Jade Raven returned to spruce up the place, fixing up the look of the wiki after the UCP technical upgrade made major changes to our CSS code.
Images[ | ]
We now have over a thousand images on the Wiki. Although some of them are administrative ones, the vast majority are from our amazing Malazan artists. Artists Corporal Nobbs and Dejan Delic each have more than 160 images on the Wiki!
The MediaWiki software which runs the Malazan Wiki was upgraded by Fandom from version 1.37 to 1.39 circa 21 April 2023. This includes technical upgrades and bug fixes, but should otherwise have no impact on the wiki. More details can be found at Help:Update to MediaWiki 1.39.
All Fandom wikis have been migrated to the FandomDesktop skin as of August 2021. The Oasis skin has been retired and FandomDesktop will now be the only skin available.
Jade Raventalk has added a syntax highlight feature which serves as visual clues when using codes. It helps with keeping track of any missing characters.
Ian C. Esslemont has kindly agreed to give us some idea of how he pronounces various Malazan Characters in his novels. These pronunciation guides are listed in [brackets] after the characters/places name on their individual pages. We are also adding pronunciation guides to other pages based on audio interviews with the authors.
This is very much work in progress and if you have any ideas or would like to help, add a note to the Pronunciation Guidetalk page.
Project:Adopt a chapter[ | ]
For anyone interested in doing chapter summaries, here is the link to the 'Adopt a chapter' page which gives some info on how far the project has progressed and guidelines for the formatting of a chapter summary page.
Project:Dramatis Personae[ | ]
We are creating complete Dramatis Personae (DP) for all books. Check out the A-Z Gardens of the Moon/Dramatis Personae to see an example. Currently, the DPs for all published books have been completed, however, some of the finished DPs may still be missing some details - if you spot any omissions, please do add them. If you have any questions, please message Pcwrcw or ArchieVist.
Project: Speculations section for Deck of Dragons associates[ | ]
We need to move all speculative information about character's likely association with a position in the Deck of Dragons to a separate Speculations section. If the section does not yet exist, create one below the books sections.
Project: Vetting pages for spoiler content[ | ]
Anytime you don't know what to do... click on one of the links in the DP's from the chapter infoboxes and check the character over for spoiler content. Where appropriate, edit/move/delete/re-phrase etc.. Once you deem the page safe to use for new readers, mark it in the DP with a {{Eye}} (see Gardens of the Moon/Dramatis Personae for examples).
Death toll in the Malazan Book of the Fallen - listing all deaths mentioned in the series Drink in the books - listing beverages mentioned in the books, both Malazan specific but also real world drinks such as Wine Exclamations - a page for Malazan specific exclamations Food in the books - listing food items mentioned in the books, both Malazan specific but also real world food such as cheese Inconsistencies - somewhere to note those passages in the books which do not add up Maps in the Malazan Books - a list of which map is found in which book Nomen Nescio - for listing works by unknown and anonymous authors Proverbs - proverbs and sayings from the Malazan world Unnamed characters - use when there is next to nothing known about an unnamed character
...and finally[ | ]
Grinbone Bot's page - if something needs changing across the whole site, it might be a job for our friendly Bot. Make a note on Grinbone's page
A quick list of things we learned the hard way and some which make the life of admins easier ;)
For more detailed guidelines on all aspects of editing this Wiki visit the Help pages
Wiki skins[ | ]
The Wiki default skin is also referred to as 'FandomDesktop'. It varies from the default view in mobile which does not show all the templates. We therefore recommend that you switch your mobile vie to 'full site view' at the bottom of the mobile page. Previous Wiki skins 'Oasis' and 'MonoBook' were discontinued in August 2021 and May 2018, respectively.
Mobile editing[ | ]
We are looking for someone who uses mobile editing regularly to add relevant tips here.
A few 'do's and don'ts[ | ]
Edits should be relevant to the article topic, factually correct, unbiased and written in a condensed, informative manner. All edits MUST be referenced!
It is crucial that you add a source reference - book and chapter as a minimum - to give your edit credibility - see how to add references - if you are not sure about codes, add the reference in brackets.
It helps if you sort categories, lists etc. in alphabetical order.
