PoetsWiki:Style guide

Note: Many pages might not conform to this style guide. Please make corrections on the pages if that's the case. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to post on the discussion page.

This style guide is made to make Poets.Wiki easy to read by having the same standard across pages. The following guide is intended as a reference for general situations. It may not cover every situation that may come up.

For a more complete manual of style, the Wikipedia Manual of Style may be useful.

Article titles

A title should always be exactly the same as the official name of the subject, except when multiple subjects have the same name (and thus disambiguation parentheses are required). In cases where other official sources are inconsistent, sentence case should be used, with redirects utilized for other names.

Use the same capitalization as the content text. Capitalize the initial letter (except in rare cases), but otherwise follow sentence case (Mental worlds), not title case ([[Mental Worlds]]).
Do not use titles (in-game and out of the game) as reference for capitalization. They are often written in title case.
Block capitals should not be used in titles ([[Article title]], not [[ARTICLE TITLE]]).
Use italics if needed, conforming to PoetsWiki:Style guide#Italics.
Do not use articles (a, an, or the) as the first word (Hopecatcher, not The Hopecatcher), unless it is an integral part of a name (The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper).
Use full name instead of abbreviations if possible (Poets of the Fall, not PotF). Use a redirect if the abbreviation is common.
Families should be titled "<surname> family" (Anderson family).
Use straight quotation marks or apostrophes and create a redirect for curly ones if needed (Alan Wake's American Nightmare, not Alan Wake’s American Nightmare).

Sometimes technical restrictions of MediaWiki prevent editors naming pages after their official names:

The subject name does not begin with a capital letter.
The subject name includes a /.
The subject name includes a character that cannot be used in page names, including # < > [ ] | { } _.
The subject begins with a string that would put the page in the wrong namespace. Such strings might include: Project:, File:, or User:, etc.

In such cases, problem characters should be replaced substitutes of left out altogether. Generally, replace | with -, and : in namespaces with -; leave out "#"". False subpages should be at the same name.

Layout

A simple article should have at least a lead section, references and short description. The rest can be added when needed. For more details on template placement, see PoetsWiki:Templates.

Before the lead section
1. Parser functions (e.g.: Short description, display title)
2. Related articles templates
3. Maintenance templates
4. Infoboxes
5. Images (if no infoboxes)
Body
1. Lead section (also called the introduction)
2. Content
3. Trivia
4. Gallery
5. See also
6. Notes
7. References
Bottom matter
1. Navplates
2. Stub templates
3. Categories

Sections and headings

TL;DR: Keep headings short, concise, in plain text, and in sentence case.

Separating articles into sections makes them easy to read and navigate. Headings are used to split articles into sections.

Markup

Use equals signs around a section heading: ==Title== for a primary section, ===Title=== for a subsection, and so on to ======Title======, with no level skipped.
=Title= is never used.
Spaces around the title are optional and ignored, e.g. == Title ==. These spaces can be handy to allow for double-click word selection on a computer.

Wording

Keep heading short
Use sentence case (capitalize only the first letter of the first word and the first letter of any proper nouns).
Not redundantly refer back to the subject of the article (e.g., Early life, not Smith's early life or His early life).
Not refer to a higher-level heading, unless doing so is shorter or clearer.
Not be numbered or lettered as an outline.
Not be phrased as a question.
Avoid the use of colour or unusual fonts that might cause accessibility problems.
Not wrap headings in markup, which may break their display and also cause additional accessibility issues.

To avoid technical complications:

Be unique within a page, so that section links lead to the right place.
Avoid links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
Avoid images or icons.
Avoid templates.
Avoid citations or footnotes.

Lead sections

A lead (introduction) summarizes the most essential points of an article, creating interest in the topic.

Subject should be defined within the first 250 characters.
Should be limited to a few paragraphs.
Subject should be mentioned as early as possible in the first sentence and should be bolded.
Certain information, such as strategies and trivia, should be in a separate section instead of in the lead.

Text elements

Internal links

Don't link the same article more than once, except if the article is too long or the link is in a template. For example, Old Gods of Asgard may be mentioned five times. You only have to link to Old Gods of Asgard once.
Piped link formats for simple plurals (s, es) are generally unnecessary. For example, use [[Lollipop]]s instead of [[Lollipop|Lollipops]].
On the other hand, use pipe symbols for complex plurals. For example, [[Quiz|quizzes]].
Do not place the last letters of a plural outside of a link that already has alternate text. For example, [[Timeline|events]] should be used instead of [[Timeline|event]]ss.
On an article with translations, use [[Special:MyLanguage/PAGE|PAGE NAME]] to link visitor to the appropriate language automatically. That should be avoided in pages not in translation as it disables the article preview feature.

External links

Avoid linking to external sites in the main article. External links can be added to other sections such as trivia, notes, see also, references if it adds value to the article.

Font colours

Coloured font should be avoided except for templates. If you need to use a coloured font, you may wish to create a template instead.

