Sanctuary Wiki:Standards and Conventions
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| This page is one of Sanctuary Wiki's many projects. This page serves to coordinate discussion on a particular aspect of this Wiki. The formal recommendations of a project may be treated as policies. |
This page serves as the central hub for standards used in writing articles on Sanctuary Wiki. Initially, it will probably consist of a lot of gesturing and debating on the talk page. Once a reasonable approximation of consensus is achieved on a topic, information about it will be moved here. Feel free to bring up new convention questions on the Talk page.
This page is not designed to supercede other project's or policies. Some overlap is expected, but project-specific standards and conventions should be moved to their project page, if one exists or a page created for a project, if one does not.
| Sanctuary Wiki Policy |
|---|
| Article Standards |
|
Article Standards & Conventions |
| Sysop ← Interaction → User |
| Site Wide |
|
Civility and Etiquette |
| Guidelines |
| High Traffic |
Contents |
[edit] HTML vs. Wiki code
Wiki code is strongly preferable to the use of HTML coding on Sanctuary Wiki. Wiki code is faster to type, and if everything is in wiki code, it all changes in unison in the case that a format or style changes, thus reducing mass re-edits to all pages during a huge update. Especially, <b> and <i> should always be replaced by their wiki code equivalents (''' and '', respectively).
[edit] Spelling and Numbers
Please use the American English spellings of words as much as possible in the English version of Sanctuary Wiki. This is arbitrary, but a call had to be made for standardization.
If you are British, please feel free to add your contributions in the "Queen's English" if this makes it initially easier for you to contribute. However, please do not re-edit correctly spelled American English edits (including edits to your own contributions) to their British counterparts unless you are rewriting whole paragraphs, sections, or articles.
Numbers should use a period (.) for decimal places and a comma (,) for marking every three digits (e.g. 3,600 or 54,345,277). For ease of reading, such use of commas is encouraged. Numbers less than 11 should generally be written out long hand (i.e. seven, not 7).
Use an apostrophe-S ('s) for all possessives, unless the noun is plural.
- "Pegasus's fuel reserves are low." (non-plural possessive)
- "The Vipers' ammunition would not fire." (plural possessive)
[edit] Character Names
Characters should be introduced with the person's complete name (i.e. first, middle and last name) the first time they are mentioned in an article. Subsequent referrals may abbreviate to the last name. Never use only the first name when the last name is known (ie, "Ashley Magnus" or "Magnus", but never "Ashley").
There are several currently active characters who share the same last name, namely Magnus. It is often tempting to refer to the supporting characters by their first names, and major characters by their last. On Sanctuary Wiki, we find this somewhat condescending.
Where necessary, characters sharing the same last name should both be introduced using full names, and may subsequently be referred to with first names. For example, in a single article or section where the characters interact with each other, characters such as Ashely Magnus and Helen Magnus should be introduced by their full names. The character's first names may be used to differentiate in article sections and topics where the characters interact directly with each other in the course of an event. If Ashely and Helen appear in the same article but are not interacting directly, the full names or titles should be used to differentiate.
An exception to the "last names only" convention is on a character's biography article. The character's last name may have precedence over all other characters of the same name. All others with the same last name may be referred to by their first name in biography articles. (For example, "Helen asks her daughter, Ashely, to cook a meal.")
[edit] Ships
The names of vessels or ships should always be italicized (e.g. RMS Titanic). Italicization of ship names includes the possessive marker and other endings added to a ship's name (e.g. RMS Titanic's, not RMS Titanic's), but not articles.
Military ships generally receive no article (i.e. "HMS Daedalus" not "the HMS Daedalus") and civilian ships generally do receive an article (i.e. "the H.M.S. Titanic" not "H.M.S. Titanic"). There are some exceptions to this (e.g. Air Force One). Usually, ship names ending in a number do not receive an article.
Ships' nicknames should appear in quotes the first mention of the nickname only (e.g. "Pegasus, "The Beast", launch her alert Vipers."). Subsequently, the nickname may be used interchangably with the ship's actual name.
Typically, ships are treated as feminine objects. The use of "she" and "her" in referring to a ship by pronoun is encouraged, though not mandated.
When discussing anything that denotes a version (such as "Mark II Viper"), use of either "Mark" or "Mk." is acceptable, though "mk." is just sloppy. Also, Roman numerals are preferred. Thus, "Viper Mark II" or "Viper Mk. VII" but not "Viper mk. 2."
- (Note: Many of these guidelines are inspired by, modified from, or stolen directly from the US Navy's Style Guide.)
[edit] Episode, TV, and Movie Title Formats
When citing a film, theatrical works such as a stage plays or television show in any article, place the title in italics.
- "The new Sanctuary series is dark and dismal compared to other science fiction series, and is a far cry from Stargate SG-1."
When citing the title of a television episode, a book or other publication such as a comic, or other merchandise title, place the title in quotes.
- The new book, "Sanctuary: The Official Companion", tells more about the series, but lovers of collectibles might like the "Hasbro Titanium Collection".
- or
- In the episode, "Pilot", it is revealed that Ashely Magnus doesn't know that her father is Jack the Ripper.
