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Mass Effect Wiki:Style Guide

From Mass Effect Wiki

See also General FAQ, Community Guidelines

This article consists of basic style guidelines to follow when editing or creating new pages for Mass Effect Wiki.

(N.B.: this guide is written in UK English.)

Contents

[edit] Writing Articles

[edit] Reference

[edit] Editing

Articles need to be accessible, readable and accurate. That means good spelling and grammar, breaking up long articles into sections, not using excessive technical language, and writing in simple, concise sentences. The rule of thumb is “speak plainly and accurately”. Quotes are used on important character and mission pages, and in rare occasions elsewhere.

Here’s an example of a MEWiki article being edited in the standard editor (click to see larger version):

Comments, ideas and personal input should go on the Talk page for that article. MEWiki policy is not to sign edits on articles, only on Talk pages, and articles themselves are not signed (e.g. we have a Vanguard Guide, not My Kickass Vanguard Guide).

Accept that your work will be edited by someone at some point. If you disagree with the edits, discuss it with the user who changed them. However, if you cannot accept your writing being edited at all, reconsider whether you want to contribute to the wiki or whether the information would be better posted on another website.

[edit] Do not capitalise alien race names

Unlike most species in science fiction, the names of Mass Effect's alien races are common nouns and not capitalised. e.g. 'asari', not 'Asari'. The exceptions are the Protheans, the Reapers and the Collectors as these names are effectively titles. For other races, ask the question: if you were writing about humans, would you capitalise the word “human” in your sentence? For example:

Incorrect: “The Geth have evolved considerably since the Quarians created them.”
Correct: “The geth have evolved considerably since the quarians created them.”, or
Correct: “Geth are notoriously reclusive. For three centuries, the geth remained hidden beyond the Perseus Veil.”

The only exceptions are when referring to a unit name or to that race's government, as these are titles.

Example: “The geth deploy many units on the battlefield, including Geth Armatures, Geth Hoppers, and Geth Troopers.”
Example: "The volus are a client race of the Turian Hierarchy."

[edit] Canon

Some wikis - particularly Wookiepedia - which are working from a long-established and defined canon, have clear guidelines as to whether a character is male / female, and what decisions are canon, and write articles accordingly. Because Mass Effect is open for players to create their own story through their decisions, MEWiki does not hold one particular course of action or aspect of character creation as canon, but gives equal credence to player choices.

Incorrect: “Commander Shepard saved Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz.”
Incorrect: “Commander Shepard kills Lord Darius on Nonuel.“
Correct: “Commander Shepard's possible psychological profiles include saving Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz, surviving a thresher maw attack on Akuze, or ruthlessly killing batarian pirates during the siege of Torfan.”
Correct: “Commander Shepard may choose to kill Lord Darius on Nonuel, or negotiate a peaceful settlement.“

For this reason, Commander Shepard is not depicted on the wiki's screenshots. Though there is a representative / default Shepard used in promotional art, on MEWiki this version of Shepard is not considered canon to the exclusion of all others, particularly as Shepard can be both male or female and of any ethnicity. As creating an individual character who is shaped by decisions is an integral part of Mass Effect, and all characters are unique, not depicting Shepard keeps MEWiki universal for all Mass Effect players, and gives credence to their decisions and character customisation.

This also means Shepard is not referred to by gender in articles (see below).

[edit] Shepard and Gender

Because Commander Shepard can be either male or female, MEWiki writes Shepard as gender-neutral and uses Shepard's rank instead of a male / female pronoun. For example:

Incorrect: “Commander Shepard and his crew explore the galaxy looking for Saren.”
Correct: “Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy explore the galaxy looking for Saren”, or
Correct: "When Sha'ira asks Shepard for help, the commander agrees to speak to Septimus on her behalf."

The exception is when discussing romances, as this is the only area where gender makes any real difference:

Incorrect: "Commander Shepard can pursue a romance with Ashley Williams."
Correct: "If Commander Shepard is male, he can pursue a romance with Ashley Williams", or
Correct: "Regardless of Shepard's gender, the commander can pursue a romance with Liara T'Soni."

For this same reason, we ask that editors please refrain from inserting images that depict Commander Shepard into articles. This does include images of the "default" male and female Shepard. There are very few exceptions, most notably the Commander Shepard page itself.

[edit] Spoilers

As an encyclopaedia, MEWiki naturally contains spoilers (see Spoiler warning for more details). However, these must be tagged for the benefit of all users. Some articles are spoilers in their entirety (e.g. Indoctrination) so the tag is at the top to alert users.

MEWiki currently has four spoiler tags: one for plot details referring to Mass Effect: Revelation, one for Mass Effect: Ascension, one for Mass Effect 2 and one general spoiler tag. See the Template:Spoiler page for how to deploy these tags correctly or ask an admin for help. Preferably, add big revelations to the bottom of articles.

The spoiler tag should be used before any major plot revelations. For example:

Incorrect: “The detective conducted a thorough investigation of the house and all possible avenues of inquiry. In the end, we learn that the butler did it.”
Correct:
The detective conducted a thorough investigation of the house and all possible avenues of inquiry.

Spoiler warning: plot and / or ending details follow.

In the end we learn that the butler did it.

[edit] Speculation

MEWiki has a “low tolerance policy” on speculation in articles. This is due to an incident when an editor created a new race and star systems, and began incorporating them into articles as fact. As the PC version had recently been released, this confused several contributors as to whether a new race had been added in the PC version. Finding and rooting out these edits created problems, and so this policy was introduced.

