Help:Introduction
From The Film Guide
"The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second." —Jean-Luc Godard, Le Petit Soldat (1963)
[edit] Welcome!
This is THEfilmGUIDE, a Wikia devoted exclusively to the film world. All of the articles in the Guide contain information about the motion picture industry, as well as pages about legendary film crew and film companies.
Here at the Guide, our aim is to provide its users and visitors—from, and at, Wikia, Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database and elsewhere—with as much accurate information as possible about every aspect of the film world. As with Wikimedia and MediaWiki, all of THEfilmGUIDE's text is free to use and edit under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). This comes as an advantage over the more well-known IMDb, where information submitted to its editors can take days (or even weeks) to show up on pages for films.
[edit] Our 6 Basic Rules
- Write decent, encyclopedic articles: These can be either written on your own, or copied directly from Wikipedia (another free resource).
- If you are editing Wikipedia articles into the Guide, put the {{wikipedia}} template at the end of the article. Or, if the Wikipedia article name does not correspond with THEfilmGUIDE's, put {{wikipediapar}} instead. (After putting in this template, insert a vertical line [|] followed by the Wikipedia article name.)
- Please note that all of THEfilmGUIDE pages about films must contain Infobox Movie templates, following Wikipedia's example. When starting an article as such, put in the {{Infobox Movie}} or {{Infobox Film}} tag and fill in the details using the given code.
- Avoid direct plagiarism from other sites: Pages on the Guide will look fine as long as users stick to the above tips. But please do not steal information from other websites—this will lead to a serious warning as shown on the {{copyvio}} template.
- As is the case on Wikipedia, always cite your sources when writing an article.
- Do not vandalise: From time to time, pages on Wikimedia and Wikia projects get vandalised by inexperienced users or spammers. In most cases, a {{delete}} template will be placed at the start of such an article. If you want to keep THEfilmGUIDE as user-friendly as can be, erase the old text and create a new article instead.
- ADMINISTRATORS: If the article name is unrelated to the film industry, please delete the content and block the original writers if needed. A list of deleted articles can be found in this log.
- Avoid excessive profanity: Try not to use strong language, unless it is necessary (e.g. you are quoting from a film).
- Avoid inappropriate material: Pages containing inappropriate material (i.e. derogatory non-encyclopedic comments) will be deleted, unless it is on a talk page. Any explicit sexual pictures will be removed.
- Be bold while writing articles: If you feel a page is too insufficient, then click on the "edit" tab on top of the article. Who knows—the page you expand on might someday become useful!
- If you have read all of those rules and understood them, then you are on the way to becoming an experienced user on THEfilmGUIDE!
- Thank you, the visitor and user, for taking part in what will soon outrival other movie websites.
[edit] Tips for first-time editors
Please make Help:Contents the first place you visit. It will have you editing in no time!
Is this your first time here? Please consider feeling your way around, learning how to edit by hitting the "edit" tab, and not starting off your career as an editor by vandalizing pages (if you add things to pages to "test" how to edit, it's vandalism if you hit the 'save page' button.)
There will be a great temptation to make a dozen edits in your first hour or two here. That's GREAT! But please make them quality edits that will make you a valued member of a team, not a "spoiler" who ruins what others have worked hard to create. Be aware that others will soon build on your good work and expand articles you create. That's the nature of Wikis!
While it's not required before you start editing, registering and adopting a User name is a good idea. When people see your IP number - rather than a User name - they may assume you are here to vandalize pages, not contribute. If you are here to contribute, you'll want to establish a "good name" so let's see what that name is!
