Welcome to Doctor Who Expanded. This is a quick guide to get you up to speed on how to help the wiki grow, remain an accurate source of information, and improve it's usability.
New to wikis?[]
- If you are new to wikis you may want to read the Wiki FAQ.
- Also the tutorial on the Central Wikia. It introduces all the basics from starting an account to simple wiki language.
- You can also visit the main Wikia Help page for searchable answers. We are working on a list of more help pages which can be found in Category:Help.
- Remember, an easy way to understand formatting techniques (such as tables) is to find an existing example and go into 'edit page' mode to see how it was written.
Policies[]
The following policies have been agreed upon by our users. If you wish to discuss any of them or suggest changes, either start a thread in the forum or use the discussion page (link at top right of this page).
Incomplete Productions[]
Detailed pages on incomplete productions are not accepted on the wiki. If stories are incomplete they cannot be considered part of fanon, as they are merely ideas. The only exceptions to this are projects of significant interest to the fan community regardless of completion, such as Devious. If you believe a project to be of significant interest you can either ask in the forum or go ahead and submit it, so long as you are prepared for the possibility of it being deleted. Red links and holding pages for future projects will be accepted so long as users believe there is sufficient intent to complete. If opinion changes these will also be deleted.
A header for projects still in production has been created. It is added to pages by typing {{InProduction}} at the top of the article. It will automatically put that article in the category Incomplete Productions. The header makes clear that holding pages must be kept to a minimum and are at risk of being deleted.
Once a project is completed the header is removed, and the article written in full.
Fan Fiction[]
Not all fan fiction is accepted. Fan fiction must meet at least one of the following requirements:
- Official spin-off material from an existing film or audio production group.
- Be at least 17,500 words long.
- Has been published in print (ie a book).
If you think an exception should be made, get in touch with an administrator.
Fan fiction websites falling outside of these requirements can be linked to on the main fan fiction page, in the links section at the bottom.
Comics[]
Only full story multi-paged comics are accepted. No comic strips or single frame cartoons.
Nominating Deletion[]
If you want to nominate an article for deletion because it is against policy, or for another reason, edit the page and insert at the top {{Delete}}. A box will be added to the top of the page nominating deletion, which links to a page for discussing the reasons why. Go to that page and add a section explaining your reason. It is then in the hands of the community.
How to help[]
- If you want to help but you're not sure where to start, try improving the various stub articles by adding content.
- Another helpful activity would be to check the list of wanted pages for frequently linked-to articles that don't exist yet.
- Help tidy up by checking dead-end pages, orphaned pages, uncategorized pages, and wanted categories. There are even more special pages for interesting reports.
- To follow the changes to this wiki, and to look out for new users and edits use recent changes.
DWexpanded Templates[]
Guide Templates[]
In order to maintain a consistent style across the wiki's most common types of pages, some specific guide templates have been created. When starting a new page you will see a series of buttons, which will paste these guide templates into the editing box for you to then add and alter the unique elements. They consist of two parts.
Infoboxes[]
An infobox sits at the top right corner of the page to give important information at a glance to the reader. The infobox layout cannot be altered. If you would like to see changes made to it start a discussion thread in the Forum. It is possible to create your own infoboxes from scratch, but recommended to keep anything new in the same style of the overall wiki.
The fields contained in each box change between templates. Some of the fields are optional, meaning they will only appear if you enter the information. Leave them blank and that line will not appear. The different templates currently available and their fields are as follows:
| Template Name | Required Fields | Optional Fields |
|---|---|---|
| Film | doctor / companions / writer / director / produced by / release date / running time | season number / story number / number episodes / previous story / following story |
| Audio Drama | doctor / companions / writer / producer / release date / running time | season number / story number / number episodes / previous story / following story |
| Fan Fiction | doctor / companions / writer / release date | series name / season number / story number / cover artist / previous story / following story |
| Comic | doctor / companions / artwork / writer / release date | series name / season number / story number / previous story / following story |
| Doctor | series | No. seasons / No. stories / first appearance / last appearance / actor / previous doctor / following doctor |
| Companion | home planet / travelled with / series | home era / first appearance / last appearance / actor |
| Character | home planet / series | affiliated with / race / home era / first appearance / last appearance / actor |
| Species | type / origin / production group | affiliation |
As you can see, most of the optional fields are there to make the distinction between stories that are part of a larger series and single one off fan productions. As there are many of both.
After loading an infobox template simply add the requested information next to the prompts - by the '=' sign. To add an image, upload the image (and if you want to save messing about simply us the defaults to insert the image and manipulate the code). Alter the code to read [[Image:FILENAME.jpg|250px]]. Make sure it's placed next to 'image='. Preview to check that it is sat at the top of the infobox. It is recommended to make links in infoboxes, such as to other story pages and character pages.
The pre-loadable guide templates only come up for new pages. The easiest way to add an infobox to an existing page, is to find a page with that infobox, go into edit page, copy and paste the text for the box, and alter to suit.
Suggested layout[]
Below the infobox is a suggested layout of commonly used sections and titles. Most of these will be of use, but it is up to you whether they are kept, changed or deleted. There is no requirement to keep to the original template, it was merely a guide.
Other Templates[]
There are a number of other templates that can be added to an existing page for things such as nominating deletion. For more info see Doctor Who Expanded:Templates
Categories[]
A good use of categories makes it easier for readers to browse for topics that interest them.
- To add a category to a page insert the following at the very bottom of the page. [[Category:Film Productions]] It will not show up in the body of the text, but will be in the bottom bar of the page with any other categories. You can add as many categories as you like to a page.
- You can see the names of all Doctor Who Expanded's specific categories by looking at our contents page.
- For extra information see the wikia help page on Categories.
Blogs[]
Everyone who registers with the site can make blogs posts, which feature on their own personal blog page. Every blog post made on the Doctor Who Expanded wiki will also be picked up by the Blog Matrix page. Recent posts are featured on the sites front page. Blog posts can only be edited by the original author and admin staff.
If you want to start blogging the basic rules are to stay on topic, talk about fan productions (although it's understandable if your post talks about some elements of Doctor Who more generally. No spam or offensive/abusive posts. Use your common sense.
Some suggested topics:
- Reviews
- New releases
- Information on competitions
- Upcoming showings at conventions
- Production diaries
For more information read Help:Blog_article.
Avatars[]
Avatars will appear next to your user profiles and any blog posts and comments you make. To upload one go to your user masthead (click on your username) and click on preferences. The options will be on the first page (user profile).
Avatars have a size of 100x100px when uploaded, and are shown at 50x50px on the masthead (and several different sizes elsewhere). While the wiki can resize and crop images, you may want to do this offline to ensure best quality. The uploader accepts images up to 512kb, in PNG, JPG, GIF and BMP format, and any resolution. Avatars are carried across all Wikia.
<createbox>
width=40 </createbox>