FAM Porting Guide 2 – From Thread To Wiki

 An Exercise in FAM Page Creation, by Dalinian

Thank you for showing-an-interest/volunteering-to-play-a-part in building our wonderful MarioMarconipedia wiki. I hope you'll find collaborating with fellow Mariopedians in bringing Facts About Mario (FAMs) to a wider audience to be light-hearted, fun, enlightening and fulfilling.

This guide is designed to take the five folks who volunteered to be the initial wiki-building team through an easy new-FAM-Page-creation learning exercise. It builds on the experiences gained from running through FAM Porting Guide 1 – Getting Started which I recommend you do before running through this one. I am Dalinian on Wikia (dalinian61 on Digital Spy), MarioMarconipedia's founder and initial facilitator, and I hope that this Guide will also be useful to other folks who'd like to help build our wonderful Facts About Mario encyclopedia.

In this second Guide, I'll take you through the the page elements of a typical FAM Page and how they get there, you'll compose your own three-FAM Page and create it in MarioMarconipedia, and set up a Category Page and a Redirect Page for each of the three new FAMsters you'll be introducing into MarioMarconipedia. In writing this Guide, I worked out the exercise you will run through below by creating the Custard Creams FAM Page, which will give you an idea of what you're finished FAM Page will look like; and you'll see I've used this as an example within the exercise set out below.

A quick word about onscreen windows – it'll be best to have at least three open at once: one web browser (WB) window displaying this Guide, another WB window for the actions you take inside MarioMarconipedia and at DS:BB in completing this Guide's exercise, and a text editor (TE) window for composing your first FAM Page.

Ready? Steady? Go Johnny Go Go Go Go!

Typical MarioMarconipedia FAM Page Elements
If you take a look at Mario in Prehistory and Cats love Mario (open these pages in new tabs or windows in your web browser (WB), so you can compare them to the FAM Page template below), you'll be able to see all the elements of a typical MarioMarconipedia FAM Page.
 * an explanatory Page Title that defines what the FAMs below it have in common
 * a MarioMarconipedia menu box top right, by which readers can navigate around the wiki
 * two or more FAMs, ranged left, each with a following 'contributed by' tag, ranged right, divided by horizontal rules
 * a Categories: footer box, containing:
 * MarioMarconipedia – a link to the All Pages Index, and the defining element on a MarioMarconipedia page
 * Subject categories – subject areas, such as Animals and Mario, one for each FAM that falls into that subject area
 * Contributer categories – usernames, such as Whispers and Dalinian61, one for each unique FAM contributer above

Template for a Typical MarioMarconipedia FAM Page
Here's how the text-n-codes content for a typical MarioMarconipedia FAM Page look when abstracted to a template, with placeholders where the page's unique content will fall.

FirstFAM

SecondFAM

ThirdFAM

New Page Exercise: Making a Typical FAM Page
Let's put together a new FAM Page based on the template above. So the first thing we need is an explanatory Page Title that will define what the FAMs below it have in common, and which is new and different from the FAM pages that already exist in MarioMarconipedia. Later on we can reach agreement on a more collective and thorough way of mining the comedy gold from our FAM thread, but for the purposes of this exercise, we'll just use the 'Search this Thread' facility. Your aim is to find three subject-related FAMs that you think are really funny, from three different FAM posters (FAMsters) who do not yet have any FAMs in MarioMarconipedia. This will also give you the opportunity of creating a Category Page and a Redirect Page for each of these newly represented FAMsters.

{| style="background-color:#98fb98;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"

ACTION 3: Find Your Three Funny FAMs

 * 1) To find out who already has FAMs in MarioMarconipedia, open our MarioMarconipedia contributers index page – you'll be searching for three funny related FAMs from three different FAMsters who are NOT (yet) on this index page.
 * 2) From your experience of enjoying reading our FAM thread, choose a search term that you think will get multiple hits from different contributers, such as say 'spam', 'diamond', 'facilitate', 'come across', 'juicy tea', etc, &c. – and check on our All Pages Index that a page based around this search term does not already exist
 * 3) Use the 'Search this Thread' facility to find multiple hits from three different FAMsters who aren't yet on the MarioMarconipedia contributers index page, then choose three funny FAMs for your page; if there are more than three funny hits, you can always add them on later, after completing this exercise
 * 4) When you've found your three FAMs, choose a suitable descriptive Page Title that explains what they have in common – which will very likely be closely related to the search term you used to locate them, eg: Custard Creams


 * CAVEAT: If MarioMarconipedia has expand a lot by the time you run through this exercise, it may be quite tricky to find three different FAMsters who aren't yet on the MarioMarconipedia contributers index – in that case try to find two, and if that proves too tricky too, one will do at a push.
 * }

Composing a Typical FAM Page in Your Text Editor
Now we need to assemble the text-n-codes for your new FAM Page on the Template for a Typical MarioMarconipedia FAM Page in your text editor (TE).

