Ultimate Guide to a new user

File:Wiki-wordmark.png

**Welcome to BTFF!**

Hello, welcome to Ben 10 Fan Fiction, also known as BTFF. **B** is for **Ben**, *T* is for *Ten*, *F* is for *Fan*, and **F** is for **Fiction**.

If you're a relatively new user with less than 1000 edits, this page will probably be of some use to you, especially if you're new to Wikia. If you have any questions that aren't covered in this guide, feel free to contact the administrative team for assistance.

## The Basics of Wikia

We aren't going to dedicate much of this page to the specifics of working Wikia in general, as this guide is primarily created to help you get around this wiki specifically. Wikia itself has numerous resources to help new and old users alike, which you can find by clicking on the links below.

* Fandom University
* Help:Contents

## Read the Rules

The next thing you need to do, before anything else, is read the rules. You might think that you don't need to read the rules, that you already know what they're gonna be. Doesn't matter. *You need to read the rules*. Click these colored words to get to the rules.

## Community Corner

Alright, time to check out the wiki. Click this to see all the edits people are making/have made. Now look at the right, and scroll down till you see "Community Messages". Read that WHOLE thing. Be sure to click the colored text that is called "blacklist". That's a list of words you either can't use at all or can only use under special conditions. Also be sure to check out our administrators and chat moderators.

## Getting 25 Edits

Speaking of chat, by now I'm guessing you really want to get on chat. Well, you can't get on chat quite yet. See, we have a policy that requires all users to have 25 edits before they join. 15 edits have to be from editing pages. 10 of those edits can be from comments and editing your userpage.

So, how do you get 25 edits? Simple. Start editing! You can fix grammar on pages, or even make pages.

### Making a page

See the bubbles next to where you can get to your userpage? Under it, it'll say "Contribute". Click that. Some choices will appear. Click "Add a page". A box will show up in front of it. There will be a white line with the words "Enter Title" above it. This is where you get to choose what you want to name it. If the name is already taken, red words will show up telling you this. If so, you have to choose a new name. Skip down to "Create a Page" and click it. Now you may have not noticed, but there's actually two ways to edit. If you look, there's two tabs. One says "Switch to RTE" and one says "Source Mode". RTE will have the "Features and Media", "Categories" and "Templates" on the side. You want to edit in RTE. When you have over 200 edits, then you can edit in Source Mode. Source Mode is more complicated, harder to edit then RTE.

So now, make the page! If its for a show, write what its called, whose its characters are about, and so on. If its a character, write about who they are, where they live, are they good or bad, etc.

When you're done making the page, look up, and click the preview button. If it looks good, click save and then congrats! You made another edit.

### Rest of the 25

Do this 14 more times and you'll have 15 of the required 25 edits. Now the rest of the edits can be anything you want. From comments, editing your userpage, anything.

However, you can't keep editing the same page. That's not allowed. Once you have all 25 edits, then you can join chat by clicking "Planet Chaturn" at the top of the wiki, or "Join Now" on the Recent Activity and any other page.

## Chat

### Chat Rules

Yup, you have to read another list of rules. At the top of the chatroom it'll say "Welcome to the Ben 10 Fan Fiction Wiki Chat! Please read our chat policy here. " Here's the link to the chat rules. Project:Chat.

### Advice

1. When you first join chat, make sure you have good grammar.
2. Be polite.
3. You see the people with the stars next to them? They are the chat moderators and administrators. If they tell you to stop doing something, you need to stop doing it.
4. If you upset someone, apologize.
5. Do not swear at or fight with other users. Everyone is a real person.
6. Don't discuss touchy things like terrorism, religious beliefs, if men should be able to marry men, and so on.
7. You'll see that people can make faces and pictures on chat. To do this, check out MediaWiki:Emoticons.
8. Don't do the following:
	1. HI GUYS HOW ARE YOU? (In other words, typing in all caps)
	2. HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. (In other words, using a letter far too much).
	3. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻) (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻) < -- this is spam, which will get you in trouble.
	4. You are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (in other words, spamming the !)
	5. What's going on???????? (spamming the ?)

