you are logged in, either follow our simple instructions or create more elegant articles using our detailed instructions, below. And don't worry too much about making mistakes first time round - if the worst comes to the worst, the page can be deleted by a sysop.

Simple instructions

1. Type a name for the article you want to create in the search box (top right).
2. At top of search results you can click on the red link in "Create the page 'Your article name' on this wiki!" (You might also see other articles to which you could contribute instead of creating a new article.)
3. Click on the red link and start writing.
4. Please click Show preview for a preview before saving your edition, and repeat this process as often as necessary before finally clicking Save page.
5. Remember - once you've saved it, it's not yours any more and anybody can edit it.

Detailed instructions

• First check that an article doesn't already exist by using the search box. You may find that there are related subjects already there to which you might contribute.

Naming and title considerations

• Consider whether your search term is the best name for the article. Can you make it shorter? More explicit?
• Only use capital letters in the title where appropriate - note that the software will automatically capitalise the first letter of the first word. Only capitalise other words if they are proper nouns. If possible, make your article title singular.
• The easiest way to create the page is to "Search" for the title using "Go", and then click on the red link in "Create the page 'Your article name' on this wiki!"
• After you have finished the article the title will be in large bold letters at the top of the page and it will also be present in any category you assign it to. So make sure it's relevant and spelled correctly.

Writing

• Type your words of wisdom.
• It is customary for the first instance of the subject within the body of the article to be in bold. Use three apostrophes before and after it to do this, or use the edit bar.
• Include references if necessary.
• If your article is only a start on the subject and you believe that other input might help to improve it then include the following template at the end: {{Stub}}. This will transclude (import) a stub template which will encourage other users to add to the article.
• You should put your article in a category. This is simple: add as many of these: [[category:xxx]] as required, down the end of your page. A list of categories is at the Cat list and under "Categories" in the navigation box to the left of this page.
• Links are good for references and explanations, but try to link to existing articles if possible. If you do create an article with red links it is considered good form to write a stub for the red links you have created.
• Please click Show preview for a preview before saving your edition, and repeat this process as often as necessary before finally clicking Save page.*Remember - once you've saved it, it's not yours any more and anybody can edit it.

Afterwards

• Create links to your new article from other relevant articles which mention the subject. This will help raise the profile of your article.
• It's a good idea to create Redirect pages for variants on the article title. For example, if the title is a singular noun, users may also search for the plural form or other variants. Creating a redirect page only takes a few moments, and may prevent a duplicate article being written on the same subject.

Further editing

If you want information about editing existing articles go to Help:Editing.