Encyclopedia Dramatica:How 2 EDit for Dummies

Policy This article defines official ED Policy.

	“	This really is so retarded even The Geeks should be able to follow this!	„
	—Author

Not Available in teh shops!

What we are Here for!

EDiting for Dummies

As part of the ED Improvement Drive, I thought it would be useful to write a guide on "How 2 EDit for Dummies". The idea is that this should be a guide that even the most retarded of n00bs can use to understand how they should approach creating an article. Therefore avoiding exhibits A, B, C, and D.

This is just an attempt to help those delicious n00bs avoid pointlessly creating articles that will be deleted because Encyclopedia Dramatica 2.0 is a beautiful thing.

Encyclopedia Dramatica (as a rule) is only interested in articles relating to drama, internets, or memes. Articles regarding the documentation of memes tend to be created by specialists who have no use for this "Dummies Guide" because they are l33t hackers on steroids, so the instructions in this guide tend to be more focused towards articles who's subject is a person or a group of people.

Encyclopedia Dramatica does sometimes have articles on non-internets subjects.

• These should be acerbic, snarky and get a rise out of people from the opposing viewpoint.
• Otherwise it would just be Uncyclopedia.

Articles don't always have to be full of lulz. Satire isn't always "omg...lol...that is so funny!".

The more pretentious EDiots would think of satire as "the unseating of the comfortable". Think about it.

Spiderman will Help You

Just because you have been banned from Wikipedia doesn't mean you are welcome here. Even arch-enemies of ED have been perma-banned from Wikipedia.

Some Examples to Look at:

• Americunts
• Annalise Walliker
• Trey Burba
• Swirl Face
• Don't Taze Me Bro
• IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER

What is the Subject of your Article?

You are now your own King

So you want to write an article for ED? You will know what or who the article is about, but many of your readers won't. So a good way to start is by having an introductory paragraph that describes who the person is, which part of the internet they inhabit (eg. YouTube / LiveJournal) and what horrendous stupidity has led them to deserve an article on Encyclopedia Dramatica.

Some would disagree, but badly written ad hominems by themselves are unfunny, but well written viciously acerbic satire does the same job as ad hominems, but also provides the critical element of lulz.

Drama is a crucial element, and is normally easily obtained. So you should try and make sure some is provided (if it hasn't already) even though there are no trolls at Encyclopedia Dramatica. Remember to provide links in your article to where the subject or drama can be found (eg. MySpace, YouTube, LiveJournal).

Do not waste your time on personal attack articles about some kid at your school or college, or some piece of copypasta that you have cooked up that you think is hilarious - /b/ is the place for that, not here. That type of shit will get deleted quickly.

Think about "Notability". Does your article really deserve a place here?

Making an Article Worthy of Encyclopedia Dramatica

Consult the ED style guide and you will be well on your way to success!

1. Basic Rules - very important read!
2. When is it crap?
3. Wiki-specific markup
4. Why not pipe?
5. Why not pie?
6. Good Joke:Word Count Ratio
7. Internet Relevance
8. ED vs. Wikipedia
9. ED Is Not
10. Templates
11. Strikethroughs
12. Image Selection Process
13. The Encyclopedia Dramatica Guide to Article Building

Take a look at articles that appear on the Frontpage.
The "Article of the Now", "Did You Know?" and "Good New Articles"....

HAVE BEEN PUT THERE FOR A REASON.

They are good examples of what we want.

With an introductory paragraph and at least another two paragraphs describing
and lampooning the idiocy of the subject, together with some appropriately
captioned images, perhaps a lulzy "quote", and you are on your way to
making an article worthy of Encyclopedia Dramatica and have a good
chance that your article will not be fail.

See Also:

• The Encyclopedia Dramatica Style Guide
• Basic Rules
• When is it Crap?
• Good Joke:Word Count Ratio
• Encyclopedia Dramatica Improvement Drive
• Encyclopedia Dramatica's YouTube Improvement Drive - Some more tips on what to avoid when creating articles.

---

Creating a new article in your userspace will stop you getting molested by ED Sysops m'kay

PROTIP!:

• If you are creating a new article, its a good idea to create if first within your userspace like this one on "The Biz".
• Do this by creating the article in https://www.encyclopediadramatica.gay/User:YourUsername/YourArticleTitle
• This means that you can save articles as "Work in Progress" without fear of it being deleted.
• Once you think you have finished your article, ask one of the Sysops to move it for you.

Basic Wikification

Please use The Preview Button to check your EDits

You may be be a MediaWiki n00b. Don't worry, the easiest thing to do is find an good article and steal the code from there! You could even steal code from this article!

When you want to see how your EDits look, please use the preview button. When you want to save your article plz briefly describe what you did in the ""Summary". For Example: "typo", "added pix" or "format fix" - kthx!.

This will help people who watch Recent Changes, and you don't want to annoy them!

• Here are some of the basics of wiki markup to get you started:

== Section Heading ==  - Creates a Section Heading

[[Image:ImageName.jpg|thumb|caption here]]  - Basic Image Placement (default places pic to the right).

[http://www.google.com Google]  - Basic URL Link

[[camwhore]] -Basic link to another ED article.

