Gswiki:Style guide
This page lays out some of the style and layout guidelines we use on the GemStone IV Wiki (GSWiki). The purpose of these is to create uniformity, organize the information, and make things more comprehensive. As GSWiki is considered official documentation and the place where all players new and old are sent to read up on any topic, grammar, style, and formatting should be considered carefully in editing so that the site as a whole will be as professional-looking as possible.
General editing
Please edit with an eye to consistency across the wiki. There are various templates linked on this page for you to use. When a template is not available, follow the format of pages similar to the one you will be creating or working with.
Every edit should be accompanied by an edit summary, which is a very brief description of what you did. Use the "Summary" input in the editing box to accomplish this. If you are making duplicate-type updates to multiple pages -or- multiple edits (as part of a full page update) to the same article over a series of consecutive days, the initial summary should describe what you are planning to do, while successive ones can be blank up through the final edit, where you would note completion of the project (and if any significant departures from the initial summary occur, note those as they occur).
Communication
There are several ways of communicating with one another as editors for GSWiki:
- The Talk (aka "discussion") pages for each relevant page being worked on. There are also contributor Talk pages that you can use to communicate with a specific user.
- The GSIV Forums. There is an "Official Website, Wiki, and Forums" folder under the "Help for Players" category.
- The Gemstone IV Slack has a "gswiki" channel that is specifically for GSWiki chat.
Using the above when possible will help ensure that time editing the wiki is well-spent for all parties concerned.
As a note: with any major template or system page change, it is highly encouraged that you touch base with the moderators via any of the above means to see if someone else is already working on updates, actively gathering info, or working out what the best approach will be to displaying the new information/updates if the previous display will no longer fit the existing framework. This is simply to prevent multiple people working separately -- and unknowingly -- in the background on same-page edits.
Moderating
On GSWiki, we have a small handful of moderators who help to maintain accuracy and style consistency throughout the wiki content. These persons will show up with a "Moderator" role in the User list.
When a moderator has rolled back edits or asked for edits on a page to go on pause, edited your edits, or requested that you make specific edits, please follow the moderator's instructions -- the moderator is simply doing his/her job (i.e. moderating information of the wiki for both style and accuracy). If there are salient points as to why your edits were moderated that you would like addressed or wish to express, you are welcome to civilly discuss the content of those edits on the relevant Talk page. The Talk page is where you can note that you disagree with an edit.
Re-rolling back a moderator's rollbacks and/or creating a "bypass" to essentially continue those rolled-back edits elsewhere (whether or not you agree with the reasoning for the edit/rollback) -- is not an appropriate course of action.
Harassing and demeaning GSWiki moderators, whether via private communication or public channels, for doing their job is not acceptable behavior in any way, shape, or form. If you feel a moderator has overstepped in his/her moderation role, you are welcome to forward your concerns to GS4-WIKI@play.net in order to communicate with the relevant GM staff. If you're taking this step, you'll need to include a link to the relevant wiki pages and Talk pages involved.
Copyrights
Remember that if something is written [read: originally created] by someone else, they technically own the copyright to it, even if there is no copyright notice posted in relation to it. Unless you have permission from the author, you may not use that text directly. Equally important to remember is that ideas are not copyrighted, only the expression of those ideas.
It is, however, permissible to copy information to the Simutronics website to the GemStone Wiki. Likewise, copying logs or captures of logs of in-game events from GemStone IV to the GSWiki is permissible. In both cases, note that the overall Simutronics Terms of Service (ToS) regarding copyrights apply, and GameMasters or other Simutronics employees may remove information that they deem violates the ToS or GSWiki Policy.
Signatures
If you edit an article on GSWiki, please refrain from including a signature (generally using the ~~~~ Wikitext markup) in the article. The history feature of MediaWiki does an exemplary job of keeping track of edits and who last edited a particular article.
If you edit a discussion page, please include your signature at the end of any response.
Articles
Policy
All articles must pertain directly to GemStone IV (or earlier versions) or, where applicable, Simutronics Corp., in some way, and articles detailing third party programs are against the GSWiki Policy. There are two exceptions: (1) your "User:" namespace, which is the user's space to use as he sees fit, though it must still comply with the wiki's policies; (2) limited Lich information, as detailed here.
Main articles cover general GemStone IV gameplay information. This runs the gamut from mechanics to official documentation to in-game events. Articles that do not fit the criteria of a main article will be removed or, if appropriate, recommended as or moved into a subarticle.
Article titles
Like on Wikipedia, article titles should have the first letter capitalized and the remaining words in lowercase (such as SGE protocol saved post) unless the topic is a proper noun, in which case it should be in title case like usual (such as Wehnimer's Landing). The reason for this is so that if you link a title in the middle of a word, the link looks appropriate without any extra massaging. Avoid using A, An, and The as the first word of an article unless absolutely necessary. For these pages, add a defaultsort template (example: {{DEFAULTSORT:Swale, The}}) immediately above the line of categories to ensure they are properly sorted.
