Help:Getting started

Welcome to Ardin! This page will guide you through writing your first page and even teach you some more advanced writing. This guide was written especially for the novice, the deacons, the inexperienced, the newborns, the elderly, the disabled, the lepers, and even the self-proclaimed strongest entities.

The basics
Before you even start writing here are a couple first steps you'll need to take:
 * Join the Discord - We are a closed community of worldbuilders, this is to insure high-quality content. If you want to join message one of the mods on reddit or Asqalan here.
 * Create an account(No email needed) - Anonymous users can't edit/create pages on this wiki!
 * Discuss in the Discord - It's important to lay the foundation for what you're writing on paper before on the wiki.
 * Adhere to wiki standards - It's especially important on a wiki to keep everything organised and uniform. Skimming through these will give you a basic idea:
 * - Simple, Readable, English title. For example: Asqalan(Not: Republic of Asqalan), Henri III, Grand Duke of Ripuaria(Not: An absurdly long full name with twelve middle names)
 * - Correct capitalisation of letters, natural point-of-view

Interface
These are the most basic functions you'll need to use

Formatting
Formatting is as easy as it can get. All the tools you need are right there in the top of the text-editor. There are two ways to format, the first is with the buttons at the top of the editor, the second, if you've already learnt the markdown by heart you can just write it as you go. To quickly go over all your options and provide examples:

Comments


Headings
Headings are what organises the article into hierarchical sectors, each section with it's own heading. After you have enough headings in your article a table of content will automatically be created for ease of navigation.  Level 1 heading is already used at the article's title. You can't write another one.

I'm a level 2 heading
This heading divides the article into the largest chunks of information. Think a country's demographics, geography, politics...

=== I'm a level 3 heading, a sub-heading if you'd like === This divides further the chunks. Think a country's climate which is under geography.

=== I'm another sub-heading, we help divide a section into smaller parts === Since the above heading is for climate, this one is for topology. I'm on the same level as climate though.

I'm another level 2, meaning we're in a different section
Now we're on a complete different section of the article. If the previous one was geography this will be history.

=== You get the idea, I'm under the level 2 heading above me === For example, the industrial revolution.

Bold and italic
Bold and italic are very easy to do. Simply add single-quotes around what you want to be bold or italic. Three single-quotes for bold and two single-quotes for italic.  Bold and italic are very easy to do. Simply add single-quotes around what you want to be bold or italic. Three single-quotes for bold and two single-quotes for italic.

Linking
In order to link to other articles, or even articles to other wikis, you have several options.  Asqalan - This will link directly to the article without changing the text. Sandland - This will change the text of the link to what you write after the |, but will keep the linked article.

- If we want to link to Wikipedia and not to Ardin, we change the brackets and add 'wp' - Since we're a fictional world, French would be called Umbèrge. So we change the text but keep the link to the French language. Asqalan - This will link directly to the article without changing the text. Sandland - This will change the text of the link to what you write after the |, but will keep the linked article.

- If we want to link to Wikipedia and not to Ardin, we change the brackets and add 'wp' - Since we're a fictional world, French would be called Umbèrge. So we change the text but keep the link to the French language.

Infobox
The first thing you'll do when writing an article is to add an infobox. It's the box packed with information on the right side of almost every article you'll find. Just like the one you can comfortably see on the right here! How do you create such a beautiful beast you might ask? Easy! You only need a preexisting format and to fill in the blanks. For example, here's a simplified format for the country infobox like you can see on the right: 

Very easy to use, simple copy-paste into your article and replace the comments(what is between is a comment and is only visable in the editor) with what will be displayed on the article.

Going to Template:Infobox country you'll find the complete documentation and all available options to be added to this specific infobox.

But what if you don't want an article about a country but an article about a country? Simple. Either go to the search-bar and look for Template:Infobox continent or any other type of infobox that you would like to use or alternatively go to Category:Infobox templates to see all available templates. They all have copy-paste-able formats that you can use. You have an article but can't find the right infobox? Might be because it isn't on Ardin's wiki. Contact Asqalan and he'll be able to import or even create you an infobox that fits.