{| style="background-color:#98fb98;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"

ACTION 4: Compose Your 3 FAM Page

 * 1) C&P the Template for a Typical MarioMarconipedia FAM Page text-n-codes and placeholders from the box above into a new TE file, then save it twice in your local MarioMarconipedia folder on your hard drive:
 * 2) save it as say FAM Page Template (for using in later page compositions)
 * 3) then use Save As... to save it with the name of the Page Title you are making, eg: Custard Creams
 * 4) Double-click on the    comment line's  PageTitle  placeholder to select it, then type in your Page Title
 * 5) Copy the text of your first chosen FAM from its WB window, then in the TE window double-click on the template's  FirstFAM  placeholder to select it, then paste the FAM into place
 * 6) Copy the DS:BB username of the contributing FAMster from the left column of the WB window, then paste it twice in the TE window:
 * 7) double-click on the    code's  username1  placeholder to select it, then paste the FAMster's username into place
 * 8) double-click on the    code's  username1  placeholder to select it, then paste the FAMster's username into place
 * 9) Repeat steps 3 and 4 above for your second and third chosen FAMs
 * 10) Take a look at our Subject Index page: do any of your three chosen FAMs match any of the existing Subjects? For the first one that does (if any):
 * 11) copy the subject name from the Subject Index page
 * 12) double-click on the   </tt> code's  Subject1 </tt> placeholder to select it, then paste the subject name into place
 * 13) repeat for   </tt> and   </tt> if necessary
 * 14) delete any unused   </tt> codes


 * We'll deal with creating a new Subject area in a later FAM Porting Guide
 * }

There can be more content to a FAM than just the text you copied over, such as text formatting.

{| style="background-color:#FFFF00;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"

HINT: Matching Text Formatting

 * Some FAMs contain text formatting like italic, bold and bold italic. You can easily match these in our wiki by using the appropriate wiki markup codes, which use multiple flanking apostrophes like this:
 *  italics </tt> is rendered as italics. (2 apostrophes on either side)
 *  bold </tt> is rendered as bold. (3 apostrophes on either side)
 *  bold italics </tt> is rendered as bold italics. (2 + 3 = 5 apostrophes on either side)
 * Other simple wiki markup codes are also available: remember the # numbered-list code we used in the Getting Started Guide? Here's where to get tips and more info on wiki markup codes:
 * Editing Tips palette: How to style text, How to add headings, and How to indent text, panels
 * Wikia Help: Help:Tutorial 3. Formatting, Help:Tutorial 4. Lists, Help:Formatting and Wikitext Cheatsheet
 * Wikimedia: Most frequent wiki markup explained, Help:Wikitext examples, and Cheatsheet
 * }

You may also come across external links in the source FAMs, which are also easy to transpose to your MarioMarconipedia FAM Page.

{| style="background-color:#EEAAEE;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"

NOTE: External Links

 * Some FAMs contain external links, such as my first Custard Creams FAM – compare these two to see what I did with it:
 * original FAM in our FAM thread
 * wikified FAM at the top of the Custard Creams FAM Page
 * As well-traveled web surfers, I reckon we just use our best judgement as to the best way to work external links into our MarioMarconipedia FAM Pages
 * The code to use for external links generally goes like this:  link text </tt>, eg:
 *  CRUMBS! CUSTARD CREAMS MAKE IT INTO THE DICTIONARY, Daily Express, Thu 03 Jul 08 </tt>
 * ...is rendered as...
 * CRUMBS! CUSTARD CREAMS MAKE IT INTO THE DICTIONARY, Daily Express, Thu 03 Jul 08
 * Help sources for making links generally:
 * Editing Tips palette: How to make links panel
 * Wikia Help: Help:Tutorial 5. Links and Help:Links
 * Wikimedia: Help:Link
 * }

Some external links may lead to an image or a video, which could appear on your MarioMarconipedia FAM Page, but that's beyond the scope of this Guide, and will be dealt with in the forthcoming FAM Porting Guide #3 – Adding Multimedia.

