Help:Starting this wiki

Welcome to Wikia!

Everything is ready here for you to add content. There are some basic help and guideline pages to start off your community, and a basic main page as the entry point to this Wikia. You can start adding pages now!

Here are some things you might want to start with to improve this Wikia.

Add a custom logo
The default "this wiki does not yet have a logo" message can be changed by uploading a logo to this Wikia. The image must be in .png format, and should be no more than 135 pixels wide and 155 pixels high. Upload the file with the "destination filename" wiki.png, and it will appear on all pages.

If you would like help designing or creating a logo, please contact us -- we'd be happy to help!

Add a custom favicon
Although it's a small thing (just 16 by 16 pixels) a custom favicon -- the tiny logo which appears in your browser's address bar and on your bookmarks -- can help give a consistent theme to the wiki. Just upload a 16 by 16 pixel image with the "destination filename" favicon.ico. It may take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for the icon to appear.

There are many favicon creation tools on the web which you can use to design one from scratch, or convert a larger image into a favicon.

Improve your front page
Your basic front page is ready to use. You can improve it by adding content about this Wikia. Consider what visitors will want to see first. What are the starting points for anyone reading about your subject? Where should editors start and what are the most important things for them to work on? You may also want to include links to the help files.

Find and keep new editors
Invite your friends to help you edit. Communities you already belong to about the topic of your Wikia are a good place to ask for people to come join you. Be careful not to spam, though! Think of the types of messages you would like to read and the types of messages you delete.

Keep an eye on Recentchanges, and when you see someone new edit the wiki, add a nice welcome message to their Talk page as soon as you can! Wikis work when there is a community of people editing; try to keep in contact with the other people who show up to edit, as it will encourage them to stick around.

If you have many newcomers you can use a template to welcome them. We've provided a nice basic one at Template:Welcome to get you started, but we encourage you to customize the text and links, and change the picture to one that is important (or funny!) to your community. Friendliness and humor can go a long way in making new visitors feel welcome.

Add content!
Although this is a wiki, your first visitors are not likely to want to jump right in. They need some idea of what your wiki is about first. "Seeding" content is vital to get people interested and to show them what sort of content you want.

You may need to add many articles before people start to join in and add with you -- don't get discouraged. The more content you add, the sooner search engines and real people will find your site useful, and the quicker your small community will start to grow.

Ask for help
The Wikia staff are here to help you succeed with this wiki. If you have problems at any time, are not sure how to make the changes you want to your wiki, or want help customizing your site, then please ask us.

You can email using the form at Special:Contact, you can write to us on our Central user pages, or you can click the "live chat and support" link on the left of any page to go to the Wikia IRC channel (also at irc://irc.freenode.net/wikia). For a list of Wikia staff, see the Wikia Inc. page on Central.

More advice

 * Will Wikis Work? - the first in a set of essays by experienced Founders.
 * Wikia Mentoring Project - get advice and help from others who have started wikis or worked on several.
 * Common mistakes - some of the things it is easy to do wrong.
 * Wikia:Category:Help - a list of the help pages available on the Central Wikia.