The Style Guide is an ongoing attempt to build a reference resource for use by authors of Star Army articles and canon.

These are the key points for wiki articles:

1. Articles should contain actual prose.
   1. This means regular text that's written in complete sentences.
   2. Bulleted lists and content in tables or boxes do not count as prose.
   3. Each section of an article should generally contain prose immediately after any section header.
2. Articles should be internally consistent.
3. Articles of a common type (such as starships or guns) should adhere to the common format (see Templates) and look like other articles of that type.
4. Do not use forced line breaks unless necessary (such as in a table).
5. Tables should be used sparingly in articles and may not be used to replace parts of a template.

Headers provide structure for wiki pages and divide them into index and easily-read sections.

1. ALWAYS title your pages! The first header determined your page title and should generally match the page URL.
2. Article titles should not include “The” unless that is part of a proper noun such as a name. The same goes for “a” and “an.”
   1. Good: = Yamatai Star Empire =
   2. Bad: = The Yamatai Star Empire =
3. When you create a page, the URL should generally be the same as the title (or a short form), including spaces. Don't create pages with URLs that are all a big blob.
   • Good: stararmy:standard issue items
   • Also okay: stararmy:standard_issue_items
   • Bad: stararmy:standardissueitems
4. On starship classes: The format is Classname-class Shiptype, always with a hypen OR Classname Shiptype. This should be the case in both URL and in article content. Examples: Nozomi-class Scout (GOOD) Plumeria Gunship (GOOD) Nozomi class Scout (BAD!)
5. Titles and section headers should be concise so they don't take up more than one line.
6. Titles should be consistent with page URLs.
7. Abbreviations may not be used as titles (use Imperial Registry Number, not IRN).
8. Article titles should be capitalized but not in all caps. (“Creating a Character” not “Creating a character” or “CREATING A CHARACTER”).
9. Do not use an ampersand (&) or other special characters in a title unless they are part of an organization's official name. Using an ampersand is fine in section headers.
10. Leave a space on either side of the title or section heading and a blank line before them.
11. Headers should be in order: H1 (title) should contain H2 sections, and they should contain H3 sections, etc.

This section covers what kind of content should and should not be in the wiki page.

1. Avoid the use of the contraction it's
2. Avoid the use of second-person language (you, your) in articles other than instructions for the player.
3. Use proper plurals
4. In general, keep an encyclopedic tone.
5. Occasional jokes and humor are okay.
6. You are encouraged to add examples from RP or quotes to add flavor.

1. Proper nouns should be linked in their first usage for each page (or first use in each major section, if preferred).
2. Never use a full URL (starting with http) to link to an internal page when an internal link will do.
3. Use spaces rather than underscores in links.
4. “Sub-Articles” (such as inventory pages) should always link back to their parent page.
5. Don't create pages that are not linked to from other wiki pages (orphans). Create the link first, then follow it and create the page. Stray pages will be deleted!
6. If you move a page, first use the backlink link (at the bottom of every wiki page) to see what pages are linking to it. ALL OF THOSE PAGES SHOULD BE UPDATED! If not, you are creating broken links. Do not move a page unless you're willing to do the work of updating all those pages.
   1. Admins can move pages and update all backlinks automatically, so ask an admin like Wes to move the page instead of doing it yourself.

As of 7/7/2018 the first image on a wiki article must be an image of the actual subject of the article. Don't use corporate logos, etc, as the first image on the page. This helps with indexing and page previews.

Please only use file names that make sense and are easily read. Badly named images are difficult to find, and they make understanding the image difficult or impossible for blind and low-vision roleplayers who have to rely on the text being read to them.

It is also nice, but not required, to credit the artist in the file name if it was a commission (e.g. hanako_by_zairyo.png). You can also credit artists on the pages the image is used on, or in the image itself if it doesn't get in the way of the subject.

In addition:

1. Images should be less than 2 MB in size.
2. Images should be less than 700px wide on the wiki article (uploaded images can be larger) .
3. Images should have an alternate text value to help visually impaired people who use page readers. Place a | after the image file name, and then type a short meaningful text description. See Wiki Syntax: Media Files for instructions.
4. Only images hosted on Star Army should be used on Star Army wiki pages. Images hosted on third-party sites such as imageshack and photobucket will be edited out of articles.
5. Images must be properly cropped. Huge borders of blank space should be avoided.
6. Use transparent backgrounds so the image looks good in all Dokuwiki templates (styles).
7. We strongly prefer color artwork.

See also: Tips on Good Style (Dokuwiki manual)

See also: Wiki Namespaces

wes created this article sometime in 2011; frostjaeger updated this article on 2018/11/09 12:53 after receiving approval from ametheliana on 2018/11/09 12:48.