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FAQs

1. How do I become an editor?

  • If you have the "trusted user" badge which is viewable to you on your PDB user profile, you can apply to PDB Admin for the editor role.

2. I am an editor now. How do I create/write/edit a page?

  • Editors cannot create new pages. You can find a list of "Not Yet Started" pages here and contribute on these pages. 
  • If you want to correct an error on a locked page, comment below the page and let us know how you want to improve the page. 

3. Who are the Wiki Contributors? 

4. I want to report a user or a page

  • To report a user, please contact PDB Admin.
  • To report a page... if you spot an issue in the page, you can just "fix" it by yourself, or add a need improvement tag in the front of the page to inform other editors. 
    • But... what if the page is locked? 
    • While we want to be as open as possible, sometimes it is necessary to limit editing of certain pages to prevent vandalism, edit warring, or other disruptive edits. If you find an issue on a locked page, please comment on the page to inform the content moderators.

5. How to delete a page?

  • Deletion cannot be undone, so we want to be very careful with that. If you think a page has serious issues and needs to be deleted, leave a comment on the page or contact PDB Admin. 

6. Searching content

Where I can search for content

  • Header Search Bar - Global search across all books, chapters and pages. 
  • Book/Chapter Search Bar - When viewing a book or chapter a search bar can be found in the top of the left sidebar. These searches will look across all child items.
  • Move & Link Selection - When choosing to move a page/chapter or when selecting a page/chapter/book to link to within the editor the most popular items are shown but you also have the ability to search.

Advanced Search Syntax

The advanced search syntax applies to all three search locations above.

Below are details of the different types of syntax that can be used:

Search Type Syntax Examples Description
Normal Searches <term_a> <term_b> function stacks  Normal word searches across the name and description or body of your content. When mulitple terms are searched only one term has to match your content but content containing both terms will be higher in the results.
Exact Searches "<term>" "function stacks" Exact matches will require that the whole string within quotes exists in your content in exactly the same format. Use this if you're looking for an exact phrase containing or if you need to search for a term with spaces in.
Tag Searches [<name>]
[<operator><value>]
[<name><operator><value>]		 [MBTI]
[=ESTJ]
[MBTI=ESTJ]
[contributor>10]		 Tag searches allow you to find pages which have specific tags applied. You can search by tag name, by tag value or by both name and value. When searching by tag value an operator must be used to define the match type. You can use =, !=, <, >,<=, >= or like as operators. When using the like operator you can use % symbols to represent wildcards in your search.
Filter Searches {<filter_name>}
{<filter_name>:<filter_value>}		 See below Filters perform additional advanced functionality to make your searches even more powerfull. Some filters take values but some don't need to. See below for a full list of filters available.

Available Filters

Filters are set advanced search features that can be used in your search term. The below table shows all the filters available in BookStack and how they can be used.

Syntax Examples Description
Date Filters
{updated_after:<date>} {updated_after:2016-12-30} Adds the condition that the content must have been last updated after the given date.
The date should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD
{updated_before:<date>} {updated_before:2016-12-30} Adds the condition that the content must have been last updated before the given date.
The date should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD
{created_after:<date>} {created_after:2016-12-30} Adds the condition that the content must have been created after the given date.
The date should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD
{created_before:<date>} {created_before:2016-12-30} Adds the condition that the content must have been created before the given date.
The date should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD
User Filters
{updated_by:<user_slug|me>} {updated_by:barry}
{updated_by:me}		 Adds the condition that the content must have been last updated by the user of the given slug. If 'me' is used in place of a slug then it will find content that was last updated by the current logged-in user.
{created_by:<user_slug|me>} {created_by:barry}
{created_by:me}		 Adds the condition that the content must have been created by the user of the given slug. If 'me' is used in place of a slug then it will find content that was created by the current logged-in user.
{owned_by:<user_slug|me>} {owned_by:barry}
{owned_by:me}		 Adds the condition that the content must have be actively owned by the user of the given slug. If 'me' is used in place of a slug then it will find content that is owned by the current logged-in user.
Content Filters
{in_name:<search>} {in_name:Function stacks}
{in_name:Stacks}		 Will require the content to have the given <search> term in the name rather than the name or content body.
{in_body:<search>} {in_body:Function stacks}
{in_body:Stacks}		 Will require the content to have the given <search> term in the body rather than both the name or content body.
Option Filters
{is_restricted} {is_restricted} Will require the content to have content-level permissions active. Does not return items with only inherited asset permissions.
{viewed_by_me} {viewed_by_me} Will require the content to have been viewed by the current user at least once.
{not_viewed_by_me} {not_viewed_by_me} Will not return any content that has been viewed by the current user.
{type:<content_types>} {type:page|chapter|book}
{type:page|chapter}
{type:book}		 Restricts the types of content that will be in the search results.
Use of this will depend on the type of search. For example, in a chapter search only pages are shown so this has no effect.

Search Examples

Below are some examples of using the above syntax and filters with descriptions:

  • "function stacks" {viewed_by_me} {updated_after:2022-01-19}
    • "function stacks" - Search for content containing the exact phrase ‘function stacks’
    • {viewed_by_me} - that has been viewed by me
    • {updated_after:2022-01-19} - and was last updated after the 19th of Jan 2022.

  • loops grips [ESTJ] {type:page} {created_by:me}

    • loops grips - Search content for the words loops or grips
    • [ESTJ] - only show content that has a ESTJ tag applied
    • {type:page} - only show pages, hide chapters and books
    • {created_by:me} - that was created by me.

  • {type:book|chapter} {created_by:me} {created_after:2022-01-19} {created_before:2022-02-19}

    • {type:book|chapter} - Search all books and chapters
    • {created_by:me} - that were created by me
    • {created_after:2022-01-19}  - after the 19th of Jan 2022
    • {created_before:2022-02-19} - but before the 19th of Feb 2022
Written and maintained by PDB users for PDB users.
6 Comments
#1    Indigo   Indigo commented 2 years ago

How do I become a trusted user? I've been searching for information on it but I've not been able to find anything.

#2    the flev-matic   the flev-matic commented 2 years ago
In reply to #1

You have to be active on the PDB main site and than they make you one after a while.

#3    Indigo   Indigo commented 2 years ago
In reply to #2

Thanks for the reply!

Oh, it's a manual process? Would joining the Discord server and contributing there be helpful? Is it necessary to be active in the community boards, or just in discussion on character profiles? Should I seek to focus my activity on popular pages to try and get noticed? I've been semi-active on PDB for a while, which suggests that what I'm doing currently isn't enough to qualify, so I'll need to change my behaviour 🤔

#4    Nine-Nine   Nine-Nine commented 2 years ago
In reply to #3

Discuss with people on boards or write typology analysis on character profiles - choose whatever you like. There is no need to write on popular pages, you can be a trusted user without interacting with other users, as long as you are contributing to the site :)

p.s. Discord doesn't really help.

#5    violaceus   violaceus commented 1 year ago

Hi, so I've been creating stuff recently and I was wondering on how to create a shelf? thank you :))

#6    Moon Breaker   Moon Breaker commented 2 months ago

How to contribute on "Not Yet Started" pages?

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