Federation Legacy Wiki:Manual of Style

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The manual of style of Federation Legacy Wiki is a basic set of guidelines that govern the layout of articles on the wiki. A good article should conform to the following guidelines as much as possible.

Because these are not a set of strict rules, they may change over time. Please do not think of them as the be-all and end-all for writing a well-structured article.

Article layout

Introduction

The introduction is a short but important part of the article. It is the first part of the page that people will see. It should be concise and contain one to two paragraphs, describing the main topic of the article.

The title of the article should also be bolded the first time it appears in the article's content.

Example:

Jean-Luc Picard was a Starfleet officer who served aboard the USS Enterprise-E during the 2380s.

Some things included in the introduction section:

• Article quote – a quote by or about the subject of the article.
• Banners – these have various purposes, but should be used sparingly.
• Maintenance banners – these are to be placed if the article is in need of improvement, or even deletion.
• Sidebar – the all-important sidebar, which contains basic information about the subject of the article (note that some articles do not require a sidebar).

If an individual is deceased, use {{st|<until (his/her) death>}} in their sidebar after listing their occupation.

Body and sections

Most articles will be long enough to include several sections of content in the main body. There is no required way to arrange them, but uniformity is desired above all else.

Most character pages will have anywhere from one to five main sections of content, detailing the events of the subject's life, followed by sections about their personal lives or friendships.

Example: Jhael Onika

Starship pages start with the history of the vessel, followed by general info about the ship's layout and stats, and ending with a list of the crew members.

Example: USS Leviathan

Most other articles will follow the same general guidelines as those mentioned above.

Chapter articles

Chapters pages begin with a brief synopsis of the story, then memorable quotes and references (a list of the characters, starships and locations appearing in the story)

Example: "The Price of Liberty"

Chapter titles

We use the AP style of capitalization, which, regardless of the rules below, words with four or more letters are automatically capitalized.

Rules

Capitalize the first and the last word.

Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.

Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.

Lowercase the "to" in an infinitive (I want to play guitar).

Examples

"The Price of Liberty" (not: "The Price Of Liberty")

"Line in the Sand" (not: "Line In the Sand")

"War Is Good for Business" (not: "War Is Good For Business")

Appendices

The appendix is the end of the article. It typically includes up to five sub-sections, depending on what the article is about.

• Background and trivia – this section is listed first, and gives any background information and trivia available on the discussed topic. (previously called "Background")
• Appearances – this section includes all appearances of and references to the article's subject in fan fiction chapters on the wiki (not used for chapter articles).
• Notes and references – contains a list of notes, citations, and references made throughout the article (different from the section on chapter articles). (previously called "References")
• External links – links to external sources (usually Wikipedia or *).
• Navigation – a section reserved for navboxes relating to the article's subject.

Images

All images should be in PNG or JPEG format. No GIFs. Image naming should conform to the following format:

<SUBJECT>, <DISAMBIGUATION> (<TIMELINE>)

To further elaborate:

• Subject – required. The name or topic of what's pictured.
• Disambiguation – optional. This is to distinguish between two images about the same subject.
• Timeline – optional. Only use this if the subject appears in multiple timelines.

In addition, {{fairuse}} should be added to any image that is copyrighted.

Place the image in the appropriate category as well.

Dashes and hyphens

For number ranges, use a standard hyphen (-), separated by a space on either side.

Examples

2380 - 2385

23 February 1607 - 19 July 1886

Stardate 41153.7 - 55805.1

For splitting sentences, use a short dash (–), separated by a space on either side.

Examples

He pressed on – cold and alone.

War – the very thing – put a pit in his stomach.

For quote attribution, use a long dash (—), separated by a space following.

Examples

— Jean-Luc Picard

— Seven of Nine, 2382

Word misspellings

Below is a list of words that are commonly misspelled. Words to the right of the arrow are the correct spelling. Some of the words listed below are not misspellings at all, but simply not the preferred spelling on the wiki.

• alot → a lot
• armour → armor
• c. → ca.
• colour → color
• gray → grey
• I.K.S. → IKS
• I.R.W. → IRW
• R.R.W. → RRW
• S.D. → SD
• S.S. → SS
• U.S.S. → USS
• V.S. → VS

In closing

If you follow all of these guidelines, you will be well on your way to making a good article. Don't be discouraged, though, if you feel your article doesn't live up to the standard presented in this guide. After all, it is NOT an absolute authority on how an article should be designed. Hopefully this guide was helpful to you.