Zelda Wiki:Glossary

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Account
This is what contains a user's details. It is what they use to access the wiki and have their own edits attributed to them. A user must create an account to be able to do more than just read the wiki.

Administrator
Administrators (Admin for short) make up the core moderating team behind the wiki. They check content for quality, manage members and enforce rules.

Ambiguously Canon
Ambiguously canon refers to information that could be related to another "universe" of information, however, is not officially stated. For example, the Valiant Comics are ambiguously canon as they incorporate elements from the main Zelda series, but there is no official statement to confirm such a connection.

Article
This is a wiki's content, the material which it revolves around and the reason why people go to them. They can information about subjects, idea, events, characters, items, etc.

Autoconfirmed
This means that the account has "settled in" and has been given full rights of an established accounts. This happens after the account has existed for 2 weeks and has reached 100 edits (not including user page edits).

Autopatrol
This is a status applied to an account where the user is trusted enough to make few mistakes and to quickly catch and correct the mistakes they do make. Their edits are automatically marked as patrolled.

Bureaucrat
These are the people that represent the parent sites which are most closely affiliated with the wiki.

Ban
This is the process of blocking a user from editing, usually because they violated the rules in some manner.

Bot
This is an account which is run automatically by a program to perform specific tasks which are normally considered too tedious to do manually.

Cache
This is the wiki's stored data on all the pages. This has a single version over every page, usually the most recent, loaded into memory to enable quicker loading of all content. This is what is actually being viewed on any page. But sometimes it lags behind and must be purged.

Canon
Canon is another term for "in-universe" or information that directly relates to another bit of information, i.e. plot, gameplay element, content, etc. based on in-game text, manual, the game itself and its developers' intent, in the case of Zelda Wiki. For example, the game Ocarina of Time is canonical in relation to Twilight Princess - there is relation between the Hero of Time and the Link of Twilight Princess, the presence of Zelda and Ganon, and the developers at Nintendo created the game with the Zelda namesake, formally inducting it into the series upon release.

Captcha
This is a small check to make sure that the person is a real human and not a bot. Typically this is just set to new accounts and the check is normally waived for established accounts.

Category
This is a grouping of similar pages. A page's categories are always listed at the bottom of the page. Some categories are considered to be "maintenance categories" and as such are hidden from the normal list. These maintenance categories are more intended for editors and as such are instead listed in the edit view of a page.

Contributions
A user's Contributions is a list of every edit and upload made by the user. It is accessible in the toolbar on the user's userpage or listed next to their username on a revision or in the Recent Changes. A user can also access their own contributions through a link in the Personal Tools titled "my contributions".

Crat
A shorthand term for Bureaucrat.

Delete
This is the process of removing access to content so it cannot be used anymore. Contrary to the name, it is not actual deletion. The content is still there and can be retrieved if need-be.

Diff
This is the difference between two revisions of page. Removed text is highlighted on the left side, added text is highlighted on the right side. This is what patrollers look at to determine what was done in an edit. There is a button in Edit Mode which shows a diff to preview the difference between the current version of the page and the edit in progress.

Disambiguation
This would be a page which lists related pages to a more generic name which cannot specifically be attributed to one specific subject.

Edit
The foundation of a wiki is that it can be edited by many people, all contributing knowledge, ideas, and creativity to the project. Editing involves using a form to input text data, which then is read by the wiki's software and converted into a final format in the main viewing mode of pages.

Edit Mode
This is the primary way pages on the wiki are edited. the Edit Mode contains two toolbars to improve editing functionality, a text box that contains the page's raw content, and a series of buttons to process the changes. These include Save page, Show preview, and Show changes.

Edit War
This is a highly unproductive way in which two or more editors edit and/or dispute edits or ideas contributed towards an article. Edit warring may come in the form of "Rollback Tennis", slanderous and inappropriate conduct during a talk page conversation, or even a dispute on an editor's user page. Such edit wars result in developmental stagnation and always present Zelda Wiki in a negative light. The administration staff has a zero tolerance policy on edit warring, and the users involved may receive up to a permanent ban from Zelda Wiki for any involvement, large or small.

