Invasion3042 Wiki:Style guidelines
From Invasion3042 Wiki
This page is meant to give you a brief outline of the style that wiki articles should have. They're not strict, but it's helpful if pages look similar so that it's easy to find information quickly. To summarise: be clear, be consistent, be neutral and be relevant.
Contents |
Structure
All articles should start with a lead section - this should summarise the article in a paragraph or so, giving basic facts and little else. An infobox should also come at the start (position before lead section so that it will be at the top), if relevant. Side navigation templates should also be at the top.
The lead section should be followed by the main article. This should be divided into (logical) sections. Do not link section titles. If you wish to add images to the article, it's best to put them at the side and make them thumbnails - people can expand them if they want.
After the main article should be any succession boxes (next mech, etc). After that should come a "see also" section. This should be a list of bullet-pointed internal links. Following this should come the external links section, similarly bullet pointed. Links to Sarna.net wiki or other relevant sites may help here.
Wide navigation templates should be at the bottom. Finally you need to insert categories right at the end.
Lead
The lead section is the first paragraph or two of the article, before you have any section headings. It should neatly summarise the article, and preferably include the title of the article (or a slight variation) in bold ('''title'''). If something is known by multiple names, bold all of them, and include any relevant abbreviations. Don't be too verbose here, it's more important to impart the crucial information clearly and concisely so that people can know it at a glance without reading through the entire article. Infoboxes also help here for information which can be easily tabulated, for instance a planet's basic stats.
As an example, here is the lead section for an article on a planet:
Invasion Wiki Planet (IWP) is a planet in the Kerensky Cluster, originally owned by Clan Douchebag but currently within Clan Muppethead territory following an invasion in 3052. It possesses the minerals Unobtainium and Dihydrogen Monoxide.
This gives the basic information quickly - people may not want to wade through the entire history of conflict on the planet - and clearly. Relevant terms are linked, and the planet's name is in bold so people know what they're looking at.
Sectioning
Sections are very useful for breaking up an article into manageable chunks, and also for navigation. People may want to know about one part of a subject but not another, so having sections can allow them to skip to the relevant text. Sub-sections can also be used (this is one in fact). You should not wikilink a section title, instead use {{main|main article}} (this inserts a note Main article: article) as it is clearer.
Try to keep each section on-topic and not to repeat information in other sections. Link to other sections using [[#section title|link text]] if necessary, but make sure that your sections follow a logical order - people shouldn't need to read the third section to understand the second.
It may help to consider each section as if it were its own article - if you are using subsections, then the section should have its own lead paragraph (though without the bolding) which introduces or summarises the subsections.
Images
Images are very useful to have in an article, as they can help comprehension immensely, especially in articles dealing with a particular screen. Images should usually be used as thumbnails, though there are places where this may not be appropriate. Right aligning images is usually best, as is not giving a specific thumbnail size. Do not left-align images immediately after section headings - it can cause a disconnection between text and heading, which leads to confusion.
If you want to annotate an image, do it neatly (no hand-drawn straight lines) but clearly, and in a manner which will not cause confusion. Best not to actually write on it, just add arrows or something, and put a legend in the image's information. Remember, it will most likely be viewed as a thumbnail so be clear.
Consider which type of image is best suited to the purposes. JPEG files aren't great for graphics - PNG or GIF files may well be better, depending on the situation.
Oh, and most importantly, remove your e-mail address and other such information.
Formatting
Formatting is very important in making your article easy to read. The exact same text can often be made a lot easier to read using a combination of formatting techniques.
Links
Links are generated in wikis using [[article to link to|text to display]]. They are very important as navigation and comprehension aids. People will want to look up something they don't understand, or want more information on, so link important terms. However, don't be overzealous with linking - you don't need to link every word, it just gets annoying, and you don't need to link every repetition of a term. For instance, you might find yourself referring to Clan Muppethead multiple times. Link to it the first time it is used in each section, but afterwards leave it unlinked. This makes new terms easier to pick out. Also, don't add "surprise" links - the link text should bear relevance to the article being linked to - it would be confusing to link to John Church with the text "Hyperpulse Generator", or vice versa.
Emphasis
It is often useful to emphasise some aspects of text over others, and there are several means to do this. CAPITALS and bold text are generally discouraged as they may well be emphatic and stick out. Italics generally work better - they show that something is more important than the surrounding text without drawing the reader's eye away from other text as capitals or bold might do.
Quotes
You may have cause to quote something in an article. It's important that it stand out from the main article text so that people don't get confused. There are two easy ways to do this. Firstly, you could italicise it (''text to italicise'') - this is good for short inline quotes. For longer quotes you may want to use <blockquote>Quote</blockquote> - this is what was used earlier in the section about the lead - it indents the text slightly. Remember that a quote's emphasis formatting may need alteration when italicised.
Lists
You may often find the need to list information, for instance unit kills or resource requirements. Putting this in plain text can make it very hard to read and very easy to miss one item. One way to avoid this is to use either bullet points (each item on a separate line and a * in front) or tables (see article at Meta Wiki). Both ways make it easier to display information vertically, which is often helpful. Tables are more complex to use, but are more customisable, and are especially useful for things like kill lists.
General guidelines
It is important to get the meaning across clearly and plainly. Avoiding excessive jargon and abbreviation is important here, but so is using correct spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Abbreviations
There are a lot of terms that we may wish to abbreviate - Clan Diamond Shark for instance is often abbreviated to CDS. Abbreviations are good, it can be wearing to read Clan Diamond Shark again and again, and CDS works just as well. However, some readers may not be aware of the abbreviation, so always use the full version the first time, and if you wish to abbreviate thereafter make the first instance "Clan Diamond Shark (CDS)"
Jargon
Invasion3042 is chock-full of jargon, and it's important to remember that new players will likely know absolutely none of it. Sure, jargon is important, but try to use it sparingly where possible, and link it when used (the first time anyway). It may be helpful to include a note about what something means if it is important.
Relevancy
Try to avoid adding extraneous information to articles. Information should be relevant to the topic - don't go into a discussion of mech tactics on a planet's page, just use links instead. If people want the information they'll look at the link, but if not they won't have to wade through irrelevant information for what they want.
Neutral point of view
It is important to remember that players from all alliances use the wiki, and that players who are new also use it - the information you provide needs to be usable by everyone. History is written by the victors, but try not to denigrate your opponents. Try and stick to the facts and avoid using particularly emotive language. Ideally, it should be impossible to tell which side wrote an article.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar
This wiki is not your GCSE English coursework, but that doesn't mean it should not be well written. Spelling is important, although it is often surprisingly easy to tell what someone means even when it is mangled. The problem is when you misspell an important term, or misspell things in such a way that you actually say the opposite of what you mean. It's not too much of a hardship to look over what you've written briefly and give it a check.
On a similar note, grammar. You don't need to be too serious with this, just check that it reads OK. Punctuation however is important - a change in punctuation can alter a sentence dramatically. For instance "he said no one will have to suffer" and "he said no, one will have to suffer" mean completely different things with only a comma's difference. Again, just check it reads OK and says what you mean it to.
