Editing Guidelines

This page contains the **editing guidelines** for editing this Wiki. These guidelines are meant to establish consistency between articles and help maintain the wiki's organization. If you have comments or ideas, please contact one of our admins.

## Pages

### Page Creation

* All page titles should be singular when referring to in-game objects (e.g. Fourpounder; Delivery Booth). Exceptions to the rule can be found in Wikipedia's naming conventions.
* Wiki templates such as *Infoboxes* and *NavBoxes* should be used where appropriate, for examples please refer to the Documentation of the corresponding template.
* Critical names (e.g. Visionaries) and phrases should be linked to other wiki articles where possible and appropriate.
	+ Avoid over-linking. If the critical name or phrase has already been linked previously in the same section, it should not be linked again. Don't be afraid to edit out the extra link, if you spot one—or contact the Admin, if the page is protected (e.g. Main Page).

### Page Deletion

* Only rights holders have page deletion powers. If you find a page which you think does not belong on the wiki, add `{{Delete}}` to the article. This will flag it for review, and deletion, if eligible.

### Page Protection

* Main Page is always protected to discourage any possible itch to vandalize or mislead the readers coming to the Wiki for information.
* Article page can be protected if multiple guidelines have been ignored.
* Some of the templates remain under protection, however, if you want to edit them or add information, seek an Admin out.

## Writing Style

### General

* Use American English.
* As actions within the game are typically available to both Colt and an invading Julianna, character-agnostic terms are generally preferred when referring to gameplay, unless an action is strictly reserved to one (e.g. reprising or masquerading).
* The names of in-game items should be capitalized when referred to (e.g. Delivery Booth; Munitions Dispenser).
* If you want to apply any available CSS formatting (e.g. Fonts or background images) to a page, refer to Common CSS page, as it provides all the necessary formatting. CSS pages are site-wide protected, so contact an admin if you want to add anything to it.

### Tense

* Past tense should be used when referring to events occurring before Colt wakes up on the beach in the opening.
	+ E.g. When Wenjie established the Loop, she anticipated that there would be some side effects.
* Present tense should be used when referring to in-game events.
	+ E.g. Colt wakes up on the beach and realizes that he needs to break the loop.

### Speculation

* Speculative information should **not** be included in articles but can be freely discussed on Message Walls, the Discussion Boards, and in Blog Posts.
	+ ~~As of November 13, 2021's Deathloop Wiki Guidelines Update, any unsupported speculated information **will be** deleted.~~
		- ~~That includes leaked Sandra Duval's presentation, speculation regarding the dueling pistols from the game finale, allusions to Russia in regards of the Motherland and the like.~~
	+ ~~As of August 28, 2022's Deathloop Wiki Guidelines Update, any speculative information relating to the *Dishonored* franchise must be housed solely on the *Dishonored* page with appropriate referencing.~~
	+ On October 8, 2022, Bethesda confirmed that *Dishonored* and *Deathloop* take place in the same universe. Information should continue to primarily be housed on the *Dishonored* page.

### Referencing

* References are used to allow readers to verify information they see in articles.
* Referencing should be **concise** and **specific**. The reference supports the point being made in the article, not the other way around. References are intended to point readers to where they can find further information if they so desire, not to provide all the further information within them.
	+ If referring to a large page, paragraph numbers or section headings can be used as waypoints (e.g. Article name, "Section name"; Article name, paragraph 3).
	+ If the reference is only in respect of one or two sentences, it is acceptable to include them in the article references.
* Direct quotes can be included in the article body. However, they should be directly relevant to the point being made.
* More extensive quotes can be included in the references where there is no source page (e.g. in-game conversations which are not on the wiki). Editors are encouraged to create new pages to house this information where relevant.

### Deathloop-specific Considerations

* 2-B.I.T.: There are multiple in-game spellings of this character's name (including '2bit' and '2-BIT'). The preferred presentation of the name on the wiki is "**2-B.I.T.**" except for where an alternate spelling is being quoted.
* 'The Loop' should be capitalized when referring to the phenomenon in terms of lore. Lower case ('loop') can be used when referring to the passage of one day or loop in gameplay terms.
	+ 'Timeloop' should be used, **not** 'time loop'. This aligns with how this word is generally presented in official Bethesda/Arkane communications, unless it is specified as 'time loop' in-game (e.g. Egor's presentation).

## Categorization

* Any page belonging to a subcategory should not also be put under the the parent category.
	+ Report to Admins, if you encounter over-categorizing or are unsure of which category to use.
* All category titles should be plural, since it hosts a variety of objects of the same value (e.g. Images, Icons, Notes etc.)

## Images

* An uploaded screenshot from the game should be licensed under `{{Fairuse}}`.
* Any uploaded image, coming from the developers (e.g. Arkane/Bethesda website posts, Twitter posts) or any other source should also be licensed under Fairuse.
* If you upload an image of your own creation, use `{{Self}}` as licensing.
* Otherwise, images should be licensed under `{{CCBYSA}} or {{Cc-by-sa-3.0}}`, unless other licensing applies.