Help Editor's FAQ

Background information for this page is found in the Help Editors page.

If you have learned something that might be useful to others, please consider adding it to this page. If your knowledge is described on another page, please link to it from this page.

Editing

Is there a place to put code or code-snippets that may be useful later? Yes, for example, there is the Help Page Archive.
Is there an index into the various archives? Yes, the Archive Index.
How do I mark a help page for delete?
1. Change all links to that page (as found in List All Links) to point somewhere else or delete them.
2. Delete the text.
3. Insert the Page Deletion Request template. Somebody else (perhaps a senior administrator or wms) can delete it later.
4. If there are are versions of the help page in other languages, archive or deprecate the page instead of deleting it.
5. Occasionally, a help editor misspells the name of a help page file in the initial creation process. When this happens, the file with the misspelled name should be marked for delete, and a file with the correct name should be created.
How do I archive a help page? Put a link to it in the Archive Index and unlink it from the site map and from all other user-oriented help pages.
How do I deprecate a help page?
1. Delete the text. The deleted text is automatically saved in the help page backup log.
2. Insert the deprecated pages template.
3. Put a link to the page-that-replaces-the-deprecated-page in the appropriate place in the template
4. Put a link to the deprecated-page in the Related Links section of the Archive Index.
5. Unlink the page from the site map and from all other user-oriented help pages.
When should a page be archived and when should it be deprecated?
1. A page should be archived when it is no longer linked to from another page in the English Help page system.
2. A page should be deprecated when it is replaced by an English Help page. That way, warnings are given to update links from outside the help page system. For example, many user information pages have links into the help page system. For links that are not updated, the person who clicks on the link will be redirected to the current version of the page.
3. Archiving a page is part of the process of deprecating a page. The difference between the two is that a deprecated page is replaced by another page in the Help page system, whereas, an archived page is removed from the Help page system.
4. Archiving or deprecating the English version of a help page has no effect on the status of versions of that page in other languages.

Coding

Are there any examples of "intermediate level" help page coding techniques?
- Yes, the "code examples" page.

HTML and CSS Tutorials

Where is that CSS tutorial again?
How about an HTML tutorial?
Where can I find an XHTML tutorial?
- But, it is unlikely that anything in the XHTML tutorial is of any use to you.

There are also some cheat sheets.

Trouble Shooting

What happened to my help page edits?
- Did you put something in the "Description of this Edit" dialog box before you clicked the "Go Back to Help Files" button?
  --- Even a period (.), a dash (-) or a tilde (~) does the job. Cycling through these three symbols will help you avoid losing edits. Please give your edits meaningful names (so users and editors can track them in Recent Edits). If it is a minor edit, the name "minor" will do. Cycle through the single character save names for edit saves that are continuations of, or corrections to, a single edit.
- Are you sure you clicked the "Update Help Page" button before you clicked the "Go Back to Help Files" button.
- Perhaps you put your edits are in a different place on the help page than you intended.
- Perhaps you were doing a major update in a sandbox and you did some editing in the source page instead of in the sandbox.
- If you are using Firefox tabs to help you with you editing, it is not so unlikely that you collided with yourself. This can happen, for example, if you (inadvertently) edit the same help page in two different tabs at the same time.
- It is also possible, though unlikely, that your edit collided with that of another help page editor.
What happened to my help page edit description?
- Sometimes it takes a few minutes for your edit descriptions to appear in the change log. And, it can take 5 or 10 minutes before they appear in the "Recent changes" help page.
  --- This delay is loosely related to the overall delay in the system.
- In Recent Changes, your oldest edit in the last week is displayed first. There might not be enough room to display the description of your most recent edit.
I inserted a comment in my code and I got a "Java Script" error. What went wrong?
- Well, for one thing, comments do not like to have a single quote inside them. So, avoid contractions.
- More information on the "Java Script" error can be found in the "Editing a Page" section of Information for Help Editors.
Sometimes, when I click on a link in a help pages, nothing happens. What is going on? What do I do?
- Your cursor might have lost it's focus. Firefox might think that you are clicking on a different location on the page than you intend.
- If you are using tabs, close the tab where the problem occurred, and continue editing in a new tab.
- Close all tabs, exit Firefox, restart Firefox and continue working. This might fix the problem.
- If this does not work, try turning off the Firefox "Always Show the Tab Bar" switch found on the "Tools ---> Options" menu under "Tabs". .
- If this fails, uninstall and re-install Firefox. This should fix the proble,
- If even this fails, using a different operating system such as Ubuntu or Linux with a new version of Firefox should fix the problem.
I attempted to create a new help page in the usual manner, but, the system would not let me. What went wrong?
- Perhaps the file name that you chose had too many characters.
- The system requires that the file name (including the "/help/xyz/" prefix) fit into the table given when you click on "list all files".
- The exact limit on number of characters depends on how many capital letter are in your file name.

General Questions

Are there writing style guidelines that are generally followed?
Are there coding style guidelines that are generally followed?
How do I edit pages in other languages?
1. Set up a separate account for each language in which you wish to edit.
2. Write admin@gokgs.com requesting editing privileges for each account.
Is there a list of English help pages that need work?
- For the English help pages, there is a partial list at the bottom of the Page Formatting Guidelines.

How to get other questions answered

If you have questions that are not answered on this page ...

Check out the Tips and Tricks help page.
Ask a person.
1. Ask in the Wiki Room.
2. Ask in the Help Room.
3. Ask in the English Game Room.
4. PM an admin who is on-line.
5. Send an email to admin@gokgs.com.