Introduction
Welcome to the MicroWiki Forum! This is the associated forum to MicroWiki (often shortened to simply MW), a large, active and free encyclopædia about micronations, small unrecognised nations which are often rather eccentric in nature. Created in 2005, the wiki is continually improved and updated by the community with content being moderated by a small group of staff. The MicroWiki Forum (MWF or MW Forum/s) were created in late 2010 following a move of the site from another wiki farm to its current location. Other associated websites include MicroCommons (MC; a micronational text and media repository) and UnMicroWiki (UMW; a satirical encyclopædia about micronations).

Frequently Asked Questions
Registration
1. How do I register?
Go to http://microwiki.org.uk/forum/member.php...n=register, read the registration agreement, click on I agree and fill out all the appropriate details. When you have finished, click on Submit Registration!, wait for the confirmation email, confirm your registration, login and begin posting.
2. What if I don't receive a confirmation email?
Email an administrator at microwiki@mail.com and they will be able to move you to the Registered user group, bypassing the need for an activation email. As of August 2011, the site webmaster, Demontux, has disabled the sending of confirmation emails on the site so instead all accounts are automatically activated. You should be able to login and post fine without confirming anything. If you have any problems though, don't hesitate to contact an administrator at microwiki@mail.com and they'll try to fix the problem as soon as possible.
3. Is there one account for everything?
Unfortunately, no. This means that you will have to create separate accounts at MicroWiki, the forums, MicroCommons and UnMicroWiki. When registering accounts though, it is preferred that you use the same username at each one for identification purposes.

Rules
4. What are the rules?
The full rules can be read here. In a nutshell, use common sense and don't be an idiot.
5. Why did my post or thread just get deleted?
Normally because it was either off-topic, offensive or otherwise broke the forum rules. Usually whoever deleted the post or thread will give a reason for doing so through a PM or within the thread, but if they do not, feel free to politely PM an admin for an explanation.

Staff
6. What is the Assembly?
The Assembly is the gathering place of all members of the MicroWiki Community where we collectively make decisions on policy, formulate guidelines, resolve community-related conflicts, discuss its operations and otherwise further our aim of creating a micronational encyclopædia. More information can be found here.
7. What and who are the Administrators?
Until recently (August '11), they were essentially the same things as any other administrators on other forums or wikis, with admins being elected on MicroWiki and then carried over to the forums. However, following the Seventh Administrator Elections, there became a separation between site-wide admins, forum-only admins and wiki-only admins. The current site-wide admins are Cajak (User:Cajak) and Demontux (User:Demontux). The current forum-only admins are JamesPuchowski and Philip Fish while the current wiki-only admins are JPuglisi, Smyg and Billyneil.
8. How do I become an admin?
Admins are elected through democratic elections that take place on the MicroWiki community portal. Elections are called at the admins' discretion or by the Assembly with instructions for running being given during the pre-election period.
9. What are Patrollers and what can they do? How do I become one?
Patrollers serve in an unelected position and assist in basic moderating of MW through nominating articles for deletion and patrolling edits. As there are no requirements for the job (you don't get any extra power at all really), to become a patroller, just ask one of the admins politely through a private message on the forums or through their talk page on the wiki and they'll make you one ASAP.

Bit above posts
10. What do the different styles and colours of usernames mean?
They variously indicate different user groups:

• Awaiting Activation means that the user is yet to confirm their email.
• Registered is the default user group for users who have confirmed their email.
• Blocked users are users who have been blocked or banned from the forums for various reasons.
• Moderators have limited power across some boards and assist in minor user administration.
• Global Moderators have limited power across all boards and assist in minor user administration.
• Administrators have power across the whole forum and have access to the admin cpanel, allowing them to reshape the universe as they see fit.

11. What do the different rank images mean?
They variously indicate either user ranks (based on post count), user groups or users. All ranks designed by Daniel Anderson.

• Member; 0-9 posts
• Junior; 10-99 posts
• Senior; 100-499 posts
• Veteran; 500+ posts
• Moderator; user group
• Global Moderator; user group
• Administrator; user group
• Daniel Anderson; user (designed all user ranks, token gesture)
• Blocked user; user group

12. What are user titles?
User titles are the nicknames that appear below a user's username and above their user rank. By default, they correlate to the user rank that a user has or group they are a part of (see Question 10) but custom user titles can be easily created. Edit your profile and change the Custom User Title section to whatever you want. Click Update Profile and it should appear where your default one used to. To check this is the case, view your profile and it should appear in brackets underneath your username.
13. What is reputation?
Reputation gives an indication of just that - the reputation a person has - and it shows the general opinion that the community (or members within it) have of a particular user. It is not a particularly accurate measurement of actual reputation and should not be taken too seriously. Positive reputation is shown in green, negative reputation in red and neutral in grey. There are two ways of giving reputation to a user: by directly giving it to a member or by rating their posts. To give directly to a user, either click on their reputation number in a post and Rate User or go to their user profile, and click [Rate]. To give reputation for their posts, click on this image below a post and add the rating like before. Giving directly to a user can only be done once but giving reputation for posts can be done as many times as the user has made posts. While normal users can only give a reputation of 1 at most (+1, 0 or -1), admins can give a reputation of +2 or -2 as well. If you wish, it is possible to opt-out of receiving reputation by going to the User CP, requesting to join the "Reputation opt-out" usergroup and waiting for your request to be accepted by an administrator.
14. What does Warning Level mean?
Warning Level shows any warnings that a user has received by a moderator or administrator. Used rarely, their only real purpose is to give formal warnings to users, though informal ones are usually preferred. If a user reaches a particular percentage of their warning level, an administrator may choose to block the user.
15. What do the other things mean?
Posts is fairly explanatory, showing the number of posts a user has made, as is Joined, indicating the month and year that a user registered on the forums. The display picture next to a user's name is their Avatar, and can be changed here.

Personalisation
16. How do I get rid of ads?
You have two options - either use AdBlock plus, or just go into your User Control Panel and select any theme other than Apart Twilight. However, you should remember that someone has to pay for the hosting of the website.
17. How do I change my profile and other basic details?
You can do things like that by going to the User Control Panel. This gives you links to editing your profile and changing your password, email, avatar and signature. If you want to change your account username, ask one of the admins to do so.

Posting
18. How do I post and/or create a thread?
Hopefully this should be fairly obvious but if you really haven't a clue, consider a new hobby or PM me about how much of a newbie you are. If you don't know how to do that either, click here, fill in a subject, write a message, click Send Message.
19. How do I use BBCode and all the other fancy styling of text?
Instead of having to fiddle with BBCode in the Quick Reply box, click on New Reply when replying to a thread as this brings up a visual editor of sorts which is more intuitive and fairly obvious to figure out. All appropriate tags can be found in the visual editor, with the exception of spoiler tags: info tags:

and sarcasm tags:

Miscellaneous
20. I have another question not covered in this FAQ. What should I do?
If you think it is asked often enough that it should be include, post in the associated discussion thread. Otherwise, ask in the Help Desk or PM an admin.

Now, go forth and seek ye enlightenment.

(Written by Aldrich Lucas)