Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-25014034-20160409114522

Hey there guys! Darthwikia25 here- I'd like to cover a very important aspect of the wiki. Since we're getting a lot of new users, I decided to cover this on the forums instead of indivisually informing users. The topic for today is- Page Creation & Formatting. I'll try to cover this as creatively as possible to avoid any confusion and give you vivid demonstrations as well.

Firstly, let's discuss: What is a good page? Now, standards for that vary from wiki to wiki, but right now, I'll be covering the Terraria Fan Ideas Wiki only.

So, over here, a good page is basically a "good idea" which has been written well and formatted properly. Ideally, a good page should:
 * Describe clearly the user's idea in simple language
 * Be formatted properly, including all important sections such as "Stats", "Crafting", "Drops" and "Notes"
 * Have a sprite (Which follows the image policy i.e. is terraria styled and uses 2x2 pixels) or at least a clear description of how it looks

Now, I mentioned that a page should be a "Good Idea". Now, the question can arise- What is a good idea?

A Good Idea is:
 * An idea which you feel is needed in Terraria.
 * An idea which is interesting and/or thought stimulating
 * An idea which is not a copy of another idea on the wiki or something which exists in terraria
 * An idea which is original, not a direct reference or copy of an item in another game
 * An idea which fits into the overall image of Terraria- Remember, Terraria is a sandbox game, not a martial arts or a shoot-em game.

Please remember- Only create a page if you feel the idea is good enough and meets the above standards!

Now, we move on to page formatting and standard of editing. Now, as the name of the wiki suggests, we are a wiki for "Fan Ideas", but we do have a standard for editing. Formatting has been covered in the Page Format Guide so I suggest you go take a look at it.

However, the main issue is Writing Standard on the wiki. Some articles recently have been written very casually without regard for the wiki's policies. I'm going to give you a vivid demonstration on the difference between a good and a bad page.

(This is not aimed at any particular user. I have simply thrown together an example with things I have seen over the past year on this wiki)

= A Good Page =

The Sharpshooter is a War Mode gun that is dropped by TheFlamingScyther. It is a very powerful weapon that uses Cursed Bullets as ammo.

Stats

 * 244 Ranged Damage
 * Very Fast Speed
 * Weak Knockback
 * Tooltip: "Very Accurate, never misses!"

Stats

 * 1000 Ranged Damage
 * 500 Laser Damage
 * 800 Rainbow After Effects Damage
 * Ludicrously Fast Speed
 * Insane Knockback
 * Tooltip:"THIS WEAPON IS SO FREAKIN AWESOME!"