Bold

TL;DR: Bold the first mention of the subject and its alias.}}

Boldface is commonly used on the wiki, but restricted to several usages:

First mention of the subject of the page. For example, the term Ghostlight is bolded on the Ghostlight page.
First mention of the alias of the subject of the page. For example, the nickname Captain is bolded on the page for Markus Kaarlonen and the title Partir Avec Moi is bolded on the page The Sweet Escape.
Pseudo-heading, when a heading does not form a section and use as a stylistic heading.
Avoid using bold for emphasis in the article text, instead use {{em}}.

Boldface is sometimes applied automatically, either by MediaWiki software or by the browser:

Section headings
Description lists
Table headers and captions (but not image captions)
A link to the page on which that link appears called a self link

Italics

TL;DR: Use {{em}} to emphasize text. Some names and titles should be italicized.

Italics should be used in the following conditions:

Emphasize text, but only through the {{em}} template or the <em>...</em> HTML tag.
Certain names and titles both in real world and in-fiction. Common examples on the wiki are mentioned below. For an exhaustive list, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style for titles.
- Video games (Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Rochard).
  - Note that the term Alan Wake could refer to both Alan Wake (game) and Alan Wake (character).
- Books (Milla Marble and the Mystery of the Missing Grandma)

Quotes

Use straight quotation marks ' " instead of curly quotation marks.
Quoted sources should leave date formats in whatever the quoted source used. (So don't edit a quote to change the date format.)

Numbers

Use comma as the thousands separator. Separators should be used for numbers greater than 1,000.
- Do not use separators for template input, the template will format the number.
Ranges should be indicated with an endash (–; –) rather than a hyphen ("1–5" not "1-5").

Date and time

When approximating dates, use the same YYYY(+ whatever precision available) format and add (before), (after) or (circa) as a suffix to the date.(2016 (before); 2023 (after); 1990s (circa))
Date ranges indicating a status is current should include "Present", or leave blank. Ex Start:2013 End: Present
{{Start date and age}} can be used to indicate the passage of time both in real world and in fiction (February 12, 2018; 7 years ago (2018-02-12)).

Grammar and spelling

Capital letters

Avoid unnecessary capitalization. It is primarily needed for proper names, acronyms, and for the first letter of a sentence. Refer to official sources on what words should be capitalized, and use common sense to determine if it is a proper noun. Note that title text should always be ignored as they are often written in title case.

Below is a list of common things that should always be capitalized in title case:

People (Marko Saaresto)
Characters (Jeremiah Peacekeeper)
Media (Diamonds for Tears, Alan Wake II)
Websites (Misfit Heart)
This site (Poets.Wiki)

Spelling

Both American English and British English are acceptable. This is because official album titles have used both. (Twilight Theater and Alexander Theatre Sessions). Always assume the official spelling is correct and try to maintain consistency on an article.

Abbreviations

TL;DR: Try not to use abbreviations.

Abbreviations should only be used if it is defined in the article, and it does not affect the readability. Additional rules apply for article title as stated below:

Do not use abbreviations for article title unless there is no known full name (i.e. Album 10).
Redirect acronyms and abbreviations to the article. The redirect page itself should be placed into Category:Abbreviations.
Create Disambiguation page if two or more different meanings for the abbreviations exist, instead of a redirect page.

Identity / Point of view

Third-person wherever possible
Use neutral, factual information
Speculation is allowed due to the nature of lyrics analysis, but should be restricted to the Trivia section. Such ideas must not be easily confused with statements of fact. Supporting reasoning and/or evidence must be given. Unsupported speculation belongs on Talk pages instead, another user may be able to back the idea up at a later date.
Use the word "character" to describe fictional entities such as individuals, players, or NPCs. (i.e. Tor Anderson is a character).
Use gender-neutral language (outside of direct quotes). The word "One" is useful for generalisations, like "One does not simply walk into Mordor".

For example: "The album Jealous Gods features significantly more guitar solos than Clearview." not "I think the album Ultraviolet has better guitar solos than Signs of Life". Writing in this neutral tone will take practice, but it provides the readers with the most useful information and the least confusion.

Citations & references

Please do cite references. References should link back to official sources.

File names

File names (typically, the names of images uploaded to the wiki) should be descriptive and should contain the subject of the file to allow them to be easily found in searches. For example, file names like "Marko Ghostlight Promo Photo" should be used instead of "h5378h". Make sure that all words in the file name are spelled correctly to avoid the need to rename a file in the future.

Be sure to categorize all images, this helps a lot when an editor is trying to find a relevant image and feeds Category:Galleries.

Non-article styles

Disambiguation

Wikis must resolve ambiguous references when a link is to a term that has more than one distinct meaning. This process is called disambiguation.

When one term is clearly the more expected result, it can remain the primary link, and a {{for}} entry should head off the article. (See PoetsWiki:Templates for examples.)

When it is not so clear, the term becomes a disambiguation page, linking to the possible meanings.

Alternate meanings take the form of Term (other meaning). (Note lower case for disambiguation meaning.) Alternative meanings should also have a for statement at the head of the article.

Example: Rebirth (song) , Rebirth - Greatest Hits

Talk and user pages

The writing style on community pages, such as talk pages and user pages, are more informal than content pages. This allows for easier, more friendly communication and a more familiar tone.

As with any personal-related content, respect is paramount when dealing with other editors and users. Insults, releasing personal information, or personal attacks will not be tolerated, even on your own user page. Please treat other editors with respect. They're people too!