Help:FAQ

These are frequently asked questions about editing on and contributing to Blooncyclopedia.

Why doesn't [insert article here] exist yet? / Why doesn't [insert article here] have a section for [insert topic here]?

Nine times out of ten, the answer is simply "because no one has gotten around to making it yet", not because of some guidelines or rules you aren't aware of. Bear in mind that this wiki is less than two years old and not everyone who contributes to the wiki is knowledgeable about every possible topic. Our editors aren't obligated to contribute in specific areas, they're free to contribute to whatever they feel like, so topics that are less popular tend to get less contributions. If the wiki is missing information that you're knowledgable about, it's better to contribute to the wiki yourself than wait for someone else to do it for you.

Some topics, like unofficial material (memes, fan games, custom maps) are not covered on this wiki because they aren't part of our coverage policy and haven't been overturned by a proposal.

Why can't I create new pages?

In order to create new pages or upload files, you need to have an account with a confirmed email address. (Special:Preferences)

I see an error I want to correct, but the text doesn't appear in the editor, it just has one template. How do I fix it?

Usually when you see this, it's because the data is specified on another page and that data is being transcluded to the page you want to edit (typically with Cargo). If you want to correct this, do it by editing the page it is pulling that data from, not the page(s) it is transcluded to; this has the benefit of updating all pages that transclude that data in one edit. Some examples of how to edit Cargo data:

• If an upgrade's cost in a list of upgrades is incorrect, go to that upgrade's page and change the cost in the infobox to fix it for all pages that use that data.
• If a change in an update history section is incorrect, go to the page for that update and change it to fix it for all pages that use that data.

I uploaded a new version of an image, but it didn't change or it looks stretched. Why?

Short answer: https://shouldiblamecaching.com/

Long answer: your browser downloads images in order to display them on a webpage, and in order to reduce load times, it only occasionally checks to see if the image has updated, unless you force it to update. On most browsers, this can be done by pressing the refresh button while holding Ctrl (or Command on macOS). See Wikipedia:Bypass your cache for more information.

What are those red links that begin with "Template:" for?

That happens if a page attempts to call a template but the template hasn't been created yet. Missing templates are actively being worked on, so the red text should go away and start working properly once the template is complete.

What are those article names with colons for?

Blooncyclopedia uses several custom namespaces for organization and to control the suggestions that appear under the search box (so searching "Dart Monkey" only lists the main articles, and not a dozen subpages, for example). For new editors, it is recommended that you stick to only the main namespace (e.g. articles without a namespace prefix), strategy articles, and gallery articles.

For more information, and more namespaces, see Help:Namespaces.

Namespace	Purpose	Example
(main)	Subjects in general, or subjects in specific games/series	Dart Monkey, Dart Monkey (BTD6)
Stats	Stats for a subject (these articles are usually generated by scripts, editing them by hand is not recommended)	Stats:Dart Monkey (BTD6)
Strategy	Community-crafted tips, tricks, and strategies for using a subject	Strategy:Dart Monkey (BTD6)
Event history	Lists of past events in games	Event history:Boss Bloon Event
Update history	Game updates and changes made to a subject in game updates	Update history:Dart Monkey (BTD6)
Gallery	Collections of images for a subject for easy browsing	Gallery:Dart Monkey

Can I copy text from other wikis to or from here?

In most cases, NO. Most other wikis release their content under a different license from Blooncyclopedia; the one you probably want to copy from uses the CC BY-SA license instead of CC BY-NC-SA, and these licenses are not compatible with each other. See Blooncyclopedia:Copyrights for more information.

Even if another wiki uses a license that permits content to be copied to here (such as TCRF), doing so is bad for our search engine rankings and may be considered plagiarism if the source is not attributed correctly, so we strongly discourage doing so.

Why do I sometimes need to pass a Cloudflare captcha?

In recent years, the internet has become infested with bots that irresponsibly crawl web pages as quickly as possible, ignoring all metadata instructing them to slow down or not visit certain pages, because they want to harvest as much data as they can to feed large language models. Certain pages on the wiki, like recent changes and page histories, are very computationally expensive to render, so when bots are viewing them hundreds of times per second and ignoring the site telling them not to view those pages, it slows the whole wiki down to a crawl and periodically causes it to crash. To stop this, visitors now need to pass a captcha to see these pages. Creating an account or making anonymous edits under certain circumstances also requires passing a captcha, in order to prevent spam.

Cloudflare captchas are usually automatic (you don't need to click pictures of bicycles to proceed, you just need to wait a few seconds), and they temporarily stop appearing for about 30 minutes after you pass one. They do not appear at all if you are logged into an account.

Every once in a while, an exceptionally aggressive network of bots (usually from China, Taiwan, or Singapore) causes the site to slow down even with the captchas on expensive pages. Under these circumstances, the administrators may temporarily change it so viewing any page requires passing a captcha first. This usually only lasts for a few hours.