Goldstone Wood guidelines

This page is a good place to start for learning the ropes of editing and creating articles on the Tales Goldstone Wood Wiki.

## Sandbox

The sandbox page is a place where you can experiment with writing and templates and whatever pleases you. When editing the sandbox, please don't delete the {{sandbox}} annotation on the top of the page, thank-you!

## General Templates

This Wiki contains a variety of templates to assist in creating articles, including the ones stated above. Here are a few important templates to take note of.

### Formatting an Article

Listed below are some general formats for articles readers may run across the most.

* Character Articles

```
[[Template:General Character]]
(introduction)
==History==
==Description==

```

* Book Articles

```
[[Template:Book]]
(introduction)
==Cover Art== (describe the content, meaning, etc. of the cover art)
==Synopsis/Summary==
{{spoiler}}
(the synopsis information)

```

* Countries, provinces, territories

```
Introduction
==Location==
==History==
==Culture== (things on people, events, etc.)

```

* Races

```
Introduction
==History==
==Culture(s)==
==Description==

```

* Weapons

```
(introduction)
==[relevant]History==
==Weapon Use==
==Known Users/wielders==

```

* Groups and Factions

```
(Introduction)
==History==
==Group Organization==
==Culture==
==Notable members==

```

* Buildings, landscapes, misc. objects, jewelry

```
(introduction)
==History==
==Description==
==Known owners/users/etc.==

```

The Category:Templates page provides several subcategories for lists of templates.

## Creating Articles

To create an article, you simply click the "Add a Page" button found on the top of the screen or to the right, in some cases. You will be presented with a box to insert the name of the article and two options for page; the first page automatically comes with a picture box, while the other one is blank. It is your option, as you can delete the picture box anyway.

### Writing and Editing

* When writing an article, write in the past tense, i.e. "was", "did", "had," etc. The only exception to this rule is when an article is introducing a book in the Tales of Goldstone Wood; in this case, present tense can be used in the Introduction and Book Cover sections.
* While writing, never refer to yourself, the editor, in first person (such as I, we, etc.). This is to keep articles from becoming opinionated and to keep them factual.
* When you finish an article, go back and proofread. There is no real excuse not to do this; we want the highest quality articles on this wiki. If you have trouble with proofreading, please leave a template note at the top of the article for another editor to see so they can help out.

```
{{proof}}
```

* Some article names may have odd lettering in them that you can't simply type on a standard keyboard into the search box. In cases such as these, use a word processor to find the special characters and insert them into the title. To make life easier for those searching, you can create a redirect link like so:

```
#redirect [[actual article name]]
```

using a substitution of normal lettering in the redirect page title.

### Categorizing

At the bottom of the article page is an "Add category" button. Click here to find a full listing of Categories in this Wiki.

Please note that this Wiki is still very much in progress and that categories may be added along the way according to the need of the article with the help of contributors. Adding categories helps a reader navigate the group of articles it pertains to with more ease and interest.

### Stub

If you have started an article but don't know enough information about it, insert the "stub" code at the beginning of the article.

```
{{stub}}
```

The message you'll see is:

Template:Stub

### Spoiler

Many of the pages on Goldstone Wood will have spoilers. Editors are encouraged to use this tag on book/story and character pages especially. To indicate this, use

```
{{spoiler}}
```

which will give

Template:Spoiler

If you feel your article contains spoilers, or sections of it, place this at the beginning of the spoiler point.

--Xenithar, CoL Wiki founder 20:50, May 3, 2015 (UTC)