help
Here is a list of ways to use this site. It's a nice list :
- Hit the "New" button - the blue box on the left. This takes you to a page explaining what's new on the site, with direct links to the entries in question.
- Hit the "Random" button - the dice on the left. This spits out ten random entries from the site. If you're the curious sort, you've come to the right place and this button is your friend.
- The "Update" button (the green plus with the swooshy blue arrow) is sort of like the "New" button, but it's just a raw list of entries that have recently been created or tinkered with.
- The "Alpha" button (with the ABC) lists everything in alphabetical order. Just click on the letter you want. It's the best way to see everything that's on the site, scrolling until you see something you want to look at.
- The "Popular" button (with the star and the laurels) is just there for the curious who want to see which entries have been read most often since this version of the site was released.
Search engines
Search engines are important, I agree. As it turns out, we have two of those :
- The one accessible from the "Parse" button (the magnifying glass over a blue sphere). That one is a full-featured search engine that parses the entire content of every writeups.org entry. Just type stuff in and you'll see what we've got, just like with Google™.
- The Search Box in the upper right corner of every single page. Historically it was the main way to explore the site, though it's the more technical one. It has been improved with an actual search engine. The three main uses are :
- Type a hero or villain name in "Name" - it will search for something like that in the Name of the entries, and in the Notes field. Use simple, short terms (like "dare" for Daredevil, or "shaft" for John Shaft) and keep in mind that it only searches the entry names - so "Reed Richards" won't work because the entry is referenced as "Mister Fantastic".
- Type a group name in the "Notes" field (it'll work in the "Name" field too, but "Notes" is better), such as "Avengers" or "JLA". Normally the entries list the main groups the character has been with in the Notes field, and it's not rare for people to want to check all X-men entries or all Legion of Super-Heroes entries.
- Use the filters to run searches such as "all comic books/DC Universe heroes" or "all video games villains". That one is mostly here for GMs looking for NPCs for their campaign, but it can be fun for other folks.
Other ways to do things
The FAQ (the button is under the "eups" of "writeups.org" in the upper left corner). You'll definitely want to read the FAQ at some point if you have any interest in the site, trust us on that. It contains a *lot* of information about what this site is about.
On the homepage, on the right, there's a box called "Random searching tips" with, well, random tips about using the site. It never hurts to pay attention to what it says.
The "Mailing List" button (to the right of the FAQ one) takes you to the community that, among other things, writes this stuff - yes, there are actual people. Actually, the site is chiefly meant to have more good people join said community, really. All her welcome but please read the FAQ first, since there are definite expectations when entering the clubhouse.
We do take requests (preferably via the community accessible via the "Mailing List" button, though you can just send a mail via the home page). The answer will usually be "yes, but it'll take time before we can get to that" and by "time" we mean months, perhaps more than a year. Doing writeups of this sort is a huge amount of work, and it's not all that we do.