## Page Creation Portal

I'd like to introduce you to the Page Creation Portal. This has pretty much every format for every kind of page you can think of. Well, for almost every kind of page.

When you go to a section, you'll see a white box to type in, like when you made your userpage. That's where you put the title of your page. Then click the button. You'll find a bunch of words already there, and strange orange boxes. Don't freak out! Its okay.

Here's some tips when you edit the page:

* Anything that is in ( ) is where you insert words. So lets make a scenario. Say you're making a show called **Rick Roll: Omniverse**, and your username is Bob. The page would most likely say something like the following:

(Series Name, italics) is a series by (your username, link to userpage) that follows (main character(s)) as (he/she/they) (things that he/she/they do/does). It is supposed to have (number) seasons, and it was created on (today's date).

* When you edit it, replace anyting in ( ) with whatever you want. So instead of (Series Name, italics) and (your username, link to userpage), you would put:

*Rick Roll: Omniverse* is a series by Bob that follows (main character(s)) as (he/she/they) (things that he/she/they do/does). It is supposed to have (number) seasons, and it was created on (today's date).

* Just do the same thing for the rest of the ( ). When you've filled them all in, make sure there's no more ( )'s.
* The Orange Boxes are Templates. Templates are " tools used to format the page in a certain way. They help the page do many functions". If you want to see what they look like, put the arrow that you use to click on over the box. This Template is Template:Comment. They're on the page to help you make the page. Read them carefully and do what they say.
	+ If you see a green puzzle piece, it might also be a template. Hover over it to see what it is or what it does. If you don't want it there, get rid of it. If you don't know what it is, don't do anyting to it. Its probally there to help.

For more infomation on how to use templates, scroll down to the Templates Section.

## Tips about Editing

By this point, you should have about 30 edits. If you don't, then you've obviously skipped down. In fact, by 30 edits, you may have discovered things I haven't even mentioned yet. That's perfectly fine.

Anyways, I have some more tips about Editing. This will help ALOT.

1. By adding == both sides of a word, you will create Heading 2!
2. By adding === both sides of a word, you will create Heading 3!
3. By adding ==== both sides of a word, you will create Heading 4!
4. By adding [[ to the left side of a word and ]] to the right side of a word, you create a link! A link, if clicked on will take you to another page! This also works on chat.
5. Adding ''' to both sides of a word will make the word bold. This also works by just clicking on a word, dragging your arrow over it so the word is covered in blue, and then clicking the bold button in RTE editing mode.
6. Adding '' to both sides of a word will make the word be in italics. This also works by just clicking on a word, dragging your arrow over it so the word is covered in blue, and then clicking the Italics button in RTE editing mode.
7. Adding <u> to both sides of a word will make the word underlined. This also works by just clicking on a word, dragging your arrow over it so the word is covered in blue, and then clicking the U with the line under it button in RTE editing mode.
8. Adding \* will create a bullet point.
9. Adding # will create a number list.
10. Adding ~~~~ will leave your signature. To know how to change your signature, check out this link.
11. Adding <strike> to the left side of a word and </strike> to the right side of a word will strike it out.
12. Adding <poll> on one side and </poll> on the other, you can make a poll. The line after Poll is where you put the Question. Then the next line is the first answer, and so on until you put </poll>. No spaces.

## Message Walls, Blogs and Forums

Okay so you've made a userpage and said hello to the wiki. Plus, you've made some edits! That's great. Now that you've probally made a series, been on chat, and done all the stuff above, you're probally want to know how you can communicate to the wiki besides chat. Message Walls, Blogs and Forums are the answers.

### Message Walls

Message Walls are when you need to personally contact a user. To find it, go to the userpage of the user you need to contact. Then click the "Message Wall" tab.

### Blogs

Blogs give infomation about shows/projects or give personal announcements. They *are not* for the following:

* **Shipping:** Discussing the relationship between two characters in a romantic light. Also, no topics asking which couple is better than the other.
* **Stories:** We have had a few users here make full stories in their blogs. They have all been moved to normal pages, but the users still continue and make blog stories.
* **Personal Announcements about Joining/Leaving/Edits/Your Life**: If you are leaving the wiki then you can not make a blog about that. Same thing applies to Forums.
* **Pranks**: If you prank about doing anything like commiting suicide, leaving the wiki, etc, that will not only make everyone mad but you may recieve a warning, and if bad enough, get in trouble.

