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.

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

But don't worry too much about formatting or consistent style.

How to...

• How to edit a page
• How to use wiki markup
• Leave a comment on a Talk page

How to use wiki markup, extended

• You can create an inline code block using <code><nowiki>this code</nowiki></code>.

• You can create

full code blocks

using <pre><nowiki>this code</nowiki></pre>.

• Any instances of angle brackets < in a code block should be subsituted with < and &ampersand;rt;.

• You can link to a category with [[:Category:Characters|]], which creates Characters.

• You can add a redirect to Wikipedia by using the format {{w|Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal|SMBC}}, which creates the following link: SMBC

• {{distinguish|A|B}} creates Not to be confused with A or B.

How to create a character page

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

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]]