Help:Glossary

This is a glossary of terms used on Wikia, and on wikis in general, based on the Wikipedia glossary.

Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

 * Admin
 * Short for Administrator. A user with extra technical privileges who does housework.


 * Also used: sysop.


 * Anchor
 * An HTML term for code that lets you link to a specific point in a page, using the "#" character. You can use them to link to a section of a page.

B

 * Blanking
 * Removing all content from a page. Newcomers often do this accidentally.  On the other hand, if blanking an article is done in bad faith, it is vandalism.  If blanking is done to a vandalized brand-new page, it is maintenance, and the page should be deleted by an admin.


 * Block
 * Action by an admin, removing from a certain IP-number or username the ability to edit a wiki. Usually done against addresses that have done vandalism or against users who have been banned.


 * Boilerplate text
 * A standard message which can be added to an article using a template.


 * Broken link
 * Also used: edit link, red link.


 * A link to a nonexistent page, usually colored red.


 * Broken redirect
 * Redirect to a non-existing page. These should usually be removed.


 * Bureaucrat
 * An administrator who also has the ability to turn other users into admins.

C

 * Copyvio


 * Copyright violation.


 * See also Help:Wikia copyrights.


 * Cut and paste move
 * Moving a page by taking the text of the page, and put it into the edit window for the second page. Generally considered worse than the 'move page' option, because it causes the page and its edit history to be in different places. Cut and paste moves can be fixed by administrators.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:How to fix cut and paste moves.

D

 * dab
 * See Disambiguation.


 * Data dump
 * To import material from outside sources into Wikia without editing, formatting and linking. This is often not useful and generally discouraged.


 * See also Wikify.


 * Dead-end page
 * Page that has no links to existing other pages, except perhaps interlanguage links. Special:Deadendpages lists them.


 * De-admin


 * See De-sysop.


 * De-sysop
 * Also used: De-admin.


 * Take away someone's administrator status. Only Wikia Staff have the ability to do this.


 * De-Wikify
 * Also used: Un-Wikify.


 * To remove (de-link) a wikification of an article. This can be done to remove selflinks or excessive common-noun Wikification.


 * Diff
 * The difference between two versions of page, as displayed using the Page history feature, or from recent changes. The versions to compare are encoded in the URL, so you can make a link by copying and pasting it - for instance when discussing a change on an article's talk page.


 * See also MetaWikipedia:Help:Diff.


 * Disambiguation
 * Also used: dab, disambig.


 * The process of resolving the conflict that occurs when articles about two or more different topics have the same natural title.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Disambiguation.


 * Disambiguation page
 * A page that contains various meanings of a word, and refers to the pages where the various meanings are defined.


 * Double redirect
 * A redirect which leads to another redirect. Counter-intuitively, this will not bring one to the final destination, so it needs to be eliminated by linking directly to the target redirect.


 * Dupe
 * Also used: dup.
 * Short for a duplicate article. Often used when identifying a duplicate page that needs to be merged with another.

E

 * Edit conflict
 * Two or more parties both attempt to save different edits to the same page at the same time, causing one to get canceled out.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Edit conflicts.


 * Edit link
 * See Broken link.


 * Edit summary
 * The contents of the "Summary:" field below the edit box on the "Edit this page" page.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Edit summary.


 * Edit war
 * Also used: revert war.


 * Two or more parties continually making their preferred changes to a page, and undoing the changes they don't agree with. Generally, an edit war is the result of an argument on a talk page that could not be resolved.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Edit war.


 * External link
 * Also used: ext. ln, ext lk, or extlink.


 * A link to a website outside of Wikia. The alternatives are an internal link within the same wiki, and an interwiki link to a different Wikia.

G

 * GFDL
 * GNU Free Documentation License. Wikia content is released under this license.


 * See also Help:Wikia copyrights.


 * GPL
 * GNU General Public License. MediaWiki, which runs Wikia, is released under this license.

H

 * History
 * All previous versions of an article, from its creation to its current state. Also called page history.


 * See also: MetaWikipedia:Help:Page history

I

 * IANAL
 * An abbreviation for I Am Not A Lawyer, indicating that an editor is about to give their opinion on a legal matter as they understand it, although they are not qualified and probably don't fully understand the law in question.


 * Internal link
 * A link pointing to another page within the same Wikia by using the wiki markup double square-brackets "" and "" . Sometimes they are referred to as wikilinks.  These links usually show up as blue if they are working and you haven't visited them before, red if they are broken, and purple if they are working and you have visited them before; note that they do not have the arrow symbol characteristic of an external link.


