An Introduction To The Codex


The Codex of Universes is a place where anyone can create web pages to document and share their favorite fictional universes and worlds of their own invention. Membership is free, and what you do here is limited only by your imagination. Share information about popular fiction (books, movies, TV), document the history and adventures of your role-playing campaigns, share your stories and experiences in games, or use the Codex to work on a new project alone or collaborate with others.

Registering for a user ID at the Codex is free!
There are no features that require payment of any kind.
I can't allow people to post anonymously since that invites spammers to take advantage us. So, that's why I need to ask people to get a user ID in order to participate.

Universes

When you are not logged in to the Codex, you browse the site just like any other. Start on the Universes page, find a universe you are interested in reading about, and surf.

An example of a Universe Map Information about universes is organized hierarchically. On the main page for a universe (aka, the Universe overview page), you find the most general information. You will see some general statements about the universe, listings of products, a listing of the characters, and links to some articles which discuss the universe in more detail. You can click on most of these items to get more information about them.

To see a link to every page that the Codex has for a universe, click on the View Universe Map link. The screenshot in this paragraph shows an example of what a universe map would look like. This map is useful when many articles and products have been catalogued and they have many sub-articles and sub-sections that can be buried deep in the hierarchy.


Products, Articles, Characters

Products are considered to be anything with a release date which adds to the lore of a universe. Articles are pages where a specific topic of the universe is being discussed. For example, there could be one article for each city of a universe. Finally, Characters are the things that populate universes. Each character has his/her own web page where he/she can be documented.

For detailed information on how to create these pages, check out the Getting Started page.


Voting

After you create a user ID at the Codex (for free), you can login and get more options. For every piece of information (typically a paragraph), you will be able to see who wrote the entry and will have some options to give feedback on the entry. Normally, the voting options are hidden. But when you put your mouse cursor over the entry, the options will appear. Here's an example:


Verify: vote that this entry is accurate and well-written. Reject: vote that this entry is wrong or poorly written. Urgent: flag this entry as offensive or spam. A moderator will review it.

by: Neil
score: 1

Borkbork is the home planet of Trobobo. He regrets blowing it up. We know this because he said the following to his friend Brababa: "Brababa, I think blowing up Borkbork was a mistake. I left my wallet on my coffee table, and now I need to replace all my credit cards."

Click on the green circle with a checkmark Check_mark to vote that the entry is accurate, relevant, and well-written.

Click on the thumb down symbol Thumb_down to vote that the entry is inaccurate, irrelevant, and/or poorly-written.

Click on the red circle with an exclamation mark Exclamation to report an entry to a moderator. Do this when you find an entry that is offensive, spam, extremely poorly written, or irrelevant. We'll take action right away!

By voting, you help to ensure that good entries remain, and that bad entries are removed.


Contributing Information

A typical menu for a page. Submitting information to the Codex is quick and easy. When you are on a page where you would like to provide new information, click the appropriate link in the menu found on the left of the content on your page. Usually, you will use the "Submit Information" link, which will give you a form in which you can type your new information entry. Entries can include links, images, and formatting. The editor is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor which gives you the freedom you need to make your pages look attractive and well-organized. Use colour, font sizes, font styles, embedded images, and many other features.

Rather than editing the entire page, like a wiki, you will be posting individual pieces of information. Each post has an owner and a score. This makes working at the Codex seem more like a cross between a wiki, a blog, and Digg.

When creating your entry, you are given the choice of a heading under which your entry will appear, or you can create a new heading. After your entry is submitted and placed on the page, you have some time (about 2 hours) to drag and drop your entry to the best place among the other entries. Give it a try in the following example. Drag and drop the MOVE button to see how easy it is to arrange your posts:

  • 1. This is the first entry in the list, and you didn't write it.
  • 2. Hello, I am entry number two and oh my goodness this is interesting stuff.
  • 3. Here is entry number three, which contains some text and punctuation.
  • 4. This was the last entry in the list before you wrote an entry. Now your entry is last in the list, unless you drag and drop it to another position. Give it a try.
  • Move2 5. This is an item you wrote, and you think it should be moved up in the list of entries. So grab the "move" image with your mouse, and drag your entry up to somewhere else in the list. The new position will automatically be saved to the server immediately. You can move it as many times as you want for a short period of time after creating the entry.

That's It

Those are the basics. For more detailed information, check out the Getting Started page.

Find knowledge about your favorite universes here, or consider this a good place to start gathering knowledge on a new universe!