Bulbapedia:Introduction
Welcome to Bulbapedia!
This is an introduction to help new users. It serves as a comprehensive guide to how Bulbapedia works and a doorway to speed and ease transition to using Bulbapedia. It is recommended that all newcomers to Bulbapedia start here, particularly if they are inexperienced or uncomfortable with using wikis.
If you have any basic questions which are not already answered in the article, please feel free to bring them up on the talk page. However, remember that this article is just the beginning. Each section provides links to articles which discuss specific topics in greater detail, and questions which are not answered here may be answered on one of those pages.
This article is currently under construction.
What is Bulbapedia?
- Main article: Bulbapedia:About
Bulbapedia is the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia. It currently has 55,322 articles and it is growing every day, with new information flowing in from Bulbanews and resources like images being stored in Bulbagarden Archives, as well as information being added and edited in articles daily.
Bulbapedia was started by Bulbagarden on December 21, 2004, and released to the public on February 14, 2005. It is the English member of Encyclopædiæ Pokémonis, a collective group of Pokémon wikis working together to provide information on Pokémon in different languages.
Bulbapedia is ultimately managed by the Leadership Board. They have the final say of what stays in Bulbapedia and what goes. Any problems should be taken to them for resolution.
Bulbapedia as a resource
Bulbapedia is an expansive guide to anything and everything about Pokémon. Virtually any canon information, and, in cases where it is significant, fanon information, can have an article in Bulbapedia. Because the ideas of an entire community can come together in Bulbapedia, not only can it build a thorough database on the subjects you'll find on most websites, but also on subjects many other websites never think to cover.
Want a complete breakdown of what Pokémon training is? Want to compare the different generations, or maybe the canons? How about a list of the different Pokémon Eggs that have appeared in the anime, or hats Ash has worn? History of the Pokémon world? Timeline of events in Pokémon the Series? Everything is on Bulbapedia - and if it's not, it will be.
The best part is, if there's anything Bulbapedia doesn't cover yet that you want information on, tell us: Bulbapedia is always under construction, and there's always room for new additions and updates. Our biggest limits on what to add are the notability requirements and our own manpower. Beyond that, we want to know what you want to see here so we can make Bulbapedia the best and most useful resource available.
If you're used to using other Pokémon websites where everything is laid out in a menu, there may be a period of transition while you're first learning to use Bulbapedia. We do have a lot of the key content links right on the front page, and in our browse section we have tips and pages to help you navigate through all this content. However, if you already know what you're looking for, it's easy on Bulbapedia: type it in the search box and hit Go! If we don't have an article or redirect by that exact name, it will automatically switch over to Search to find any page which mentions what you searched for in its content. The Search function is also extremely useful once you learn how it works, allowing you to bring up relevant articles all at once.
- This is continued in further detail below in How do I use Bulbapedia?
Bulbapedia's reliability
There have been some concerns about the reliability of Bulbapedia as a resource. The source of these worries is unknown, though it assumably comes from the widespread mistrust of Wikipedia. While it is true that mistakes may be made on Bulbapedia, which the general disclaimer makes clear, editors on Bulbapedia are always on the lookout for unreliable content being added to articles.
On top of that, one of the advantages to the Bulbapedia system is that any errors can be corrected as soon as they are found. In fact, if you take a moment to register for an account, you can fix any errors you find in articles yourself. So, in fact, as Bulbapedia becomes more widely used and more users browse the articles, the chances of false information staying on Bulbapedia for long diminishes to nothing.
Bulbapedia as a project
Bulbapedia is not just a resource which Bulbagarden provides to the online community. It is an opportunity for the online community to get involved and help build one of the most detailed and expansive Pokémon resources on the internet.
Anyone who registers as a user on Bulbapedia can take part in building Bulbapedia. Their contributions can be as small as fixing spelling or grammar mistakes or adding their opinion to a talk page discussion, or as large as entire articles worth of information; any amount of help they feel comfortable with is fine and welcomed. Every part of it helps Bulbapedia grow and develop as an extensive and thorough resource on Pokémon.
- This is continued in further detail below in How do I contribute to Bulbapedia?
Bulbapedia policies
- Main article: Bulbapedia:Policy
To maintain law and order, and to ensure all of the users can browse and work on Bulbapedia peacefully, the Leadership Board has set up policies of conduct. It is best to users to review them, particularly those who would like to contribute to articles.
The goals of Bulbapedia
- We want to provide information on all significant aspects of Pokémon.
- There is a lot of things to know about the Pokémon world, and no one but the most dedicated of PokéManiacs can say they're familiar with all the details of every canon. The many contributors of Bulbapedia work to make articles for all those details to provide information on any topic users might want to learn more about.
- We want to provide thorough detail on every topic we cover.
- While general information on articles can answer general questions, we want to go a step further to help users find the answers to virtually any Pokémon question. Therefore, we aim to be thorough in our details, providing plenty of useful information in all our articles.
- We want all articles to be formatted neatly and presented nicely.
- Not only do we value the aesthetic quality of our articles, but we know that the better the information is presented to our users, the easier it is for users to find the information they need.
- We want to interlink all related articles.
- One of the greatest strengths of our wiki format is that it allows our users to find links to related articles right in the text, allowing them to look further or browse quickly through subjects as quickly as possible. This also helps users understand how different parts of the Pokémon world connect and relate to one another.
- We want to provide links to other websites on the subject.
- Bulbapedia might be useful as an encyclopedic resource, but what about if you want to know another website's take on a subject? Or what if you're looking for fanart or fanfiction of your favorite Pokémon, or a place to talk about a certain character?
- At the bottom of articles, you may find a section called External links. These will take you to pages outside of Bulbapedia, such as shrines, fanlistings, threads on forums, Wikipedia articles - anything which is about the same topic but not part of the Bulbapedia article.
- This way, not only can Bulbapedia better serve its users while staying true to its encyclopedic nature, but it can share and strengthen bonds with other groups in the online Pokémon community.
The best of Bulbapedia
Bulbapedia's best articles are its featured articles. They are the finest examples of Bulbapedia's goal of being an accurate, comprehensive, and Pokémon-focused encyclopedia.
If you find an article which you think should be a featured article, please bring it up as a candidate.
The supporters of Bulbapedia
Bulbapedia, unlike most websites, is not a single resource constructed by a few webmasters, but rather the product of an ongoing combined community effort. Therefore, its supporters are numerous, and each is treasured by the staff and the rest of the Bulbapedia community.
- Contributors
- Perhaps the most simple and critical support comes from the users who register to edit and update articles on the Bulbapedia. They write, format, edit, and polish all of Bulbapedia's content, from tasks as large as writing detailed episode synopses to tasks as small as correcting spelling and grammar mistakes. Whether they are rare contributors or among the most dedicated, their support truly makes Bulbapedia what it is.
- Affiliates
- The support of Bulbagarden's affiliated websites brings contributors and information into the Bulbapedia. They are, in return, the websites which Bulbapedia attempts to reference to the most and encourages most of its users to visit. These affiliates include:
- The other members of Encyclopædiæ Pokémonis
- The other members of NIWA
- Smogon
- Pokecharms
How do I use Bulbapedia?
Searching
- Main article: Bulbapedia:Search
Browsing
- Main article: Bulbapedia:Browse
How do I contribute to Bulbapedia?
- Main article: Bulbapedia:A guide to Bulbapedia
Bulbapedia's style
- Main article: Bulbapedia:Manual of style
Adding new articles
- Main article: Bulbapedia:Starting an article