When citing an article from a larger publication such as a magazine or newspaper, place the article name in quotes, but place the publication in italics.
- The citation was found in the article "Sanctuary Rocks", from the newspaper, The Indianapolis Star.
[edit] Links to Episodes
When referring to episode titles as part of a sentence, use quote marks around the episode name. This helps keep the title distinct from other text. This is especially useful for unwieldly episode names such as "Episode 3".
When citing a single episode title as a source for a body of text, use parentheses, but do not place quotes around the episode name. Citations go inside the sentence's punctuation.
- Example: "Galactica finds Pegasus (Pegasus)."
When citing multiple episode titles as a source for a body of text, place all episode names within one set of parentheses. Each episode title should use commas to separate them within the parentheticals.
Although Sanctuary Wiki uses American punctuation rules otherwise, placing all punctuation within the quotation marks, it is encouraged to make an exception for episode and book titles, placing commas or periods outside the quotation marks in those cases.
[edit] Verb Tense
In almost every case, the present tense should be used when relating events occurring in an episode (e.g. Baltar shoots Crashdown in the back in order to save Cally's life). This is in line with the traditional style used to discuss literary works of fiction. The reasons it is employed for those kinds of articles entirely apply here on Sanctuary Wiki.
Exceptions can be made for articles dealing with "historical" events, where present tense can impede narrative flow. Typically, a historical event involves situations that occur prior to the Pilot. "Flashback" scenes in episodes should be treated as historical events.
[edit] Signing Your Work and Other In-Article Commentary
Don't. Sanctuary Wiki is a collaboration of many writers. Be proud of your contributions, but do not take ownership of articles. Signatures, discussions, editing notes or editorials will be removed without debate. For more information on this policy, see our policy on ownership of articles and how to deal with contributors who appear to become "primary editors" of an article.
[edit] Images
All episode screenshots are copyright NBC/Universal or Universal Studios, and should be credited as such on image pages. If you upload an image, make sure you tag it correctly. You can do that by following the correct formats on the official policy on image tagging.
Images are desirable wherever their use is appropriate. Character pictures are currently being handled on the Sanctuary Wiki:Characters project. Other articles needing images are listed at Sanctuary Wiki:Requested Images.
[edit] Category Rules
- Main article: Sanctuary Wiki:Categories
All manually entered categories for any page should be in alphabetical order: 0-9 then A-Z. Categories should go below templates (if it's the last item) and before SW:FA and SW:QA templates, All interwiki language links should be last and should also be in alphabetical order. Interwiki links are maintained by Interwiki Bot.
All categories up to the "parent" category should be included. For example, Helen Magnus has all of these cats:
{{Characters}} ↔
[[Category:A to Z|Magnus, Helen]] ¿
[[Category:Characters|Magnus, Helen]] *
[[Category:Major Characters|Magnus, Helen]]
{{quality article}} ↔
{{featured article}} ↔
or
{{POV Real}} ¾
[[de:Helen Magnus]] ‡
The categories marked with a * are the parent categories, because the next category after that is "A to Z" in which is included in all article pages. The A to Z ¿ category is always first.
Note: The one interwiki link for is after the final category but before the featured and quality article templates. The FA and QA templates are not used if the article conforms to "Real Point of View" rules. Template {{POV Real}} has substitutions for the featured and quality article templates. If a template does auto-creates "categories", place the template in-between the categories that would make the categories still in alphabetical order.
From the Battlestar Wiki's article on "Antibiotics"...
[[Category:A to Z]]
{{Drugs}}
[[Category:Technology]]
[[Category:Technology (RDM)]]
[[Category:Terminology]]
[[Category:Terminology (RDM)]]
[[Category:RDM]]
By doing this, this allows people to browse by series or non-series if they goto the category view.
RDM TOS Ships |- Colonial Craft (RDM) |- Colonial Craft (TOS) |- Ships (TOS) |- Ships (RDM) |- Ships (TOS) |- Ships (RDM)
Proper names should be added |lastname, firstname middlename in category organization to all categories as shown above.
Be sure to check your work. Make sure there aren't other sub-categories that you can add to to the article to make navigation and reference easier. Categories are an easy and powerful addition to every article, so be sure to be thorough.
[edit] Quote of the Day
Quotes for the Quote of the Day should all conform to this standard. In all cases, the naming conventions should agree with Character Names, above. The first occurences of all character and ship names within quotes should be linked. Pronouns (you, he, it) may be linked to clarify who or what the speaker is referring to. Linking of other words (jargon, etc.) is also left to a matter of discretion. All episode names should, of course, be linked. Be sure to search for the proposed quote before adding it.
For one-line quotes, the quote should appear first, enclosed in double-quotes with normal weighting and no italics (except to show emphasis). It should be followed with a hard line break (<br/>). Sanctuary Wiki strives to be valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional, which means all tags, including <br> tags, must be closed. (We don't want to break anything, now do we?)
The following line should begin with a double en-dash (--) followed directly by the rank or position of the character being quoted, then their name. These should be non-italics and normally weighted, as well. Finally, the episode name, in italics, should appear in parenthesis after a space. Do not place any punctuation after the parenthesis.
