Datacron Database:Style Guide

Article Titles

The title for an article should use the most widely used complete form of the name of the article's subject, except when multiple subjects have the same name (and thus disambiguation parentheses are required). If the article subject is known by another less commonly used names please create a redirect to the full name.

• Block capitals should not be used within titles, unless. (Example(s): ARTICLE TITLE)
• Use italics when needed, conforming to Datacron_Database:Style_Guide#italics.
• Do not use articles (a, an, or the) as the first word, unless it is an integral part of the name. (Example(s): Galactic Empire, not The Galactic Empire; The Wheel, however is acceptable)
• Do not use titles as reference for capitalization. They are often written in title case.
• Some article titles should include disambiguation parentheses such as in the case of named Starships, Titles, Events, etc. (Example(s): Devastator (Imperial-class), Red Five (Rebel Alliance))
• Use full name instead of Abbreviations if possible, instead create a redirect to the full name for the abbreviation. (Example(s): Imperial Security Bureau, not ISB)

Technical restrictions of MediaWiki prevent editors naming pages after their specific names:

• The subject name does not begin with a capital letter.
• he subject name includes a /.
• The subject name includes a character that cannot be used in page names, including # < > [ ] | { } _.
• The subject begins with a string that would put the page in the wrong namespace. Such strings might include: Project:, File:, or User:, etc.

In cases of using disambiguation parenthesis' please use DISPLAYTITLE and mark the disambiguation parenthesis' as <small></small>.

Layout

A simple article should contain at least an introduction, references, and short description. The rest can be added when required.

1. Before the introduction
   1. Related article templates
   2. Maintenance Templates
   3. Infoboxes
   4. Images (if no infoboxes).
2. Body
   1. Introduction
   2. Content
   3. Trivia
   4. Gallery
   5. See also
   6. Notes
   7. References
3. After References
   1. Navboxes
   2. Short description
   3. Categories
   4. Stub templates

Sections & Headings

Separating articles into sections makes them easy to read and navigate. Headings are used to splitting articles into sections.

Markup

• Use equals signs around a section heading: ==Title== for a primary section, ===Title=== for a subsection, and so on to ======Title======, with no level skipped.
• =Title= is never used.

Wording

• Keep headings short.
• Use sentence case (capitalize only the first letter of the first word and the first letter of any proper nouns).
• Not redundantly refer back to the subject of the article (e.g., Early life, not Smith's early life or His early life).
• Not refer to a higher-level heading, unless doing so is shorter or clearer.
• Not be numbered or lettered as an outline.
• Not be phrased as a question.
• Avoid the use of color or unusual fonts that might cause accessibility problems.

To avoid technical complications:

• Be unique within a page, so that section links lead to the right place.
• Avoid links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
• Avoid images or icons.
• Avoid templates.
• Avoid citations or footnotes.

Introduction

An introduction summarizes the most essential points of an article, creating interest in the topic.

• The Subject should be concise and defined within the first 250-300 characters.
• Should be limited to a few paragraphs.
• Subject should be mentioned as early as possible in the first sentence and should be bolded.
• Certain information such as trivia should be contained within it's own dedicated section not the introduction.

Text elements

Internal links

• Don't link the same article more then once per sub-section.
• Please use piped link formats for all plurals. (Example: [[Lightsaber|Lightsabers]] ,not [[Lightsaber]]s)

External links

Please Avoid linking to external sites in the main article. External links can be added to other sections such as trivia, notes, see also, references if it adds value to the article.

Font colors

• Colored font should be avoided except for templates. If you need to use a colored font, you might want to create a template instead.

Bold

Boldface is commonly used on the wiki, but restricted to several usages:

• First mention of the subject of the page.
• First mention of the alias of the subject of the page.
• Avoid using bold for emphasis in the article text.

Boldface is sometimes applied automatically, either by MediaWiki software or by the browser:

• Section Headings
• Description lists
• Table headers and captions (not image captions).
• A self link.

Italics

Italics is commonly used and should be applied to the following:

• Certain names and titles both in-universe and real life. Common examples include
  • Named ships (Millennium Falcon, Devastator)
  • Occasional Ship class names (Imperial I-class Star Destroyer)
  • Titles in-universe and real life (Films, Shows, Novels, Comics, Magazines, Video Games etc.)

Quotes

• Use straight quotation marks ' " instead of curly quotation marks.
• Quoted sources should leave date formats in whatever the quoted source used. (So don't edit a quote to change the date format.)

Numbers

• Use comma as the thousands separator. Separators should be used for numbers greater than 1,000.
  • Do not use separators for template input, the template will format the number.
• Ranges should be indicated with an endash (–; –) rather than a hyphen ("1–5" not "1-5").

Grammar & Spelling

Capital letters

Avoid unnecessary capitalization. It is primarily needed for proper names, acronyms, and for the first letter of a sentence. Refer to CIG sources on what words should be capitalized, and use common sense to determine if it is a proper noun. Note that title text should always be ignored as they are often written in title case. The capitalization in Galactapedia should be used if there are any conflicts.

Below are a list of common nouns that should always be capitalized:

• People names (Example(s): George Lucas)
• Vehicle Names (Example(s): Executor)
• Organization names (Example(s): Galactic Republic, Jedi Order, Kuat Drive Yards)
• System names (Example(s): Tatoo)
  • Note that the word "system" should be in lower case (Example(s): Tatoo system)
• Planet names (Example(s): Tatooine)
• Named military groups (Example(s): 501st Legion)
  • Note that capitalization only applies when it is a specified group (legion not Legion).

Note that rare exception do occur, please use the exact spelling as first stated in the sources.

Spelling

The Datacron Database uses and strongly prefers the American English, as opposed to British English, such as (color, not colour). Note that an exception can occur if you are quoting or sourcing summaries, statements, articles, etc, that were originally written in British English.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should only be used if it is defined in the article, and it does not affect the readability. Additional rules apply for article title as stated below:

• Do not use abbreviations for article title unless there is no known full name.
• Redirect acronyms and abbreviations to the article.
• Create a Disambiguation page if two or more different meanings for the abbreviations exist, instead of a redirect page.