From Trailguru

The usual manner for creating new pages is to follow a link to a non-existent page, which will lead you to an edit page (see Starting a page through the URL, below). Users are encouraged to jump in and start new articles.

When creating a new article, you should bear in mind that:

• The title that you choose is important, as this will be the title of your new article and it will be one of the ways that users can find your article by searching.
• Un-doing mistakes is rarely easier than avoiding them, so it is always a good idea to do a little homework first
• If you just want to experiment, use the sandbox first. The sandbox is an unused page on Trailguru that you can edit to your heart's content in order to practice wikitext.

General principles

• Search to see whether someone has written a similar page before you start one yourself. Choose the title carefully.
• Check whether a separate page is justified; perhaps it is better to add the text to a related page (especially if the text is not very long); that page can always be split later, after it has grown.
• Use an existing template article for routes, trip reports, etc. where they exist. This will happen automatically if you use one of the workflow links to create a page.
• While creating the page and before saving it, check the What links here link on the creation page. Align the new content with existing links, or change the new title, or fix the other links.
• If nothing points here, the page is isolated. Links to it will need to be added on other pages.

Starting a page from a red link, after a search

To start a new page, you will have to sign in with your account name. If you do not have an account, you can create one Special:Userlogin. After signing in, you can click the red link to that new page. This takes you to edit mode of the new page, which allows you to edit that page.

Another way to start a new page is to perform a search for the new title with the Go button (as you should have done before). When the search finds nothing, press "create the article".

Links to non-existing pages are common. They are typically created in preparation for creating the page, and/or to encourage other people to do so. Links are not only convenient for navigation, but also make people aware of the new page (those who read a related page and also those who watch the related page). New page links are not really broken, as long as the name correctly identifies the intended content. (A new page link with a "wrong" or misspelled name, or that duplicates content found under another name is "broken", but in a different sense.)

New page links typically look different from links to existing pages. Depending on settings, a different color or a question mark is used. (Sometimes links to new pages are called "red links", the display option of one of the settings). Links to non-existent pages are created with [[New page name]] from the wiki editor. (In this case, the empty page "New page name" would be created).

Of course, you can also create the link yourself, in a related page, index page or your user page. However, it may be better to wait with creating links until after creating the new page, especially if the new link replaces one to an existing page. In this case, create the link but press Preview, instead of Save. From preview area, clicking the new link will create the new page (without updating the referring page).

Starting a page through the URL

Using the browser address bar to enter a URL to a new page is an easy way to start the new page process. Easier still is editing the pagename part of a URL for an existing page. Using the URL for the new page displays the default 'no article' message (see MediaWiki:Noarticletext). The default page has the usual Edit this page link, which can be used to begin adding content.

Creating an empty page

A new page is distinguished from a blank page: the latter has a page history. However, creating a new page is just like editing a blank page, except that a new page displays the text from MediaWiki:Newarticletext (which may vary by project).

Occasionally it is useful to create an empty page — For example a template can be made such that, depending on a parameter, it produces either just a standard text or also an additional text. This is done by having it call another template, of which the name is a parameter; one version of the other template contains the additional text, the other version is blank.

Using the sandbox and user sub-pages

The sandbox can be used for temporary experimentation, but is emptied on a regular basis. For persistent draft material, you can use your user account sub-pages, and move the sub-page to the main article namespace when ready. This will require a user account. To create a user sub-page, use a reference (title) like: 'User:UserName/New sub page'. User sub-pages can also be used for testing new template material with the syntax {{User:UserName/Sub page name}}. Use your own username in place of UserName. Using any name would result in a sub-page, but it is strongly recommended to use your own.