C.Syde's Wiki:Manual of Style

On C.Syde's Test Wiki there are a few rules of style to create a standard feel to all of our articles. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles.

These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for this wiki, but a more expansive set of style guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Naming conventions
Wikipedia's naming conventions state that each word in the title and headers should be lowercase unless it is the first word or it is always capitalized, such as names. The same rules apply to categories, section headings, etc. They also state that nouns should always be in singular and verbs in gerund-form (verb + -ing: "making a cake") unless the words are only used in one particular form ("Scissors", for example).

Articles should be named in such a way that each has a unique title. Articles' titles usually indicate the name of the topic. When additional precision is necessary to distinguish an article from other uses of the topic name, over-precision should be avoided. This can be done by adding a disambiguation tag in parentheses (or sometimes after a comma); however in certain cases it may be done by choosing a different form of the title in order to achieve uniqueness.

Article layout
Designing a template for the layout of all pages helps to keep things organized and working well so that information can be found more easily. Remember that an outline is generated based on which headings you use (Headings range from level one to six, and are represented as a section title with as many equal signs on either side as the level). The article title is level one, so you should only use level two and higher.

Before editors save an article, particularly before adding a new one, the following points should be considered:
 * Does the article title and headers comply to naming conventions?
 * Does the article have a logical structure?
 * The article should be divided into sections and the sections into paragraphs in a way that makes sense to the reader.


 * Is the article user-friendly?
 * The article should not contain a large amount of images, at least not clumped together (Use galleries for that). Only images which are directly relevant, or the most relevant image if there are several, should be used. It is also important that the article is compatible with all the big browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari).


 * Is the article grammatically correct?
 * Choice of words, spelling, punctuation...


 * Is the article correctly categorized?
 * A descriptive category makes it much easier to browse information about a certain subject.

Layout template
Basic info about the topic. If this topic also exists outside of C.Syde's Test Wiki, a link to Wikipedia might be in order.

Section
A description of this section. A section should be about a certain aspect of the topic at hand. If there is only one main aspect, the basic info above should suffice.

Sub-section
More details about a certain subject of the current section. More than one sub-section may occur.

Sub-sub-section
Should rarely be needed, but in some cases further division of a subject may be required.

Categories
Adding categories to an article makes it easier for the reader to find information within a specific area. Categories are added by putting  in an article. An article may be in more than one category, but the editor should make sure not to put an article in categories just because it might be remotely related to them, but rather because it is directly related to them.

Galleries
If your article has a large amount of images that are clumped together, making a gallery is generally a good idea. The syntax for a gallery is simple:

Galleries should be left-aligned, including captions and width set to either 120 or the default (no defined setting)
 * See also
 * Detailed list of gallery parameter

NZ English
Cultural clashes over grammar, spelling, and capitalization/capitalization are a common experience on wikis. Remember that millions of people have been taught to use a different form of English from yours, including different spellings, grammatical constructions, and punctuation.

Where possible, the preferred use on C.Syde's Test Wiki is New Zealand English for spellings. Where certain words might cause confusion (see American and British English differences), it is preferable to avoid the word or phrase altogether. Where possible, international standards are to be used for dates, names, etc. to avoid confusion.


 * Note: The standard format for all-numeric dates in the United States is month/day/year, while in many other parts of the world, dates are listed as day/month/year. This can cause confusion if a date is valid in both formats; for instance, 5/10/13 is read as May 10th for Americans, or as the 5th of October for others. It is best to avoid use of purely numerical dates; listing a date as 5 October/October 5th or 10 May/May 10th avoids this confusion. If a numerical date is necessary or preferred, please follow ISO standards regarding dates (YYYY-MM-DD format).

Articles should generally follow the same style throughout. Each article should have uniform spelling and not a haphazard mix of different spellings, which can be jarring to the reader. For example, do not use center in one place and center in another in the same article (except in quotations or for comparison purposes).

Bear in mind that some words shared by all English speakers are spelled one way by Americans (and at times Canadians and Australians) but are spelt differently in most other English speaking countries; it is generally acceptable to leave an article alone where the style is consistent throughout the article - though changes to important articles to adapt them to house style are occasionally useful, please don't make a point of changing an article to your preferred style.