Help:Wiki-style forums/set up

Wiki-style forums are included by default in all wikias. If you need to recreate the forum set up for any reason (such as the original being deleted), you can follow the steps below to recreate it:

Initial setup

Setting up a new wiki-style forum involves copying a set of pages to your local Wikia. This page describes a basic set-up that adds two forums. Many aspects of this can be customized, but this set-up gives a good place to start.

• Copy the following pages to your local wikia (all pages below are on the Starter Wiki):
  1. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Forum:Index%7CForum:Index}}
  2. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Forum:Help desk|Forum:Help desk}}
  3. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Forum:Watercooler%7CForum:Watercooler}}
  4. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Template:Forumheader/Help desk|Template:Forumheader/Help desk}}
  5. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Template:Forumheader/Watercooler%7CTemplate:Forumheader/Watercooler}}
  6. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Template:Forumheader%7CTemplate:Forumheader}}
  7. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Category:Forums%7CCategory:Forums}}
  8. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Category:Help desk|Category:Help desk}}
  9. {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Category:Watercooler%7CCategory:Watercooler}}

• If your wikia has customized CSS, ensure that the following CSS is in the local MediaWiki:Wikia.css (for the Wikia skin) and MediaWiki:Common.css (for the Monobook skin).

/* Forum formatting - Algorithm & Splarka */
.forumheader { border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; background-color: #F9F9F9; margin-top: 1em; padding: 12px; }
.forumlist td span { display: block; padding-left: 10px; font-size: smaller; }
.forumlist td span a { text-decoration: none; }
.forumlist td span.forum_author { padding-left: 30px; }
.forumlist td.forum_edited a { text-decoration: none; }
.forumlist td.forum_title a { padding-left: 20px; }
.forumlist td.forum_title span a { padding-left: 0px; }
.forumlist td.forum_title a.forum_new { font-weight: bold; background: url(http://images.wikia.com/www/images/4/4e/Forum_new.gif) center left no-repeat; padding-left: 20px; }
.forumlist td.forum_title a.forum_new:visited { font-weight: normal; background: none; padding-left: 20px; }
.forumlist th.forum_title { padding-left: 20px; }

• Save {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Image:Forum new.gif|w:c:starter:Image:Forum new.gif}} to your hard drive, and then upload to your local wikia with the same name.

• Add a link to Forum:Index to the wiki navigation.

Testing the setup

To test the forums, you can add welcome messages for each section, similar to those at {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Forum:Welcome to the help desk|Welcome to the help desk}} and {{#NewWindowLink:http://starter.wikia.com/index.php?title=Forum:Welcome to the watercooler|Welcome to the watercooler}}.

Adding additional forums

• See Help:Wiki-style forums

Further help and feedback

• Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
• Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
• Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article