They *are*:

* **Places to Inform the Wiki about Changes Wiki-Wide:** This means if something huge is gonna change, like the Forums being removed or something, then its allowed.
* **Personal announcements about Activeness:** If you are just going inactive due to vacations or school, then you are allowed to make a blog about it.
* **Places to host Contests and Awards:** You can make contests and awards on blogs.
* **How to inform the Wiki about your show, in moderation:** Most blogs are made to inform the wiki about updates to shows. However, do this in moderation. If you make a blog for it say, every week, then you are overdoing it. If you make a blog about your show say, every month, that's better.

To make a blog, go to your userpage. Below the header where your avatar (the picture you added in the beginning) is, and between your userpage is a series of tabs. Click "Blog". In the top right corner you'll see a button that says "Create Blog Post". Click that. Come up with a title, and then click Okay. Editing a blog is just like editing a page. Only it'll look different when you publish it.

### Forums

On the Navigation bar at the top of the page, a link to the Forums will be located on the far right. Forum sections include:

**Suggestions:** This is where you can post any suggestions you might have for the wiki.

**General Wiki Discussion:** This where you can post about the wiki in general. This usually includes things such as Fanon Con and other wiki-wide events.

**2016 - A Year of Unity:** This is where you can post anything regarding the wiki's Year of Unity event.

**Series Discussion:** This is where you can discuss the wiki's various series.

**Movies, Crossovers, and Collaborations:** This is where you can make threads about any crossovers or collaborations by multiple authors. It can also be used to discuss movie projects, due to their usual scope.

**Creator's Hub:** This is where you can receive feedback and tips on your ideas before making an entire series out of them.

**Forum Games:** This is where you can create and play various games created specifically for forums.

**Services and Contests:** This is where you can create, use, or participate in, various wiki services and contests.

**Ben 10 Discussion:** This is where you can discuss canon Ben 10.

**Off Topic:** This is where you can discuss anything that doesn't fit into the above categories.

**Magister Council:** This is the forum for admins only. If you're not an admin, but post there anyways, you will receive a one-day block. No exceptions.

There will be a button above all of that saying "Forum Policies/FAQ". Click that and read it. It'll tell you all the rules of the Forum.

When you click one of the boards, you will see your avatar, also known as an "avi" next to a box that says "Start a Discussion" and under it "What do you want to talk about?" Click the text "What do you want to talk about?". The box will then expand. In "What do you want to talk about", put whatever the topic is. Then in the box under it, put your message. You can preview the message just like when making a page. Post is a thread's publish.

There are bold, italic, and link buttons on there, but no strike or underline buttons. No bullet points either. That's why you know about the tips now.

The Eye button is the editor you want. The [ ] editor is like Source Mode.

## Featured Pages

Every month, four pages are selected to be featured on the front page as examples of the wiki's best content. Currently, we have:

* Featured Alien
* Featured Series
* Featured User
* Featured Character

To nominate articles and/or vote on which ones should be featured, simply head on over to the linked pages and follow the instructions there.

If something you nominated or created doesn't get featured, don't get discouraged; there's always next month!

## Wiki-Events

### Support Group

The **Support Group** is an event where users are able to discuss their daily issues and emotions with everyone in attendance, like a form of group therapy. Everything said in Support Group is 100% confidential between users, so you can feel safe opening up to others.

## Semi-Advanced Editing

Wow, you've done a lot so far! I'm sure by this point you have AT LEAST 50 edits, more likely more. Now that we have the basics of the wiki, we can move on to more advanced stuff.

### Adding Features and Media

To Add a Picture, click the Photo button. You'll see something pop up, showing the most recent pictures uploaded to the wiki. Find the section that says UPLOAD, and next to it "Choose File". Click it. Then you'll find a box where you can navigate through your computer to find a picture. Then click Open. Then click Upload. You'll see the picture and a scroll bar. Move it till you reach the size you want. Then choose if you want it on the right or left. Click "Add Photo".

