Unfortunate Spacemen Wiki:FAQ

How can I find help?
A lot of our editors are regularly active in our Discord servers. You can feel free to mention any questions you have there.

Additionally, feel free to post on the talk page of any of the staff (moderators and administrators). They would be glad to help with any issues.

Are staff hired by New Blood?
No. All editors are volunteers only. There are a number of game's representatives however. Please do not contact them with queries; instead, pose questions to the Discord servers or a discussion page.

Do staff receive 'insider info' on Unfortunate Spacemen?
No. They do not have any secret information regarding upcoming patches, items or gameplay changes. Information on updates are obtained by talking to the developers and monitoring Twitter. Information on items and gameplay changes are often found on forums and are simply collected by editors and put into articles.

How can I become a moderator?
There is no 'application process', and instead, qualified users will be selected when the need arises for new moderators. You can ask community administration if you need more information on that question.

How quickly is new content added to the Wiki?
As quickly as possible. Users attempt to gather all the information they can and add it to the wiki as it is received from game developers. Pictures, galleries and undocumented content will be added as they are taken or discovered.

Before I get started editing, what should I do?
The first thing to do is read through the Help:Contents page which can be found on the left toolbar under "Help". Here you can find information about editing and the wiki in general. Check out the Tasks page to see what might need to be done.

Where can I find a listing of all the code syntax for editing?
For quick reference, Wikipedia has a Cheatsheet with some of the most-used code that applies to wiki editing in general. It also has a full Wiki markup page that contains most of the code that would ever need to be used.

What do the colored plus and minus numbers mean next to an edit?
They represent the number of bytes (or characters) added or removed in a particular edit. For example, (+264) means there were 264 bytes in total added to the page. (0) indicates that content was changed, but the amount of bytes remains the same.

These numbers are not related to points or scoring in any way. They simply indicate at a glance what was changed in one particular edit.

I made an edit and it disappeared, where did it go?
Check the article history by clicking the 'History' tab at the top of the page. It shows the edit history of the article and a reason should have been given for the removal of an edit.

Where can I track my personal edit progress?
If you are logged in you can either click on the 'Preferences' button in the upper right corner drop-down list of the page to see your total editcount, or for a more elaborate overview of your edits you can click on 'Contributions' which is also located in the upper right corner of the drop-down list. This will give you an overview of all of your edits and information on when they were added, if they have been undone, and allows you to search for certain edits if required, among other useful features.

Where do I go to discuss a page's content or edits I have made on a page?
Post on the article's talk page. A link to the talk page can be found at the top of any article, labelled 'discussion'. Here you may discuss the page and any changes you think may be made. Be sure to sign the ends of your comments by adding ~.

Is there a way to automate tedious or repetitive edits?
If the scale of the changes to be made is large, it is best that you propose the change on Unfortunate Spacemen Wiki:Discussion or another appropriate talk page to first gain consensus. Once it has been decided what to do, it is best to then contact a user who maintains a bot account (see Help:Group rights). These users may offer assistance in automating a number of tasks.

Someone has made a bad edit, what should I do?
If you feel it is in your ability to correct the bad edit, please do so by clicking on 'View history' on the upper right corner of the page and clicking the 'Undo edit' button next to the name of the last editor. Make sure to note clearly why the edit is being undone, as it is important to make this clear to all editors to prevent misunderstandings. Additionally, you can post to the talk page explaining in more depth the reason for undoing the edit.

If you feel you cannot rectify the bad edit please contact another editor who can. The best way to do this is to ask someone on the Discord server.

What is a talk page?
Every article or page has a talk page associated with it. This is a place where editors can discuss the page in detail regarding edits or content. To get to a page's talk page, click the Discussion tab at the top of the page.

When should I use talk pages?
You should use the talk page when:
 * You want to change something major about the page; e.g. add or remove an entire section
 * There is a dispute regarding a specific edit
 * To discuss new content or changes to a game item

How do I use talk pages?
Post like you would on a regular article, but make a new heading for new topics. If you are replying to a previous editor, tab over your comment using colons in order to make it easier to read. Once you are done typing your comment, sign it by adding ( ~ ) to the end of your comment. This will add your name, a link to your userpage and the date of your post. For an example of a formatted talk page, see Unfortunate Spacemen Wiki:Discussion.

My talk page is getting really long, what should I do? Should I delete it?
The most popular method for maintaining the size of talk pages is to archive them. See Help:Archiving for more information.

Alternatively, you can delete the text from the page and provide a link to the revision with the text (either by copying the "Permanent link" in the sidebar or selecting one of the links in the page history).

How do I upload images?
First of all, see the image guidelines for information regarding images and uploading. On the left sidebar, there is a link to "Upload file". Here you may choose a file from your computer to upload to the wiki. be sure to describe it well in the description box. Also, choose the appropriate licensing for the image. Add categories to the image as well before uploading by adding them to the summary box (Ex: add for any images involving weaponry). Before uploading, ensure that there are not already images that could be used instead of the one you are uploading by searching for it.

How do I change an uploaded image?
You need to upload a new image over top of it. Simply go to the file's page and click "Upload a new version of this image". Sometimes the image may not update right away and may continue to display the old image for a while. This is expected and it will update automatically given time. Please do not continue to upload the updated image.

What if I want to upload an image for my userpage?
In that case, upload the file as usual, but add "User USERNAMEHERE" to the front of the image name. For example: [[Media:User_TheDeiWolf_Love.png|User TheDeiWolf Love.png]]. Also, under licensing, choose "User page image".

Why do some images appear stretched or sometimes appear as the wrong image? Why don't images appear immediately after uploading?
Images uploaded to the Unfortunate Spacemen Wiki are placed into a "Cache" where they are stored and are shown to users. Often, this cache takes some time to update when new images are uploaded to the Wiki. In this case, the image may change resolution, but will not appear as the correct instance. If this happens, do not upload again. The cache will update within the next few hours automatically and your image will be displayed.

There's a poor image that needs to be improved, what should I do?
Go to the file page and click the "Edit" button. In the edit box, add to the page. This will add a template letting editors know that the image needs improving.

What is Discord?
Discord is an American VoIP, instant messaging and digital distribution platform designed for creating communities.. Users of the wiki often use Discord servers to collaborate and discuss edits to the wiki as well as current USM events. There are many users in the New Blood as well as official USM Wiki Discord server to assist users with any questions that they may have. For more information see Unfortunate Spacemen Wiki:Discord.