Cities Wikia:Step by Step

So, you'd like to participate in this wikia, but you aren't quite sure about how to start? Or maybe you're afraid of messing something up? This page explains one step at a time how to get started.

You don't have to worry about learning everything at once. And if you make a mistake it can be reversed.

This Step by Step page just describes one recommended way to get more familiar and comfortable using the wiki. It is not required. You can skip around in any order you want, except please make sure you read the guidelines and create a Wikia account.

Seeing what is here
Click on some of the links and wander around. The link over in the navigation box will take you back to the main page if you get lost.

If you aren't sure where to go next, you could go to Special:Random, which can be found in the navigation bar. It will take you to a random page on the site. Some pages may be a bit confusing at first, because they are used to help run the site, but it can be fun to see where you land.

Reading the guidelines
Cities Wikia has some guidelines to keep you safe and to keep the wiki working. Please read the short lists of guidelines.

Having some fun in your sandbox
You can start by going to the sandbox. It's a practice page with lots of other people's first tries and some errors. It's a good idea to look at the preview before saving, but in the sandbox, it doesn't really matter.
 * Just go to the page, click on the edit tab at the top.
 * Then you'll see a slightly different view where you can edit the text.
 * After you've made a few changes (the easiest change is to just enter or delete some text), go to the bottom and click on the save page or the show preview buttons. (The save button will save your changes, the show preview will only show you what they will look like if you save.)

Creating a username
You do not need to give any personal information, except for an e-mail address.

You cannot edit without a Wikia account, starting July 2015. Also, creating a Wikia account automatically gives you a user page and a Message Wall where other people can leave messages for you.

Start contributing.
Now that you know how to make changes, you can start editing other pages in order to add your contributions!

Just like in the sandbox, the easiest changes are to enter some text.

Don't worry about formatting yet unless you want to go on to the next step. (Don't feel bad if someone else changes what you enter. We all do that, and adding to each other's stuff is part of what makes the wiki fun. It does not mean that you did something wrong.)

Editing with formatting and new pages
There are optional help pages on topics like Help:Editing, which starts with the basics of creating a page and putting text on it, and Help:Formatting, which tells you how to make a word bold and other formatting techniques.

Ready for some fancier editing?
Some places to start are Help:Image, and Help:Links See the help pages for more topics.

By now you've learned enough that you can probably add more help pages.