Manual of Style

The purpose of the Manual of Style is to set standards and provide guidelines to uniforming the writing and design of content across articles on the Pixpet wiki. Please read this manual thoroughly to maintain the consistency and familiarize yourself with this wiki's editing style as it may differ from other wikis.

**Disclaimer:** This manual is a dynamic document, a document that is continually edited and updated, and anything written here may be subject to change and certain exceptions may apply.

These guidelines were last updated on: **April 26th, 2022**.

## General

### Writing style

* It is preferred that a formal writing style, neutral POV and present tense should be maintained throughout all articles.
* Plain English should be used without any unnecessary jargon, colloquialism, slang expression, casual undertones, vagueness or complex wording to avoid causing any ambiguity.
* When referring to the game, it is referred to as the "Pixpet.net" site, whilst the wiki is referred to as the "Pixpet Wiki."

### Spelling and Grammar

* This wiki utilizes American English.
* Avoid the use of imperative form, that is, sentences that form a command or request.
	+ For example, "Press the reset button to undo changes," is written as "The reset button can be used to undo changes."
* Avoid the use of first person pronouns such as "I," "me," "we," "us," etc. and second person pronouns such as "you," "your," "you're," etc.
* Avoid addressing readers as "you," instead address them as "the player" or "players."
	+ For example, "You require PC to use this feature," is written as "Players require PC to use this feature."
* In conjunction to the above statement, it is preferable if a passive voice is utilized when possible.
	+ For example, "Players require PC to use this feature," is written as "PC is required to use this feature."
* Avoid the use of contractions such as "can't," "isn't," etc. and should be written as their non-contracted form.
	+ For example, "can't" and "isn't" is written as "cannot" and "is not."
* Abbreviations "e.g.," "i.e." and "etc." are acceptable, as well as the abbreviated forms for terms such as "Pixel Coins" or "PC," "Super Pixcoins" or "SPC" and etc.
	+ It is not necessary for a comma to be followed after, however for consistency, should be written as "e.g." and "i.e."
	+ As e.g. implies that other examples are being omitted, etc. is not used.
* Preferrably singular nouns should be used, unless the noun is always in a plural form.
	+ For example, "blueberries," "trinuts."
* Refrain from using "/" or forward slashes whenever possible, and dependant on the context, most can be replaced by "and" or "or" without losing its meaning.
* Quotations should be used sparingly. As per standard American English, " " or double quotation marks, should be used for quotes, whilst single quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes.
	+ Periods and commas always go inside the closing quotation mark.
		- An example of double quotations: The entry for a Sunobra states that it is capable of lifting "heavy objects by curling their body around them."
		- An example of both single and double quotations: The game guide states that "some house parts cannot hold any Pixpets at all, like the 'Attic' or 'Basement'."
		- An example of two quotations in the same sentence: Vemooths are "bulky in appearance," and yet they are "very playful and agile."
	+ All other punctuation such as colons, semicolons, question marks and etc. are placed outside the quotation marks, unless that punctuation is part of what is being quoted.
		- An example of other punctuation part of quoted material: A question included in the Pixpet.net FAQ is “How much food does a hoard take?”
		- An example of other punctuation not part of quoted material: Does the FAQ include a section about "buying and moving to a new house"?

### Formatting

* **Bolded**: Only the first instance of the article name should be bolded.
* **Capitals**: Only the first instance of the article name, and names of pixpets and items should be capitalized; avoid the overuse of capitals in titles and headings.
	+ For example, the header, "buying your first house" is capitalized as "Buying your First House" and not as "Buying Your First House."
* **Italics**: Italics are not used on this wiki.
* **Underlining**: Underlining is not used on this wiki.

### Spacing

```
*Bullet
**Point
***List

#Numbered
##List

==Header 1==

Example 1

===Header 2===

Example 2

====Header 3====

Example3

== header title ==
=== header Subtitle ===

{{Template name

''' Bolded '''
:Indent
```
```
* Bullet
** Point
*** List

# Numbered
## List

== Header 1 ==
Example 1
=== Header 2 ===
Example 2
==== Header 3 ====
Example3

== Header Title ==
=== Header subtitle ===

{{Template name

'''Bolded'''
: Indent
```

## Editing Standards

### General editing

* Use the Source Editor as much as possible as many of the pages on the wiki have complex code, which cannot be viewed correctly by the Visual Editor, thus destroying the content or wiping entire sections upon saving.
* Always preview your edit before publishing to ensure that all changes are the ones intended and to avoid unintentional deletions.
* Before publishing, please provide a short summary of your edit. Administrators may review edits and make changes accordingly.
	+ If the edit is a major revision or overhaul, please ask an administrator for approval beforehand.
* Vandalizing or excessive spamming is not tolerated and will result in appropriate action at the discretion of administrators. In addition, administrators reserve the right to protect pages from such situations.

### Using sandboxes

* Consider making a personal sandbox page at User:Name/sandbox if you would like to test code out before applying it to pages.
* Please do not make more than one sandbox.

### Images

* Images must be of high quality and of .GIF or .PNG formats, with exceptions.
* File names must be named by the exact name of the content or something similar and each word is capitalized with spacing in between words.
	+ For example, Dragonfruit Seed.gif
* When inserting images on an article page, images are to be in the "thumb" format and aligned to the right.
	+ For example, [[File:Image.gif | thumb | right | Additional caption]]

### Links

* Do not link to the current page; in other words, a page should not link to itself.
* If a term that can be linked appears twice on a page, only the first instance should be linked.
* Internal links are links to pages within the wiki and are usually enclosed with "[[ ]]" or double square brackets.
	+ For example, [[Housing]]
	+ To change the display name for an internal link, it is written as [[Link | Display name]].
	+ For example, [[Housing | Houses]]
	+ To direct information to a specific header on a page, it is written as [[Link#Specific Header | Display Name]].
	+ For example, [[Housing#House Parts | House Parts]]
		- All links must be spelt as it appears in the URL bar to be directed to the proper page.
* External links are links to sites other than the Wiki and are usually enclosed with "[ ]" or single square brackets.
	+ For example, [https://pixpet.net/game.php]
	+ To change the display name for an external link, it is written as [Link Display name].
	+ For example, [https://pixpet.net/game.php?section=pixpet\_inv Pixpet Inventory]
* Always check links to make sure they go to the intended page.
	+ Non-existing links will be displayed with red text
	+ For example, Example

### Lengthy pages

* If an article is too long, break up the information with paragraphs, headings and subheadings appropriately.
	+ It is not necessary to insert a heading, such as == Summary == or == Introduction == at the top of pages.

### Categories

* All pages and files must be categorized appropriately.
* Current categories can be viewed  here.

### Stubs

* If there is a page which information has yet to be entered, insert a stub via {{stub}}.

## Article Content

Below are the listed types of pages used on the Pixpet Wiki. Please use the available templates where possible.

Currently, this section is a work in progress as templates are currently being edited.