[[faggot|David Miscavige]]  - 'Piping'. In this example, clicking on the blue resulting link 'David Miscavige' 
will take you to the page 'faggot'. The article you want to link to goes first.

<center><youtube>xViDc0dEhErEx</youtube></center> - embedded youtube clip (centered)

* short fact  - Bullet Point

'''Bolded Text''' - Bolded Text

Note : For YouTube Embedded Videos

Do not even think that you can fool people by listing multiple Youtube embedded videos - yes it takes up space and makes your article seem more substantial. But it fails hard, and fools no one of importance. Please try to annotate videos you embed with a description so that readers have some idea of what they will be watching if they click play on the video. Srsly just having a column of videos is fucking annoying, looks shit and wins you no brownie points.

• PROTIP: It's good to have a lulzy {{quote}} from the video displayed beneath it. or something funny that passes as a quote to entice readers to watch the video.

Here is some code to copypasta!

{| align="center" style="padding:0px;"
|<center><big>'''2009: An EDiot's Look Back'''</big></center><br>
<center><youtube>smkUIGQiZ3g</youtube></center>
<br>
{{quote|This is a [[unwarranted self importance|much better]] 
way to display a [[YouTube]]|'''Author''' - ''knows [[noone]] 
will do this but said it anyway''}}
|}

This Code Displays Embedded Youtube Videos Like This!

An Ediot's Guide to 2007

	“	This is a much better way to display a YouTube	„
	—Author - knows noone will do this but said it anyway

Note : Posting multiple youtube videos

In order to post multiple videos into one player use this handy dandy template (seperate each video with a |)

<center><big>'''Witty quote here'''</big></center><br>
<center>{{fv|starvids|background-color: white;|font-weight: bold;|
<youtube>Video Code</youtube>|<youtube>Video Code</youtube>}}
</center>

Witty quote here

Previous Video | Next Video

Also : Piping and Other Things

• Why not pipe?
• Piping creates meta-lulz as long as avoiding unrelated links. Such as Tom Cruise is cool.

[[Tom Cruise]] is [[homosexual|cool]].

• Please remember to use the SHIFT KEY effectively when creating articles :
• "MySpace Killer", NOT "Myspace killer".
• "Rational Response Squad", NOT "Rational response squad"

Things to Avoid

Now that you know some things you should be doing, let's take a quick look at the things one shouldn't do on ED. The following are EXTREMELY PAINFULLY OVERUSED techniques and should be avoided AT ALL costs. They're no longer funny and chances are if you add them to an article your edit will be reverted and you'll be chastised, if not worse.

AMIRITE

NO YOU AM NOT RIGHT.

The strikethrough tag

The taint of Uncyclopedia has spread to ED and brought with it this unfunny method of editing. The idea is that something already added to a page needs to be replaced, therefore one strikes through the text and makes an addendum directly afterwards. The problem with this, aside from being overused and unfunny, is that this is a wiki. If something needs to be removed or replaced, simply do it. Don't waste your time and mine by adding unnecessary edits to a page, making it read like a talk page edited by retarded monkeys. The bottom line: just don't do this.

DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS

Quite often found with the strikethrough, this is yet another example of the anti-lulz that can be found more and more frequently here. With this, the joke (if one could consider it that,) is that the poster has reneged on his or her word and exclaimed that they suck cocks, rather than whatever the previous statement had indicated. This too is a moot point on a wiki, as you or I could navigate through the page's history to discover that it is Anon21354564 who sucks cocks, not the OP. Avoid this like the plague, as it's somehow linked absolutely everywhere.

IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAND

Somehow this has become the default measurement for anything, regardless of actual quantity. Guess what? It's linked from over 9,000 pages on ED and thusly is no longer anywhere near funny. Lore states this came from Dragonball Z which is just a terrible excuse for programming and should embarrass anyone caught watching it. The numeral 7 wordfilters to over 9000 on 4chan which should instantly indicate that it's so played out that you should be executed for considering using it.

Last Thursday

Let's face it, none of you Gen-Z newfags were around for Last Thursday. Don't even pretend to know what it's about.

At least 100

Once upon a time we mocked TOW and we mocked them hard, and this was one of those statements we used. Since then, everything in recorded history has happened shortly before the last century began. Not only has the debate surrounding creationism taught us this isn't true, it's simply silly. Let's not fall into the trap of assuming everything just happened, OK?

An Hero

Let's get this straight right now. There is only one hero. All others are merely suicides. Unless one has won the Golden iPod, one cannot truly be an hero. In addition, it happens to be a noun and not a verb, you dumb fuckwits.

The Bel-Air

The original incarnation of this meme was to interrupt the climax of an exciting story with the the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But at some point in time, it was decided by a swarm of retards that every event ever must conform to the format of the theme song, because they are strange and obsessive. Sadly, this is no longer funny (if in fact it ever was funny,) and thusly should not be added to articles, new and old alike.

