UESP Forums

Hello and welcome to the UESP's Forum Wiki Information & FAQ Thread! This thread is intended to answer common questions that I get (or am aware of), assist users interested in becoming editors, and provide some information and links to assist users looking for information on the wiki itself, and wiki policy and guidelines.

The differences between the wiki and forum are many. The two sections of the site feature different policies, staff, members, even markup languages . While both are parts of the UESP, there are few similarities between the two besides the name, a few members of our administrative staff, and our love of the Elder Scrolls. In fact, to properly explain this, I'll need to begin with the basics. So to start...

Getting Started

Just read that and visit the related pages, for an in-depth explanation to the workings of the wiki and how to start contributing. People much smarter than I have long since put together a much more comprehensive guide about how to start, and plenty of people are able and willing to assist you on the way. You should also remember that wiki policy is not the same as the forum rules. Even if you're familiar with the rules of the UESP Forums, you need to read up on UESP Wiki policies and guidelines. But I would like to provide a bit of additional emphasis a few things. Firstly, I would recommend you make an account. While you are free to edit anonymously, there are a multitude of benefits to registering an account.

Sign Up Today!

It takes only a minute, and there are a load of benefits. It allows you and others to more easily track your contributions, gives you a name instead of a bunch of numbers, allows you to have your very own user pages, and grants you additional editing abilities immediately. There is no downside, so why not join? There are few Assuming that you followed my advice, you may be looking for a place to start editing.

Helping Out

Despite people often telling me otherwise, there are tons of ways to help out the site. That article just lists a few of the more common ways you can help out. Once you start editing, you'll often find that there are a more ways to contribute and an ever growing number of things that you'll find needing to be done that you'll never completely fulfill them all. The only real challenge, in my opinion, is finding where to start, not how to proceed. As long as you try to assist the site, you'll almost surely discover that there is more to be done. Whether you wish to add new content by adding walk-throughs for quests, places, and people, or upload new images to accompany articles, start new pages if you find one needed, improve current content by rewriting articles or sections of articles so that all of i's are dotted and t's are crossed or reshooting and editing lower quality images to help meet site standards.

If you spend enough time getting a hang of things, you may find that Recent Changes don't meet site standards, or tarnishes existing content altogether. Just as someone most likely assisted you or altered your early revisions, other users also make mistakes, all of the time. Why not lend a helping hand and stem the flow of mistakes from the source by patrolling recent changes? Similarly, you may find a problem that you need assistance resolving, or you're confused about an edition or the content of an article. Then you'll need to...

Contact Other Users

There are many venues in which you can contact other editors for assistance. The most notable discussion channels being the Community Portal, the Administrator Noticeboard, and a user's talk page. Every user has a talk page, even if it hasn't been created yet. If you made an account, you can find yours here if you're logged in (or in the top right hand corner of the site, along with links to your contributions, user page, and site preferences). With these channels, you should have no problems discussing things and getting questions answered. Speaking of smooth segues...

Questions

While I tried to answer most of the more common ones I hear above, I wish to single out a few specific ones.

I want something specific to edit, but don't know what I should do. Can you give me any ideas?

I get this one a lot, actually. In fact, I find a similarly worded comment about why people won't edit. They want to do something specific, but don't know what. Well, specific editing oppurtunities get fulfilled regularly enough that I can't easily give you one. However, other people will do this for me, automatically! See our Cleanup Category for a list of pages and images that an editor have specifically marked as needing something specifically done. If you're more into adding content, see our Stubs Category. Both should keep you placated indefinitely.

You're an administrator? Surely you jest!

I am in fact, an administrator. UESP Wiki staff is not necessarily UESP Forum staff (and vice-versa). There are a lot of users with special responsibilities and rights on the site. See User Group Rights for a full explanation about who does what.

There is a mistake on/with X. Will you fix it?

Maybe. However, if you've read the guides I've linked to, you can surely figure it out, I have faith in you. Unless it's an administrative issue, there is no need to ask other editors to fix something. While it is useful to point out an issue if you aren't entirely sure about how to fix something, or you lack the ability to. It is less helpful to ask a specific editor to fix something. While they may be able to, bringing it to the site's attention by posting on a talk page or by going to a general discussion channel like the community portal is more likely to see results.

With this, you should be able to figure out how to edit in no time! If you're still unsure of what to do and want more personal assistance, please contact a Mentor. I hope to see you editing in the future!