Help:FAQ

This page is a SmashWiki help page, intended to be a guide to helping users understand SmashWiki and its functionalities. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. If in doubt, consider discussing changes on the talk page.

Greetings, fellow user! I trust you're new, and need some help on how it all works. Here are some commonly asked questions to get you started with this wiki, SmashWiki, or wikis in general. We can't think of every question people will have so feel free to ask any questions (given that they are relevant to SmashWiki) on this article's talk page by clicking on the talk button at the top of this article or by clicking here.

What's a wiki?

A wiki is a unique kind of website with contents that can be edited by anyone. The best-known example of a wiki is Wikipedia. SmashWiki, as the name suggests, is a wiki about all things Super Smash Bros. Therefore, our aim is to be an informative and in depth resource detailing everything there is to know about Smash. For more information, see SmashWiki:About.

How do I edit and contribute?

To contribute to a page, just click "Edit this page" at the top of the page's contents. Alternatively, you can click the "[Edit]" buttons next to section headings to edit that section specifically. Sometimes, if there is a sufficiently notable topic that we do not have information on, it may be a good idea to make a new page. While editing a new or existing page, you can format text, and insert links, tables, and many other useful things. The formatting buttons above the editing section can help with that, and you can also click the "preview" button at the bottom of the page to preview your work. Wikis use a special set of symbols called "Wiki markup" to render pages, and you can learn more about them on the editing help page.

What's a "sysop"?

Sysops (or administrators) are essentially the moderators of SmashWiki, appointed to keep everything in order. They can make advanced edits to the structure of SmashWiki and block users who vandalize or endanger its safety. To meet these ends, sysops are entrusted with powers beyond those of a normal user. However, administrators are not kings, and you do not need to feel intimidated by them. For a list of sysops, see Special:Listadmins.

Sweet. Can I be one?

If you're reading this page, probably not yet. Users must first become known as active and dedicated contributors, who have made notable and noticeable improvements to the wiki, before it is likely the community will trust them with sysop powers.

Can I help improve SmashWiki?

Of course! There's always something that needs improving on SmashWiki, and it could be you who does it. You could add character information that hasn't been added, improve on pages that haven't been worked on, or even make pages you believe should exist at our wiki. Even if you don't know much about the game, every positive submission is a step in the right direction, no matter how little it is. There are stubby pages to expand, articles that need cleanup, pages that probably should be created, and hundreds of other things that need doing.

Remember, if you have any problems, chat with us at the community portal, or feel free to message one of our friendly admins at their talk page.

How do I upload images?

In order to upload images, you must be a registered user, which requires you to create an account. Once you are logged-in, simply click on "Upload file" from the "tools" box on the left, or simply type "Special:Upload" into the search bar and hit Go.

What are talk pages for?

Talk pages are pages designed for discussing the contents of an article and how the article can be improved. User talk pages can be used to ask specific users questions or inform them about anything you feel is important. However, you should note that talk pages are not for idle chit-chat, and if you wish to chat with users on the wiki, it is recommended that you join the Discord server. See SW:TALK for more information.

How can I keep track of my favourite pages?

If you have created an account, you can add pages to your watchlist by clicking the "watch" tab above the title of the page, or by checking the "watch this page" box when editing a page. When a page is on your watchlist, any edits made to it will show up on your watchlist, which you can check by clicking "watchlist" at the top right, or typing "Special:Watchlist" into the search bar and pressing Go. Additionally, you can see all edits made to the wiki and when they happen by going to the recent changes page which can be found in the "participate" box on the left.

What's with the different colored links?

There are four different coloured links:

• Blue links are internal links. They link to other pages on the wiki.
• Purple links are visited internal links. If you've visited an internal link, then it will become purple, showing you've visited it before.
• Red links are links to pages that don't exist, or have been deleted.
• Light red links are links to visited pages that have been deleted.
• Light blue links are external links. They link to sites outside the wiki. Links to certain sites may have a special icon to inform you, such as indicating a link to a Miiverse post.

What do the numbers mean in the recent changes?

You'll see some numbers in the recent changes after the time an edit was made. This number indicates how many characters were added or removed from the article. If the number is negative, then characters were removed. If the number is positive, then characters were added. For example,

(diff | hist) . . Help:FAQ; 12:26 . . (+1,000) . . User (Talk | contribs)

would indicate 1,000 characters were added to this article by a user named User, whereas

(diff | hist) . . Help:FAQ; 19:00 . . (-47) . . User (Talk | contribs)

would indicate 47 characters were removed from this article by a user named User.

Why do I still see the old version of a changed image?

First of all, do not keep uploading the new image until it looks right. More than likely, the upload worked and the problem is on your end, so please do not clog the system with multiple uploads. If the image's page shows a record of the upload, the upload went through.

Web browsers generally assume images do not change, so they only show you the old version unless you make them go get a new one. This is done by a "hard refresh" or "cache clear", and is usually done by holding Ctrl (or equivalent) and hitting the refresh button. See Wikipedia's page on the subject for more details.

Why do some images look like a mess?

Do the flags of America and Brazil look like an uneven mess of dots instead of a zoomed-out field of stars? Does this Triforce look like one piece is smaller than the others? If so, you might be under a bug with Chrome's hardware acceleration and certain graphics cards. Following the instructions in this StackExchange answer may help fix the problem.

What is NIWA?

The Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance (NIWA) is a group of wiki communities creating free content with the MediaWiki software.

NIWA began as an organization with the unification of Bulbapedia, Super Mario Wiki, and Zelda Wiki in February 2010. SmashWiki has been a member of NIWA since October 29th, 2010. For the full story of NIWA, please see the NIWA about page.

Any other helpful pages?

• More basic information about editing the wiki
• Learn what user pages, talk pages, and other types of pages are