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I thought SHOOP was gonna start this thread, but oh well.
The proposal here is that the wiki writes a "Manual of Style". The Manual of Style is a page that governs the layout and style of all our articles. It documents our "house" style - it provides a template for editors and helps us write new articles. It can also help newbies familiarize themselves with how our articles are laid out, and (in rare circumstances) can silence edit wars over the page layout. The MOS will encourage editors to use a specific language (i.e. American English), so we can prevent edit wars over the spelling of "color" (US) and "colour" (other). It can be used to improve the quality of articles, making them avoid the use of certain words such as "You" or "I" or "We". In short, the MOS will make the wiki clearer and more concise. It will benefit both readers and editors.
Wikipedia uses an extensive Manual of Style that, if printed out, covers 65 pages. For a wiki of that size, that's normal; for one like ours, that's too much. It would be instruction creep and would drive away newbies. So let's compose a simpler, shorter one. Doesn't need to be fancy. An example of a manageable MOS can be found here.
But, because this is a pretty big change, I'd like to gain community approval and consensus first. Thoughts? --k6ka (talk | contribs) 00:36, May 28, 2014 (UTC)
- Hm. I'll think about that. We talk again.--Minecraftproman1266, the good o'l Bostonian. (talk) 00:32, May 29, 2014 (UTC)
- I'm down for it.. —ShoopDerWoop 02:39, May 29, 2014 (UTC)
Alright, seeing that some people are liking the idea, I've gone ahead and written a small snippet of the MOS:
- Weapon Pages
Weapon pages in The Last Stand, The Last Stand 2 and The Last Stand: Union City should roughly follow this format:
<GUNBOX TEMPLATE> <WEAPON NAME> is a <WEAPON TYPE> featured in <GAME NAME>. ==Background== <BACKGROUND> ==How to Obtain== <INFO ON HOW TO OBTAIN THE WEAPON> ==Tactics== <TACTICS> ===Pros=== <ANY PROS FOR THE WEAPON> ===Cons=== <ANY CONS FOR THE WEAPON> ==Gallery== <GALLERY> <NAVBOX TEMPLATE>
Weapon pages in The Last Stand: Dead Zone are similar but have a few differences. They should include "Recycling Products" and "Recommended Gear".
<GUNBOX TEMPLATE>
<WEAPON NAME> is a <WEAPON TYPE> featured in {{TLS:DZ}}.
==Background==
<BACKGROUND>
==How to Obtain==
<HOW TO OBTAIN>
==Recycling Products==
<RECYCLING PRODUCTS>
==Tactics==
<TACTICS>
===Recommended Gear===
<RECOMMENDED GEAR>
===Pros===
<PROS>
===Cons===
<CONS>
==Gallery==
<GALLERY>
<NAVBOX>
--k6ka (talk | contribs) 13:22, May 31, 2014 (UTC)
- Cool, and remember how we need to include how the gunboxes are different for each game... —ShoopDerWoop 01:30, June 2, 2014 (UTC)
- Okay, here's a few things I might need community input on. I wrote on TLS:MOS that "Each word in the title and headers should be in lowercase unless it is the first word or of it is always capitalized (such as a proper noun)". If that's the case, then the "How to Obtain" section in weapon articles all need to be changed to "How to obtain" (note the last word begins with a lowercase letter). Should we go with it and manually change it all to "How to obtain" (if anyone knows how to program a bot that can do this, please step forward!), remove this from the MOS, or make an exception?
