Lex:Basics of MediaWiki

The Basics

These are the basic styles of MediaWiki. Know these to write and link basic articles in these Lexicon games.

Headings

Use Equals signs (=) to make headers. Each = you use makes your heading a less important one. Use one = for a very important top level heading and two or three for more minor headings.

=== Sample Header Level 3 ===

Displays as

Lists

For reference, bulleted lists are known as unordered lists, and numbered lists are known as ordinal lists.

Bulleted Lists

Preceed each line with "* ". Mediawiki will make any unbroken series of lines starting with "* " into a bulleted list.

E.g.

* List item 1
* List item 2
* List item 3
* List item N

Translates to:

• List item 1
• List item 2
• List item 3
• List item N

Numbered Lists

Preceed each line with "# ". Mediawiki will make any unbroken series of lines start with "# " into a numbered list.

E.g.

# List item 1
# List item 2
# List item 3
# List item N

Translates to:

1. List item 1
2. List item 2
3. List item 3
4. List item N

Links

There are two major kinds of links: Internal and External. Internal links link to other articles in the Wiki. External links link to articles outside the Wiki. For most Wiki articles and links (especially in a Lexicon game), you want to use Internal links as much as possible.

Also beware that because we keep games separate by using a prefix, you have to use that prefix to distinguish your articles from those of another game's. A prefix will be a short word or string.

You should also know and keep in mind that blue or purple links exist within the Wiki and red links DO NOT. This is useful in a game of Lexicon for determining whether there's a link to an article you want to write next turn in something a peer writes this turn.

Internal Links

In MediaWiki on any server, internal links are surrounded by two square brackets on each side of the linked article name. You can also use a "|" character to give you a chance to specify link text that's different from a link name.

So e.g.

Click [[Article name|this link]] for more information.

Translates to:
Click this link for more information.
NOTE THAT: The article's name is "Article name" while the text that describes it is "this link" and that's what's shown in blue or red in the actual text you see on the page.

Because you need to use a prefix for your article names (e.g. "Lex"), be sure to include that with a colon in your article name when writing articles for your Lexicon game.
E.g.

Click [[Lex:Article name|this link in the Lex game]] for more information.

Translates to:
Click this link in the Lex game for more information.
NOTE THAT: The article's name is now "Lex:Article name" and the description text that shows on the screen is "this link in the Lex game".

External Links

In MediaWiki on any server, external links are surrounded by one square bracket on each side of the link and descriptive text. You do not use a "|" character, just a space between the URL and the text you want to appear.

So e.g.

[http://www.google.com/ Google] is an internet search engine.

Translates to: Google is an internet search engine. NOTE THAT: The link goes to http://www.google.com/ but the text that's displayed is simply "Google".

Emphasis

To put some text into italics, surround it with two single quotes "".
E.g.

''Text''

Translates to:
Text

To put text into bold, surround it with three single quotes "".
E.g.

'''Text'''

Translates to:
Text

Signatures

Sign your work or your remarks with a signature macro.

Your plain undated signature is three tilde "~" characters in a row.
E.g.

-~~~

Translates to:
-MalAdmin

Your dated signature is four tilde "~" characters in a row.
E.g.

-~~~~

Translates to:
-MalAdmin 16:07, 6 August 2012 (PDT)

More Information

Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.

• Configuration settings list
• MediaWiki FAQ
• MediaWiki release mailing list