If you are looking for some information and can't find it, feel free to post a question on this article's talk page.
About PvXwiki[]
The main purpose of this wiki is to provide a platform for sharing builds among players of the online roleplaying game Guild Wars. Everybody is allowed and encouraged to
- browse this wiki for builds that might be interesting, and use them in the game,
- give his/her opinion on existing builds by rating and discussing them,
- post new ideas for builds, thus contributing to the database and getting feedback on what other people think about these ideas.
There are many connections from here to Guild Wiki. There, detailed information on Guild Wars, like descriptions of skills, attributes, items and a lot more are hosted, which can help to understand how each build works. A close connection to the game itself is established by the PvXcode mechanism which allows easy transfer of builds between PvXwiki and Guild Wars.
PvXwiki is based on the MediaWiki engine. A lot of helpful documentation on browsing, editing and more is available at the MediaWiki Help pages. More introductory information on PvXwiki can (soon) be found on the PvXwiki:About page. The Community Portal is another good starting point to see what's currently going on.
Browsing[]
The main starting point for looking for builds is the Main Page. Additional tools for keeping track of what's going on in the wiki can be found among the Special Pages, in particular Recent changes and New pages. As a registered user you can also create your own Watchlist.
Editing[]
Getting Credit[]
Before you dive into making changes to the site, consider Creating an account. This will add you to the user list and will mean you get credit for any contributions that you make while logged in. If you don't create an account then you can still edit and create new pages, but you will be identified by your IP address. Make sure not to take credit for builds on the article page, although saying you submitted it in your user page or the discussion page is fine.
Authenticating[]
When you make a new account, we will send an E-mail to you to authenticate your account, so when you're eligible to vote, we know you're not a bot or using an already used e-mail address. Unfortunately our server has problems sending this e-mail out, and it doesn't always reach the users inbox. We suggest you make a G-Mail account (even if it's just for authenticating) as it normally has a good chance of getting through.
Captcha[]
Until you're a member of the auto confirmed user group (the criteria are explained here), you will have to complete a captcha when you edit the wiki. This is to prevent spam bots from flooding the wiki with adverts and links to questionable sites.
Editing existing pages[]
To edit a page, click the edit tab at the top. If there's a view source tab instead, that page is protected and only wiki administrators can edit it. On large pages there are [edit] links with each section header, which allow for opening just that section for editing.
Formatting[]
Wikis use code that is different from (and much easier than) normal HTML. Check out Help:Formatting to see how the wikicode works.
Saving[]
Please use the Show preview button to review your changes before you save your edit. Avoid doing multiple small changes to the same page, since this will clutter the Recent Changes list. Most changes are minor edits, so please check the This is a minor edit box unless you did substantial changes to the page contents. You might also want to check Watch this page. This will add the edited page to your personal Watchlist. You can set these boxes to be checked by default in your Preferences. Finally, it's good style to put a brief description of the changes you did into the Summary box located right above the 'Save' button.
Creating new pages[]
When visiting a page on the wiki which doesn't exist, the engine will give you the option to create a new one at your current address. Thus, a standard way to start a new page is to put a link on an existing page which will point to one that does not yet exist, e.g. [[User:YourName/NewPage]], then just click on this (red) link to create the new page. See Starting a New Page for more options.
Moving pages[]
If you want to move a page to another location, that is give it a new name, please use the move tab at the top of the page. This will allow you to move the page with all its history to a new location. Please read the notes on the move form carefully. In general, the associated discussion page should be moved together with the main page.
Please do not move the contents of one page to another by copy & paste. This will cause the original history to be unavailable at its new location, and will likely result in a copyright violation.
Please do not remove all content from a page (blank a page). This looks like vandalism and makes people nervous who are watching the Recent Changes page.
Deleting pages[]
If you think a page should be deleted, put a delete tag on it. Remember to give a reason for the proposed deletion. An admin will shortly review the page and delete it if the request is justified. Normal users can not delete pages themselves. See also the corresponding policy at GuildWiki.
