Wiki Page Style Guide

When creating wiki pages, it is important to be consistent in literary tone, style and conciseness. This style guide is an attempt at a guideline which describes how wiki pages should be formatted.

## Our Style Guide

The Cosrin Community Wiki adopts Wikipedia's Manual of Style. This manual of style should be treated as our own here at Cosrin Community Wiki.

## Style Tips

### General

Wikipedia's Manual of Style is very long and cumbersome; Here are some general tips:

* Style should be consistent within a wiki page. It important to have consistent style across all wiki pages, but consistency within a single page is more important.
* Writing should be clear and concise. Plain English works best: avoid jargon, and vague or unnecessarily complex wording. Proper spelling and grammar is absolutely necessary.
* In writing, avoid any bias towards any one group or faction within the game.
* Avoid ambiguity of any kind. Be as specific as possible.
* Assume readers have no previous knowledge of a topic in a wiki article. This will help you write clear and full explanations of the subject matter.

### Editing

* If using abbreviations, ensure that the fully qualified phrase for that abbreviation is used at least once early in the wiki page.
* Whenever possible, if a phrase is used in a wiki page which may have its own related wiki page, link that phrase using [[link]].
* Avoid statements that will age quickly. Avoid *recently*, *soon*, and *now*. Avoid relative terms like *currently* (usually redundant), *in modern times*, *is now considered*, and *is soon to be superseded*.
	+ Instead, use more precise and absolute expressions (*since the start of 2005; during the 1990s; is expected to be superseded by 2008*); or
	+ An "as of" phrase (*as of August 2007*), which signals the time-dependence of the statement, and alerts later editors to update the statement; or simply use *at* instead: *The population was over 21,000,000 (at December 2008).*
* Avoid vague generalizations. Phrases such as *some people*, *others*, and *a large number*. Be specific; use **quantitative** ways of describing information over *qualitative* ways.
	+ Acceptable -- quantitative: "Two of the ten clans in Cosrin are active -- X and Y."
	+ Unacceptable -- qualitative: "Few clans in Cosrin are active."
* Avoid phrases that lead to readers potentially asking additional questions to find more information.
	+ Unacceptable -- "The Misty Vales contain several clans of Hill Giants." (*How many* clans?)
	+ Unacceptable -- "The Misty Vales contain 4 clans of Hill Giants." (*Which* clans?)
	+ Acceptable -- "The Misty Vales contain 4 clans of Hill Giants: the X, Y, Z, and W."

### Article/Page Titles

* In article titles, avoid using special characters.
* Use proper capitalization.

### English Language Style

* Unless indicated and used by an artifact in game (an item name, room description, help file text, etc.), American English spelling and grammar must be used.
* When a game artifact uses British spelling and/or grammar, the British spelling may be used *only* when listing that artifact explicitly.
	+ Acceptable: "**Full steel plate armour** is a piece of armor available as a drop in the troll caves."
	+ Unacceptable: "**Full steel plate armour** is a piece of armour available as a drop in the troll caves."