Autism Wiki:FAQ

You're a part of the wiki!
When you first see a wiki, it doesn't seem like it could possibly work. If anybody can come along and change things, then how can the information be trusted? Doesn't it just get vandalized, or fall into chaos?

Once you start participating, you see that that "weakness" is actually a wiki's greatest strength. Sure, anybody can add anything -- and then everybody else gets to proofread it, and fix mistakes. Information that looks suspicious can be verified. Vandalism is almost always fixed within minutes. It's possible for someone to post errors, or nonsense -- but over time, the best wins out.

If you're reading these words, then you're an Autism Wiki editor. If you see a problem on one of the pages, don't roll your eyes and complain about it. Just fix it!

Create a user name
Log in and create a user name -- it helps you (and everybody) keep track of your contributions, and it makes it possible to communicate with other contributors.

You're also invited to post your name on your user page -- either your full name, or just a first name and an initial. It's not required, but it helps everyone get to know you and trust you. People who post their names get listed on the Community page.

Talk pages
Sign talk posts with four tildes ~ which automatically adds your user name and a date stamp. When you reply on a talk page, put a colon at the front of your post to indent it.

See Help:Talk pages for more details.

Fancy signatures
Here's how to make a fancy signature for your talk posts:

Click on the "preferences" tab at the top right of your screen.

On the Preferences page, put this in the Nickname box, with your User name and real first name plugged in:


 * — Firstname  ( talk )

Then check the "Raw signatures" box underneath, and hit the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.

Then, when you sign your talk posts, you just have to type the four tildes, and the new signature will appear. You can tweak that code in a bunch of different ways; feel free to play around with it!

Show your sources
When you're posting factual information, other readers should be able to verify the information that you post. If you find information in a book or on a website, tell us the title or the URL. If it's clumsy to put that information in the article, then add a "References" heading at the bottom of the page.

In the event questionable information appears in a particular article, place the tag after the appropriate text in such a way that the notation's inclusion is clear as to what needs to be cited. This will automatically place the article in the Citations needed category.

How to upload pictures
Click on "Upload file" on the left navigation bar to upload pictures. You can add your image to any page using this code:


 * [[Image: yourpicture.jpg |thumb|300px|Caption for your picture. ]]

Images should not exceed 300 pixels wide for article tidyness and copyright adherence.

If you upload an image in error, or do not intend to use it, tag the article with so that an administrator can remove the file from the wiki. Images are subject for deletion if they are not used.

How to add category tags
You can put an article into a category by adding this code:. You can change the way the article is alphabetized within the category like this:.

Before you create a category, check the Category list to see if there's a similar category that already exists. If the category doesn't exist yet, then adding that code will create the category. You'll need to add some text to the new category page to make it work properly.

History tab
Nothing is ever lost on a wiki! You can see all of the changes that have been made to a page -- and who made them -- by clicking on the "History" tab at the top of any page.

Setting your preferences
There's a lot of useful stuff on your Preferences page.

You can change your display so that links show up without the underlining. You can also change your time zone, and the number of items you see on the Recent Changes page or the Category list.

Keyboard shortcuts
There's some helpful shortcuts to navigate around within a page. The following list is for PC users; Macintosh users should type Control-T instead of Alt-T.

Alt-T : Talk

Alt-E : Edit

Alt-H : History

Alt-R : Recent Changes

Dealing with vandalism
Vandalism isn't much of a problem on a wiki, because everybody has the power to fix it when they see it. See the Vandalism help page for instructions on how to fix vandalized pages, and how to discourage the vandals.

Creating experimental pages
If you aren't sure about the article you wish to add, you can add what's called a test page in your "sandbox". This is Wiki talk for a page within your user name space. To create a page in your sandbox type the following into the URL in your browser; http://autism.wikia.com/wiki/User:[YOUR USER NAME]/[The name of the page you want to create] and press enter. You will get the option to create your page. Once you are happy with it get any user, preferably an admin, to review it for inclusion on the website or some further improvements.

Check the Help pages for more information on contributing to Autism Wiki!