Edit Guide

Account creation

You do not need an account to edit the wiki, but please keep in mind that your current public IP address will be visible once you publish a change.

Formatting

Disable markup

Mediawiki uses a custom markup language know as Wikitext which is simmiliar to Markdown. It allows users to format text, create links, build tables and structure content using plain text syntax.

<nowiki></nowiki>

You can write the text that you dont want formated by Wikitext between two nowiki tags. For example

<nowiki>https://www.google.com/</nowiki>

will look like this:

https://www.google.com/

instead of being a clickable link to Google like this:

https://www.google.com/

Indentation

If you want your text to be segregated because you want to draw extra attention to it, you can write that important text in a new line and insert a space before your text. Mediawiki will draw a rectangle around your text and change the font to make it stand out more.

Some very important and interesting text.

Headings

Spacing

Always leave one empty line before and after each heading, like this:

Text

==New Heading==

Text

Heading Counter

The Balisong Wiki supports automatic counting of the headings. There is no need to manually number them. Once you are done with editing an article, the heading numbers will automatically be applied.

Creating Headings

To create headings, write the text of the heading between = like this:

==First Heading==

You can make Sub-Headings by increasing the number of =

===Sub-Heading for first Heading===

====Sub-Sub-Heading for first Heading====

Break

Sometimes it is necessarry to make multiple newlines. In that case the <br> tag can be used. Here is an example:

Text<br><br>


Text

Linking

In order to create a link to a different article, or a different website, you will need to use square brackets

[]

Spaces

If an article you want to link to has spaces, for example the Balisong List, just use underscores for those spaces

[[Balisong_List]]

And it will be rendered like this:

Balisong_List

Internal

If you want to link to another article within the Balisong Wiki, write the name of the article between two square brackets like this:

[[Sandbox]]

And it will be rendered like this:

Sandbox

Specific section

To another article

If you want to link to a specific section, write the name of the article, then a pound symbol (#) then the name of the section.

[[Pin_System#Screw_Zen]]

And it will be rendered like this:

Pin_System#Screw_Zen

To the same article

If you want to link to a same section of the article that you are currently editing, you can leave the linking of the article part out, and just write the pund symbol (#) with the name of the section.
This will link to the first section of this article

[[#Account_creation]]

And it will be rendered like this:

#Account_creation

Pipe

Adding a pipe symbol (|) to the end of your internal linking enables you to write a custom name for the linking. This can be useful to slightly adjust the name of the link so that sentences flow better, or to remove the underscore that is caused by linking

[[Balisong_list|Balisong List]]

Will be rendered as

Balisong List

External

If you want to link to a different website, for example to show the reader where they can buy a specific bushing, put your link in only 1 set of square brackets

[https://thetruelink.com/products/250-od-x-188-id-bushing-xp]

And it will be rendered like this:

[1]

If you want to give your link a name, add a space after the link and add a name.

[https://thetruelink.com/products/250-od-x-188-id-bushing-xp 6.35mm OD bushings]

And it will be rendered like this:

6.35mm OD bushings

Naming Conventions

These naming conventions have been created to make page names more consistent, make it easiert for users to find pages and and to make linking easier.
These rules apply to page titles and headings, although headings follow a slightly looser version of these rules.

- Every word must be capitalized, even small words like "of" or "and", unless a name is intentionally written in lowecase, for example "iPhone".

- Always use singular instead of plural. For example "Washer" instead of "Washers".

- Use nouns, not verbs. Instead of "Tuning", use "Tune". A good rule of thumb for this is "Name the thing, not the action".

- Avoid unnecessary words. For example "About The Zen Pin Mechanism"

Creating a new Page

Before you create a new article, please check whether that article already exists or not. The search bar at the top and be a good tool for that.

If you have made sure that the page you want to create doesnt already exist, you can create the article by opening the base link of this wiki (balisong.info) and append a forward slash (/) and append the name of the article you want to create. For example if you want to create an article called Banana, you would open this link:

http://212.17.75.194/Banana

After that you have to decide if you want to use the visual editor (not recommended), or the source editor. If you want to use the visual editor, click on "Create". If you want to use the source editor, click on "Create source". The next steps are almost identical with just editing an article, so we recommend you to continue reading the next section.

Editing an article

If you want to edit an article, you need to click on the "Edit" or "Edit Source" button. They are usually somewhere on the top right of your screen.

Source Editor

If you have clicked the "Edit source" button, a big box will appear in which you can write everything that you know about the topic of the article. If you want to see the changes to the article, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Show preview" button. This will reload the article and show you the text with all the rendered Wikitext code that you have written. After you have filled the article with information, scroll to the bottom of the page, and write a summary in the "Summary" block like "First edit of the Banana page" and click on "Save page". You might also need to fill out an easy captcha for the changes to to live.

Visual Editor

The visual editor is not recommended since it has not been tested.

If you have clicked the "Edit" buttonm you can just start writing down everything you know about the topic of the article. After you have filled the article with information, click the "Save" button, add a summary message like "First edit of the Banana page" and click on "Save Page". You might also need to fill out an easy captcha for the changes to to live.

File Uploads

The Balisong Wiki supports uploading of media. If you want to upload a picture, click on the "Upload file" field, or just click this link: Special:Upload.

Limits

Please only upload files that are 1920x1080 or smaller. Large pictures take up a lot of ram, potentially making the Balisong Wiki go out of memory. If you see a screen like this: 

Please immediately contact the server owner Main_Page#3Contacting_the_owner.

Embedding

Instructions for how to embed files on a page are on the file upload page Special:Upload, but in case you want something clearer:
If you want to embeda picture, write 2 brackets, then "File:" followed by the name of the file, including its file extension. For example like this:

[[File:Balisong_Kraken_Blue.png]]

Measurements

All measurementes must be provided in metric with an optional measurement in imperial in parenthesis. You are allowed to break this rule if you are citing a source (see the next sub-heading #7.1_Only_submit_your_own_measurements for more information).

6.35mm (0.25in)

or just

6.35mm

The unit of measurement is not neccessary, but should still be added if there is enough space for it. If there is no unit after the number, assume Millimeters or Grams depending on context. For example:

6.35 (0.25)

Only submit your own measurements

While manifacturers may provide measurements for their products, they are often times inaccurate. For example: Squid Industries lists their Nautilus bushings as having an OD of 0.2482" +/- .0002 OD = 6.30428mm +/- 0.00508, yet actual measurements show an OD of 6.326mm (0.2490551in). Similiarly, Nabalis markets their bushings as 7mm OD, but actual measurements show an OD of 6.985mm.

Because such discrepancies are common, we ask that you only submit measurements that you have personally verified.

Tables

Tables can be either edited by hand (not recommended), or a table generator can be used. We recommend this table generator. If you wish to edit this table, copy it, go to the mentioned website, click "File" in the top left, click "Paste table data..." and paste it in. Then click the blue "Load" button. After that feel free to make any changes you deem neccessary. After you've adjusted the table, scroll all the way down and click on "Generate" button which is on the left hand side of the screen. After that click on the green "Copy to clipboard" button which is on the right hand side of your screen, or just copy the whole code which is in the window right under the gray "Result (click "Generate" to refresh)" text. After that, delete the old table from this wiki and paste in your newly edited wiki.

Comments

If you want to add text that is only visible when editing the Balisong Wiki, for example when you want to tell another editor why you have done what you did, you can write a comment like so:

<!--This is a comment and will only be visible when editing the wiki-->