The Style Guideline is a general guideline for the creation and direction of pages to maintain consistency of patterns and techniques throughout the Creatures of Sonaria Wiki. Not all users are expected to know style guidelines initially, and so they may be redirected here following recent edits by other staff members, regular editors, or other wikians that may know about this page in advance. If you plan to edit the wiki regularly, you'll want to review the contents of this page often for reference on how we do things.
As more features or sections are added, new and unique approaches to styling may be presented. There may or may not be notifications on the assembly of these new protocols for styles in these cases, so it's best to check-in on this page whenever those conditions arise. Typically unique style approaches will have an example somewhere on the wiki in which to replicate to promote consistency across pages.
Best Intentions First
As with many wikis, we are asked to first "assume good faith". A lot of editors in communities may be first-time editors, with a handful of regular editors that are familiar with how wikis work. Sometimes new editors may do something that appears damaging when in reality, they may have attempted to revert a harmful edit made by a previous editor, unknowingly erased the contents of a page, or made some other change by accident. We assume good faith first to encourage further edits in the future from editors that may be interested in contributing, and should show appreciation for that interest rather than assuming the worst.
Creating New Articles
Unlike most wikis, this wiki is heavily monitored for the creation of pages, to ensure every page has a purpose and a function, to prevent duplicates of other pages and keep the navigation tree clean and easy to follow. Pages made spontaneously may be taken down shortly by a staff member. To ensure pages stay up, always contact a staff member first to get approval for the creation of a page.
General Page Guidelines
All or most pages must follow the below:
- Upon first mention of the page's name, it must always be in bold. On most pages, this will happen within the first few words of a page in the introduction.
- If a page is incomplete, it must feature the {{WIP}} template on the page. Completeness is determined by how full the page appears, and if content is present in all sections, with complete sentences and primary topics covered.
- Images are required for almost all pages, especially if there is a visual to help aid in descriptions of topics. Images are always required for creature pages, and are specifically assigned to the Gallery section of those pages.
- Editors are encouraged to work in Source Editor, to catch stylistic differences that may only be apparent in this mode of editing. This helps ensure we follow particular style choices, such as:
- Ensuring the Creature Page Edit Guide is properly followed.
- Keeping all sections at least two empty lines apart, often with a <br /> between them.
- Making sure all asterisks (*), hashtags (#), and other stylistic symbols are followed by a space, then text.
- Making sure all templates are used properly, and parameters are listed separately on each line and not bunched up on one line. Adding templates from the Visual Editor causes template parameters to appear cluttered, which can make it difficult for Source Editors to locate parameters for editing.
- Making sure all items of a bulleted list start with a capitalized letter.
- If mentioning a creature/event inside its own page, using {{PAGENAME}} instead of the creature/event name.
- To link to a legacy creature, use [[{{LegCmd|Nameofcreaturehere}}]]
- Not using official categories outside of their intended official use.
- Not adding diet/mobility type/special status effect categories manually — such as [[Category:Terrestrial]] or [[Category:Bleeder]] — and instead using the appropriate automating template. This also applies for some of the maintenance-only categories, such as [[Category:Creatures Without Variant Images]].
- Not removing, commenting, or leaving blank automated parameters in the automated templates, especially for Infobox Creature, and instead leaving such parameters as "Unknown". Non-automated parameters in an automated template should be left blank, but never commented nor removed.
- When adding Wikipedia hyperlinks via Source Editing mode, it is best to use 'Wp:' rather than 'Wikipedia:' or any other method of the tag. Though there is no real difference, this variation takes up less text and as a result, less data, which can help pages run more smoothly.
If ever unsure about the stylistic direction for an edit, always check pre-existing pages for reference. There's a good chance that there's an example around to help close on decisions for style-related choices.