Manual of Style

Blocking Policy

The **Manual of Style** is a style guide for all articles on the Ninth House Wiki. Since everyone can edit most of the pages, predefined requirements from the administrators for the structure of articles are needed in order to acquire and preserve consistency.

Please don't worry if you find the guidelines to be confusing. This manual is still a work in progress, anything written here is subject to change, and certain exceptions may apply. If you are unable to follow the manual's rules, that's fine. Just keep in mind that your edits might be adjusted by an administrator or another user to fit this guide. If you have any suggestions or questions, please contact an Administrator.

## Format

* It is advised to switch to the Source mode editor for better and more effective editing as the Source mode editor allows easier and more precise editing than the VisualEditor. Furthermore, pages with complex codes can only be edited with the Source editor. To be able to effectively use this editor, please make yourself familiar with the Wikitext.
* For examples of the layout for this Wiki's articles and information regarding how they should be written and what they should include, please see the following sample pages: sample character article, administrator.:Sample Book Article|sample book article]], more.
* Changes and / or additions to the layout of the articles should be proposed to and discussed with the administrator first.

## Content

### Objectivity

All mainspace articles should be written in an objective, neutral, and formal style. This means, any

* comments / remarks / ratings / opinions
* biases
* usage of phrases along the lines of "I think," "I believe," or "I liked/hated" etc.
* usage of phrases along the lines of "some people" or "certain fans/readers" etc.

are prohibited. The only exceptions are for descriptions taken directly from the books, as the Narrator is anything but neutral. Other than that only voice your opinions in discussions, your message wall or chats.

### Present Tense

With the exception of the Historical sections, every other article section has to be written in **present tense** as long as the article's topic is still alive or existing.

### Capitalization

* Avoid unnecessary **capitalization** of words. If the word(s) or the phrase is not a title or proper name, it should not be capitalized.
* Proper names, titles, as well as terms capitalized in the novels themselves always have to be capitalized.

### Punctuation

Always use the straight (or typewriter) apostrophe ( ' ) and not the typographic (or curly) apostrophe ( ’ ) as well as the straight quotation marks ( " ) instead of the typographic ones ( “ ” ).

### In-universe writing

On this Wiki, you can find:

* In-universe articles which focus on the fictional world of the Alex Stern series, such as Galaxy 'Alex' Stern or Skull & Bones.
* Out-of-universe articles which focus on the real-world, such as Yale University or Leigh Bardugo.
* Some in-universe articles will reference real world topics, because this book covers fictionalization of real world items. In these situations, please designate the real world topics within the article by references or by marking them as "Real World Information". See Manuscript for an example of how this is designated.

## Links

Under every heading and subheading, link **only the first instance** a certain character/place/object/etc. is mentioned. If, for example, Lethe House is mentioned multiple times in Alex's history section, provide only a link to Lethe House's page when it is *first* mentioned.

**Internal links** can be created by using double square brackets around the word(s) you want to link to
**Example:**

```
[[Galaxy 'Alex' Stern]]
```

If the displayed name and the page to which you want to link do not correspondent with each other, use the following code:

```
[[(page's true name)|(display name)]]
```

**Example:**

```
"'''[[Pamela Dawes]]''' is a graduate student working at the [[Lethe House|House of Lethe]]."
```

Furthermore, make use of interwiki links which can be created by using the following code:

```
[[w:c:(the name of the wiki to which you want to make an interwiki link):(name of the page on this other wiki)|(Link's display name)]]
```

For more information on links, please take a look here.

## References

### Copyright

All art belongs to the creators. Please remember to **always credit the artist** and optimally ask the artist if it is okay to showcase their art. If an artist wants their art removed, please let an administrator know and the images/videos/etc. will be removed.

### Categories

We're trying to find fitting categories for every article, but please don't just begin new ones because you want something specific. Try to use the ones we already have, instead. If you think that there should be a new category, let an administrator know.

### Spoilers

This book series is newer and even though, there will always be new readers who frequent our Wiki. If you're editing a page with spoilers, please use the spoiler-tag *{{Spoiler}}* on that page. It has to be located directly under the infobox in the Source editor. If you see a missing spoiler-tag, feel free to add it or let an administrator know.