- "The line, in normal-weighted text, enclosed in double quotes."<br/>
- --Rank and Name in Normal (Episode Name)
This will end up looking thus:
- "Ladies and gentlemen, please. Please. We are in a laboratory. There are hazardous chemical compounds everywhere. That--that's a thermo-nuclear bomb, for frak's sake, so..."
- --Dr. Gaius Baltar (Tigh Me Up)
For quotes longer than one line, each utterance will appear on its own line. The speaker's rank or position and name should appear followed by a colon (:) first. All of this should be bold. The actual line follows, in normal weighted font, followed by a hard line break (<br/>). Subsequent utterances by the same speaker should begin simply with the character's name, as laid out in Character Names, above. After the final utterance of the quote, the episode name should appear in italics, prefaced by a double en-dash (--).
- Rank and Name 1: Humorous battle banter aimed at Speaker 2.<br/>
- Rank and Name 2: Scathing insult.<br/>
- Name 1: Pithy retort.<br/>
- --Episode Name
For example:
- Captain Lee Adama: Hey, how about you, Boomer? Doc tells me you're holding up better than anybody in the squadron.
- Lieutenant Sharon Valerii: I'm tired, like everybody else.
- Adama: You never seem it.
- Lieutenant Kara Thrace: 'Cause she's a Cylon.
- Valerii: You're just gonna make me come over there and kick your ass, aren't you?
- --33
- (Note: All quotes should go in the Quotes namesapce in the format, Quotes:MM DD).
[edit] Disambiguation
Pages for characters that share the same first or last name should reserve the name in common for disambiguation (Cf. Magnus, Will, etc.).
Child articles of a disambiguation page should have a note applied at the top of the page (before everything, even the character template, etc.) linking back to the disambiguation page and its most relevant sister disambiguations. Keep the disambiguation links literal to make them distinctive. That is, don't change [[Baltar (TOS)]] to [[Baltar (TOS)|Baltar]]. This note should be preceded by a single tab and be in all italics. An example from Gaius Baltar's article:
- This page discusses the unwitting betrayer of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol in the Re-imagined Series. For information on the Original Series character that intentionally betrays the Twelve Colonies of Man, see Baltar (TOS).
[edit] Episode pages
[edit] Summary Section
The summary section, unless there are (at least) two distinct non-overlapping storylines, should always be in Act 1, Act 2, etc. header formats. Bonus scenes should also in their own header.
[edit] Questions Section
Every episode-synopsis article includes a section called "Questions". The idea behind the section is, "These are the questions this episode raises and does not answer by itself." Since these pages are encyclopedic, it is not intended that the "Questions" section be used to actually speculate as to the answers! Please use the Analysis section of an episode article for brief speculation.
The rules of thumb on questions are:
- If a question is raised and not answered in the episode, it belongs in the Questions section on the encyclopedic page.
- If a question is added to the encyclopedic page that was actually answered in the same episode's events, it is policy to move both the question and the answer to the Talk page, because it isn't really an unanswered question. If an ambiguous or obscure topic reoccurs (or seems likely to), then it might belong in "Analysis" or "Notes."
- If a question is answered in a later episode, the analysis for that episode should note that the event refers to an earlier open plot point. The original page can be edited to point forward to the answer, but the answer itself should not be edited into the page for the episode that posed the question. An early example of this style appears on the encyclopedia page for the episode "Water:" "Why do the Cylons want to keep Helo on Caprica?"
- The typical style is to add (Answer) after the question, linked to the episode that answers the question. If there are multiple episodes that add significant, substantial answers to a question, you should add multiple episodes like so:
- Debates and discussion have no place on the encyclopedic pages; only on the talk pages. Encyclopedic pages should be neutral-point-of-view and descriptive. That is, when responding to a question, do not phrase the answer in such a way that the question (and the article) appears to be "arguing with itself." If you find yourself adding a question that contains a pronoun ("I think") or uses a contraction ("But the Cylons..."), then the question must be rephrased into analysis, or placed on the talk page.
- If a dispute occurs on whether a question is germane, appropriately located or answered, the debate should be moved over to a topic on the article's talk page. To aid others with the same question, a link to the debate should be added to the question so others know that this topic has an extended discussion elsewhere.
- Last, but not least, when in doubt, ask your fellow contributors.
[edit] Analysis and Notes Sections
As noted above, answers to questions that aren't directly answered by an episode, but can be answered by speculation and deduction, need to be placed in "Analysis".
As the name implies, this is the place to analyze an episode's plot or its role in advancing a larger arc. Speculation is acceptable as long as it's logical and written from a neutral point of view. Replying to someone else's analysis with own, perhaps conflicting, points is acceptable as well to a certain degree. However, keep in mind that Sanctuary Wiki is not a forum. There should be no back and forth arguing. If something is disputed, it needs be discussed on the talk page and, when a consensus has been reached, presented from a neutral point of view in the article. Moreover, more than two or three nested bullet points are usually unnecessary. In such a case, points can often be combined.
The "Notes" section is for obvious items of interest, that require no further explination or speculation. These can be facts from the episode, but also behind the scenes information gleaned from interviews or podcasts for example.
