Using the Cyclopedia

Registration

Anyone may register to edit pages, free of charge. You will need to fill in a username and password, and give a valid email address where we can reach you. We would much prefer that your username be your actual name, but this is not necessary if you prefer otherwise.

Your email will not be distributed, sold, or anything like that. However, Wiki runs on something of an "open plan," and so it is normal that people's names and email contact information be accessible. When people click on your name or username, they will see a page that includes a little basic information. Your email address will appear there indirectly, but there is a spamfoiler added so it cannot be picked up automatically.

If you wish to make this information inaccessible to anyone but site administrators, you may set your page's allowtopicview (all caps) to your username only. If you're not sure how to do this, email us and we'll set it up for you.

We will never use your email address without your express permission, and then only to contact you directly.

The Toolbar

On your left, you’ll see an outline of the site, for quick navigation.

At the top right of the page, you will see a drop-down list of quick links, and a blank bar in which you can type the name of any page. This is the fastest way to get around once you know the site a bit.

Please note the tip jar – you’ll need a PayPal account to use this, but please do it! This thing costs money, and our only income for it is what you put in that jar. You can email the editors by clicking the link on the bottom.

Navigation

Each of the main Cyclopedia headings takes you to an alphabetical or chronological list. From here, you can get to whoever, whatever, or whenever you’re seeking. You can get to these also from the quick links above.

From any page, clicking the "backlinks" link down in the blue bar at the bottom will produce a list of all the pages that point to it.

To edit a page, click the edit button on the right and type what you want to add at the bottom. When creating a new page, be sure to click a flag before you post. Remember that when you are previewing your work, the page has not been saved, and if you skip off to another page your work will be lost. This is usually blocked automatically, but just in case.

If you see a word followed by a question-mark (?), that means the page has not been written; if you click the question-mark, you will get a blank page and can start fresh.

For more information, see the wiki usage FAQs.

Editing Pages

You may add anything to any page, following normal wiki rules. Because of wiki spam and the odd rotten apple, I ask that you not revise what is already written; I would prefer that you only add to it. If a page is getting long, consider whether your contribution ought to be a subpage, but if it shouldn’t don’t worry about it. Long pages don’t bother me.

Flagging Content

Every addition should be flagged by its author as History, Fiction, or Invention.

• History: If you got the material from a reputable historical source of any kind, and you specify what that source is, the entry is History. For example, if you got the information from one of Gertrude Himmelfarb’s books, or from an 1880s-90s Baedeker’s Guide, or the like, it’s History. All History entries must cite their sources.
• Fiction: If you got the material from a work of fiction, and either you know that it is an invention of the author or you are unsure whether it is such an invention, the entry is Fiction. For example, the precise location of Dr. Jekyll’s house is Fiction. Some information in the Sherlock Holmes stories is Fiction, some is History, but if you don’t know or are unsure, mark it Fiction. All Fiction entries must cite their source.
• Invention: If you made the material up, it’s Invention. For example, people, places, and events created in your Shadows in the Fog campaign are Invention. You do not need to cite sources.

Some pages will be flagged Adminstration. These are locked and cannot be altered except by the administrators. If you have comments or editorial suggestions, please use the Comments Box link in the toolbar. There are a few unflagged pages, all of which should be locked -- treat these as administrative.

When you edit a page, you'll note a WebForm down at the bottom. In a new page, simply alter to suit, selecting the appropriate page type and so on. When adding material to an established page, if your material does not fit the structure, please add a full-length horizontal line below everything else and add your material (a line is produced by six or more hyphens in a row). Head your addition with the appropriate heading. In most cases, it will be preferable to add a link to a new page, however.

When adding a fictional or invented link to one of the dictionaries, please put the nature of the entry in boldface after the entry, thus:

• Smithson, John Hawley -- invention: card-sharper and confidence man

Before doing a lot of editing, please read the longer discussion of ContentFlagging.

Citing Sources

All sources should be cited according to standard bibliographic or footnote format. A somewhat stripped-down version of this is permissible, as follows:

• Lastname, Firstname I., Jr. “Article or Story Title.” 1852. Title Of the Work. 1854. Trans. or Ed. First Last. City, 1999. (http://www.websitewhereigotthis.com). 156-68.

