Stargate Wiki:Standards and conventions

This page serves as the central hub for standards used in writing articles on Semantic Stargate Wiki. Discussion on new or established standards and conventions listed in this section should be discussed on the talk page.

This set of pages are not designed to supersede other projects or policies. Some overlap is expected, but project-specific standards and conventions should be moved to their project page, if one exists or a page created for a project, if one does not.

Overview
Here is an overview of the standards and conventions sections.


 * Page formatting: This covers our preferences on Wiki syntax over HTML, in addition to how to format images and categories.
 * Article prose and grammar: Discusses our use of present tense for a majority of our articles, as well as how to properly format titles, using names vs. callsigns, etc.
 * Cast and crew biographies: Covers how to write and format a biographical article on cast, crew, and people involved with the various series.
 * Episode guides: Tackles what an analysis and questions section of our episode guides should look like.
 * Disambiguations: Tackles why suffixes are added to article names, as well as how to properly format a disambiguation page.

Summary of standards and conventions
This is the CliffsNotes version of our Standards and Conventions guidelines for your convenience. While they are explained in more detail in the subpages, most people will not want to use their time reading through them (despite the fact that we've made them as concise as possible). Still, here we go...

Markup

 * Always use Wiki code instead of HTML code, unless the Wiki code equivalent does not exist.
 * NEVER use:  for bold face,  for italics, for links, for images.
 * Exception: There is presently no wiki code for underlining text, so one would use text to be underlined  . Further, to center text on pages, you will have to use text to be centered.

Images and audio content

 * Avoid burdening down a page with pictures. Use only pictures whenever necessary to illustrate the subject. Each picture must have a reason for use under the fair use clause of United States' copyright law.
 * Image galleries are limited to unique pages, like articles on rooms of a ship.
 * Audio files should only be used for illustrative purposes where pictures fail to be illustrative and for noteworthy quotes on episode guides.

Categorization of articles

 * All pages, with the exception of disambiguation pages, are to be categorized using our category system.
 * Articles are never to be sorted by articles ("the", "and", "or") or by first names.
 * The   syntax is always to be used to declare a sort key for category listings.

Linking to Episodes

 * When linking to episodes, always link the first instance of the episode name per section. Beyond that, do not overlink episode titles.
 * As for how to refer to episodes within an article:
 * When referring to episode titles as part of the sentence, always include the episode name in quotation marks:
 * When citing a single episode title as a source for a body of text, use parentheses.
 * When citing multiple episode titles as a source for a body of text, place all episode names within one set of parentheses. Each episode title should use commas to separate them within the parentheticals.
 * Second exception: When writing episode titles and book titles, the comma should always go after the quotation mark, never before it.

Red Links

 * Red links should either be corrected to point to the proper article on the intended subject, or submitted with the requested tag.

Spelling and numeric notation

 * American English spellings are default. British English spellings are allowed by users familiar with that language, but expected your edits to be converted into American English. (i.e. "colour" will be converted to "color", etc.)
 * Numbers should use commas to mark every three digits, and decimal points ( . ) to denote numbers with decimals.
 * Numbers less than 13 should be spelled out, "five" for "5", etc.
 * Any proper nouns with numbers should be written out without Arabic numerals.
 * The exception to this are SG teams by numerics, i.e. SG-1 or SG-9.
 * Use an apostrophe-S ('s) for all possessives, unless the noun is plural.
 * "The F302's fuel reserves are low." (singular possessive)
 * "The Goa'ulds' weapons would not fire." (plural possessive)

Characters names and titles

 * When first introducing a character, always introduce them by their first and last names.
 * In text, characters should always be referred to by their last names.
 * Exception: Characters sharing the same last name may be either be referred to by their first names, by rank and last name (if applicable), or - sparingly - with rank only.
 * Characters should not be referred to by their nicknames.
 * To name a character article, use always the common name, not the full birth name (i. e. we use Jack O'Neill instead of Jonathan J. O'Neill).

Ship Names

 * Rule of Thumb: If a ship has a name, like a person, then you do not use the word "the" before it. You wouldn't refer to the commander of Apollo as "the Abraham Ellis," now would you? So why would you call Ellis' ship "the Apollo" instead of Apollo? The answer: you wouldn't—and you shouldn't—because it's wrong.