Featured
This is the status given to an image or article which exemplifies the most prominent and excellent work that the wiki has to offer.

Fourth Wall
The "fourth wall" is traditionally used to refer to plays, being the invisible wall in the scene through which the audience views the performance. In video games, it refers to the line between the in-game universe and the players. When a character "breaks the fourth wall," it means they are addressing the audience or player directly.

GIF
This is an image format that can contain animations. GIF images are limited to 256 colors and they have primitive compression algorithms. For a non-animated image at 256 colors, a PNG format set to 256 colors will produce a smaller file size.

History
A History is a record of all revisions that have been made to a page. It allows the viewing every revision, comparing of any two revisions, viewing the contributors to the page, etc.

Harmonize
Harmonization occurs in articles of similar topic when their content is synchronized (this does not mean verbatim copying) so that the articles are relevant, properly connected, pointed, and concise. Harmonization is a form of consistency, and is one of the most important, macro-editing skills an editor can possess at a wiki.

Image
This is collection of information that forms a picture. It is not included on pages directly, but instead it is stored globally so all pages can potentially use it. There are two basic types of images: Static, the most common type which is just a standard image. And animated which is an image which cycles through multiple frames to show an animation.

JPG
A JPG, or JPEG, image is a image format that is based on "lossy compression". That is, compression that can't be reversed that relies on the fact that the human eye wouldn't be able to see much of the difference to notice. This type of image format works mainly for scenery or portraits which do not have a lot of fine detail such as text as JPG compression does not recognize that those need to be maintained. For more complex images, PNG is preferred.

Link
This is a bit of formatting which allows the viewer to go to the indicated page. There are two types of links: internal links which are formatted like  PageName , and external links that are formatted like  Example .

Log
Logs are records of actions taken by users. They are all listed on Special:Log, and they also appear in the Recent Changes. Logs are similar to edit revision records listed on page histories.

Here is a table of all log types as well as the wiki's description, as seen on each page, for each log type:

Log Types

Login
This is the process of accessing an account by entering the username and password.

Magic Word
This is a string of text which the software will recognize and perform a specific task as a result. The most basic ones are those with all capital words surrounded by two underscores on each side. These alter behavior of the pages they are placed on, such as: removing the Table of Contents, changing how a category behaves, and altering the various automatic edit links on the page. There are also two more specialized types of magic words called variables and parser functions.

Mastermind
The Masterminds are the Zelda fansites that own a portion of Zelda Wiki, and promote it through their community. Each site contributes an ambassador, known as a Bureaucrat, to the wiki to increase transparency between their site and ZW; these ambassadors aid the administrators in helping users, implementing policy, and adding to the wiki's ever-growing userbase. Any site that wishes to become a Mastermind can apply and may be chosen as a result of a democratic discussion of the sites' quailties and strengths in relation to the wiki by the ZW staff.

Move
This is an action which moves all of a page's edits and content over to a new name, leaving the old name behind as a redirect. This should never be done manually as that would cause the loss of all the edit history. There is a tab at the top of every page for the moving action. Pages can be moved by anyone with an autoconfirmed account. There are options to automatically correct redirects to point to the new name (an action carried out by a bot) and move a page's subpage(s) with it. A page cannot be moved if the target page has more than one edit, and if it only has one edit it has to be as a redirect. Admins can move pages regardless of the status of the target page and can also choose to move the page without leaving behind a redirect.

Namespace
A namespace is a very large grouping of pages divided by function. Which namespace a page is in affects its treatment by the software. Articles are in the main namespace (which shows up blank because it's the most common one), templates are in the template namespace, Userpages are in the user namespace]], and so on. It is possible to move pages to another namespace.

NoA
NoA is an abbreviation of Nintendo of America.

NoE
NoE is an abbreviation of Nintendo of Europe.

Noinclude
The   tags can be places on pages, most often on templates, to prevent whatever is in them from being transcluded onto the page it's used on.