 * Interwiki
 * A link to a non-Wikia wiki.

L

 * Language link
 * See Interwiki.

M

 * MediaWiki
 * The software behind Wikia, and a namespace. Originally developed for Wikipedia.
 * See also Help:MediaWiki, Help:MediaWiki namespace.


 * Merge
 * Taking the text of two pages, and turning it into a single page.


 * Mirror
 * A website other than Wikia that uses content original to Wikia as a source for at least some of its content. This is allowed under the GFDL.

N

 * Namespace
 * A way to classify pages. Wikia has namespaces for the main content, pages about the project (which on many wikis will be in the main namespace), user pages (User:), special pages (Special:), MediaWiki pages (MediaWiki:) and talk pages (Talk:, Wikipedia talk:, and User talk:).


 * See also Help:Namespace.


 * Newbie test
 * Also used: newb test, noob test.


 * An edit made by a newcomer to the wiki, just to see if the "edit" link really does what it sounds like. Newcomers should use sandbox for this purpose.


 * NPOV
 * Neutral point of view, or the agreement to report subjective opinions objectively, so as not to cause edit wars between opposing sides. As a verb, to remove biased statements or slanted phrasing. As an adjective, it indicates that an article fits this idea of neutrality. Commonly used at Wikipedia, where NPOV is a primary policy.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view.

O

 * Orphan
 * A page with no links from other pages. You can view lists of orphaned articles and images.

P

 * Piped link
 * A link where the displayed text is not the name of the target article. Such links are created using the pipe character "|" e.g. Displayed text . The pipe trick is a software feature that generates the displayed text for you in certain circumstances.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Piped link.


 * POV
 * Point of view. Often used negatively as an adjective to indicate bias, as in "That reply was POV, not neutral.".


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Point of view.


 * <div id="Project_namespace" style="font-weight: bold">Project namespace
 * The project namespace is a namespace dedicated to providing information about a Wikia. At Wikipedia, this is used to separate policies from encyclopedia articles. It is less commonly used at Wikia.


 * <div id="Protected_page" style="font-weight: bold">Protected page
 * A page that cannot be edited except by admins. Usually this is done to cool down an edit war.

R

 * RC
 * An abbreviation for Special:Recentchanges


 * Redirect
 * Also used: redir.


 * A page title which, when requested, merely sends the reader to another page. This is used for synonyms and ease of linking. For example, copyright redirects to Help:Wikia copyrights.


 * See also MetaWikipedia:Help:Redirect.


 * <div id="Red_link" style="font-weight: bold">Red link
 * See Broken link.


 * Revert
 * An edit that reverses changes made by someone else.
 * See also Help:Reverting


 * Revert war
 * See Edit war.


 * RfA
 * Requests for adminship. A page where users can ask to be made admins on a wiki.


 * rm
 * Remove. Used in edit summaries to indicate that a particular piece of text or formatting has been deleted.


 * Rollback
 * To change a page back to the version before the last edit. Admins have special possibilities to do this more easily.


 * Root
 * The generally used top level category.


 * rv
 * Revert. An edit summary indicating that the page has been reverted to a previous version, often because of vandalism.


 * See also Help:Reverting.

S

 * <div id="s/word1/word2/" style="font-weight: bold">s/word1/word2/
 * Replace word1 with word2. Used in edit summaries. It is a reference to the command for "find and replace" in languages such as sed and Perl. s/word1/word2/g means "replace all occurrences of word1 with word2" (g stands for "global").


 * Sandbox
 * A sandbox is a page that users may edit however they want. This is for users to experiment and gain familiarity with Wiki markup.


 * <div id="Section_editing" style="font-weight: bold">Section editing
 * Using the 'edit' links to the right of the page, one can get an edit window containing only part of the page, making it easier to find the exact spot where one wants to edit. Javascript is needed for section editing. You can turn section editing off in your preferences under the "Enable section editing via [edit] links" option.


 * Self-link
 * A Wikilink contained in an article that points the reader to that same article, e.g. linking Help:Contents in the article "Help:Contents". Such links are automatically displayed as strongly emphasised text rather than links, but the more complex case of a link which redirects to the same article is not, and should be de-wikified.


 * Skin
 * The appearance theme in Special:Preferences. Currently, five are available: Standard, Nostalgia, Cologne Blue, Monobook, and MySkin.


