User talk:MoonSwan

Sandbox pages

Hi,

I have noticed your somewhat confused edits to the sandboxes pages, so I'm here to clarify it, and also provide some assistance if needed. There are multiple "sandbox" pages on this wiki:

• ArchWiki:Sandbox is the main sandbox page, intended for editors to test things they are not sure of, learn the wiki syntax etc. It is linked from Help:Editing.

ArchWiki talk:Sandbox, its talk page, can be used for simulating discussions, testing user signatures etc. It is linked from Help:Discussion.

• Template:Sandbox is intended for testing templates, please do not use it for testing general editing. It is linked from Help:Template
• Category:Sandbox is a testing category.

You could also create a sandbox page in your userspace (a subpage of your user page, e.g. User:MoonSwan/Sandbox), or use your user page, User:MoonSwan, as a sandbox.

Feel free to ask if I have missed anything :)

-- Lahwaacz (talk) 07:16, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi Lahwaacz,

I am very sorry for the confusion! I was actually trying to create my own sandbox but I couldn't figure out how to do so. I wasn't aware that there were user pages either! Perhaps you could tell me how to do so properly by creating one using one of your methods you mentioned or just point me to the explanations for doing so?

I have never edited a wiki of any kind before (something I'm sure you noticed!) and, believe it or not, I was not vandalising pages at random. I am very grateful that you managed to message me before I made a bigger mess. And, to my chagrin, I'm at the end of my degree in Communications (writing is my specialty)! I'm sure you can imagine my embarassment at learning that I've messed up the Arch Wiki.  ;)

While perusing a few Sandbox and Editing Help pages I did make some very minor edits dealing with grammar and spelling. I hope that was all right. I restricted myself to that type of editing as a precaution but it seems I over-stepped things after all.

Thank you very much for the message. I will endeavour to learn more and, with luck, contribute something later on.

I don't know how to sign my name as you did so please accept a signature simply as ...

MoonSwan

Hi,

I have indented your reply to follow local conventions, and the shorthand for signatures is ~~~~, which is substituted upon saving the edit. More about talk pages can be found in Help:Discussion.

To create a new page, simply follow a link to the non-existent page (highlighted in red), or just replace the title in the URL (note that spaces and underscores are equivalent). This will open a page with editing window and a title saying Creating <Some page title>, always check the title before saving.

Pages are organized in namespaces, categories and subpages. The namespace and subpages are set in the title, but categories are not (categorizing is done by adding [[Category:Some category]] into the page). The namespace is indicated by a prefix, for example Help:, ArchWiki:, Talk: etc. The Main namespace does not have a prefix, and using an invalid prefix is not considered to be a namespace and the page falls in the Main namespace (creating a namespace is not that easy). Subpages are separated by /, so for example Foo/Bar is a subpage of Foo.

The user page, User:MoonSwan in your case, is linked from your signature, page's history when you make an edit, Special:RecentChanges and similar, so it is often used to show some basic information about the editor (but this is not mandatory, the page can contain anything and its existence is also not necessary). You can also create a subpage of you user page, e.g. User:MoonSwan/Sandbox.

I think/hope that we have the basics documented in Help:Editing and similar pages, but since it is rather lengthy reading, I have extracted the relevant points for you.

Also, welcome to the wiki :)

-- Lahwaacz (talk) 08:22, 11 September 2014 (UTC)