Predecessor Wiki:Manual of Style
The Manual of Style (MoS) is a style guide for the Predecessor Wiki. This guide ensures that the wiki is easy to read by maintaining a consistent standard across pages.
While this guide is only intended as a reference and will never be perfect for all situations, it is still important for editors to familiarize themselves with this manual as to not be submitting content that doesn't line up with our standards.
General Guidelines
- Familiarize yourself with this manual to ensure that your contributions align with our standards.
- For anything not covered on this page, please refer to Wikipedia's Manual of Style.
Layout
Titles and Headings
- Use equals signs around section heading:s
==Title==for primary sections,===Title===for subsections, and so on to======Title======Do not skip levels. - Avoid using
=Title=or<h1>Title</h1>. - Keep headings short and concise.
- Use title case for article titles and section headings (initial character of each word is capitalised except for connective words).
- For example: List of Available Heroes, not List of available heroes
- Avoid using color in headings.
- Do not wrap headings in markup, except for templates or collapsible elements.
To avoid technical complications:
- Be unique within a page, so that a section link will lead to the right place.
- Avoid links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
- Avoid images or icons.
- Avoid templates.
- Avoid citations or footnotes.
Sections
Section Linking
- Use section linking to direct readers to specific parts of a page.
- Section linking can be used on the same page or on a different page.
- Use the
#symbol to link to a section:- On the same page:
[[#Section Name]] - On a different page:
[[Page Name#Section Name]] - For example, to link to the "Abilities" section of Drongo, use
[[Drongo#Abilities]].
- On the same page:
Article Content
- Bold the first use of the page title in the article, which is typically in the first sentence. This can be done by wrapping the word in 3 apostrophes on each side, such as
'''Title'''. - Bold the first occurrence of the article title, typically in the first sentence, using three apostrophes on each side (e.g.,
'''Title'''). - Avoid using first and second person pronouns (e.g., "me", "I", "you"). Instead, use "players" or "hero" or rephrase the sentence to use passive voice.
- The word "you" may be used if it is part of in-game content.
- Use contractions sparingly and avoid using slang.
- Make links only when they are relevant and helpful in the context. Avoid excessive linking.
- It is good practice to only link to a specific page the first time it is referenced in an article.
- A 1-2 paragraph gap is recommended before linking a page again after already being linked earlier in the article.
Images
Categories
Category pages are navigational pages that list all articles containing the category, allowing readers to explore related articles. Add only relevant and specific categories to ensure easy navigation.
- Some navigation features on the wiki use categories to generate lists of pages.
- For example, the Removed Items page relies on both Category:Items and Category:Removed items to retrieve the pages it requires. This means that strictly pages of items must be in these categories, as any page that is not specifically an item will interfere with the generated lists.
To add a category, use the prefix Category: and an existing category page name. For example: [[Category:Heroes]]. To link to a category, add a colon before the Category: prefix, see #Section Linking.
Naming Conventions
- Categories must begin with a capitalized letter in the first word, and all other words should be lowercase.
- Categories must have spaces between all words.
- Categories must be plural.