Remove whatever isn’t necessary. The usual entry is thus:

• Lastname, Firstname. Title of the Work. City, 1999.

• Name:
  • David Jones = Jones, David.
  • David Wynne Q. Jones Jr. = Jones, David Wynne Q., Jr.
• Article: Put the title of a short work, such as a story or article, in quotation marks.
• Date 1: If the article or story appeared in a different year than the source you got it from, that date should appear after the title.
• Work: Put the title of a major work, such as a book or play, in italics.
• Date 2: If the work appeared in a different year than the source you got it from, that date should appear after the title of the work. You only need both Date 1 and Date 2 if the story (or whatever) appeared in a different year than did the work.
• Trans/Ed: If the text was edited or translated, the name of the editor or translator must appear, and both if there are two different people.
• City: The name of the city in which the source you have appeared. Do not give a country. If the city could be confused, for example Cambridge, and the city is an American city named after a European or other original, give the state by postal abbreviation, as Cambridge, MA. If the source is a website without a place given, ignore the city.
• Date 3: The year of the source you are using. If the volume first appeared in 1997 and this is the third printing of 2001, the year is 1997. The only thing we need is the year of the first appearance of the text in the form you’re using, so that page numbers work.
• URL: Give this in parentheses.
• Pages: If citing particular pages, just list them by number, e.g. 8. Do not use pg. or pp. or the like. If citing multiple pages, link the first and last numbers with a hyphen; you may drop the hundreds digit and higher if it’s the same: 67-69, 153-54, etc.

If you’re citing academic journals or something, you know how and should use the format. If you’re citing something that doesn’t fit this structure and don’t know how, put down as much information as possible and write “source incomplete” at the top of the entry for the editors to fix.

This may sound like a lot of work, but almost always it’s very straightforward. The point is that it lets everyone else do what wikis are all about: look up more stuff. Think of a library as an old-fashioned hypertext, if that helps in some way, though I tend to do it the other way around. The complete bibliographic information is in essence the URL, and if you don’t give enough information other people cannot find the sources you used.

What If I Don’t Know the Source?

Perhaps you are quite sure that what you are posting is history, but you don’t have the source handy or don’t know where you got it. Perhaps you are pretty sure that it’s history, but you’re not absolutely sure because you heard it somewhere on the web and you doubt that was a reputable source. Perhaps you just sort of remember it. What then?

Post it as History. At the end of the post, on a separate line, let us know, preferably in boldface or the like, that you are not quite sure of the provenance of this information. Tell us as much as you remember about the source, if anything.

If you do this, you are asking someone to come along and post an Editorial correction, comment, or source-citation. That resolves the problem. If the Editorial remark is a flat-out denial of a relatively non-controversial nature, such as, “No, it is completely false that Oscar Wilde was alive and well in 1910, I can’t imagine who’s spreading such lies,” the Editors may elect simply to shift the material over to the errata pages. Chances are, though, we’ll leave both the original and the correction. Nothing wrong with a little confusion and rumor, so long as it’s not asserted as absolute truth.

Please do not use this technique to post deliberate lies and deceptions for your players. Use the Rumors and Lies pages in the Game section for that. Remember that not every user here is in your campaign, and not every user is a Shadows in the Fog player. Some people actually have somewhat more serious purposes here.

Writing Wiki Pages

Please refer to the Wiki Help link in the toolbar.

Editorial Remarks

If you find errors or problems in a page, you should write a brief entry that explains the problems, and indicate that it is editorial. That way we can incorporate your suggestions as appropriate. Please do not make editorial corrections to others' work, apart from fixing typographical errors or bad links; before you fix a typo, be sure that it isn't just British spelling.

Most of the time, however, we leave both the original and your comments to stand, for others to look at. About the only things we fix are factual errors, mis-flags, typos, and abuse.

When we do make a drastic alteration to a page, apart from deleting abuses, we put the editorial comments in the Errata Box. This cannot be altered except by the editors.

Flat-out abuse of any kind will simply be deleted.

Flag Corrections

If you think an article or page has been mis-flagged, for example a Fictional reference is actually History, or a History reference is actually an Invention, make an editorial remark to that effect. Please explain what makes you think the flag is incorrect, and cite sources. Please don't just change the flag; at the very least, give an explanation for what you have done.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 22 Dec 2004