To Add a video, click the Video button. If you have the url to the video you want, copy and paste it. Then, paste it onto the box, and then click add. Then add a caption, choose the side, and where you want it. If you want it on the left, click the left alignment photo. If you want it in the middle, click the one in the middle. And so on.

To add a gallery, click the Gallery button and click "Add a Photo". The Rest is just like "Add a Picture", then click Finish. To add a Slideshow, click the Slideshow button and do the same thing. To add a slider, click the Slider button. Choose if you want it going across or up and down. Then its the same process as adding a picture.

### Source Mode

By now, you're ready to explore the world of Source Mode!

Looks weird, doesn't it? Now you know why I told you all about the Tips. Anyways, lets check out Source Mode.

1. Bold is the B Button.
2. Italics is the *I* Button.
3. Linking inside the wiki is the words Ab
4. Outside Linking is the picture of Earth
5. Heading two is the giant A
6. The Button after the crossed out W is Signature.
7. The Line is ----. This is used to separate the page.
8. The Picture with a Plus is adding a photo.
9. The Multiple Pictures is a Gallery/Slideshow.
10. The Video Roll is adding video.

### Adding Magic Words

1. By adding <big> to one side of the word and </big> to the other, you can make the word bigger!
2. By adding <small> to one side of the word and </small> to the other, you can make the word smaller!
3. By adding <font color="red"> on one side of the text and </font> on the other side, you can change the color of the wiki. See!
4. By adding <span style="font-family:Slender"> to one side and to another side of a word, you can change its font. See?.
	1. What I just did is changing the font. If you want a different font, replace "Slender" with whatever the name of the font is.
	2. <span style="font-family:Times New Roman"> and </span> = This
	3. <span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS"> and </span> = This

## Achievements

This is late, because for a fact you'll already recieved many. But now we're gonna talk about Achievements.

**Achievements**, also known as **Badges**, are a great way to encourage editing, award individuals, and promote community growth.

### How to get Achievements

Individuals can earn special badges by simply participating on any wiki that has Achievements enabled. Badges are awarded automatically as a user completes the tasks associated with them. Available and achieved badges are listed on one's user page. These points are **not retroactive**, but **start counting once** you have achievements on your wiki.

### Leaderboard

To showcase all the achievements and top badge winners, each wiki has a leaderboard which can be found on a special page named **Special:Leaderboard**.

* The leaderboard ranks the top users (at most 19) by the number of points they have from badges.
* The ranking is refreshed each day, with up and down arrows showing who is rising or falling on the leaderboard

### Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

* **One of the contributors on my wiki is making bad edits and doesn't deserve to earn a badge for them. Can I take their badges away?** Once a badge is awarded, it can't be taken away. If someone is making silly edits just to get badges, then you can leave them a message on their talk page about it. As always, it's best to assume good faith -- they may not realize that they're doing anything wrong. Talking to them usually helps! If someone is vandalizing the wiki and fails to respond to messages, then blocking them from the wiki will remove their badges and take them off the leaderboard.
* **Why did I miss a day on the "contributing to the wiki every day" achievement?** The tracking for this achievement is based off server time, which is in the UTC timezone. For example, if you make an edit at 2pm in the PST timezone (UTC-8) one day then another at 6pm the next day, in UTC this will be counted as 10pm on day one and 2am on day three. We recommend keeping an eye on time in UTC if you are dedicated towards this achievement.

### Ranking

Bronze Star Badges are 10 points, Silver Circle Badges are 50 points, and Big Yellow Sun Badges are 100 points. There is also one Platinum Square Badge worth a whopping 250 points! Achievement Points are NOT the same thing as the number of edits you've made. Therefore, you can have made 17,045 edits, but only have 10,000 achievement points.

### Cheating the System

There is a rule that applies to all wikis with the Achievements (badge). No abusing a wiki feature, like making lots of unneeded edits, adding the same category over and over, and other things, to get badges. It's cheating, and can really mess up the system. It will get a warning, and then a block.

## Categories

Categories are how we organize the wiki. Organization or "cleaning" the wiki is an important part of being a user.

### Proper Categories and Wrong Ones

Proper Categories are those with proper grammar, meaning that they are properly spelled, capitalized, and pluralized. Here are some example of Proper Categories vs Incorrect Categories.

