Help:User page

Your user page is not a People page. For help with articles about individuals, see Help:People pages.

Fanlore encourages wiki editors to use their user page to share their personal history and experience in fandom. Fundamental to our Plural Point of View policy is an appreciation for the unique viewpoint each editor brings. Giving your fandom history and sharing your fannish context will help other editors understand the perspective from which you are recording and sharing fandom's history.

If you are new to Fanlore, try starting out by creating your user page to get a feel for the wiki software and Fanlore policies. Your user page is the empty page you're taken to when you click on your red-linked name on the sidebar. It is empty until you begin to edit it. Check out the tutorial for editing your user page.

Your user page is in a special namespace; unlike other pages on Fanlore, it begins with 'user:yourname'. Contributors are only able to edit their own user pages (that is to say, you're the only person besides admins who can edit content in it); the PPOV policy does not apply. Administrators may edit your user page in case of violation of the guidelines below.

For an example user page see User:Hope.

Formatting your user page

Note: To reduce spam, new members currently cannot create new pages in the first four hours after registering an account.

A good place to begin learning how to contribute articles is by creating your own User Page. Your user page is a page only you can edit. When you read someone else's user page, you know that the information on it is information they put there themselves. All user pages are in a special namespace, and begin with "User:" Although anyone can make a page about you on Fanlore, this is your opportunity to tell people about yourself.

To create your user page:

1. Look for your username, marked in red, at the top or side of the page. (Red text is a link to an article that hasn't been written yet.)
2. Selecting it will take you to a window to create your user page in the Visual Editor (the main "Edit" mode). If you want to use the Source Editor (with wiki markup) to create the page, scroll down for the Source Editor instructions.
3. We recommend adding a User Profile template to the page. The quickest way to insert this is to copy the source code (the code between the {{ }}s) from the template page and paste it into your editing window. This will magically generate the template!
4. To fill it in, select the template and choose "Edit" in the corner. You can then add content into the fields as follows:
   • Names: any names you want to be known by
   • Fandoms: this is what you can use to specify your fandoms (current, former, or both!)
   • Links: use this to add any personal websites or places you can be found around the web.
5. Select "Apply changes" to save your changes
6. Now that you’ve done this, you can add just about anything else you’d like to the page, for instance, a bio, or a list of your personal editing projects. Many editors also use their pages as a sort of “scratch pad” for notes or testing. Please be mindful of the restrictions outlined on our page on deceptive practices. Spam, as defined on said page (including spam on user and talk pages), will be deleted.
7. Select "Save page…" to save your work, and if you want, summarise what you added to the page in the "Summary" box. You can also select "Review your changes" to preview the page and check your work before saving
8. Then select "Save page" again.

To create your user page using the Source Editor instead, use the "Create Source" tab at the top to switch modes. You can do this at any time to switch back and forth between the two modes, Create and Create Source, without losing your work.

1. You will be taken to a large, empty textbox — the edit box for a blank wiki page.
2. We recommend adding a User Profile template to the page, which can be done by copying the code that appears on the User Profile template page
3. Paste this into the edit box and type information next to each field (names=, fandoms= and =links) to fill out your profile template. This is for the key information about you at a glance, but you can add anything else you like to the page by typing it after the closing brackets (}}) of the template - a bio, list of your personal editing projects, whatever! This is your profile on Fanlore, though it can also double as a sort of "scratch pad" for notes or testing.
4. Use the Show Preview button beneath the edit box to check your work.
5. Select the Save Page button, and you're done!

For ideas on what to write about, check out the Fanlore Contributors category.

To access a list of all registered users, see Special:Listusers.

What you CAN put on your user page

• You may write your user page in first person if you wish, and include any links and information about yourself you wish.
• You may categorise yourself in the Fanlore Contributors Category.
• You may include other wiki-related content: some users keep to-do lists on their user pages of wiki projects they plan to work on or have already worked on.
• You may include your username(s) on other sites

What you CAN'T put on your user page

• Fanlore is neither a fanworks archive, nor a blogging platform, and your userpage is not your personal (or fannish) website; therefore you may not use your user page to host fanworks or blog posts. (See more about what Fanlore is not.)
• Your user page must not violate Fanlore's Terms of Service, or engage in Deceptive Practices.

Linking to a user page

If you are making links to User Pages, either yours or someone else's, and do not want the 'User:' portion of the page name to appear, use the following code for the link: [[User:Username|Username]]. Here's what it looks like: Anatsuno.

Communicating with users via the user page

You can talk directly to a user by editing their talk page:

• go to the user page and click on Talk,

or

• click on the "Talk" link next to their username in the View History page, which can be found at the top of any Fanlore page, or Recent Changes list.

Even if a user has not (yet) set up their user page, any other user can edit their user Talk page.

You can also email a user through Fanlore if they have the email function turned on:

• from their user page or talk page, click on "E-mail this user" under the Toolbox menu in the sidebar, OR
• if they have the user infobox template on their user page, click on "email me" in the infobox.

For any other questions, you can use the Talk page or contact the Fanlore Committee