Some names may link to a disambiguation page like the name Jan, for example. If you can, please link directly to the page as in 'Jan (Seguleh Second)|Jan' or 'Jan (old man on Jakuruku)|Jan' for example. If you have created a disambiguation page, please update Links to Disambiguation and Alias pages.
Use Preview. It saves time to always preview entries, even when the changes are insignificant. Once you have used preview, it is also often possible, using back/forward button and retry, to recover your editing if you have accidentally deleted what you have written
Wiki codes[ | ]
Some of the most useful Wiki code pages from Community Central
The | symbol is part of most keyboards (for example - left of Z or right side, just above the enter key)
If you get no search result or a link you have made to an existing page isn't working... check if the name contains an apostrophe - there are several types about, ’ and ' being the common ones. The one you use needs to be identical to that for the page in question. Creating redirects for the alternate versions is work in progress.
If you are trying to insert a file and it isn't showing, instead of typing in the name or using the auto-prompt, go to the original file page and copy and paste the file name across. The issue may be one of incompatible symbols or similar.
E-readers and similar[ | ]
Kindle Fire: To get something from the Kindle to the PC, highlight it, click Share in the pop-up menu, then click Email. The highlighted part appears in an email which you then send to yourself. Now the info is there on the PC to add to Wiki at leisure. Very handy for adding quotes-- just cut & paste. (Be sure to note context, if needed & add chapter number for the ref.)
PDF: With Acrobat Reader, there are a couple of approaches. It's easy to work with the text directly when editing Wiki. Or, to set something aside to work on later, go to upper right-hand corner & click Tools. After the sidebar opens, click Comments (at top, beside Tools). In Comments, under Annotations, are tools for Highlights & Notes. Anything you highlight will appear in the sidebar. Same for any notes you add. When you want the info, click the item in the side bar to see, edit, cut & paste, etc.
If you have any questions about 'how to', the search box at Community Central will almost always have the answer.
Images[ | ]
Make sure you upload any images under a unique name and, in the case of fan art, please include your name in the title.
It is important that when uploading images, you add them under relevant sections especially images which contain spoilers. In mobile view, images will otherwise show before text. Preferably no more then two per section.
Images are sorted in order of book appearance, if two images are of the same event then the one uploaded first should come first unless there is a reason, for example creating a break between two images too much alike.
For fan art, the following image info should be added in the summary section: name of artist, if possibly link to artist's page, type of upload permission (no permission - no upload!), categories. See example, Blend
JR's productivity tips[ | ]
I use many tricks and tools to help me get things done faster around the wiki. I will list them out here as I recall them. Please note that I use Firefox as my primary internet browser and all listed add-ons may only be available for Firefox.
Find and Replace is really helpful when you want to change the same thing that appears many times on a page. It's very useful when working on tables or with lists. One caveat is that it has no check-before-action safety so I recommend saving the page before using it and then preview immediately after using it to check the find and replace worked as you expected.
Using "Ctrl + F" and selecting the "Highlight All" button when working on a large mass of code or long list can greatly speed up a repetitive task and ensure you don't miss anything.
Google's Search by Image is so useful in everyday usage. When you find an image on the internet right click on it and select "Search this image" from the menu. It's really good for tracking down the source of an image or in finding better quality versions, if they exist. Have an image that needs sourcing? Use this, very quick.
If you have the ebook versions you can use the search function in ebook viewers to very quickly track down sources. I use Calibre Viewer to effortlessly hunt through the books.
Sometimes it's really handy to have lots of tabs open when you are working on something (I have 40 Malazan related tabs open at the moment). Tree Style Tabs is what I use to keep everything tidy and under control. I've used it for many, many years and would find it difficult to go without it now.
If you find yourself repeatedly entering the same thing when editing you can put it in MediaWiki:Edittools, where with one click you can put it on the page. If you are not an admin then ask me and I will put it in.
I also use textarea cache which can save stuff written in all sorts of places on the web, including this wiki, from being lost. If you are worried about not catching edit conflicts this can save you a lot of stress and re-writing.
I will add to this list as I think of new things. --Jade Raventalk 23:16, December 8, 2016 (UTC)
