Help:Getting Started

Artist's rendition of editing the Hornet page

Welcome to the Star Citizen Wiki! We are glad to see that you're interested in helping out. Editing a wiki can be overwhelming at first with the number of pages that exist and the new writing language (wikicode) to learn, but it won't be long before improving and changing the wiki becomes second nature.

Quick Start

For the eager editor, this guide should show you a few of the steps to take before making your first edits.

1. Register an account here.
2. By default you will only be able to edit existing pages or upload images. Do you want to create pages? Please check in on Discord and ask an editor or admin to verify your account. This step is to validate new editors and to help us reduce possible spam or griefing.
   • The Discord channel is where we organize our page edits, ask for assistance, and discuss possible changes
3. Explore our editing guides
   • Start with Help:Editing to brush up on wiki code or Help:Style guide to write pages in a similar style to everything else.
4. Make your first edit!
   • Pages like Gameplay Mechanics always need more information from recent news posts or videos. Just be sure to make some references and links to official sources from Roberts Space Industries.
   • We suggest editing your Userpage (Be sure to get Verified first. See Step 1). You can put just about anything there. Try making a page like one of the Example articles or one of the Editors (Such as DuskFyre or, if you don't mind some eyebleed, Alistair3149)
5. Check out the Issue list page to see what we're all working on.
   • Message one of the task leaders there on their talk page or on Discord to see what you can do.

Some suggestions for things to do

After you've familiarized yourself with basic editing on your userpage, it's time to make some important, world-changing edits!

• Browse the Tasks page or the Issue List to see some general and maintenance tasks that need to be worked on
  • This includes things like filling out stub pages (Which are missing some content) or adding detail to important pages (like Gameplay Mechanics)
• Adopt a page! Pick a page and make it the best page on the wiki. Fill it in with official, referenced info, and a good number of interesting images.
• Patrol the Recent Changes log to revert vandalism, help out other contributors, or suggest improvements

Additional Reading

• Star Citizen:Editing: a collection of guides on editing the wiki.
• Help:Editing: A general overview of editing syntax. Basic formatting code and how to edit/create pages.
• Help:Style_guide: A guide for the "style" of wiki pages. Mostly useful when first creating a page or adding large sections. Includes formatting for dates, linking, and citatios.
• Frequently Asked Questions and Project:FAQ: FAQs for Star Citizen and the SC Wiki respectively. Some basic questions that may come up with answers. Taking suggestions!
• ProjMGMT:Issue_List and Star_Citizen:Tasks: Issue lists and task lists for new editors looking to contribute or request help.

References

An important part of wiki editing is references, citations, and sourcing. It's important to have primary sources for any facts or information that is posted on the wiki for correctness and to reduce misinformation.

Single citation

Our primary template for referencing is {{Cite_RSI}}. It is used to link to primary sources on the Roberts Space Industries website. The source links will then be generated at the end of the page, or wherever <references/> is placed (Usually in the References section at the end)

• Usage: {{Cite_RSI|url=The URL of the source on robertsspaceindustries.com |text=The text to describe the citation |int=The page title on the wiki if a rehosted version exists on the wiki |accessdate=The date of which the source is retrieved in YYYY-MM-DD format}}
• Example: "The Carrack is an exploration ship"<ref>{{Cite_RSI|url=https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/carrack/Carrack |text=Carrack Ship Page |accessdate=2023-03-08}}</ref>
• Result: "The Carrack is an exploration ship"

For non-RSI references, simply use <ref>https://starcitizen.tools/Carrack Carrack Page</ref>

Multiple Citations of the same reference

To cite the same reference/footnote multiple times define the first reftag using <ref name="xx"> and to reuse it, use <ref name="xx"/>.

• Example:

"The Carrack has a total weight of 4,397,858 kg.<ref name="Carrack Page">https://starcitizen.tools/Carrack Carrack Page</ref>

"The Carrack is 126.5 m long".<ref name="Carrack Page"/>

• Result:

"The Carrack has a total weight of 4,397,858 kg."

"The Carrack is 126.5 m long."