Creating a Typical FAM Page in MarioMarconipedia
By now you should have transformed the typical FAM Page template from looking raw and pristine, as in the source box in section 2 above, to a new 3 FAM Page in your TE, looking something like this:

Mario works tirelessly to find new words and phrases to enter the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. This year it was custard cream

custard cream noun ~ what Mario likes to dip into his hot juicy tea

[http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/50857/Crumbs-custard-creams-make-it-into-the-dictionary CRUMBS! CUSTARD CREAMS MAKE IT INTO THE DICTIONARY], Daily Express, Thu 03 Jul 08

He is so dedicated in his cause to enrich the English language he has specially created the phrase "Billy Bullshiner" which will be in the next edition of the dictionary

He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. He who lives by Mario gets a juicy cup of tea and a custard cream cos thats the kinda guy he is.

Mario used to work in a custard cream factory.

He would facilitate the sticking together of the two sides of all biscuits using his tongue and a tiny bit of saliva on each side.

The text-n-codes in the box above is what gets rendered as the original 3 FAM Custard Creams page, and if you compare the two, you'll be able to see the correlation between codes and the typical page elements we identified in section 1 above:


 *  </tt> &rarr; MarioMarconipedia menu box top right
 *  </tt> &rarr; contributed by tag, ranged right:
 *  </tt> &rarr; a horizontal rule:


 * a Categories: footer box, containing:
 *  </tt> &rarr; a link to the All Pages Index
 *  </tt> &rarr;  a link to a subject area index page
 *  </tt> &rarr; a link to a FAM contributer's index page

{| style="background-color:#98fb98;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"

ACTION 5: Create Your 3 FAM Page

 * This procedure is the same as ACTION 3.2: Create your Top 10 List page in your WB in FAM Porting Guide 1 – Getting Started, so you may be able to do it without reference to the numbered steps below.


 * 1) Now C&P your Page Title from the top of your TE page into the Create input box on the Your Additions page, and click on the [ Create ] button
 * 2) Delete everything in your new page's editing box
 * 3) C&P the whole of your FAM Page composition from your TE to your new page's editing box
 * 4) Type new in the Summary field, click on Watch this page, and click on the [ Show preview ] button
 * 5) Take a look at the Preview – if all's well, click on the [ Save page ] button, else change the text in the editing box, click on the [ Show preview ] button again, and repeat until all's well; don't worry about the contributers' username links being red – we'll deal with that below.
 * }

<p style="text-align: center; font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.3"> '''That's it – congrats on making your first MarioMarconipedia FAM Page! Not too shabby, huh? '''

Processing New Contributer Pages
Now it's time to add text to the Category Page for each of the new contributers you've just introduced to MarioMarconipedia, and then to get the page that is named for the contributer's username to redirect to that contributer's Category Page – the reason for which will be explained below.

Every FAMster who has a FAM in MarioMarconipedia also has a Category Page – an index of all the FAM Pages in MarioMarconipedia on which you can find at least one FAM from that contributer. When you compose a FAM Page, you include each contributer's DS:BB username at least twice:
 * once in a  </tt> code at the foot of the page, eg: <tt>  </tt>, which creates a link to bigbro24's Category Page, indexing all FAM pages with one or more FAM from bigbro24
 * once in a <tt> </tt> code in the body of the page (one for each FAM by this contributer), eg: <tt>  </tt>, which creates a link to a page called bigbro24 – where we'll create a redirect to bigbro24's Category Page

Template for a MarioMarconipedia Contributer's Category Page
Here's how the text-n-codes content for a MarioMarconipedia contributer's Category Page look when abstracted to a template, with placeholders where the contributer's username will fall.

Welcome to the Category Page of username, a contributer to the MarioMarconipedia wiki.

{| style="background-color:#98fb98;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"

ACTION 6.1: Set Up a New Contributer's Category Page

 * 1) In the Categories: box at the foot of the page, click on the first red contributer username link, eg: bigbro24  – because this page does not yet exist, the wiki development environment takes you straight in to Editing mode, eg: Editing Category:Bigbro24
 * 2) C&P the Template for a Typical MarioMarconipedia Contributer's Category Page text-n-codes and placeholders from the box above into a new TE file, then save it in your local MarioMarconipedia folder on your hard drive as say Contributer's Category Page Template (for using in later Category Page set ups)
 * 3) Double-click on the <tt>  </tt> comment line's <tt> username </tt> placeholder to select it, then type or paste in the contributer's username – then do the same for the other <tt> username </tt> placeholder
 * 4) C&P the whole of your text-n-codes from your TE to your new Category Page's editing box
 * 5) Type new in the Summary field, and click on the [ Show preview ] button
 * 6) Take a look at the Preview – if all's well, click on the [ Save page ] button, else change the text in the editing box, click on the [ Show preview ] button again, and repeat until all's well
 * 7) Finally, click on the link to your new FAM Page to go back to it – and notice that the contributer's username link in the Categories: box at the foot of the page is no longer red, because the wiki development environment now understands that there's a proper Category Page to jump to when that link is clicked
 * }

Template for a MarioMarconipedia Contributer's Redirect Page
So now the new contributer's Category Page is all set up, we want to get every contributed by username link to jump straight to that contributer's Category Page. And to do so, we have to tell the page named for that contributer's username to redirect there. Here's how the text-n-codes content for a MarioMarconipedia contributer's Redirect Page look when abstracted to a template, with a placeholder where the contributer's username will fall.