- Don't even know how to program bots, so no.. Also, American English please! —ShoopDerWoop 18:29, June 4, 2014 (UTC)
- There's a page on it. --k6ka (talk | contribs) 19:37, June 4, 2014 (UTC)
- Should the clothing articles for The Last Stand: Dead Zone items be modified so they're longer, or leave it as they are right now? --k6ka (talk | contribs) 17:08, June 6, 2014 (UTC)
- Lol! I think we should leave em as it is. —ShoopDerWoop 20:10, June 8, 2014 (UTC)
TBH i really think we should leave it... —ShoopDerWoop 01:38, June 12, 2014 (UTC)
- I really want to hear more suggestions from the community. Currently only one person has really posted in this thread, and it's "leave em as it is". One person really isn't that much "consensus" as it is "community". --k6ka (talk | contribs) 02:18, June 19, 2014 (UTC)
- C'mon Z Creator! Minecraftproman! OrangeSkittles! Ecthel!! —ShoopDerWoop 00:37, June 20, 2014 (UTC)
- If there are no suggestions coming in, then I'll just write the MOS as the articles currently stand now, which includes the somewhat awkwardly empty TLS:DZ Clothing articles. --k6ka (talk | contribs) 16:57, June 22, 2014 (UTC)
- DZ Clothing should be extremely brief info, cost in-game, then centered gallery image. —ShoopDerWoop 03:24, June 24, 2014 (UTC)
We could expand the DZ Clothing articles, AFTER we're done with the UC Clothing articles, assuming some are still stubs. While we're on the topic of expanding, the attachment and condition articles look short, should we have a background for them? Oh and you need me, I'm doing an FPS video game tourney so I won't be on this wiki much, if at all. OrangeSkittles (talk) 10:17, June 25, 2014 (UTC)
- I'm open to the idea of having a background for attachment articles - those are absurdly short. --k6ka (talk | contribs) 10:31, June 25, 2014 (UTC)
- Okay, I think it's time to fix the consistency and standard for our UC clothing pages, since our current MOS doesn't really touch on this. My proposal: The image at the intro of the page will be the in-game description image. Here's an example of one:
- Then, after the intro of course, we'll have (in this order) the Desc, Backgrn, HTO, Effect, Trivia (if applicable), and finally gallery. The gallery will include the game file imgs (thanks Lady Blue!!) and an img of a survivor wearing it. One UC clothing article that follows this format is the T-Shirt.
- Thoughts, comments? I rly think this is the way uc clothing articles should be, in terms of imgs.. —ShoopDerWoop 14:39, July 4, 2014 (UTC)
- Hoewver, i disagree with what the MOS says. I think the HTO should go BEFORE the Effect... thoughts? —ShoopDerWoop 14:45, July 4, 2014 (UTC)
- If that's the case, then shouldn't we change the gear articles as well? Since they list HTO after Effects. And I'm still not hearing much regarding whether the "O" in "How to obtain" should be capitalized. I've noticed some of the newer articles following this unofficial convention. If there are no objections, I'm going to practice using AWB to change all of it, and maybe create a separate bot account for it. Thoughts? --k6ka (talk | contribs) 14:50, July 4, 2014 (UTC)
- I've always thought that almost all other uc clothing pages had the hto before the effect... —ShoopDerWoop 14:52, July 4, 2014 (UTC)
Okay, ran AutoWikiBrowser on the entire wiki, all "How to Obtain" titles should be changed. As always, I need some community input on the other titles. --k6ka (talk | contribs) 21:05, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
Okay, seeing that there has been no community input (or rather, very few), I've written the bulk of the MOS at my own discretion. It looks just about ready to roll! Any final objections? --k6ka (talk | contribs) 17:20, July 16, 2014 (UTC)
- Although this manual of style sounds helpful to newer members, I think we should touch on something that is a bit touchy (to my literature teacher): the Oxford Comma (serial comma). Yes, it would make sense to use it sometimes but do you guys think it's really necessary? We could either use it, not use it or just try to avoid it all together. OrangeSkittles (talk) 09:57, July 19, 2014 (UTC)
- While we're at it, how about the (TLS:DZ) tags in the DZ location pages? OrangeSkittles (talk) 11:56, July 26, 2014 (UTC)
- TLS:MOS#Image_captions. --k6ka (talk | contribs) 12:13, July 26, 2014 (UTC)