Frequently Asked Questions about the Elftown Wiki
See also:

The wiki_intro.
The pseudo HTML guide.
The general Elftown FAQ.
The Who messed up my wiki page.
The playground [edit] 1574.
The Elftown Wiki Forum: <URL:view_forum.html?forumnr=22> (will open up in a new window)

Note: This is not a place to ask questions! If your question isn't answered here or in the other FAQs, please go to the Wiki forum(<URL:view_forum.html?forumnr=22>) and ask there (if it is a wiki related question) or to the Newbie forum (if it is some other question)!
When you've got an answer, you can add the question and its answer to this FAQ (if you think that others are interested).
Do not just add a question without an answer to the FAQ and expect it to be answered!

General Wiki Questions

Q: What is a wiki?
A: A wiki is a set of webpages that anyone can edit. There are lots of wikis on the Internet. The "original" wiki is the WikiWikiWeb at http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki
See the wiki_intro for an introduction to the Elftown Wiki.

Q: What does the word "wiki" mean?
A: "Wiki wiki" is Hawaiian for "fast" or "quick".

Q: So, I can edit any of the pages on the Elftown Wiki?
A: Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should. Most pages have "rules of conduct" that you should try to follow. Fixing spelling errors is usually okay, especially on the information pages like this FAQ. Use your common sense!
A2: It is now possible to password-protect pages. If you put a password on your page, only those who know the password can edit the page. To allow anyone to edit your page you should leave the password field empty.

Q: Do you trust people to not just delete everything?
A: It is not possible to delete a page completely. It is possible to delete the contents of a page, but all old versions of a page are saved and it is easy to revert to an old version of a page if someone messes it up. You can also see who made the changes to the page, so all "villains" can easily be identified.
A2: Some of the most important pages, like the index have now been password protected.

Q: Ha! What if I just delete everything? Ain't I cool then?
A: No, it's not cool to mess up the Elftown Wiki. If you do it repeatedly with purpose, you will be blocked from Elftown.

Q: Is the wiki moderated?
A: Yes and no. Most pages are maintained by their creator, who sets the rules for the page and sees to it that people follow the rules. Some pages are everyone's responsibility to keep clean. The Elftown crew will see to that the most important pages, like the index page, are kept clean and will take action against people who mess up wiki pages on purpose.

Q: What is a Wiki Boss?
A: The Wiki Bosses maintain and improve the official wiki pages, like the wiki index page, the help pages and the pages directly linked from the wiki index. They also have privileges to change password protected pages like the wiki index. See also the Wiki Bosses page.

Q: How do I become a Wiki Boss?
A: New Wiki Bosses are appointed by the existing Wiki Bosses. Since "Wiki Boss" is a job title and not a reward, only someone who has already shown that they want to help out with the maintenance of the official wiki pages can become a Wiki Boss.
Many people help creating and maintaining official pages even without a title, so don't expect a Wiki Boss badge for correcting a few typos!

Building and Maintaining Pages on the Wiki

Q: How do I make my own wiki page?
A: See the wiki_intro or the quick-guide-to-wiki for information on how to make and edit your own wiki pages.

Q: Why doesn't this or that HTML-tag work?
A: Only a few HTML tags are allowed on the wiki. See the guide to pseudo HTML.

Q: Why don't the bold or italic tags work all of a sudden?
A: You're missing a start or end tag of the type that stopped working. See the guide to pseudo HTML for more information.

Q: If all links to a page are deleted, is the page deleted too?
A: No.

Q: How do I delete a wiki page?
A: The short answer is that you can't. What you can do is to edit it and remove the contents, but it will still be possible to access the old contents by looking at previous versions of the page.

Q: If I create a page without making a link to it, or if I remove all links to a page, how do I get to it afterwards?
A: You can go to the page by entering the page name in the "Go to wiki-page" box below the Elftown Status menu and clicking on "Go". You could also create a new link to the page, or go to an old version of some other wiki page that had a link to it.
A2: You also have links to all the wikipages you are watching in "Your notes".

Q: What does it mean to export your wiki page?
A: It means people can view your wiki page without being logged into Elftown. You can only export wiki pages that you have made the first version of.

Q: My friend has offered to take over the maintenance of my wiki page. How do I transfer the ownership to them?
A: Click on "Edit this page". If you're the creator/owner of the page, you'll have a field at the top that is called "Change pageowner to:". Put the new owner's username in the field instead of your own, and click on "Change owner".

Q: I've taken over the maintenance of a wiki page. I'm not the owner of the page, and the original owner doesn't log in anymore. Can I get the ownership of the page somehow?
A: Ask someone in the crew. I suggest that you post a request in the Elftown Wiki forum (see the link at the bottom of this page).

Q: Someone messed up my wiki page! What do I do?
A: Restore your page by clicking on "Edit this page" and then on the "Previous version" button in the Wiki-page data box until you find a version that isn't broken. Then click on "Submit changes to this page" to submit the good version of the page.
If you want to find out who messed up the page, see the tips on Who messed up my wiki.

Q: This person is repeatedly messing up my wiki on purpose. What do I do?
A: Report it to a Town Guard. See the staff page for the names of the Town Guards (there's a link to the staff page on Main Street).

Q: How do I put my wiki in the index?
A: You don't. Add it to the sub-page it belongs to.

Q: How do I put images on my wiki?
A; Follow the instructions on img.

Go or return to:
-The wiki-index
-The wiki_intro
-The pseudo HTML guide
-The wiki help page
-The help index