Similarly, article names should be singular (Rogue instead of Rogues) unless the item being discussed is always plural (such as the Elven Nations).
Nouns and noun phrases are preferred for article names, but in-game names take precedence (see below especially for Verbs and Spells).
Verb names
Verb names should be the full name of the verb in capitals followed by (verb), for example the page for the INVENTORY verb would be named "INVENTORY (verb)". There should be a redirect from the fully capitalized verb name to the page name.
Skill names
Skill names should be the full name of the skill in title case.
Spell names
Spell names should be the name of the spell followed by the number of the spell in parentheses (such as Mana Leech (516)). A redirect page should exist for both the spell number (516) and the spell name (Mana Leech). Spells are proper nouns and thus should be in title case.
See Help:Spells for more information on spell entries.
Neutral/in-universe point of view
Articles written for GSWiki which are purely mechanical in nature should be written with a Neutral Point of View (NPOV), that is without bias or extensive use of subjective language. For mechanics articles, this is not generally an issue, as applying bias to mechanics is difficult at best, but the policy should be kept in mind none-the-less.
Example areas of concern include commenting on the usefulness of skills, spells or other mechanical systems in-general or in comparison to others or comparing professions or races, and features there-of, to one another.
Articles on topics not relating purely to mechanics, such as those about people, places and things, should not only be written with adherence to NPOV, but also adhere to an In-Universe Point of View (IUPOV).
The IUPOV dictates that articles which fall under it must be primarily written from the point of view of a person existing in the GemStone game world. Tense should be dictated by whether or not the person, place, or thing still exists.
Articles which fall under IUPOV, but could or should include information that is considered out-of-character, such as directly-related mechanics or mechanical constructs, may include a section titled Behind the Scenes, using == Behind the Scenes==, below which the IUPOV does not apply and information may be presented from a player perspective. The inclusion of such a section is not mandatory for an article to be considered complete (i.e. not a stub).
An example of the use of IUPOV along with a BtS section could be an article about an NPC in a town, where the main article includes information about the character the NPC represents while the BtS section explains the mechanical means of interacting with the NPC, valid ASK options, and so forth.
In the prior iteration of GSWiki (as Krakiipedia), it was dictated that articles be written from an historical perspective (i.e. past tense). It will take some time to update the affected articles to present tense, but the current GSWiki administrators feel that it should not be ambiguous whether something or someplace still exists.
Linking
In order to avoid having the text become distracting, articles need only be linked to the first time they are encountered. Thus, a paragraph that mentions a spell several times need only have the first instance linked. If it has been a long time (several paragraphs or a screen worth of text) since something was last linked, it can be useful to link it a second time, but it doesn't need to be linked each time it appears.
Wiki formatting is relatively intelligent, so use proper grammar and capitalization when adding links into content. The names of all articles are forced to start with a capital letter as a result of how the software works. However, because of that, the case of the first letter in a link doesn't matter for the link target (thus, [[rogue]] will produce rogue, which properly links to the Rogue article). For plurals, simply place an s at the end of an otherwise singular link name; for example, if you are linking to the Rogue article to in the sentence "Rogues are great", you would use [[Rogue]]s, which will produce Rogues.
Arbitrary links are also perfectly acceptable. For example, in "Warriors have cheaper costs for some physical skills than the other square profession." you might want "other square profession" to be a link to the Rogue article. To achieve this, you would do [[rogue|other square profession]], which would produce a link to the other square profession.
Underscores (_) should not be visible; they are perfectly fine on the left side of the pipe (|) in an arbitrary link, but should not be to the right.
Repeated information
Information repeated on more than one page should be done using Labeled Section Transclusion (preferred), or via template.
Game messaging
When pasting game messaging use the <pre{{log2}}> tag. Typically no additional formatting is needed with that tag. Close with </pre>.
Lich information
Third party program articles/information are not allowed on the Wiki, but there are some very specific exceptions for Lich-related material:
- No new Lich "how to"/info articles or subarticles may be created without staff approval. Pre-existing Lich "how to"/info articles ported over from Krakiipedia may continue to be used and updated as necessary.
- BigShot strategy and room suggestions are relegated to the existing BigShot page; using either the main article or the BigShot talk page is acceptable for that information. Adding BigShot information or strategies to individual critter or other articles on the GSWiki is not permissible.
- Lich room numbers may be used in these specific types of articles: Festival/event pages; location-relevant information (such as NPCs, shrines, town landmarks, etc.).
Special articles
Redirects
In some cases, an article may have more than one reasonable name, for instance, "CS" and "Casting strength". In this case, you can use redirect pages to make both names go to the same article. To do this, pick the most canonical name ("Casting strength") and create the article there. Then create an article under the other name(s) ("CS") with the only text being "#REDIRECT [[Real article name]]". Then, if someone visits the other names, they'll automatically be sent to the canonical name.
