User:CremationEnthusiast/2b2t Wiki:Manual of Style

The Style Guide contains standard information to properly construct an article in a manner consistent across the wiki.

Article Titles
A title should be a recognizable name or description of the topic that is precise, concise, and consistent with those of related articles. If the name does not display properly by default, use the DisplayTitle template and affix the proper title.

("The Archive")
 * 1) Titles are written in sentence case. Keep the first letter capitalized, and the remainder of the title lowercase unless appropriate to capitalize in running text. #If the first letter should not be capitalized, such as with a player username, use  at the top of the page. Example:
 * 1) Titles are written in singular form ("End portal" instead of "End portals")
 * 2) Avoid ambiguous abbreviations ("Facepunch Federation" instead of "FF") unless the subject is known primarily by its abbreviation ("NFE" instead of "Negative Fourhundred Eighthundred")
 * 3) Do not use acronyms in addition to the name in a title ("2b2t" instead of "2b2t (2builders2tools)").
 * 4) Do not use "A", "An", or "The" as the first word ("6th Incursion" instead of "The 6th Incursion"), unless it is part of the name. Example:
 * 1) Use nouns or noun phrases whenever possible.
 * 2) Do not enclose titles in quotation marks or otherwise include quotation marks in a title.
 * 3) Do not create subsidiary articles with titles suggesting that one article forms part of another. They should be named independently.
 * 4) Do not use characters that are not on a standard English keyboard.
 * 5) In titles describing two or more closely related or complementary concepts, the concepts should be arranged in alphabetical order and separated by "and"; avoid the use of commas.

Initial templates
Initial templates should be affixed at the very top of an article, above any prose text.
 * If an article is about a player, base, group, add one of the following infoboxes (click for details on usage): PlayerTemplate, Infobox group, or BaseTemplate. If it is about a conflict or Incursion, use either 2B2T Conflict Infobox or IncursionInfobox.
 * Provide as much information as possible that is relevant to the available fields in the infobox.
 * If an article is about a base, and there is a world download of the base that can be linked in the infobox, affix the Wdl template.
 * If the article has a name especially similar to another article, begin with a disambiguation hatnote (click for details).
 * If an article is deemed too short to provide adequate coverage of a subject, affix the stub template to the top.

Lead section
An article's content should begin with an introductory lead section—a concise summary of the article. Most of what is mentioned in the remainder of the article will be summarized in the lead section. The rest of the article is typically divided into sections divided by headers.

Sections
All text below the lead is divided into sections by heading and subheadings. The heading on a section reflects the contents of said section. The proper use of headings is essential for the proper organization of a page and to avoid text walls. Readers may visit an article simply to verify a single fact. Sections are essentially what make this process easier, as readers would otherwise have to read through walls of text.

Section headings
The following are the guidelines for section headings. As for the actual section layout: most articles of a certain type (players, groups, etc.) follow the same section layout. Feel free to view other similar articles to use as templates. However, most articles will follow


 * 1) Section headings should follow all the guidance for article titles (above).
 * 2) Use equals signs around a section heading: ==Title== (level 2) for a primary section, ===Title=== (level 3) for a subsection, and so on up to ======Title====== (level 6)
 * 3) Try not to use more than four levels of headings, as it gets messy and hard to read. Try to find another way to organize the text if you find yourself going this far.
 * 4) Do not skip levels. A level 4 heading must be nested in a level 3 heading, which in turn is inside a level 2 heading. A level 4 heading cannot be nested in a level 2 heading.
 * 5) Do not use =Title= (level 1) headings.
 * 6) Spaces around the title (== Title ==) are optional and ignored.
 * 7) Do not bold titles.
 * 8) Do not include links in titles.
 * 9) Do not include citations or footnotes in titles.
 * 10) Do not number or letter sections as part of an outline.

Section contents

 * Almost all the content of an article will be placed in one or two main headings, such as "History" or "Builds."
 * It is within these major headings that subheadings are placed. Even in these major sections, text walls could form, so always create subheadings.
 * If there is not enough information, subheadings are not necessary.
 * Make sure the contents of each section adhere to its subheading. If information begins to veer off, you may need to create another subheading.
 * While generally, the best way to maintain proper flow to a page is to organize it chronologically, this is by no means required, especially when the subject matter would otherwise jump back and forth.

Categories
Categories go at the end of a page, and are meant to group articles with other articles that cover similar subject matter. While Categories will doubtless change and increase in both count and scope, two types of categories (known as primary descriptors) must be affixed at the bottom of each page, those are the following.

Year
The category denotes the year that the subject matter of the article occurred in. For players, it is the year they joined. For bases, items and groups, it is the year they were founded or created. For events, it is the year during which it began. For exploits, it is the year during which they were most widely used on the server.

Players
All pages regarding players are to receive the category. Beyond this, there are many other categories that can be found by going to the players category. As many tags can be added as are applicable to the subject of the article.

Bases
All pages about bases are to receive the category. Beyond this, there are many other categories that can be found by going to the bases category. As many tags can be added as are applicable to the subject of the article.

Groups
All pages about groups are to receive the category. Beyond this, there are many other categories that can be found by going to the groups category. As many tags can be added as are applicable to the subject of the article.

Items
All pages about items on the server are to receive the (not yet created) category.

Events
All pages about events are to receive the category. Beyond this, there are many other categories that can be found by going to the events category. As many tags can be added as are applicable to the subject of the article.

Exploits
All pages about exploits are to receive the category. Beyond this, there are many other categories that can be found by going to the exploits category. As many tags can be added as are applicable to the subject of the article.

Wiki information
All pages pertaining to things that have happened on the wiki, the rules, staff functionality/voting procedure, or the Manual of style are to receive the category. Pages making up the style guide are also to receive the Manual of style category.

Miscellaneous
All pages not covered under the above categories are to receive the category. Oftentimes there will be no further categories available for contents falling into this classification, but for some types of pages there are further subcategories.