 * Ship names are proper nouns, and therefore should be treated in the same manner.
 * It is incorrect to use the definite article "the" before a ship name (Prometheus, Apollo, Hammond, et al.), although many people in both writing and speaking make this grammatical error (actually, even Samantha Carter in called it "the" General Hammond).
 * Exception: The word "the" should only be used when describing the ship type before naming the vessel.

Titles for episodes, movies, books and shows

 * When citing a television episode, use quotations (i.e. ) most of the time. Click here for the exception.
 * When referring to a book by its name, use italics (i.e. Stargate SG-1: The Roleplaying Game).
 * When referring to the television series itself, use italics (i.e. Stargate SG-1, Stargate Universe).

Tense

 * All articles that involve the fictional characters, events and places of the series are to be written in the present tense, unless:
 * The article occurs before the "Event Zero" of a continuity. "Event Zero" is defined by the following:
 * For Stargate, anything happening before the "Present Day" tag (when Catherine Langford comes to the Daniel Jackson's conference about Ancient Egypt) should be written in past tense.
 * For Stargate SG-1, anything happening before the events depicted in should be written in past tense.
 * For Stargate Atlantis, anything happening before the events depicted in "Rising" ("Antarctica, Present Day" tag) should be written in past tense.
 * For Stargate Universe, anything happening before the events depicted in "Air" should be written in past tense.

About Signatures...

 * Signatures are to be used exclusively on talk pages. If the title of the page you're editing does not have "talk" in its name, do not add your name or timestamp to it.
 * The only exceptions to this are: the Admins' noticeboard, the Think tank and a few others.
 * In short, never sign articles!

Biographies on Cast, Crew, and People

 * The lead sentence or paragraph introduces the reader to the subject matter. It includes, the person's full name, date of birth and death, nationality, role in the series' and other appearances that the person is notable for.
 * The article's tense is determined by whether the subject is presently alive or deceased. If alive, everything is written in present tense; if deceased, everything is written in past tense.
 * Always refer to the subject by their last name.
 * Articles of reasonable length should be sectioned off, and typically written in this order: Childhood, Early career, Work on Stargate, and Later career.
 * Articles with time sensitive information should be written with care. Always specify when the event is to occur, and never use vague words like "currently", "most recently", "presently", "this year" or "latest". Instead, use "as of [this date], such and such is to occur".

Episode guides

 * Should always be written in the present tense. Also, all parts of the episode page are to be sectioned, even the "overview" portion.
 * The summary section should always be in Teaser, Act 1, Act 2, etc. header formats. Bonus scenes should also in their own header. These acts correspond to US commercial cuts.
 * Episode guides should never argue with itself. Any "arguing" should be hashed out on the corresponding talk pages.
 * When in doubt about any piece of content, always bring it up on a talk page.

Questions

 * The questions section should be for questions that are raised by the episode, but not answered within said episode.
 * Questions that are answered in a subsequent episode should also have a link to said episode where that question is answered.
 * Questions should never be debated on the episode guide page. Questions should always be questioned and discussed on the corresponding talk page.

Notes and analysis

 * Any questions that are raised, and subsequently answered within the same episode, are typically placed in the analysis section. Use of inlineref is recommended, so that questions raised in previous episode guide articles can easily link to the specific analysis point.
 * The different between "Notes" and "Analysis": notes are for information that require no further explanation or plausible speculation, whereas analysis is content that requires digging into the meat of the series and explaining contradictions, plot evolutions, and other content that requires critical thinking.
 * Further, items under either or both "Notes" and "Analysis" should be sectioned off by topic.
 * For example: points about specific characters should be noted under a sub-section on that character, and analysis of major events should be noted under that specific topic. This allows bullet points to be better ordered, and to avoid "jumping around" in the text.

Disambiguations

 * Disambiguations are navigational aids that help direct people to articles on specific subjects that share the same names. Disambiguations come in two forms: a page (such as O'Neill), and in the form of an acronym within parentheses tacked on an article name (such as Jack O'Neill (disambiguation)).
 * Disambiguation pages themselves have a unique format, consisting of:
 * An introductory sentence introducing that the following articles share the same name, with the disambiguated term boldfaced.
 * This is to be followed by one-sentence bullet points about each article that shares that name, ending in a full stop (i.e. a period).
 * If necessary, section off the bullet point lists by series or, failing that, by a unique classification.
 * After the bullet points are completed, the page is ended with the disambiguation template.
 * Disambiguation pages are not categorized.

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