Speculation is permitted in articles under the following circumstances:

  • It is clearly marked as being speculation, either under a “speculation” heading or with the sentence “some speculate that—” at the beginning of the paragraph.
  • There is evidence for this speculation. For example:
Incorrect: “Quarians once had fur, but after wearing environmental suits for hundreds of years this trait has died out.”
Correct: “Some speculate that if they join the Council, humans will have a major military role because they have a substantial fleet, well-trained army and adaptable military doctrine (see Systems Alliance).”
  • If the speculation refers to an unreleased game or novel, put a link at the end of the sentence to an interview or article supporting that speculation. For example:
Incorrect: "This decision is pivotal to the story."
Correct: "This decision is pivotal to the story [link to supporting article].", or
Correct: "This decision is pivotal to the story [link to supporting article|source]"

If you see an unsourced piece of information that may be speculative, but do not want to delete it, the {{fact}} tag can be used to alert other users that this is unconfirmed and request supporting links.

Example: "This decision is pivotal to the story. [citation needed] "

If speculation is not substantiated or qualified, it will be removed.

[edit] Codex Articles

Codex articles are verbatim copies of the in-game Codex. For this reason, we ask that editors not make changes to the substance of the articles, including the images used. As all the Codex entries were transcribed by ordinary human beings, some errors in spelling and grammar are bound to pop up, and these can be remedied by anyone who comes across them. Other than that, we ask that the Codex pages be left as they are.

[edit] Spelling

A quick spellcheck before saving your edit is greatly appreciated. If you don't have a spellcheck add-on in your browser, preview the article first and read it through to check for any mistakes.

[edit] British or American Spelling?

Mass Effect Wiki has editors from both the US and the UK, so there are sometimes questions over which spelling is 'correct'. Both of them are. However Mass Effect is written in American English, which means equipment articles like 'Human Armor' have American spelling. So if you're using that article title in a page, it might look odd to have both English and American spelling (e.g. the sentence "Mass Effect has several types of armour, including Human Armor and Quarian Armor" looks a bit strange). The rule of thumb is: either spelling is 'correct', so don't correct 'English English' unnecessarily.

[edit] Templates

Mass Effect Wiki uses templates extensively to avoid the tedium of needing to make dozens (or hundreds!) of changes to standardized markup and text.

See also: Mass Effect Wiki:Templates

[edit] Redirects

Redirects are usually created when a page is moved (i.e. renamed): the original page is given a redirect. This is accomplished automatically by replacing the old page with one which just contains the text 

#REDIRECT [[NewPageName]]

For example the Geth Stalker article redirects to the Geth Hopper page.

It is also entirely possible to manually create such pages using the #REDIRECT directive. This can be useful since such pages will show up in searches and can provide sensible aliases (e.g. Shepard redirects to Commander Shepard). This also provides a convenient way to naturally add links to wiki pages without needing to resort to [[actual link|visible text]]. However, please refrain from creating large numbers of aliases which are not likely to ever be needed. (Note also that the wiki automatically understands markup like [[turian]]s, rendering the whole thing as 'turians'.)

[edit] Categories

Put simply, categories help other users find things. This includes articles and screenshots. For example, Category:Krogan collects all articles related to the krogan, and any media depicting them.

The categories on the Mass Effect Wiki are organized into a tree which is rooted by Category:Browse. To change the parents of a category, simply edit the category page and add or remove [[Category:SomeCategoryName]] links.

To add any wiki page to a category, simply add [[Category:SomeCategoryName]] to the page (by convention, at the end) or click the "Add Category" tab at the bottom. A page can be a member of any number of categories. Once the page is saved, the categories which it is in will appear at the bottom of the page.

To categorize a screenshot, either click on the screenshot itself and again, click "Add Category" or hit "Edit" and add categories as you would for any other article. If you wish to upload an image and categorize it at the same time, add [[Category:SomeCategoryName]] to the summary of the screenshot on the upload page.

If you are creating a new category, the category page itself needs to be created. When creating the page, include a brief description of the purpose of the category, the category template, and add the category itself to any parent categories. For example, 

This is an example of a [[Special:Categories|category]] page.

{{category}}

[[Category:Browse]]
[[Category:Help]]

If you want to provide a link to an entire category, you will need to add it as [[:Category:SomeCategory]], with a colon before the word 'category'. Otherwise you'll simply place the page in that category instead of creating a link.

[edit] Screenshots and Images

[edit] Uploading Images

See more on uploading images here. If a page requires a picture, use the PicturesWanted template at the top by adding {{PicturesWanted}}.

You can upload images here. Don't forget to add a quick summary of the image content to make it easier to find later. Even better, add the image page itself to any appropriate categories (by adding links like, for example, [[Category:Locations]]).

[edit] Filenames

When uploading images, make sure to use a very specific filename. Uploading an image with the name "Saren.jpg" or "Armor.png" is problematic; there are dozens of pictures of Saren. Not only do vague filenames run the risk of having your picture overwritten when someone else uploads a "Saren.jpg", it also makes it much harder to find the image you need.

Example: instead of Garrus.jpg, use Garrus C-Sec Talking to Wrex.jpg, or whatever the image shows.

[edit] Displaying images

To display an image on the wiki, use the following code: 

[[File:IMAGENAME|290px|right|This is the caption of the image you're displaying.]]

Most screenshots on MEWiki are displayed at 290px, but this is dependent on dimensions. If a page actively needs a caption displayed underneath (e.g. to explain the context of the image), use a thumbnail: 

[[File:IMAGENAME|thumb|right|This is the caption of the image you're displaying.]]

This will automatically render the image at 200px, which may be too small for some images. Images smaller than 200px, like the talent icons, should not be thumbnailed as they are too small to make the caption worthwhile. If an image needs a caption but 200px is too small, the thumbnail script can be used to display an image larger than 200px: 

[[File:IMAGENAME|thumb|290px|right|This is the caption of the image you're displaying.]]
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