Comms 103: DJBWiki (An Introduction)

Introduction

WikiWelcome

The Dark Brotherhood Wiki is the single greatest resource the Brotherhood has to offer for both in-character and out-of-character information. With just a few tips, anyone can easily use the Wiki to learn or add information pertaining to every facet of the Brotherhood - from personal characters to event and worldbuilding pages.

The purpose of this course is to help familiarize you with how to access information on the Wiki and start creating your own content.

Resources

To help you delve fully into the Brotherhood Wiki, there is a complete, step-by-step guide available as well as numerous resources that explain the various methods to use the Wiki Markup language.

BeginnersGuide

  • Step-by-Step Guide: A simple, step-by-step guide outlining how to make use of the Wiki
  • DJBWiki Staff: Members of the Wiki Staff are there to assist you with your Wiki needs and can also help you move or delete pages.
  • Wiki Help: This section of the Wiki provides a great deal of information on how to go about editing pages, as well as tips and tricks on how to achieve certain effects with the Wiki markup.

Navigating the Wiki

Search

There are several ways to navigate the Wiki, and most of you have made use of either the main Wikipedia site or the Star Wars Wookieepedia. If you know what you're looking for, or have a general idea, the best method is to make use of the Wiki's search function. The search field is found on the top right of the page in the DJB Wiki navigation menu. Simply type out the page you want to find and either hit "enter" or click one of the buttons to the right of the text box. It will bring you up a list of possible matches. Pages are sensitive to correct usage of punctuation marks.

If you’re not entirely sure what term to search for, an alternative method is to make use of the categories. On the Wiki's main page, under Explore the Brotherhood, you can find a group of categories for characters, locations, events, starships and Clans within the Brotherhood. These will give you a good start to familiarize yourself with the Brotherhood or your unit. You could also start from the very root of the Wiki and click the "Contents" link under the “Wiki Navigation” menu item. From there, you can search to your heart's content.

  • Dark Brotherhood Information contains a list of pages and categories that help explain specific aspects of the Brotherhood in greater deal. To learn more about the Brotherhood or one of its many activities, this is the first place to look.
  • Unit Categories will help you find all categories related to your unit and all the categories within.
  • Image Categories contains all the images uploaded to the Wiki and is the first place to look for useful or pre-existing images to add to your page.

Creating an Account

To make your account for the wiki, you simply need to visit the Wiki while signed into the main Brotherhood website, click the person icon to the right of the search bar, hit “Log in with DJB”, and give the Wiki access to your dossier.

Now you're ready to start editing!

Creating a Character Page

The focus of this section of the course will NOT be how to actually create your own page, but rather how to properly design your character and flesh out the content. Currently, the Brotherhood exists in the Star Wars timeline in 42 ABY. This means that your character and its history must be relevant to this era of the Star Wars universe and not, for example, have been born in the era of the Old Republic.

To begin, your character page should cover the basics. Below the character infobox (see the guide below), you'll want to add an overall summary of your character that people can read quickly. This helps to establish who you are and where you fit into the Brotherhood in a paragraph or two. Consider including at least your rank and House or Clan affiliation.

After the summary comes your first heading — Character History. This is the personal history of your character, told in the third person. It should outline the following:

  • Where your character came from
  • How they grew up
  • How they joined the Brotherhood

Go into as much detail as you feel comfortable, but remember you are not writing a story. There should be no dialogue, and the events of your life should be outlined in a neutral voice. On the Wiki, you're a historian. The best way to obtain examples is to read other people’s pages to grasp the difference.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Dark Brotherhood rarely plays directly with Star Wars canon. This means that your character should not have any close or unique relationships with established characters. You can't be Vader's long-lost, super-secret apprentice, Luke's best friend, or any character to that effect. Anything deemed inappropriate for DB canon will be changed to conform to this guideline.

More information can be found in the Character Page Guide.

Avoiding Common Mistakes

In this last section, we cover some of the common mistakes made by Wiki beginners and how you can avoid them.

  • Show Preview – When editing the page of a Wiki, make sure to use the Show Preview button to view your work and then continue editing the page until you are finished and satisfied with the way the page appears in preview mode. Do not submit each small edit you make when you're doing a lot of work.
  • Categorizing Pages – Categories help keep specific types of pages tied together so they're easy to find and compare with similar pages. All Wiki pages MUST have a category. Here is a list of Categories.
  • Duplicate Images - When adding images, check the existing Image Categories to see if what you want to add already exists.
  • Naming Pages – When choosing a name for your character page, make sure it reflects the name on your Dark Brotherhood dossier. For other types of pages, just ensure that name is not already in use and properly reflects the content of the page.
  • Ask for help – Aside from the staff, a lot of your Clan or House members will have made use of the Wiki and can provide you with help simply by asking them through email or on Discord. It never hurts to ask, so make sure to do so if you're confused about something.
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