• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

Approved Submission [Rules] Style Guide Update

FrostJaeger

Chief Parakeet
Banned Member
Submission URL
https://stararmy.com/wiki/doku.php?id=guide:style
Submission Faction(s)
  1. None (nebulas, etc.)
Submission Terms
  1. I agree
  • Submission Type: Rules Update
  • FM Approved Yet? No, @Wes
  • Faction Requires Art? No.
For Reviewers:
  • Contains Unapproved Sub-Articles? No.
  • Contains Links to Unapproved Articles? No.
  • Contains New Art? No.
  • Previously Submitted? No (regarding these particular changes, anyways).
  • Changelog: Link
  • Checklist Requested? Yes.
Edit: Updated the changelog due to this post.
 
Last edited:
This suggestion has been implemented. Votes are no longer accepted.
"- Articles should generally **not** include tables (unless they're included as part of a template). "
Why is this rule being added? Did a staff member say this is a good idea? I don't think this addition does anything but stifle creativity, but if there is a real push for it from someone, let me know. Otherwise, I do not think it is necessary or you should find a way to create a guideline in a quick sentence about the best way you can think of to get tables to par w/ the rest of the wiki styling and to your own standards, too, Frost.

"badly-named" is wrong because of this Merriam-Webster rule: "Compounds formed by an adverb ending in ly plus an adjective or participle (such as largely irrelevant or smartly dressed) are not hyphenated either before or after a noun, since ambiguity is virtually impossible." Badly is the adverb and worded is the adjective, in this case.

I see nothing else crazy but let me know when you have made changes and I'll look at the article itself (I just looked at your changelog, thank you for that breh), thank you for this update to an imperative article!
 
@Ametheliana the table rule is a request from me. Tables are a powerful tool when used sparingly but too many clutter the page and stretch it out, giving it too much artificial length and illusion of wordiness. Essentially too many makes the page less readable.

A few members don’t understand this concept so it’s best we tell them right there in the guidelines.

The template tables are all you really need, anyways. It’s best to leave it to the NTSE on how to stylize tables and when to use/when to not.
 
It should be up to the creators of the pages, but I see some of your reasoning. I don't think a hard and fast "do not use unless in a template" rule needs to be put in place, but am willing to hear ideas about a guiding rule on how to use them.
 
See; we did try to be nice about it but people didn’t want to listen.

Edit: We did try to say “too many tables is ugly” but people just brushed us off. Honestly I don’t understand why people insist on using tables so much. They look bad on mobile and they put a huge unwrappable break in text unlike images, so it interrupts the general flow of the article.

Really the only time they should ever be used is to organize things like 2-variable information lookup or a method to organize DR into a nice clean strip.

Any case that can’t be solved by this can be solved by an ordered list or subarticle.
 
The issue I see is when stuff that's not in a table in the normal template is put into a table on an article. Templates are designed to keep pages looking unified in theme so that all pages have a generally similar layout and you know where to look for the information you need.

Putting, say, the discharge information part of the template (which is normally a bulleted list) into a table presents a readability issue for a few people, and creates a situation in which the template isn't being followed (which is something reviewers have to check for and make sure is happening. It's in the checklist.)

TL;DR: In my opinion, tables are okay, but only when used sparingly and should not to replace parts of the template.
 
Hi Frost! Let's see if this submission meets the requirements for inclusion in Star Army's lore...

[ ✔️ ] 1. The destination URL should be a page in the appropriate namespace and titled lower_case_with_underscores.
[ ✔️ ] 2. The article is in the appropriate format and article template.
[ ✔️ ] 3. The article follows our wiki style guidelines, including: No forced line breaks, text after each section header, etc.
[ ✔️ ] 4. The article is easily read and free of errors in spelling and grammar.
[ ✔️ SEE BELOW ] 5. Links to other wiki articles are present as appropriate.
[ ✔️ ] 6. The article fits into the Star Army universe's space opera theme and technology levels.
[ N/A ] 7. Images in the article are hosted on Star Army's wiki and sourced responsibly (contact Wes privately if there's a concern).
[ ✔️ ] 8. The article is original and doesn't contain copy-pasted content from other articles.
[ N/A ] 9. The article complies with Star Army's rules in terms of damage ratings, speed limits, etc.
[ N/A ] 10. The Faction Manager(s), if applicable, have posted approval for this article in this thread.

Notes: I think you can link to the wiki article on canon in the intro sentence, don't you?

Status: Approved
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top