Unnecessary vulgarity

Yes, you're allowed to say shit, piss, fuck, cock, dick, bastard, dyke, cunt, twat, ass, dildo, nigger, kike, spic, wop, wog, jigaboo, jap, chink, gook, beaner, dago, cum, faggot, paki, sand-nigger, towel-head, Jew, gypsy, tits, pussy, boobs, taint, homo, smegma, shite, snatch, snizz, queef, and felch here. Don't you feel a little more grown-up for it?

'''Bold text'''

You idiot, you clicked the formatting buttons and still couldn't figure it out.

???? and PROFIT!

Remember when this was on South Park? Oh man, so do I! That was so funny! Over ten years ago!

Linking EVERY.SINGLE.WORD

Not every word in an article needs to be linked/piped, all this does is make the article look like shit. Refrain from linking unimportant words or linking the same word multiple times in the same article.

Putting links to memes excessively

Putting links to memes with even the slightest relevance does not make something funny. This will actually make your article extremely unfunny. Try not to put links to memes too much(Or at all).

"You"

Constantly linking to the "you" article does not make you funny. That means you probably shouldn't go around linking to you every chance you get to call the reader an emo, furfag, etc.
See what we mean?

Creating pointless articles

Examples of pointless articles

• That guy on Youtube who made fun of you for being fat.
• That guy on Call of Duty who beat you by camping.
• Creating an article on yourself (You have a user:page for a reason)
• Getting your friend to create an article on you.
• Any small-time memes
• If you must create an article on a forced meme, at least say how forced and unfunny it is.
• Locations-Countries and states are alright, but don't go creating an article for every province in Canadia, or every prefecture in Japan. Cities are also bad, if you really want to, just create a sub-article within the state or countries' article.
• Other users on here(besides SysOps or extremely notable users).
• Placeholder articles. It is not necessary to write a one line article that states that an article is soon to come. This is not a contest to see who can get the earliest revision. Please form a cohesive idea for an article, and then write it using the primer and article building guides. Do not worry, nobody will take your article title... it will still be there after you have formed a basic idea for an article.

Uploading Images

Highly trained Image Inspectors

You can easily upload images, by using Special:Upload linked in the toolbox on the left of every page below the search bar. Before you upload, make sure to read and follow the image use policy. Uploading bestiality and child porn is obviously a very bad thing and anyone doing this will be banned indefinitely.

You will need to include a description of the file in the Summary. If the description is inaccurate, the image may be deleted. See ED:MEDIA.

Make sure that you upload an image with a proper filename. Google Image Search needs to be able to find your image, so filenames such as Image:1282759137539.jpg MIGHT be deleted, or renamed.

Important:

• CHECK THE FUCKING FILE SIZE!
• Please try and not upload anything larger than 6 MB, 11 MB max - exceptions can be made (such as in cases of non-image media files.) kthx!

The Talk page and you

There is a talk page on every article and every user account. When you post on the talk page of a user it is usually considered a PM.
Talk Pages on Articles are to be used to discuss the article and/or ways to improve it. Every user should sign their posts by using four TILDES ~ or by click the button that looks like a signature, dumb ass.
A signature looks like this: --DocEvil 15:15, 29 April 2011 (UTC)

PRO TIPS
It is a good thing to start a new == Section == when contributing to a talk page if you're replying to someones post you go below it and add a * for a reply See below for an example conversation

You're a faggot -Jew

• No you are - George Bush
  • Fuck you all - Hitler

Do Not Do The Following!

Uploading bestiality and child porn is obviously a very bad thing and anyone doing this will be banned indefinitely. In some cases, dox is allowed on ED. However, we are not a personal army. Do not expect us to tolerate posting dox of underage users.

We have First Amendment and PPA protection. However, if law enforcement provides us with a legal subpoena for information we have - then we are going to give it to them. Why? Because that's the easiest thing for us to do. Do not expect us to go to court for you. You are not that important to us, quite frankly.

Most importantly, don't do anything on encyclopediadramatica.online that would cause law enforcement to issue us a subpoena.

See Also

• Encyclopedia Dramatica's General Disclaimer
• Encyclopedia Dramatica's Privacy Policy

How 2 EDit for Dummies is part of a series on ED Government

Executive Command Founder Joseph Evers • Lulz Incarnate Ae-tan • Codified Likeness Utility CLU Theocratic Branch Spiritual Advancement Guru Meepsheep • Brother Hipcrime • Our Dear Leader GloriousReader • Hardchat Royalty Likeicare Judicial Branch Judge Boudica • Drama Detective GirlOnInternet • Arbchat • Internet court Intelligence Division Arctic Research Scientist Caku • Chanfig and Professional Memer CrackRabbit • Kentucky Colonel Fleacollerindustry • Cordial Cyborg Jacket • Kaptein-Commandant Conciërge Tabs • E-Detective and Token Straight Guy Zagan Communications Network Jamaican Ambassador ASSBLONKER • Logistics Expert Scumhook • Maysam • Professor A Fucking Box • Commissar MegaManly • Memetic Warfare Director Chimplord • Real Celebrity Paul Rudd Department of Defense "Old Bone" Kleetus • Catalogue Cleaning Crew Cobaltcat • Gooner Killer NEVER GOON Founding Documents ED:Help • ED:101 • ED:LULZ • ED:OATH