Help:Getting started

Welcome to the Scioly.org Wiki! The Wiki is a resource that anyone can edit created by and for Science Olympiad competitors. Editing a wiki can be confusing if you’ve never done it before, so this page contains some tips on how to get started. If you're having trouble reading an image, click on it to view it in a larger size.

Creating an Account

To edit the Scioly.org Wiki, you need to create an account on Scioly.org. Luckily, signing up is free! To create an account, click on one of the login buttons at the top right corner of the page.

Click the register button in the bottom left corner of the page that pops up. Read and accept the terms that pop up, and then fill out your account information. Once you submit your registration, you should receive a confirmation email. If that email never arrives, contact a site administrator on the Scioly.org Discord.

Once you’ve activated your account, you can log in and edit to your heart's content!

Getting Around

Once you've made an account, you should see some new links where the login button used to be.

• Username: The first link leads to your userpage. This is a page all about you! Userpages always start with the prefix "User:".
• Talk: This link leads to your talkpage. Users can leave you messages here, and you can also leave other users messages on their talkpage. User talkpages always start with "User talk:".
• Preferences: This link leads to your preferences, which let you adjust some settings like how the date is displayed and how the editor works.
• Watchlist: This link leads to your watchlist, which is a list of pages you want to keep track of. Your watchlist will show you every time a page you watch is edited and how it was changed. By default, every page you edit is added to your watchlist (though this can be adjusted in preferences).
• Contributions: This link leads to your contributions, which lets you see every edit you've ever made and when you made it. You can also search for specific edits.
• Log out: This link does exactly what it says: logs you out of Scioly.org.

The left side of a page has some useful links as well.

• Main Page: Takes you to the Main Page, the first page you see when you visit the Scioly.org Wiki.
• Recent changes: Takes you to Special:RecentChanges. This page displays the 50 most recent edits over the last 7 days by default, but this can be adjusted if you'd like.
• Random page: Takes you to a random page on the Scioly.org Wiki.
• MediaWiki help: The software that runs this website is called MediaWiki. It's the same software used to run sites like Wikipedia or other wikis. By clicking this link, you can get help with things like creating pages, making tables, or just how a wiki works.
• What links here: Takes you to a list of every page that links to the page you're viewing. This can be useful if you're trying to find out what tournaments a school has competed at.
• Related changes: Takes you to a list of changes made to pages that either link to or are linked to by the page you're viewing. For example, if you're looking at the page for a state like New York, you could see all the changes made to pages about schools or tournaments in New York.
• Upload file: Takes you to Special:Upload, which lets you upload images or documents to the Scioly.org Wiki.
• Special pages: Useful for powerusers. This page is a list of pages with special functions like showing the longest or oldest pages on the Scioly.org Wiki.
• Printable version: Allows you to print a formatted version of the wiki page. Ctrl + P on Windows or ⌘ + P on Mac will also accomplish the same thing.
• Permanent link: Wiki pages can be edited by anyone and often change over time. This link will always link to the version of the page as it currently exists, which can be useful for archival purposes.
• Page information: Lets you view fun facts about the page you're viewing like how long it is or when it was created.

If this seems like a lot of information, it's because it is. You can use a wiki any way you like, so these links are here for your convenience. You don't have to use all of them, and as you use the site you'll figure out what's useful to you.

Creating your Userpage and Making your First Edit

Every person who creates an account on Scioly.org has their own userpage. This is a great place to show off your medals, tell us about yourself, or to just test your edits before you put them on a page. Your userpage can be as complicated or as simple as you want.

To get started, click on the link to your username in the top-right corner of the page. This link is probably red, which means the page doesn't exist yet. Pages that do exist have blue links.

Once you click on it, you’ll be met with a page that doesn’t exist similar to the screenshot above. Click “Create” in the upper right hand corner next to the search box.

Once the page loads, you’ll be greeted with a popup. Click “Start editing” and you’ll be taken to VisualEditor.

VisualEditor is the default way to edit pages on Scioly.org. You can type anything you like into the box and immediately see how it will look on the page, making it simple and easy to contribute. There is another more advanced way to edit pages using the source editor. For more information on using the source editor, see Help:Source editing. Please note: VisualEditor does not currently work on pages with a forward slash in the name like Fossils/Fossil List or Dynamic Planet/Earth's Fresh Waters. If you want to edit these pages, you will have to use the source editor.

VisualEditor has a few different parts. Using it is like using an application like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. At the top you have a toolbar which lets you do things like format text or insert images. The parts of the toolbar are explained below.

1. Undo and redo: These buttons can fix mistakes you make while editing.
2. Format paragraph: This dropdown menu allows you to insert headings into a page. This can be useful for adding new sections to pages.
3. Style text: This allows you to format your text with bold, italics, strikethrough, and more. You can also remove formatting using this menu.
4. Link: There are two types of links on the Scioly.org Wiki: internal and external. Internal links link to other pages on the Wiki, while external links are links to other websites. To insert either type of link, use this menu.
5. Structure: This menu allows you to create bulleted lists, numbered lists, and indent paragraphs.
6. Insert: This is one of the most important menus on the toolbar. This menu allows you to add images, tables, and templates to pages.
7. Special Characters: Science uses a lot of Greek letters or other special characters like the degrees symbol. You can insert those characters directly into a page using this menu.
8. Help: If you don’t know how to do something or if you have any technical issues, click this button. There is a link back to this guide and a feedback page to document any bugs.
9. Edit notices: Sometimes pages will have notices, like if you try to edit a page that doesn’t currently exist or that was previously deleted. VisualEditor will show these notices here.
10. Page options: Here you can add categories to pages, use find and replace, and get a list of the templates that are used on it (as well as other things).
11. Switch editor: This button allows you to switch to the source editor. To switch back to the visual editor, click on the icon again.

As you can see, VisualEditor is a powerful tool with a lot of options. Try clicking around to see for yourself!

Below the toolbar are the contents of the page you’re trying to edit. Since your userpage is blank, try typing a sentence or two about yourself. This can include the events you do, what state you compete in, or anything you want! Once you’re done, you can click the “Save page” button.

This will give you a place to describe the edit you made and to review your changes before you save them. It’s always a good idea to double check that you didn’t change something you didn’t mean to. Once you’re done, click “Save page” again and admire your handiwork.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You made an account, created your userpage, and made your first edits. You should be familiar enough with the site to edit any page you’d like now. As a reminder, please read the Wiki guidelines before editing.

If you’re ready to learn how to use the source editor, see Help:Source editing.

If you want to learn more about editing the Scioly.org Wiki and how wikis work, see Help:Editing.

More Help

A lot of this site’s functionality is based on the English Wikipedia, which has very thorough instructions on how to edit pages and use tools like VisualEditor. If you still need help with VisualEditor, feel free to look at Wikipedia’s documentation on VisualEditor.

VisualEditor also has its own help page, which you can view here.

Not all the information on these pages may be applicable to Scioly.org, but they may still be helpful when learning to edit.

If you have any questions, contact a staff member by leaving a message on their talk page. The Scioly.org Discord also has a dedicated #wiki channel for asking questions about editing the Scioly.org Wiki. Happy editing!