 * See also Help:Style.


 * <div id="Sock_puppet" style="font-weight: bold">Sock puppet
 * Another user account created secretly by an existing user of the wiki, generally to manufacture the illusion of support in a vote or argument.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Sock puppet.


 * <div id="Soft_redirect" style="font-weight: bold">Soft redirect
 * A very short article or page that essentially points the reader in the direction of another page. Used in cases where a normal redirect is inappropriate for various reasons (e.g. it is a cross-wiki redirect)


 * See also Help:Soft redirect.


 * sp
 * Short for spelling correction. Used in edit summaries.


 * Split
 * Separating a single page into two or more pages.


 * Stub
 * An article usually consisting of one short paragraph or less.


 * Sub-stub
 * A very short stub. For example, an article that is no more than a simple definition ("An airplane is a type of winged flying vehicle").


 * Subpage
 * A page connected to a parent page. You can only create subpages in certain namespaces.


 * Sysop
 * See Admin.

T

 * <div id="Talk_page" style="font-weight: bold">Talk page
 * A page reserved for discussion. All pages within Wikia (except talk pages themselves!) have talk pages attached to them.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Talk page.


 * Template
 * A way of automatically including the contents of one page within another page, used for boilerplate text, navigational aids, etc. Templates on the Central Wikia can be used on any other Wikia (see Help:Shared templates for details).


 * See also: Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Template namespace.


 * Troll
 * A user who incites or engages in disruptive behavior (trolling).


 * See also Internet troll, Wikipedia:Wikipedia:What is a troll.


 * Tyop
 * A cute misspelling of "typo". Used as an edit summary when correcting typos.

U

 * Un-wiki
 * Going against the character of a wiki. Usually saying that something is un-wiki means that it makes editing more difficult or impossible.


 * <div id="User_page" style="font-weight: bold">User page
 * A personal page for editors at Wikia. Most people use their pages to introduce themselves and to keep various personal notes and lists. They are also used to communicate with other users via the user talk pages.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:User page.

V

 * Vandalbot
 * Some kind of bot being used for vandalism or spamming. Recognizable by the fact that one or a few IP-addresses make many similar clearly vandalistic edits in a short time.


 * See also Help:Blocking, Vandalbot.


 * Vandalism
 * Deliberate defacement of wiki pages. This can be by deleting text or writing nonsense, bad language etcetera. The term is often incorrectly used to discredit the views of an opponent in edit wars.


 * VfD
 * An abbreviation used at Wikipedia, meaning Votes for Deletion. This is one method users at Wikia might choose to decide which pages are deleted.

W

 * Watchlist
 * A set of pages selected by the user, who can then click on My watchlist to see recent changes to those pages.


 * See also: MetaWikipedia:Help:Watching pages.


 * Wikia
 * The company that owns Wikia. See Help:About Wikia. Also, the project run by Wikia to create communities which will develop free content using MediaWiki.


 * Wikian


 * A contributor to a Wikia project.


 * Wikibreak
 * Also used: Wikivacation.


 * When a regular editor of Wikia takes a break from the project.


 * See also Wikibreak.


 * Wikify
 * To format using wiki markup (as opposed to plain text or HTML) and add internal links to material, incorporating it into the whole of Wikipedia. Noun: Wikification. Sometimes abbreviated wfy.


 * Wikilink
 * A link to another page on the same wiki, as opposed to an external link.


 * <div id="Wiki_markup" style="font-weight: bold">Wiki markup
 * Also used: wiki text, wikitext.


 * Code like HTML, but simplified and more convenient, for example bold instead of bold . It is the source code stored in the database and shown in the edit box. Searching by the MediaWiki software is done in the wikitext, as opposed to searching by Google, which is done in the resulting text. The size of a page is the size of the wikitext.


 * See also Help:Introduction.


 * Wikimedia
 * Properly Wikimedia Foundation Inc., the non-profit organization that runs Wikipedia and other projects. Wikimedia is not officially affiliated with Wikia or Wikia. The name is often confused with MediaWiki.


 * See also Wikimedia.


 * Wikipedia
 * A project run by Wikimedia to create a free content encyclopedia using wiki software.


 * See also Wikipedia.


 * Wikiquette
 * The Wikia etiquette of working with others on the project.


 * See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Wikiquette.


 * Wikistress
 * Personal stress or tension induced by editing wikis, or more often by being involved in a conflict with another editor.


 * See also Wikistress.