Don't abuse this to make only vaguely related things go to the same article, though. Redirecting "Lock Mastery" to "Pick locks" or "Pickpocketing" to "Justice" would be a bad idea, but redirecting "Lockpicking" to "Pick locks" or "Combat maneuver list" to "Combat maneuvers" probably wouldn't be.
Scripts
Scripts can be added to GSWiki following these guidelines.
Naming
Script articles should be named with a descriptive name for the script's function or content followed by the string "(script)". For example, you might name a script for traveling around the Elven Nations "Elven Nations travel (script)" or a script for getting deeds in the city of Ta'Illistim "Ta'Illistim deeds (script)".
Formatting
The article should start with the script template as a header (see Template:Script for details) and be followed with the contents of the script file enclosed within the <pre> and </pre> HTML elements, which will preserve the formatting of the text (including white space and newlines.) Inclusion of the template will automatically add the article to Category:Scripts.
An example of how to format a script article:
<pre> # This is an example script.
if_1 goto %1% echo Syntax: .example {argument} exit
option1: echo This is option 1. exit
labelError: echo The option you entered was not valid. exit </pre>
Saved posts
Saved posts should be on the subject's saved post page, which is a subpage of the main page (e.g. Spell Name (number)/saved posts) using the Saved Post Template (copy/paste code on the template page). Related posts should be grouped on the same page under a clear heading. The template will add the page to the Saved Posts category, and other applicable categories should be added as well if the saved post does not yet have an article page. If the main article already exists, there is no need to add it to any other category as all of the information from the saved post will be on the article page.
If not, information from the saved post should be integrated into the article page in the appropriate place, and any information it supersedes should be removed. The idea of the Wiki is to have updated articles, not a collection of saved posts to weed through. The saved posts are nice for reference, but it is more important to have updated articles.
If the saved post page is new, the page should be linked to from its article page, usually at the bottom in the Resources section. Since the saved posts are subpages, they are linked as such: *[[/saved posts|Saved posts]]
For saved posts that are logs and legendary items, do not use the saved post template or put (saved post(s)) in the article name. Instead, update to content to the appropriate article format (see the appropriate section for further information).
Legendary items
Legendary item pages can be made wholesale from a post without using the saved post template. Links to the original post are encouraged to be included in the Summary or within the article.
Examples with varying levels of detail and formatting:
Logs
Format for log pages:
This log is from the {storyline/event} on {date} from the viewpoint of {character}.
<pre{{log2|border=none|font=arial}}>
PASTE LOG HERE (no <br> tags needed thanks to Doug)
</pre>
[[Category: Logs]]
[[Category: {Storyline}]] (if appropriate)
Research Pages
Pages containing mechanical research data that is unconfirmed by GMs can be put on pages named "Research:{Research subject}". These pages will only be allowed in the Player Research category, but can be linked from the subject article page(s) in the Resources section.
Moderation will be light on these pages.
Other Help Pages
Current Help pages are categorized here. These pages have been completed and/or updated since the site's move to Play.net.
Categories
When creating new articles, or even updating older ones, please take a moment and check the category list and determine if any existing categories are appropriate for the article being edited.
For more information on how to use categories on wiki pages, see Wikipedia for technical details and style, as well as recommendations of categories versus lists. If a page is simply too sparse on information (this is common for pages on specific figures and events in Elanthian history who may only get a brief mention in official documentation), consider redirecting it to a list.
User pages
In most cases, personal material should be created as a subarticle of your User page. This would include the following types of articles: unofficial guides and tutorials; gameplay strategies; character-written stories (poems, songs, etc.); logs that do not directly pertain to informational articles or BtS additions.
Currently, it is not possible to simply "create" your User: namespace via normal means. An workaround method to creating a user page is described here.
Marking pages for deletion
Did you make a duplicate page or mess up the name? Putting [[Category:Marked for Deletion]] on a page will indicate your wish to have it deleted. Someone with the appropriate permissions will look at it in the near future.
Math
GSWiki has LaTeX code capabilities. Please use the following formats:
Non-inline formulas should be indented or wrapped in a box:
{{Equation box|<math> ... </math>}}
Multi-letter variables should be wrapped in a mathrm tag:
\mathrm{SkillRanks}—
For truncation/ceiling operators, use \lfloor ... \rfloor and \lceil ... \rceil. To wrap a multi-line expression (such as a fraction), use \left \lfloor{...} \right \rfloor.
For multiplication, use a dot \cdot () where necessary to avoid ambiguity. For purely arithmetic expressions, \times is also acceptable (), but prefer using a dot in algebraic expressions to avoid confusion with the letter x.
For division, use a slash / or fraction notation: \frac{...}{...}
To enter a space, use a backslash with a space after \
Tips and tricks
See the tips and tricks page for some advanced editing techniques, or post any questions on applicable Talk pages, or in the GSWiki Officials folder.