SMBC Wiki:Getting started

Welcome to the SMBC Wiki!

This site was modeled after explainxkcd.com and requires a lot of work, such as adding transcripts and explanations, documenting recurring characters, and making the site look less like xkcd.

Pages up to the latest comic have been created, but almost all of them still need proper transcripts and explanations. For comics without manually created transcripts, a bot has been run to generate transcripts automatically using AWS's Textract. These transcriptions have a lot of errors, but they are somewhat sufficient for searching for comics by text.

There is also a Discord server at https://discord.gg/ARxyyTEzr7, which is to be used for broad coordination and planning, though all that gets discussed on there should eventually be explained on public facing wiki pages as well.

What to do?

The most helpful thing you could do is add basic explanations to comics that explain references, such as linking to external sites that define terms, explaining who mentioned real people are, and pointing out references to science or philosophy topics. Don't worry too much about keeping style or voice consistent across the wiki, that can be looked over later, and the primary goal right now is giving at least something helpful for people who might not be familiar with the topics SMBC references.

...if I find a page with incomplete or incorrect information

Fix it! If you're unsure of what to do, or if you don't have time to correct the page, fix what you're able to, then leave a comment on the talk page.

...if I find a technical bug in the wiki

Report it on the Main Page talk, and if applicable, the relevant page's talk page.

How to...

...edit a page

Click Edit in the page tab at the top of the page. Make any changes you would like to see, write a short explanation in the Summary box (e.g. grammar, added transcript), and click Save changes.

...make a page

Type your page name (e.g. Tiny ponies) in the search bar, click the red link in Create the page Tiny ponies on this wiki!, then add some content and save.

...create a new topic on a talk page

Click Add topic, then type something like Can we double the guacamole? ~~~~. The ~~~~ will transform into your username and an Eastern Time timestamp.

...reply to a comment on a talk page

Click Edit (or Create if the talk page is blank), then add two line breaks after the comment you want to reply to, and type something like :Can we double the guacamole? ~~~~ The colon : will indent your comment — if you're replying to a reply, or a reply to a reply, add more colons for each level in.

...use wiki markup

Wiki markup or wikitext is the code wikis are written in. For the most part, you can write plain text, but if you want to know more:

How to insert	Using this code
Italic, bold, headings, or lists	See MediaWiki
Link to a wiki page	[[Zach Weinersmith|The great Weiner]] or [[Zach Weinersmith]]
Link to a category	[[:Category:Characters|SMBC has many characters.]]
Link to Wikipedia	{{w|Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal|SMBC}}
An inline <code> block	<code><nowiki>inline &lt;code> block</nowiki></code>
A full <code> block	<pre><nowiki>full &lt;code> block</nowiki></pre>
A blockquote	<blockquote>Kids these days</blockquote>
Not to be confused with flying penguins or regular penguins.	{{distinguish|flying penguins|regular penguins}}

...create a character page

Create a page at Character Name, or if that page name is taken, Character Name (character).

Then use this template:

{{Infobox character
| image      = Filename.png (if applicable)
| imagesize  = 150px
| caption    = Character Name
| first_appearance = [[Comic link]]
}}
'''Character Name''' is a recurring character in [[SMBC]]. Character Name was once arrested for pug trafficking.

{{character|name=Character Name}}

[[Category:Any relevant categories here]]

Transcribing comics

Let's look at an example comic, Cell.

A machine transcript starts out like this:

==Transcript== {{computertranscript}} :[Describe panel here] :Oh you like protein shakes? That's cute. :Well what :Do you eat :Every day? :A single gigantic bird-cell. :Ev :Caption: The main advantage of the ostrich-yolk diet is talking about the ostrich-yolk diet. ==Votey Transcript== {{computertranscript}} :[Describe panel here] :Arghigrgu

Transcript This transcript was generated by a bot: The text was scraped using AWS's Textract, which may have errors. Complete transcripts describe what happens in each panel — here are some good examples to get you started (1) (2). [Describe panel here] Oh you like protein shakes? That's cute. Well what Do you eat Every day? A single gigantic bird-cell. Ev Caption: The main advantage of the ostrich-yolk diet is talking about the ostrich-yolk diet. Votey Transcript This transcript was generated by a bot: The text was scraped using AWS's Textract, which may have errors. Complete transcripts describe what happens in each panel — here are some good examples to get you started (1) (2). [Describe panel here] Arghigrgu

A completed transcript would be:

==Transcript== :[Two muscular men talking.] :Man 1: Oh you like protein shakes? That's cute. :Man 2 [holding a shake, confused]: Well what do you eat every day? :Man 1 [fists clenched]: '''A single gigantic bird-cell.''' :Caption: The main advantage of the ostrich-yolk diet is talking about the ostrich-yolk diet. ==Votey Transcript== :[Man 1 is scarfing down a huge yolk the size of his arm.] :Man 1: ''ARGHLGRGLE''

Transcript [Two muscular men talking.] Man 1: Oh you like protein shakes? That's cute. Man 2 [holding a shake, confused]: Well what do you eat every day? Man 1 [fists clenched]: A single gigantic bird-cell. Caption: The main advantage of the ostrich-yolk diet is talking about the ostrich-yolk diet. Votey Transcript [Man 1 is scarfing down a huge yolk the size of his arm.] Man 1: ARGHLGRGLE

That's an example of the formatting of a transcript, and here are some others: 1 2 Don't worry too much about formatting or consistent style, these examples are just to get you to hit the ground running.