## Templates

Templates make the wiki look nicer. They're a lot harder then normal editing.
To fully know how to use templates, we're gonna do it RTE first, then in Source Mode.

### RTE

Doing it in RTE is simple. Under the Categories section on the right side, if you scroll down, you'll see a section called "Templates". There will be 4 Green Puzzle Pieces. The only two you have to worry about is "Infobox" and "Delete". The two welcome puzzle pieces you will not even use.

#### Infobox Template

The Infobox template piece, if clicked on, will reveal the "Template Editor". On one side, you'll have boxes to type in, and on the other, it'll allow you to see what the template looks like, even including a "Preview" button that will update it according to what you have put. When you add an image in the Infobox Template, don't add [[File: or |200px|center]] or anything like that. Just put Insert file here.(insert type of picture like .png, .jpeg, .gif) and you'll be good.

#### Delete Template

When you want an administrator to delete a page, press the Delete piece. You won't have to add anything for this template.

#### Others

* If you don't like the line headings that divide the page, then you can juse use Template:Heading.
* If you want a template to give infomation about the episode, use Template:Episode.
* If you need a template to tell when, where, and what year, use Template:Timestamp.

The list of Templates is nearly endless. To add all these other templates, click "Add other templates". It will show you some of the most popular templates which may have the one you need. If it doesn't, you can search for it like its google or bing. Just type whatever you need (Alien for a template for Alien Pages, Villains for Villain pages) and you'll see a template appear. Click on it and have fun!

### Source Mode

Before you do ANYTHING with templates in Source Mode, you need to have a good understanding of Templates in RTE.

Now, in Source Mode, its a bit harder. In Source Mode, you don't have a list of Templates. You don't have a link to a list of templates. You only have what you know. That being said, I can help you.

1. By putting {{ in front of the name of a template, and }} after the name of a template, then a template will show up. But it won't show up in Source Mode. You'll have to click the preview button to see it. DO NOT add Template: to the name. Its name is whatever is after Template:
2. To fill in the different sections like you did in RTE, you have to add | to your templates. So if I was doing heading, I would do: {{Heading|Villains}}. Now the heading will say "Villains", not {{{1}}}.

### Making Templates

Sometimes you'll want to make templates. Now making a template is something that can't be taught. You just have to learn by doing it yourself. But, there is some advice to give.

1. Make sure your template isn't one that's already been made. So don't make a template for episodes, there already is one.
2. If you have to, look at other people's templates and copy/paste them. Then change whatever you need to change. Don't do a 100% copy without changing it because then its just stealing a template.

### Special Templates

Some templates are only used in rare occasions or only for certain people. This includes the following list:

1. Template:Fanon Con Opening - only for the host
2. Template:Fanon Con Submission - only for Fanon Con Submissions
3. Template:Admin - only for administrators
4. Template:Founder - only for Duncan Crook, the founder of the wiki.

## Advanced Editing

### Magic Words

Here's a list of other Important Magic Words:

* PAGENAME {{PAGENAME}}
* BASEPAGENAME {{BASEPAGENAME}}
* FULLPAGENAME {{FULLPAGENAME}}
* CONTENTLANGUAGE {{CONTENTLANGUAGE}}
* CURRENTDAY {{CURRENTDAY}}
* CURRENTDAYNAME {{CURRENTDAYNAME}}
* CURRENTDOW {{CURRENTDOW}}
* CURRENTWEEK {{CURRENTWEEK}}
* CURRENTMONTH {{CURRENTMONTH}}
* CURRENTMONTHNAME {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}
* CURRENTMONTHABBREV {{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}}
* CURRENTWEEK {{CURRENTWEEK}}
* CURRENTTIME {{CURRENTTIME}}
* SITENAME {{SITENAME}}
* SERVERNAME {{SERVERNAME}}
* NUMBEROFPAGES {{NUMBEROFPAGES}}
* NUMBEROFARTICLES {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}
* NUMBEROFEDITS {{NUMBEROFEDITS}}
* NUMBEROFVIEWS {{NUMBEROFVIEWS}}
* NUMBEROFUSERS {{NUMBEROFUSERS}}
* NUMBEROFADMINS {{NUMBEROFADMINS}}
* NUMBEROFACTIVEUSERS {{NUMBEROFACTIVEUSERS}}

## When the Forces of Evil Strike

As with any popular site, there will come a day when the Forces of Evil strike. These forces are known as Vandals, Spammers, and Trolls. As a user of the wiki, it is your responsibility to beat the crap out of them help keep the wiki running.

