SDG Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style (abbreviated as MoS) documents the set of standards for all wiki articles. The goal is to make the SDG Wiki easier and more intuitive to use by promoting clarity and consistent language. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden with common sense where circumstances warrant it.

Headings

Article titles

An article title is displayed as a level one heading displayed above the article's content based on the article's page name and URL. The first time the article title is written on the page, it should be in boldface.

Section organization

Articles are divided into sections.

All articles begin with an introductory lead section. This lead section should briefly introduce the article's subject. The lead appears before any section headings. Not all information is appropriate to be placed in the lead section, and should instead be organized into the most appropriate section or sections. Infoboxes may appear immediately before the lead, and are right-aligned. Article message boxes should appear before any infoboxes, and hatnotes should appear before any other content on the page.

If an article has at least four section headings, a navigable table of contents appears automatically, just after the lead.

In order to promote consistency in how information is presented, most articles regarding game content should use similar—if not the same—sections as other similar articles.

Section headings

Typically, punctuation and hyperlinks should not appear in headings.

Abbreviations

This section covers the use of abbreviations—including acronyms and initialisms, contractions, and other shortenings—on the SDG Wiki.

• When abbreviating "non applicable," use "n/a" or "N/A."

Boldface and italic style

The first appearance of the article title in the lead section should have boldface markup. This markup should not be repeated for future appearances, nor should information be compromised in order to achieve this standard.

Italics should rarely be used for emphasis. Instead, its primary purpose should be to properly handle the titles of works (such as books, films, television series, named exhibitions, computer games, music albums, and paintings). Italic style is not to be used for the names of game development studios (such as Smartly Dressed Games), nor other software (such as digital distribution platforms), nor awards and achievements.

Links

Generally, a hyperlink should only appear once in an article. Repeats and duplicates should be avoided unless contextually relevant. Templates are exempt from this standard.

On a disambiguation page, only the articles receiving disambiguation should be linked.

Categorization

The SDG Wiki category is the highest-level category on the SDG Wiki. While it contains pages relevant to the core of the site, it also holds all top-level categories.

Formatting

• Preferably, space textual content out from list markup, header markup, pipes, and exclamation mark notation.
• Information should be given without bias.

Language

• Language should be formal, not colloquial. Slang should be avoided.
• Language should be encyclopedic, clear, and unambiguous. Contractions should be avoided.
• Gender-neutral language should be used when referencing the player character.
• North American English is the preferred variety of the English language that should be used for articles.
• The possessive form of words that end with an "s" should only be appended with a single apostrophe.