 * 1) redirect

{| style="background-color:#98fb98;" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" border="1"

ACTION 6.2: Set Up a New Contributer's Redirect Page

 * 1) For the contributer who's Category Page is now all set up, click on the red contributed by username   link in the body of the FAM Page – because this page does not yet exist, the wiki development environment takes you straight in to Editing mode, eg: Editing Bigbro24
 * 2) C&P the Template for a Typical MarioMarconipedia Contributer's Redirect Page text-n-codes and placeholder from the box above into a new TE file, then save it in your local MarioMarconipedia folder on your hard drive as say Contributer's Redirect Page Template (for using in later Redirect Page set ups)
 * 3) Double-click on the <tt> #redirect  </tt> comment line's <tt> username </tt> placeholder to select it, then type or paste in the contributer's username
 * 4) C&P the whole of your text-n-codes from your TE to your new Redirect Page's editing box
 * 5) Type new rediect page in the Summary field, and click on the [ Save page ] button
 * 6) Finally, test that the redirect works OK:
 * 7) click on the Category:username link, eg: Category:Bigbro24, to go to the contributer's Category Page
 * 8) click on the link to your new FAM Page to go back to it – and you should see that the contributer's username in the contributed by username   link in the body of the FAM Page is no longer red, because the wiki development environment now understands that there's a proper Redirect Page to jump to when that link is clicked
 * 9) finally, click on the contributer's username in the contributed by username   link – and you should be redirected straight to the contributer's Category Page
 * }

<p style="text-align: center; font-size: 130%; line-height: 1.3"> Great job! Now just rinse-n-repeat the substantive steps in ACTION 6.1 and ACTION 6.2 for the other two FAM contributers you've just introduced to MarioMarconipedia, setting up for each a Category Page and a Redirect Page, and then ... that's the end of the exercise!

Getting Help
There's plenty of online and live help available when you're learning about wiki editing, and here's a list of help resources I recommend. Where appropriate, it's a good idea to bookmark them in your WB, so you can access them easily in future. If you come across a good help resource I haven't listed here, please do share its location via a group PM.
 * Editing tutorial – at the foot of the MarioMarconipedia menu box, top right of every MarioMarconipedia page, there's a link to Wikia's Help Tutorial, in six one screen chapters; the 'Editing help (opens in new window)' link you see when editing a wiki page links through to chapter '2. Editing'.
 * Editing Tips – a GREAT new feature: when you're editing, to the left of the edit box there's an 'Editing Tips' palette with five panels of reminders about the little text codes you need to format the content of your wiki page, and a sixth 'More Help' panel with a link to...
 * Wikia Help – scads of info from 'The basics' via 'Tips and tricks' and 'Extra features' to 'Admin stuff', and links to these three additional help resources:
 * Wikipedia's Help:Contents
 * MediaWiki.org's Help:Contents
 * Wikimedia's Help:Contents


 * Live Help – first stop I'd say is to ask me a question or seek some guidance by clicking on 'Post a comment' on my Wikia talk page at User talk:Dalinian and I'll reply as soon as I can (within minutes or hours) by posting to your talk page, where we can hold a conversation if necessary; if I don't respond as soon as you'd like, please forgive me, and feel free to send me a DS PM too. There's also a Wikia Forum:Help desk, though I've not needed to use it yet, so I can't judge its utility.

Glossary
Here's common abbreviations I'm using in our MarioMarconipedia Guides – let me know if there's something you'd like including in future editions.


 * C&P – Copy and Paste, usually text from TE to WB or vice versa
 * DS – Digital Spy
 * DS:BB – Digital Spy: Big Brother
 * FAM – a Fact About Mario, or the Facts About Mario DS:BB forum thread (depending on context)
 * FAMster – a FAM poster at the DS:BB forum FAM thread
 * PM – Private Messages on the DS:BB forums
 * TE – your Text Editor application program, eg: Mac OS X's TextEdit, M$ Windoze's WordPad, or similar
 * WB – your Web Browser application program, eg: Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, or similar