Help:Subpages
Subpages are a way to organise content hierarchically without using categories. They dig deeper into or expand on the content of the parent page.
Note: Previous policy was to put Character, Pairing, and fandom-specific list pages in subpages of the main fandom page. These pages have now been moved to top-level pages. See Fanlore:Fandom as a Category.
You might ask yourself when it's appropriate to create a subpage, instead of a dedicated top-level page. Below you will find a non-exhaustive list of situations where a subpage is a suitable choice of action. Please remember that if you have any doubts, don't know if a part of the page in question should be moved to a subpage or a new top-level page, feel free to start a discussion on the article's Talk page.
When should I create a subpage?
- If the work has a large amount of comments and putting them all would make the page harder to read. For examples, see The MsScribe Story: An Unauthorized Fandom Biography/List of Comment Links or TheoryofFicGate/Discussion at AO3
- If you want to document each year a particular convention took place, awards or challenges. For examples see BASCon (con)/2011 or Equicon/1973
- Separate issues of zines etc. For example, see S and H,
- Oral recollection of fannish experiences or events that is not archived in any other place online or offline. See the subpages of Fanlore Live, Reminisce With Me.
How subpages work
Slashes within a page name break the page into parent and subpages recursively, i.e.:
The wiki software interprets the slash in the title as the demarcation between the subpage and its parent, which is why pages dedicated to pairings can appear as subpages of character pages when formatted using the " / " symbol.
- See Buffy/Angel page, which the wiki software identifies as a subpage for Buffy or Kirk/Spock (AOS) which is identified as a subpage of Kirk. In comparison Barrissoka and WangXian pages, which use a Portmanteau as a page name, are not recognized by the wiki software as sub-pages.
It's worth remembering that this isn't a problem and you shouldn't feel like you need to use a portmanteau to avoid this. Instead, name the page whatever best reflects the ship name that is used by fandom. When in doubt, you can consult the How do I name the page section of the Relationships help page.
How to create a subpage
Subpages are created like any other page. Start by typing the full title of the subpage you intend to create into the search box and hit Go. For example, just as you would type in ComicCon to create a page about the ComicCon convention, type in ComicCon/2019 to create a subpage of ComicCon about the convention in 2019.
Then, simply add content as you would on any other page. A link back to parent back to the parent page will automatically appear at the top of the subpage. There is no code you need to add for this. However, these links will not appear if the parent page has not yet been created.
Subpages should use any relevant categories from their parent page, as well as any that apply specifically to the subpage itself.
How to display a list of subpages
To show a list of subpages on a parent page, use the listsubpages template.
There is currently no template to display a list of sibling subpages on the subpages themselves. However, you can customize the following wiki code:
<splist parent= showparent=no sort=asc sortby=title liststyle=bar showpath=notparent kidsonly=no debug=0 />
Specify the parent name, substituting spaces with underscores (_). Like this: Enterprise_Log_Entries
For any other questions, you can use the Talk page or contact the Fanlore Committee