TotalFreedom Wiki:Style guide

Revision as of 01:51, 4 September 2023 by Deauthorized (talk | contribs) (Put into template)

This article is a style guide for the TotalFreedom Wiki, and is meant to help editors adhere to a consistent standard of style and formatting throughout every article on this wiki.

For a complete Manual of Style, the Wikipedia Manual of Style should be consulted, as this is only meant to be a reference for the TotalFreedom Wiki's specific guidelines. Covering every single situation would take a very long time.

Article titles

Article titles should be straightforward and easy to read. Articles in mainspace[fn 1] should be in title case. If the topic is of an event on TotalFreedom, the year that the event took place should prefix the title. Exceptions are made for articles if the topics name has specific wording.

Some examples include:

  • 2022 Akefu Raids
  • 2017 UYScutix Revolution
  • 2023 Server Shutdown

Introduction (lead section)

The introduction, or the lead section, is an introduction to an article and an overview of its contents. The introduction should be capable of providing an overview of an article and its contents within four paragraphs, while also being written in a clear accessible style.

The article's subject should be included in the lead at the earliest natural point, and should also be in bold text. An example being:

The Akefu Raids were a series of attacks against the server that lasted from early May 2022 to late June 2022.

Community pages

Community pages are articles within the Community namespace with a singular person as its topic. The lead for a community page should include their current username as of August 17, 2023[fn 2], in bold text as the first word within the lead. Any other usernames that they previously went under can also be included as necessary.

Any ranks held by the community member at the time of closure should be in the present tense, while ranks that were removed before closure should be in the past tense. An example being;

Example, otherwise known as Foo, Bar, and Foobar, is an Admin, Forum Moderator, and a former Senior Admin.

Plugin pages

Plugin pages are articles within the Plugins namespace that document plugins that ran on the TotalFreedom Minecraft server.

General writing style

Articles should be written in a third-person perspective with a neutral point of view. The usage of proper grammar is also strongly encouraged.

Wikitext formatting (such as bold, italics, and links) should be used to improve the readability of articles. You may refer to Wikipedia's cheatsheet for help with formatting.

Avoid

  • USING ALL CAPS
  • Emoticons - :) and emojis - 👍
  • Repeated punctuation!!!
  • sentences that start with lowercase letters
  • Using strong language or slurs

Regional spelling

There are no required variations of English that should be used, but consistency should be maintained. If an article was written in American or British English, then that form should be used throughout the article and not be changed by editors with other preferences. For community articles, the variation of English used should correspond to the subjects nationality.

Internal links (wikilinks)

In general, you should only have to link to an article once per page. It is not necessary to add links for every single occurrence, as it can prove distracting for readers. Exceptions can be made if the article is very large, or if the previous linking was in the lead section.

Piped links should generally be avoided unless you're linking to an article with a technically restricted title or to an article that is not located in mainspace, such as Community:PHR (would be written as [[Community:PHR|_PHR]]). If piped links are needed, try and keep the display name as similar to the original article title as possible.

Grammar

Articles and contributions should have legible spelling and grammar. Poor quality contributions may be reverted or deleted as needed.

Notes

  1. ex: does not have a prefix of "Community:" or similar
  2. The date of the server shutting down.