Windblown Wiki:Style guide

The following page is adapted from the [Official Karma Zoo Wiki style guide]

This is a guide to editing the Windblown Wiki in accordance with the established style. It describes accepted and established practices at the Windblown Wiki, which are governed by precedent. Editors are advised to follow these guidelines closely in order to prevent their edits from being reverted.

The style guide was originated to ensure cross-page consistency. Modifications to this style guide may be suggested, but bear in mind that the style guide merely lists practices that are widely in use. It is not a means to impose extensive policies or even personal preferences.

Regardless, not all pages may follow the style guide entirely. While that may be due to good reason (which should then, in non-obvious cases, be marked, e.g. with a comment), it is often caused by the sheer number of pages, some of which have not been touched in a long time. All editors are encouraged to rectify such deviations.

1. General guidelines

• 1.1 — Be sure to read the page before editing. Editors frequently add notes, tips, and trivia items that duplicate information already contained in the article's paragraphs above.
• 1.2 — Keep the scope of the respective article that is being edited in mind. Do not add information that has little to do with its actual topic – there are very often other pages which already include this information.
• 1.3 — Proofread the edit before saving it to make sure it fits with the rest of the article's style. Neglecting spelling or grammar, repeating information, writing vaguely, or not following any other of the style guide's guidelines may result in the edit being modified or undone by other editors. (If desiring assistance with grammar or formatting, say so in the edit summary, and other editors can help fixing it.)
• 1.4 — Before saving an edit, the changes should briefly be explained in the edit summary field. This helps other editors understand the intentions, avoids conflict over controversial modifications, and facilitates searching for a certain change in the page history.

2. Language

• 2.1 — Use American English. This is in keeping the same language, style, and spelling as used in-game.
• 2.2 — Use standard, formal English and proper grammar and spelling. Do not use contracted forms (such as don't, there's – use do not, there is instead), colloquialisms, or slang.
  • 2.2.1 — Terms used in the game are exempt from this.
• 2.3 — Ensure a neutral, "encyclopedic" tone:
  • 2.3.1 — Do not include first- or second-person perspectives. Do not address the reader as "you", such as in "You can send Karma to teammates". Alternatively, use "the player" (e.g. "The player can send Karma to teammates"). Another option to resort to is the passive voice (e.g. "Karma can be sent by players to teammates"), but do not overuse it. In that vein, phrases like "It is recommended to ..." should be avoided, because it is unclear who recommends it and why. A preferable alternative would be "Players should ...", although even then, reasons should be provided. Furthermore, refrain from using over-generalizing phrases like "Most players ..." – there are a lot of players with widely varying play styles.
  • 2.3.2 — Adhere to facts – do not include opinions or personal bias. This refers to, for instance, comments about the beauty or ugliness of a sprite. Likewise, statements like "This is the best Leaper" or "This level is difficult" should not appear unless they are obviously justifiable by game considerations.
• 2.4 — Never leave visible comments that are not meant for every reader, like things to do, e.g. "Help me format this", or "Please verify this.” Hide this in HTML comments, or post it in the dedicated wiki channel in the Windblown discord TBA.
  • 2.4.1 — When additional comments are warranted on that page itself and could be useful for the user, use <abbr></abbr> tags to add information like this.

3. Capitalization

• 3.1 — All proper names should be capitalized as in-game (e.g. Bat, Lizard, The Ark, The Teacher).
  • 3.1.1 — For consistency, always capitalize 'Windblown' as such, never 'WindBlown'.
• 3.2 — Groups of objects or characters in Windblown should be capitalized whenever they are specific to Windblown and cannot be applied to other games (Leapers, etc; but not 'characters', 'levels', 'achievements', etc.)
• 3.3 — Page titles and section headings should be in [sentence case], as long as that does not interfere with the rules above.
• 3.4 — Generally, do not capitalize the word the in mid-sentence: "Throughout the Act, ..." instead of "Throughout The Act, ...". Exceptions include proper names (e.g. The Ark, The Vortex), which may or may not be capitalized: "When in The Ark, ..." or "When in the Ark, ..." are both acceptable.

4. Formatting guidelines

• 4.1 — The first instance of an entity name on a page should always be linked. This does not apply to the page title. Further mentions of the same entity should generally not be linked, though multiple identical links can exist if they occur far from each other and/or would be helpful to readers. An example might be one link in the introductory section along with an identical link in a section, table, or template occurring further down. Duplicate links may be especially helpful on larger pages that would require scrolling to find an entity's first mention.
• 4.2 — The first instance of the page title should be bold. This should usually be in the first sentence of the article. No other instance of the page title should be bold. Bold print should usually be avoided for emphasis on other words.
• 4.3 — Italic print is to be used in the following cases:
  • 4.3.1 — Emphasis (instead of boldface), though be sure not to overuse emphasis since that diminishes its effect; consider rewriting instead.
  • 4.3.2 — Titles of major works. Windblown is an exception and does not need to be italicized.
  • 4.3.3 — Mentioning a character, word, or short string of words (e.g. "The term lunatic is nowadays usually used as an informal synonym for insane, mentally ill, etc."). When mentioned in conjunction with a whole sentence, double quotation marks may be used for consistency. A closely related use of italics is when introducing or distinguishing terms.
  • 4.3.4 — Foreign words and phrases that are not common in everyday English.
  • 4.3.5 — Italics are not to be used for titles of minor works (which are to be enclosed in double quotation marks instead), proper names (such as place names) in other languages, and terms in non-Latin scripts like Japanese.
• 4.4 — Underlining, spacing within words, different colors within words, ALL CAPS, and small caps styling is to be avoided at all times.
• 4.5 — Straight quotation marks and apostrophes (" and ') should be used instead of curly ones (“ and ’).

5. Coding guidelines

• 5.1 — The syntax provided by MediaWiki is preferred over HTML, e.g. '''bold''' instead of <b>bold</b> and {| instead of <table>. Nonetheless, in some cases the HTML syntax may be more beneficial for code readability or even necessary to avoid errors, such as in templates.
• 5.2 — Section titles, lists, and indentations should include spaces for readability, i.e.:
  • 5.2.1 — == Section == instead of ==Section==
  • 5.2.2 — * bullet point and # enumerated item instead of *bullet point and #enumerated item
  • 5.2.3 — : indented text instead of :indented text
• 5.3 — Section titles should be immediately followed by the section text or the following subsection title, without an empty line in between.
• 5.4 — Section titles should always be preceded by an empty line, unless this interferes with the rule above or creates an empty paragraph.

6. Image files

• 6.1 — GIFs should follow certain guidelines: They should have a high frame rate, bear no distractions, use the latest version of the game, and should concisely convey functionality.
• 6.2 — If possible, do not include texts in image files. Instead, add text on the page where the image is used. This is for easier localization in other languages and for consistency of formatting.

see also: Windblown Wiki:Rules