Discussing[]
Each ordinary wiki page has an associated discussion (or talk) page. It can be used to leave comments, ask questions, suggest changes and for any other contributions that are related to that article but shouldn't go directly on the main article page. A common use of the talk pages of user pages is to leave messages for that user. When contributing to a discussion, please respect the following notes on style and content:
- Sign your comments by putting --~~~~ after them. You can customize your signature by setting a Nickname in the User Profile tab in your User Preferences. See here or here for details.
- When answering to a previous post, indent yours by putting : at the start of each line. More specifically, use one more colon than the post you're answering to.
- Don't edit other users' posts. If you disagree, put an answer below.
- Always assume good faith when judging other people's motives.
- Avoid all personal attacks! Deal with conflicts in a civilized manner.
- When discussing a build, try to be constructive. If you like it, say why. If you don't, suggest possible improvements. This will support the author and all readers in making better builds.
Within this framework, don't hesitate to say what you think. Everybody's opinion is valuable and there's no such thing as a stupid question.
Submitting new builds[]
The following documentation is still in the process of being adapted to the new vetting system. We are trying to keep it up to date, but some inconsistencies might remain at the moment.
How to write a build[]
Please read the following pages before you start writing your own build articles.
- Style and formatting – Guide for writing a build article, including an example ready for copy & paste.
- Writing good builds – More notes on how to write a build that meets the standards and expectations of PvXwiki.
- Build Naming Policy – Understanding the syntax for naming build articles.
PvXcode[]
The heart of each build article is a box that summarizes which skills are equipped and how attribute points are distributed. PvXwiki uses PvXcode to implement this box, which provides advanced features like the display of skill descriptions when hovering the mouse over the skill icon, as known from Guild Wars. There are several tools which make it easy to handle PvXcode:
- The skills and attributes sections from old build pages in GuildWiki layout can be converted to PvXcode by PvXconvert: just copy and paste the code from the original page's edit page into the PvXconvert form, press submit, and then copy and paste the resulting code into the edit page of the new build page on PvXwiki.
- To transfer a build from Guild Wars to PvXwiki, use PvXdecode: in Guild Wars, use the save template menu to display the build's template code, copy that, and paste it into the PvXdecode form. Submit, then copy and paste the result into your new build page.
- To transfer a build from PvXwiki to Guild Wars, use the save button in the lower left corner of the PvXcode box. Save the template file to a folder where Guild Wars will find it, see here for details.
Evaluating build articles[]
The official policy governing most aspects of submission and rating of build articles is Real Vetting. Supplementary information, in particular dealing with editing of existing build articles and their assignment to the different build categories, can be found in the Editing Builds policy.
The Build Deletion policy deals with what builds are kept and what others are deleted.
User pages[]
User pages constitute a special section of a wiki. Each user can create his personal user page, possibly with sub-pages, to host information that is related to PvXwiki but not suited to go on a 'normal' page in the Main or Build name space. Typical uses of user pages include providing information about the user, his/her Guild Wars characters, personal link or ToDo lists, ideas for builds etc. A user's talk page can be used to leave personal messages. The user will be notified of new messages as soon as he logs in or, if logged in already, as soon as he views any page on the wiki.
A detailed description of the role of user pages can be found at Wikipedia. Please note however that this guide should not be treated as PvXwiki policy, it is merely a helpful guide.
Policies[]
A list of policies followed on PvXwiki can be found here.
Where to get help[]
If you have a question and don't find the answer here, feel free to ask. Frequently asked questions will be included into our FAQ.
Questions connected to a specific page should be put on that page's talk page. More general questions can for example be put on PvXwiki talk:Community Portal. You can also ask a user whom you suspect to know the answer on his talk page.
Good candidates for such users are PvXwiki's administrators, whom you should also contact in case you have any problems with other users.
You can also find us on IRC at #pvx @ GameSurge. IRC is both free, and easy to download here. Have fun!