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About Flags

What are Flags?

Flags are markers that tell the user and the system important information about the state of an article. They are prominently displayed at the top of the page to inform new readers.

You can add flags to both wiki articles and guides. The list of available flags is on Flag Info.

Flags have three primary purposes:

  • To indicate content that needs improvement in a specific area.
  • To mark stub pages that need to be written or expanded.
  • To identify classes of content in a way that is useful to a casual user, like 'User-contributed Content' or 'Official Article.'

Adding flags to articles automatically adds them to the list of pages that need improvement at Contribute.

For step-by-step instructions about flags, see our guides about flags.

How Do I Add a Flag to a Page?

For Wikis, just add the following text to the top of a wiki article. For this example, we are adding a "Private" flag. To add a different type of flag, replace "Private" with the title of the flag you would like to add. (If you put it anywhere else in the article, it is automatically moved to the top when you save it.)

[flag|private]

For guides, flags are added in the Guide Introduction editor. Just click on the text box labeled "Flags" and type in the name of the flag you wish to add, or select it from the drop-down menu.

Block Image

Who Can Add New Flags? How Do I Create a New flag?

Anyone with editing privileges can add existing flags to an article, but only administrators can create a new flag.

To create a new flag, add it to /Info/Flags. This is the syntax for creating flags:

[def_flag
|flagid=WIKI_IMPROPER_FORMATTING
|image=DEFAULT_IMAGE
|title=Improper Formatting
|text=This wiki does not meet Dozuki's formatting guidelines.
]

To add this flag to a wiki page, use this text:

[flag|improper formatting]

Note that we translate from 'WIKI_IMPROPER_FORMATTING' to 'improper formatting'. Wiki flags (flagids that start with WIKI_) can only be used on wiki articles, and guide flags (flagids that start with GUIDE_) can only be used on guides.

You must choose from an existing image. These images are currently available: ALERT, BULLETS, CAMERA, DELETE, DUPLICATE, FOLDER_MISSING, GRAMMAR, IMAGE_MISSING, INCOMPLETE, LOCK, MARKUP, PENCIL, PERSON, PHOTOS, PREREQ, PREREQ_ERROR, PREREQ_MISSING, SHUFFLE, SPEECH, STAR, STUB, STUB_DEVICE, STUB_PAGE, TEXT_ERROR, TEXT_MISSING, WRENCH.

New images can be added by the developers upon request.

Can You Permanently Delete a Flag?

Administrators can remove flags, but should do so with extreme caution. Removing a flag that is in use from the master list will remove it from all articles.

To find out if a flag is in use, add the flag id to this address:

http://www.dozuki.com/Contribute?flagFilter=FLAGID

Example:

http://www.dozuki.com/Contribute?flagFilter=GUIDE_INCORRECT_TEXT

How Quickly Do Flag Changes Take Effect?

Flag text and images are cached for several hours, so your changes may not take effect immediately.

How Can I See a List of All Guides That Have a Flag?

To search for what guides have a certain flag attached to them, type this URL into your address bar, and change the "GUIDE_USER_CONTRIBUTED" to the Flag ID you would like to search for.

http://www.dozuki.com/Contribute?flagFilter=GUIDE_USER_CONTRIBUTED

You need to use the flag id from the Info/Flags page.

How Do I Make a Flag that Users Cannot Add or Remove from a Page?

Just add the text 'privilege=admin' to the flag definition. Users will not be able to add this flag to pages, and they will not be able to remove it if it's already on a page.

Use this sparingly! It's much better to allow the community to manage flags themselves and set the permission threshold on pages to require patrolling of changes to flags, rather than to completely remove a user's ability to add or remove a flag.

The primary purpose of this tool is to prevent special flags from being added to new low-permission threshold pages, rather than to prevent flag removal from high-quality pages.

[def_flag
|flagid=GUIDE_CONTROVERSIAL_CONTENT
|image=DEFAULT_IMAGE
|title=Controversial page
|text=This page is on a controversial topic, and site administrators are currently reviewing it.
|privilege=admin
]

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