User blog:Gsimenas/Editing guideline draft

A certain Eth was supposed to be in charge of the guideline project, but stopped showing up on the wiki before the project ever made progress. Since I have no idea what the guideline should be like, but C9 feels that we should have a page for rules, so I thought I'd start listing the things that could be mentioned on the guideline when somebody actually creates it.

Here's a few things that have come to mind so far. The list will likely be edited when I remember what I haven't mentioned yet. Feel free to use the comments to help improve the list.

General editing style

 * Contractions are to be avoided
 * Abbreviations should only be used starting after the full term is mentioned at least once.
 * Character nicknames should not be used.
 * In real life instances, the character's real name should be used. In virtual reality instances the character's avatar name should be used.
 * The past tense should be used for chronologies, summaries etc.
 * If the character is still alive, the present tense is used for the appearance and personality sections. Examples used in these sections follow the rule for chronologies.
 * Off topic information should be avoided.
 * Parentheses should be minimally used, as they make the page look less formal and because people tend to go off topic when they use them.
 * Use of the second person pronoun "you" should be avoided. Proper alternatives are "they", "players", "fairies" (for ALfheim Online players), "users" etc..
 * A paragraph should not be begun with a pronoun.
 * If a character's full name is used, the order must not be westernised, unless the western format was used in the light novel.
 * If the character's name is used, but not in the full format of both family and given names, the given name is preferred over using the family name alone, unless the family, not individual, is being referred to.
 * Passive sentence constructions are preferred due to their more formal style.
 * Quotes should not be used on the article, unless for the quote section of episode pages, as all translated quotes are not actually quotes.
 * Instead of using quotes, rephrasing them into reported speech is preferred.
 * Dubbed anime expressions should be avoided.
 * Articles should be written from an objective point of view. Remarks that hint sympathy or negative emotions for specific characters should be avoided.
 * Small numbers should be written in words instead of using digits.
 * In cases where more than one person is mentioned having done the same action or being in the same picture, the first one of the group that should be mentioned is the person who the article is dedicated to.

New pages

 * New pages may only be created if they at least meet the minimum stub requirements. Certain types of pages may have special requirements.
 * Stubs are pages with at least two full paragraphs of content, or one full paragraph with a picture.
 * Pages with less than 2,000-2,500 bytes of content must be marked with stub, unless the page covers just about everything that could ever be covered on the page.
 * Pages with more content than 2,000-2,500 bytes but still lacking some content should be marked with Under Construction.
 * All new pages should be appropriately categorised.

Page title

 * Epithets and nicknames must not be used in page titles (e.g. The Black Swordsman Kirito; Kiritard; Berserk Healer Asuna etc.)
 * Official titles must be used for the page name (e.g. if a tournament is referred to as the "Empire Swordsmanship Tournament", but the full official name is the "Norlangarth North Empire Swordsmanship Tournament", then the latter is used for the page name while the former may be mentioned as an alternative name and may be created as a redirect).

Categorisation

 * New categories are only created via the community's decision. Individuals should not create new categories on their own, as it may lead to having unnecessary categories introduced.
 * Check the contents of a category before adding pages to it. If there are no entries of a certain kind of articles, then it is likely because the category was not meant for that type of article.
 * Categories for a page should be chosen based on the categorisation of similar pages.
 * Do not add "protagonist", "antagonist" and similar categories. They are either redundant, or commonly misused.

Links

 * Internal links are preferred over external links.
 * Redirects are preferred over long links with captions.

Content

 * Check our Official Naming list before changing the spelling of any names.
 * Speculation is not allowed on articles, unless the speculation was made by the characters themselves.
 * Facts that are not widely known should be referenced. Unreferenced content may be challenged and removed.
 * All voice character edits must be referenced to be kept. Wikipedia and similar sites are not valid sources, as they can be edited by anonymous users who tend to make mistakes.
 * Chronology does not need to be referenced, unless the events were not mentioned in the arc or side story that the sub-heading implies.

Leading paragraph

 * The leading paragraph must repeat the subject of the article with the Nihongo template if it is an official name.
 * The subject must be bolded.
 * Alternative names may be mentioned in the form of "alternatively known as x, y or z" or other similar formats.

Trivia

 * Assumed similarities between series are NOT trivia. A series must have officially confirmed ties with SAO to be mentioned in the trivia.
 * Each trivia must be written in a new line with a * to make it into a bulleted list.
 * Trivia should not be begun with pronouns.
 * Trivia should be as laconic (not having unnecessary information) as possible.

Images

 * See Image Guideline