Help:Standards
From WushuWiki
This page describes the standards currently accepted for page formatting and composition by the WushuWiki community. Please try to follow these standards when creating and editing pages.
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[edit] General
A few guidelines that it is wise to follow when creating and editing wiki pages:
[edit] Always use the Summary box
When editing pages, always fill in the "Summary" box above the Save/Preview buttons before saving, and make sure that you fill it in with something useful describing the edit you made and, if it's not obvious, why. For example, "fixed spelling error" or "added fun fact" or "reverted from troll 127.0.0.1" are all acceptable. Saying "made some changes" or just filling in the name of the page is not helpful, because it's information that we already have. Making your Summaries accurate and useful makes it vastly easier for the rest of us to keep track of Recent Changes and keeps everybody happy.
[edit] Use the Minor Edit button appropriately
As a corollary to the above, if you're making a minor edit (e.g. fixing a spelling error or tweaking formatting), check the "This is a minor edit" button below the Summary box before saving the page. On the other hand, if you're making an addition, deletion, or other edit that changes the substance of a page (even if it's just a few words), do not mark the edit as minor. Again, this will make things easier for the rest of us.
[edit] Don't link to the current page
In other words, a page should not link to itself. If you're bored, check out the Maintenance page for a list of pages which link to themselves and delete some self links. (Note that most of the pages listed there are actually just stubs with a link to edit the current page. This variety of self-link is OK but feel free to expand upon these articles and remove the stub tag.)
[edit] Link once
A given article should only contain one link to any other page. If a page links to Strong Bad in one place, then that should be the only link to Strong Bad on that page. Typically this link should be the first instance of the term in the article. Long tables and lists, however, can contain a link at every instance.
[edit] Don't use conversational style
This is an information site. It should read like Wikipedia, not like your diary.
- Check your spelling and grammar. Don't use Internet slang (ex. "How r u?" or "c u 2nite"). If you're not 100% sure about the way a word is spelled, type it into Google or Dictionary.com. If you know that you're not the strongest speller, compose your edits in a word processor like Microsoft Word that has spell-checking built in.
- Don't use "smileys" or "emoticons".
- Don't "reply" to content others have posted. If you think a particular point warrants discussion, post on the article's Discussion page. If you're 100% sure that something should be changed and don't think a discussion is necessary, just change it. Dialogue goes only on articles' Discussion pages or the forum.
- Don't leave notes or instructions to future editors like "Add more information here if you find it". Again, use the article's Discussion page if you want to communicate with other editors.
[edit] Don't sign your edits
All contributions are appreciated, but if every user left their mark on every contribution they made, the wiki would be nothing but signatures. If you've made an edit that you're particularly proud of (such as a transcript or screenshot), the correct place to take credit is on your own user page. If you do not have a user account, we respect your anonymity, but your edits will remain anonymous, too.
[edit] Do sign your Talk posts
If you make a post on a discussion page, please sign it. If you have a user account, this is as easy as typing ~~~~ at the end of your post. If you don't have a user account, just sign it with your name or nickname so everybody can tell who's who when reading long conversations. Even better, create an account anyway and use the signature method described. There really is no reason not to if you're going to stick around. Also, please try to keep discussions on the one talk page, not moving it to another talk page and replying.
[edit] External Links
External links are links that point to sites other than WushuWiki. The links should be in the form of a bulleted list. Most toons have two links, one which links directly to the toon (usually ending in .html) and one which links directly to the Flash file (.swf). If there is currently a discussion taking place in the Forum concerning a toon you may create a third external link pointing to the forum thread.