Non-canon
This information is not considered in the same "universe" as other information. For example, the CD-i series of games, though somewhat related to the Zelda series, are considered non-canon, as they do not reflect positively or negatively onto the storyline elements of the main series of Zelda games.

Noob
Noobs, also spelled newb, or n00b, are relatively new users that do not yet understand all the basics and frequently make common mistakes.

Nowiki
This is a tag,, that escapes normal wiki format and displays the contained text as-is.

OGG
Widely known as Ogg Vorbis, this is a common freeware audio compression format, popular amongst wikis such as our own that intend to stream music. The file, though comparable to the MP3, is known for its lack of patent-based restriction and notoriety as an open, public domain codec.

Oversight
This is the action of hiding all or part of revision due to either: excess profanity, extreme vandalism, or accidentally released personal information which is desired to remain private.

Parameter
This is the data you can input when calling a template for use in its programmed functions. They're entered by using the form  , replacing the numbers with the data. Parameters can also be named in the form  , replacing the letters with the parameter name and the numbers with the parameter values. Parameters are used by templates by using the format:  ,   ,   , etc. and in the same manner with named parameters.

Parser Function
A parser function is Magic Word that allows the use of parameters to allow for complex tasks. It has the form  . These are used extensively in templates as they're usually too complex to use manually all the time and it's preferred to make templates to contain them.

Patrol
This is the action of checking edits for quality to make sure that they are up to standards. Both Admins and Patrollers do this.

Patroller
This is a user that has been well trusted to check others' edits for quality. They patrol the Recent Changes checking every single edit.

Permaban
Permaban is short for permanent ban. It is a ban that never expires. This is usually applied to most vandals, alternate accounts, and other users which have severely violated the rules of the wiki, and on some occasions over consistent, yet detrimental issues.

Personal Tools
These are the tools at the top of every page the gives the user access to various functions of their accounts, such as their userpage and watchlist.

Piped Link
A piped link is a link that has different text displayed than what the actual name of the page that is linked to. It is done by adding a vertical pipe character, a |, after the page name followed by the text to display in its place. The format is:  Displayed Text 

Plagiarism
This is the taking of another person's work and claiming it as your own. In the context of the wiki, this applies generally to text and usually involves copying content from another wiki to supplement this wiki's information. As the largest competing wiki to Zelda Wiki is Zeldapedia, which has a license for text which is totally incompatible with Zelda Wiki's text license, plagiarizing from there is not only against the rules but is also illegal and may by punishable by various state, federal, or international copyright laws. Zelda Wiki will never condone this and, upon receiving proof that said plagiarism has occurred, the offending user is banned for a period of time and the plagiarized material is removed and replaced.

Preferences
Listed as "My Preferences" in the editor's account tab at the upper right hand corner of the wiki window, the Preferences tab allows a user to customize Zelda Wiki to their liking. Possible preferences include a custom signature, larger or smaller viewable edits in the Recent Changes, skin versions, and a customizable watchlist of pages.

Preview
This is a feature of Edit Mode which allows the viewing of the page in the current edit in progress fully rendered by the wiki software. This allows the spotting of errors like broken coding or red links very easily.

PNG
PNG is a common image format. It uses "lossless compression". That is, compression which is entirely reversible. It compresses an image using algorithms that maintain the image's detail fully, so every small detail in the image survives. This is preferable for any image with text or other small details which are critical to maintain. This format is the preferred image format for Zelda Wiki.

Protection
When a page is protected, it restricts a certain group of editors from contributing to it. Wiki staff may protect a page(s) under circumstances of high traffic, edit warring, or due to any other disruptive situation occuring at the time. The most common protection level prevents any user that is not autoconfirmed from changing the page, but protection levels could go as high as to be restrictive of every editor but administrators.

Purge
This is the action of clearing the wiki's cache for a page to force it to update to most recent version. This can be done by selecting "purge" from the drop-down list in the upper right, or simply by using the keyboard shortcut Alt+0.

Quality Standards
The standards to which it is expected that all users uphold, specifically referring to article content.

Recent Changes
This lists all of the recent edits made to the wiki over that last few days. Users can toggle the amount of edits they see in increasing increments via hyperlinks on the page.