### Vandalism

If a page is significantly edited without permission from the page's owner, that is known as vandalism. To undo vandalism, go to the "Edit" button, click the arrow on the right of it, and select "History" on the list that appears. Once there, find the edit the Vandaliser made and hit the "Undo" button, which will revert the page to its previous state. You should also report any vandalizers to an administrator.

### Spam

If someone spams unnecessary, unhelpful, or otherwise disruptive content, please report the spam to an administrator so they can remove it.

### Troll

If someone is purposely being a troll, contact an administrator, who will look into the situation. Trolling can be difficult to determine as genuine or not, as some people are simply uncaring or inattentive. If you suspect someone of being a troll, but aren't entirely certain, try talking to them first. If they continue troll-like activity, you can then report them to an admin.

## User Rights

Generally speaking, the rights given to standard users are more than enough to do things around the wiki. However, some actions require higher authority, which is where users such as Administrators and Bureaucrats come in. To become one of these, you must be designated worthy by the current staff. Although there's never any guarantee you'll get a higher ranking, here are some general guidelines that can raise your chances:

* You should be friendly and willing to help out around the wiki.
* You should avoid breaking the rules as much as possible. If you make a mistake once in a while, that's fine, but try to avoid being blocked or banned in any way.
* You should try to avoid getting in arguments with the current admin team.
* You should avoid being obnoxious or unhelpful on chat.
* You should try to help out around the wiki as much as possible, in accordance to our rules, of course.

Doing all this is your best shot at eventually gaining extra users rights. Be aware that users will usually be around for years before they get promoted, and that begging for extra rights will lower your chances of receiving them significantly.

## Common Terms

For chat purposes, words and terms are sometimes shortened or change for the sake of brevity. These are acronyms and phrases commonly used around the wiki.

### Wikia

* BTFF - Ben 10 Fan Fiction
* BTP - Ben 10 Planet
* TEE - The Everything Everything Wiki
* Staff - *Can* refer to Wikia employees, but generally refers to the Admins and Crats of the wiki.
* Chatmods/Mods - Chat Moderators
* Admins - Administrators
* Crats - Bureaucrats
* Troll - Person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
* Blacklist - List of words you can't say/list of profane words
* Spam -Undesired messages. Usually random or using too many characters.

### BTFF

* CC - Community Committee
* OS - Original Series (Ben 10)
* AF - Alien Force
* UA - Ultimate Alien
* UAF - Ultimate Alien Force (combination of AF and UA)
* OV - Omniverse
* Reboot - Ben 10 (2017)
* SS - Tech 10: Star Spirit
* M10 - Mack 10
* MX - Mig X
* MXR - Mig X: Revolution
* POTO - Ben 10: Protector of the Omniverse

### Non-Ben 10 related terms

* Weeb - A fan of Anime/Manga/Japanese culture
* YJ - Young Justice
* KR - Kamen Rider
* TTG - Teen Titans Go!
* TDK - The Dark Knight
* TDKR - The Dark Knight Rises/The Dark Knight Returns
* MoS - Man of Steel
* TASM - The Amazing Spiderman
* TG - Tokyo Ghoul
* BvS - Batman Vs. Superman
* BGO - Board Game Online
* SNL - Saturday Night Live
* UTC - Wikia's "Timezone", really the Coordinated Time Zone
* EDT/EST - Eastern U.S. Timezone

## I Have Read This

I, Text\_will\_be\_replace\_with\_username
, have read this entire Ultimate Guide to a New User. I swear on it. I will refer to this if I have any questions, and if this guide does not answer them, then I will go and ask someone. I promise to follow the rules of the wiki and be the best user I can be.

Add your username here by using ~~~~. Once you do this, you'll no longer be a noob!