User:LeTesla/Manual of Style Draft
(NOTE: This page is just a draft, not anything official until it is implemented. Currently discussing with Hallowizer about all of this stuff.)
This is the manual of style for WiiBrew. All pages are expected to meet the standards we expect from pages.
Although we allow users from all countries around the world, please remember this Wiki will always assume you will have more advanced English skills. Good punctuation and grammar are good examples of good English.
Writing
- The most important basic is to begin all sentences with a CAPITAL first letter of the first word in a sentence and to END all sentences with a period.
- Speak in third person when writing pages, so use "the user" instead of "you".
- Do not shorten words like 'information' and 'application' to 'info' or 'app', use the full word.
- Maintain a neutral point of view, which means representing fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias, and without all of the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic.
- When referring to nationality, organization or a company, capitalize the first letter. Examples: German, Nintendo. The only exception to this rule is when the organization name begins with a lowercase letter, for instance: fail0verflow
- Do not create very small pages or blank with little information, as these will be rendered as spam pages and will be deleted.
- Remember to do spacing between two bodies of text whenever there is enough text (about 5-7 sentences), and/or when one segment of text is different, even mildly different than the rest of the text. This makes pages easier to read and also makes pages more organized and clean.
- Do not be unprofessional when writing, this includes using exclamation marks. And also includes using unprofessional language like "good news" and "bad news".
- Do not use "etc." to describe anything, either find everything that it can do, or do not include "etc.".
- Avoid use of weasel words. Examples of weasel words are as follows:
- Some people say
- Many scholars state
- It is believed/regarded/considered
- Many are of the opinion
- Most feel
- Experts declare
- It is often reported
- It is widely thought
- Do not use "..."
- Do not put images in the media section without first creating a gallery. An example of a gallery is as follows:
<gallery> image1|image1caption image2|image2caption </gallery>
Application / Official Channel pages
Applications and official channels are both very similar in terms of writing, and thus are both subject to the same rules.
Both must begin with a sentence similar to this one:
(Insert application/channel name here) Is a(n) (application/channel) that (insert basic description here)
These pages can be loose in terms of headers, every page may have it's own headers that are needed. However, there are some basic headers that are expected; being expected is not the same as being required, so not every page needs to have them. One of the first of these is a Usage header, which just explains how the application/channel is used. A second is a Controls header, which explains what the controls for the channel are. The third header that should be used is the Version History header, which explains how the application / channel was updated over time and what changes were made between versions. More about these are located in the Versions section of this article. The final expected header is a gallery, which shows just images of the channel or application being used. Refer back to rule twelve of the writing header for how to format gallery pictures.
The only requirement of these pages is an infobox. {{Infobox homebrew}} for applications and {{Infobox channel}}, both are required to have as much information as possible.
Modifications to homebrew applications are required to be a subpage, not a part of the actual article.