Redirect
This is a very small page which takes the viewer to a certain page. The redirect is usually another name for this target page. Although it can also go to a specific section in an article.

Red Link
This is a link on a page which leads to another page which does not yet exist. It is displayed in a red color and leads to the Edit Mode of the non-existant target page, so that the page may be created.

Revert
This is the action of taking a page back to the last edit made by someone other than the last person to edit. Usually this is for when one user makes a long string of edits which have to be undone at once.

Revision
This is the record of an edit. It includes a description of what was done in the edit, the time when it was made, by whom it was made, and the entirety of the page in that edit.

Rollback
This is an action available for Patrollers and Administrators, and refers to reverting all consecutive edits made by one user on an article.

"Rollback Tennis"
This is an action between two or more users working on a page. During the editing of the page in question, one user may rollback another user's edit, and in return that user may rollback the other's edit, leading to a back-and-forth reverting of edits similar to that of a tennis match. This creates article stagnation and edit conflicts; rollback tennis is subject to consequences for any user involved at the discretion of the administrative staff.

Sandbox
Accessible through the sidebar, the Sandbox is a unique page that is intended to be used for users to test editing and experiment in.

Save
Saving is the process of adding an edit to a page. After saving, the edit is stored in a revision.

Section
This is a division of a page that has specific content concerning one aspect of the page's subject.

Sidebar
This is a bar that runs on most wiki skins, usually on the left side. It contains commonly used links and tools.

Signature
A signature, sometimes called a sig, is a listing of the username of the person posting plus the timestamp of the post whenever a user makes a statement on a talk page.

Sockpuppet
A sockpuppet is an account that a user created in addition to their original account. For the most part this is not approved of by the rules. There are a number of reasons people do this. Among them are, to create a false perception of more support for their positions, avoid a ban on their existing account, to cause trouble in the wiki while not visibly compromising their normal account, etc. Sockpuppet accounts are always permabanned, and the user's original account would most likely be temporarily be banned, depending on what the sockpuppet was used for.

Spam
Irrelevant content added specifically to draw attention to something not related to the article, or sometimes even the wiki, at all.

Special Page
A Special Page is a page managed by the wiki software that can: perform tasks, make lists of pages, list user accounts, list categories, display various statistics, etc.

Speed Editing
Speed editing occurs when a user makes many edits in a very short period of time. This practice is generally looked down upon at a wiki as it suggests that such edits were not checked for quality, regardless of how small they are. Depending on the severity of the speed editing, this practice places not only a strain on the server, but on the patrolling staff.

Spoiler
A Spoiler is revealing information about a certain topic that describes either pivotal plot events or a plot change so important that its presence may ruin the story's content to an unsuspecting reader. Zelda Wiki is full of such spoiler material, however, there is always an obvious "Spoiler Warning" before any section that contains such information.

Stub
This is an article which is small, and is lacking a great deal of information which could be added.

Subpage
A Subpage is a page that belongs to another, usually larger or more prominent page. They are signified by having a their title be the name of the parent page followed by a forward slash, then having the name of the subpage. This is typically disabled for ordinary articles because various things can legitimately have a forward slash in their names, though subpages can still be constructed manually. They're more often found on userpages, and sometimes on templates.

Summary
The Summary consists of a user-created blurb as to the difference between a previous and current edit, so that other users can see at a glance as to why the page was altered at the Recent Changes. The Summary is written in the bar below the edit screen, above the "Save Page" and "Show Preview" buttons.

Sysop
Short for System Operator. Another name for Admin, currently obsolete but still sees occasional use.

Tab
This is a box at the top of each page which allows for specific actions to be done to the page when clicked.

Table of Contents
This is a box at the top of pages that lists all the sections on the page.

Tag
This is a piece of formatting code that is programmed to do a certain function. Normally they come in pairs with an opening tag and closing tag, the closing tag having a forward slash in the beginning of it. It is generally in the format of  Content to be used . Though additional functions are normally available for some more specialized tags in the form:  Content to be used 

Talk page
This is a page dedicated to discussing the parent page. It is typically reserved for use of discussing how to improve the page in question.

