User:Muffynz/Featured article contest draft

The Wild and Wacky Wiki Featured Article Competition!

Have you always wondered where those neat words in the YPPedia come from? Those delectable sentences, those deliciously well phrased paragraphs, those seductively accurate statements of fact? Well they come from pirates just like you and me.

The YPPedia is the Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates wikipedia, a publicly editable community resource written and maintained by interested volunteers.

Q: Wow Muffynz, sounds like fun! But how do I get involved?

A: Go to school for 6 years, get a Java and C++ programming degree, then come back and see me for your 10 inch editing manual.

Q: Oh…

A: Yeah, I'm just kidding. It's really easy. You don't need a lot of programming knowledge to edit because all the instructions are clearly laid out, there's over 9,000 pages of content on the YPPedia to read about and make better, and best of all we want you to come do it!

A wikipedia thrives on it's local community designing, writing, and editing pages or else the resource fails and then it is useful to no one.

Q: Cool, so how do I really get involved? I don't want a 6 year degree…

A: Well, you can try this:

The Wild and Wacky Wiki Featured Article Competition

Everytime you navigate to the YPPedia, you see a featured article on the main page. The featured article is a short summary of a larger article that the YPPedia is trying to draw attention to. Right now, the featured article is on Brigand Kings and flotillas as those are recent additions. We would like to open up the opportunity to write the featured article summary to everyone in this contest. It won't be hard as the template will all be laid out for you and there will be prizes.

Q: Ooooh, what kind of prizes?

A: That's not your next question, try again.

Q: So where do I begin?

A: Well, I am glad you asked.

Directions

First follow this link: http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/User:USERNAME/featured_article_contest/ARTICLE_TITLE Then, in your browser's navigation bar, replace the word USERNAME with your wiki user name (which is the same as your forum user name). Then replace the word ARTICLE_TITLE with the name of the article you are summarizing and hit Enter. (Please note: All underscores and capitals should be retained to ensure proper name filing. For example, my featured article on Brigand Kings in the browser line should appear as this: http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/User:Muffynz/featured_article_contest/Brigand_Kings)

Now, you have the path file name for your article started, at the top of the screen hit the edit tab. Then copy and paste the following template into the edit screen:

{{Template:Featured_article_contest_entry
|user=USER NAME
|title=ARTICLE TITLE
|articlebody=SUMMARY BODY }}

The places you see in capitals will be where you fill in with your information. Where you see USER NAME please enter the user name you used in the url line above. Under ARTICLE TITLE, enter the title of the article you are summarizing (case sensitive). Then enter the main body where you see SUMMARY BODY. This should be a good, solid summary of the main article we're trying to draw attention to.

Once you're done completing your article, save the page and you're set.

Q: Sounds pretty easy, so can I write about anything?

A: Just about, there are a few ground rules though that must be adhered for you article to receive consideration.

1. The article shouldn't be about an individual pirate, crew, or flag. Appropriate article topics include but are not limited to puzzles, islands, ships, recently released content, game mechanisms, and other generic types of articles.

2. The article should be at least 200 words in length and be no more than 300 words.

3. The article must adhere to YPPedia style requirements and have proper spelling, grammar, syntax, and phrasing. In other words, it must be readable. For more information on wiki writing, see here.

4. The featured article is meant to be a portal to not only the article it summarizes, but articles related to the feature. Every possible topic in the article that can be linked, should be. See here for more information on word linking.

Q: That's not so hard, how are the winners chosen?

A: As the YPPedia is a community effort, once every month we will draw from the pool of pre-written articles we have had submitted to us and vote for the one we find has the best qualifications to be the featured article. Anyone can and is encouraged to vote.

In other words, this is a constantly running competition with a new winner once a month. What this means for you is even if you don't get chosen the first time, you may the next time. So you have the opportunity to refine your article or write another one on a different subject.

Q: Cool, so what do I get if mine gets chosen?

A: The satisfaction of knowing that your words are some of the first things every visitor to the YPPedia will see for the next 2 weeks.

Q: Laaaamme.

A: Alright, so maybe I'll throw some PoE and a medal at you on your primary ocean of play.

Think of this as an opportunity to get your feet wet in wiki editing. It's easy, it's fun, and you might just win a little bit of money for it. Being part of an editing community opens up yet one more aspect of game play to be approached. As new features come out, you might just be the one telling us about it on the wiki and informing players of all the stuff you've found out!

Any questions, feel free to PM Pianoman1125 on the main forums or message Muffynz on the YPPedia.