Help:Starting this wiki

Welcome to Wikia

Everything is ready here for you to add content. There are some basic help and guideline pages to start off your community, and a basic main page as the entry point to this Wikia. You can start adding pages now!

Here are some things you might want to start with to improve this Wikia.

Add a custom logo
The default logo on all pages can be changed for one specific to this Wikia. The image should be no more than 135 pixels wide and 155 pixels high. Upload the file as wiki.png and it will appear on all pages in place of the default logo.

Add a custom favicon
Although it's a small thing (just 16 by 16 pixels) a custom favicon can help give a consistent theme to the wiki. Just upload a 16 by 16 pixel image at favicon.ico .

Improve your front page
Your basic front page is ready to use. You can improve it by adding content about this Wikia. Consider what visitors will want to see first. What are the starting points for anyone reading about your subject? Where should editors start and what are the most important things for them to work on? You may also want to include links to the help files.

Finding and keeping new editors
Invite your friends to help you edit. Communities you already belong to about the topic of your Wikia are a good place to ask for people to come join you. Be careful not to spam, though! Think of the types of messages you would like to read and the types of messages you delete.

When you see someone new edit the wiki, add to their Talk page a nice welcome message as soon as you can! (If there are many newcomers you can use a template to save copying: see Template:Welc, and adapt it to your own styles and emphases.) It will encourage them to stick around. Wikis work when there is a community of people editing; try to keep in contact with the other people who show up to edit.

Add content!
Although this is a wiki, your first visitors are not likely to want to jump right in. They need some idea of what your wiki is about first. "Seeding" content is vital to get people interested and to show them what sort of content you want. You may need to add many articles before people start to join in and add with you.

Ask for help
The Wikia staff are here to help you succeed with this wiki. If you have problems at any time, or are not sure how to make changes to your wiki, then please ask us. You can email using the form at Special:Contact, you can write to us on our Central user pages, or you can click the "live chat and support" link on the left of any page to go to the Wikia IRC channel (also at irc://irc.freenode.net/wikia). For a list of Wikia staff, see the Wikia Inc. page on Central.

More advice

 * Will Wikis Work? - the first in a set of essays by experienced Founders.
 * Wikia Mentoring Project - get advice and help from others who have started wikis or worked on several.
 * Common mistakes - some of the things it is easy to do wrong.
 * Wikia:Category:Help - a list of the help pages available on the Central Wikia.