Template
This is a special page that contains wiki coding which is usually complex and a hassle to do manually each time. Templates usually make these codings easier and facilitate in simplifying many tasks throughout the wiki. When included onto a page with the coding  , the wiki's software takes content from the template and places it in the page when viewed.

Theory
Theories are bits of speculative information, implied by canonical sources but not confirmed. Zelda Wiki is unique in that it allows theoretical content in its articles, however, the information must be supported by the fan community before ever reaching the article in question.

Timestamp
This is the date and time of an action. All timestamps on the wiki are in UTC time, that is Universal Coordinated Time, the international standard for time measurement. So times will be the same for everyone and it would be easier to see the time between posts.

Title
A title is the name of the page. It is used in the page's URL and is displayed on the top of the page. It includes the name of the page and its Namespace.

Toolbar
A toolbar is a grouping of quick-links which specifically contain tools for use. There are several toolbars on a wiki. There is one included at the bottom of the sidebar. There is another at the top of the edit view, and a larger one below the edit view. There is a specialized toolbar relating to user account functions called Personal Tools.

Transclude
Transclude, a portmanteau of transfer and include, is the process of taking the content of one page and placing on another page without actually permanently copying the content over to the page, which is what is done with templates. Although it can also be used with any page, but less efficiently than with templates. This process also allows the use of parameters which can be applied to the transcluded content.

Troll
This is a name applied to users that came specifically to stir up hostile emotions and cause trouble by intimidating and harassing other people. They are typically banned if they continue after one or two warnings.

Undo
This is the action of taking a page to a the last version before its most recent edit.

Upload
This is the process of submitting an image, or other file, for use on the internet. In the context of the wiki it is done through an upload form which is always accessible through the sidebar.

User
A person using the wiki, typically through an account.

Userbox
This is a small, rectangular object made by a template that contains one small piece of information and usually a picture relating to that information. Such as: owning a copy of a game, liking a character, opinions, etc.

Username
This is the name that is given to an account. It is what identifies the user to everyone. Every username on a single wiki is unique.

Userpage
A personal page where a user can basically put whatever they want. Person information (if they so choose), lists of favorite games, userboxes, game opinions, etc. Pretty much anything within reason. So long as it respects the rights of other users and stays reasonably within the rules.

Vandal
This is a user which came to the wiki specifically to cause trouble and to deface articles with nonsense, profanity, obscenity, spam, etc. They're typically banned without warning.

Variable
Variables are a type of Magic Word that allow various values and text defined values to be used. There are two main types of variables. The first are variables defined by the software that give things like the name of the current page, the total number of articles on the wiki, the current date or time, etc. The second type of variable is actually a Parser Function that allows the defining of a custom variable at one point on a page and then using it again further down to perform a task. This a very common in templates.

Wanted Pages
When an article links to a page that does not exist, the name of the page appears in the Wanted Pages category. These pages should be subsequently created to cut down on the amount of red links scattered about the wiki.

Watchlist
The Watchlist is a function that allows users to track changes to some of their favorite pages.

What links here
This is a Special Page that is listed on the toolbar for every single page on the wiki. It lists every page that links to the page in question. It also lists pages that transclude that page as well.

Wiki
A Wiki is a website or online resource which allows users (registration is not always required) to add and edit the site's content. It comes from the Hawaiian word "wiki wiki", which means "rapidly". Zelda Wiki is a wiki.

Wiki may also be an abbreviation of the words; What I Know Is.

WikiExclusive
The WikiExclusive is a fan-made article submitted to Zelda Wiki for publishing on the site, without the informal, "anyone can edit" process of a wiki. It is more of a personal essay that can only be edited by one person, similar to the articles seen on the many fansites around the community. The writer of the article is credited and the piece is placed on the wiki, after the "go ahead" is given by the Zelda Wiki staff. This article, after publication, is promoted by the fansites in the community and is placed in the rotation with other WikiExclusives on the wiki's Main Page. Users are allowed to discuss the article on its talk page, but cannot edit it in any way.