The Here And Now

I am still swamped with family stuff. But below are the basic step by step instructions I send to fans who want to learn how to edit Fanlore. Most of the video tutorials are for other wikis so they do not match Fanlore page by page, policy by policy, but they are helpful for us visual learners.

Feel free to link to this post and use/edit and modify the info in this post.  If you have better videos to add, drop a note below

Step 1: Create an account
http://fanlore.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&type=signup

Step 2: Create a user page (optional)
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Help:Tutorial/Edit_Userpage

Step 3: Use Sandbox to practice editing/Fanlore Specific Tutorials
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Help:Tutorial 
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanlore:Sandbox 

Step 4: Editing an existing page  - best way to start (Video links go to Generic Wiki Videos – use full screen option to see tutorials) 

First you need to find the page you want to edit by using the Search box. Note: Clicking “Go” looks for the specific page. Clicking “Search” looks for all pages that may have the word. If you get a blank page, it may mean there is no page and you will have to create one. Use Search to double check.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGsa2wyre14  (8 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_DhnJ8W8qA (8 min)

Step 5: Create a new page (Generic Wiki Videos)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RANQkKNWGs (4 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBGga1NpbxY (3 min)

Templates – what to add when starting a new page. Templates contain the basic wiki text that you copy and paste at the start of the new page
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Category:Fanlore_Templates  - list of templates
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Help:Template_Guidelines – long discussion of templates 

Step 6: Editing Specifics (Generic Wiki Videos)

Finding your way around the wiki
http://youtu.be/spPmGyZBJ0o - Editing Pages (5 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whoN1qYJZXE – Editing pages (3  min)
http://youtu.be/jd59VuR7MV8 - Talk pages (4min) 

Bold/Italics/Formatting
http://youtu.be/jkLGFT1oY7E (9 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld5LDHrvhRQ  (3 min)

Internal links (linking to another page on the wiki): http://youtu.be/rZzgxkN9D1Y  (4 min)
External links (linking to an external website): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhFdXTIiYFI  (8 min) 

Uploading and Adding images
http://youtu.be/FntFce-n5Qs  (5 min)
http://youtu.be/0lqSlCDeHFg (6 min)
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanlore:Image_Policy

Step 7

Pulling It All Together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gbMNhnl1SU (4 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8irbbwNo2E  (15 min)

Final thoughts: you don't need to know most of this info in order to participate on the wiki. Just find the page you want to edit and start typing . Worry about formatting and templates and images later. If you make mistakes it is easy to fix or restore a page. There is a lot more to be said about collaborative wiki editing and how hard it is (at first) to  understand Plural Point of View, but keep in mind  that most editorsare trying to help and yes, your edits will be edited  just as you are editing other people's edits as you edit. You might find it helpful to read the "Assume Good Faith" essay that attempts to answer the imponderable "Why are they changing my page WTF?!"