Help:Start a new community

Any logged-in user can create a community (known as a "wiki") on Fandom at any time through the creation form. Below we walk through what to do and how to go about creating a community.

Before you start

 * Plan  your project and decide what it will be about.


 * efs


 * Click on the magnifying glass in the top navigation bar on fandom.com in order to see the search box. After writing the name of a community and hitting enter/clicking the arrow pointing to the right, you will be redirected to a search results page where you will see results from Fandom articles (on the left side) and community results on the right module. Click on the View More Wiki Communities to see all the results.


 * Read Fandom's Terms of Use — become familiar with what is and isn't okay.


 * Read Fandom's Community Creation Policy — communities must be freely licensed, publicly editable, and free of abuse.

Create your community

 * 1) Click on the Start a Wiki button in the global navigation bar at the top of the page. This button brings you to the the creation form.
 * 2) Decide on a name for the community. — To help users find you in search engines and help your rankings, try not to use obscure names or -pedia. Instead, it's best to use common keywords or titles for your topic.
 * 3) Choose the URL or address for your site — Similar to the name, the URL or web address you choose for your site will affect how easy it is for people to find your site and understand what it is about. The URL automatically changes to a URL version of the name of the wiki you are creating when changing the wiki name. However, this can be changed.
 * 4) Duplicate wikis - if Fandom detects that you may be creating a wiki on a topic that already exists, you will see a warning. It will tell you which other wiki(s) cover your topic and encourage you to edit there instead. If you want to proceed and start your own wiki anyway, you will be asked to give a reason for why it should exist later.
 * 5) What's your wiki about? - Describe your community's topic briefly. This text will automatically display on your wikis main page. This can be skipped and changed at any time.
 * 6) Checkbox - Is this community directed to children under the age of 13? If so, please keep in mind Fandom's Terms of Use for users under that age.
 * 7) Choose a Hub - A category that best describes the subject of your community.
 * 8) Seven categories are available: Games, Movies, Comics, Books, TV, Music, and Lifestyle.
 * 9) Eight additional categories are also available to choose from: Anime, Books, Comics, Fanon, Movies, Music, TV, and Video Games.
 * 10) Hit Create a new wiki. If your wiki was previously flagged as a potential duplicate, you will now be asked to give a reason for why it should be created anyway. If not, you will move right to the next step.
 * 11) Choose your theme - A list of premade themes can be chosen from. This includes the colors of your wiki's background, links, buttons, headers, and page colors. You can skip this and choose or make a personalized one later in Help:Theme Designer.
 * 12) Upload a graphic wordmark: take a look at Help:Theme Designer.
 * 13) Create a favicon: check out Help:Favicon.
 * 14) Congratulations! You've now created a community!

Create the main page
The main page is just that; the page everyone sees. When you first create your community, there is some default text that will appear on the main page. All of this can be modified/removed once you start to create your main page:
 * Welcome to (community name here): is the description you wrote when you described your community's topic.


 * Describe your topic: Here you can write a more detailed description of what your community is about. If some description was already added in the creation form, the description section will automatically modify from its default text after the wiki's creation.


 * Latest activity: All of the activity on your community will appear here.

A few things to do in the beginning:
First impressions count. Your main page is what nearly everyone will see when they visit, so there are a few things to do in the beginning that are important:
 * Make sure your main page clearly communicates what your community is about. Write a short introduction to what the community is about.
 * Link to new articles and categories on your front page as you create them so you can keep things organized and this will increase search engine optimization.
 * Create a "to do" list so new visitors know how they can help and what to add. Be specific about what the community needs.

Create content
The most valuable thing you can do when you start a community is to write article pages. This is called "seeding". It will give visitors and potential editors an idea of what to start from. The articles don't have to be long or perfect from the start. Remember, it's a community and others can help build on what you start.

You may need to add dozens of articles before people start to join in. Don't get discouraged. The more content you add, the sooner the search engines and potential editors will find your site and the quicker your small project will start to grow.

Use the Wiki Progress Bar to get your community off and running by following the tasks listed in your admin dashboard.

Create your profile and user page
Add a friendly face: Your profile page is a chance to tell people about yourself. So is your user page. You can keep it as simple as you want or go all out. The important thing is to give people a way to see "who" is behind this community.

Keep an eye on your community
We suggest that you turn on email notifications for your talk page/message wall and community in your preferences. If any visitors leave you a message on your talk page/message wall while you're away from the community, you'll receive a reminder to come look at your talk page/message wall. You will also see a bubble in global navigation next time you log in.

As the founder of your community, you can als emails about who edits, joins, or views your community. You can choose which emails to receive in your preferences in the 'Email' tab. The 'Watchlist' tab also allows you to select what content you want added to your watchlist, thus what articles you will receive emails for when they are edited.

Welcome everyone!
Keep an eye on recent changes, and when you see someone new edit the community, add a nice welcome message to their talk page or message wall as soon as you can! Communities 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.

Friendliness and humor can go a long way in making new visitors feel welcome.

Other adviceFurther help and feedback
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