DrumCorpsWiki:Manual of Style
Drum Corps Wiki has no formal style guide as of yet, but there are a few conventions in use. The following is a list of them. Changes should be discussed on the talk page.
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Drum Corps Wiki versus DrumCorpsWiki
Please refer to this wiki as Drum Corps Wiki.
Tone
Drum Corps Wiki is not just an encyclopedia of Drum and Bugle Corps, but articles in the main namespace should be written in a largely encyclopaedic tone. That means clearly separating facts from comments, ( put comments on the talk page). Spelling and grammar should follow Americanized language rules.
Please keep your sentences short wherever possible.
Article names
Try to be consistent with existing articles:
- Name most pages with lowercase letters, like soprano, but use uppercase for proper nouns, like Anaheim Kingsmen. Corps names and venue names should be treated as proper nouns.
- Prefer singular to plural (i.e. baritone instead of baritones)
- Redirect acronyms like DCI to pages like Drum Corps International.
The first time the article name appears in the main text, it should be bolded. This includes the titles of any redirects redirecting to the article.
Redirects
When creating a new article, redirect variations on that name to it, to avoid someone duplicating the article under a slightly different title.
The syntax for a redirect is like this:
#REDIRECT [[Cadets of Casper]]
See metawikimedia:Help:Redirect for help creating redirects.
New articles
Do not create empty new articles or new articles that contain nothing but the {{stub}} message just in hopes of seeing someone add more content to them. Be bold! Add the content yourself. For example: a stub for a corps should contain the corps' name and location including state, province or country, whether it was senior or junior and an external link to an official web site or alumni site.
Headers
The highest header level that should be used is ==This==. Do not use =These=, they are reserved for the article main title only. In each article, there should be a brief introduction before going into specifics. This introduction should not have a header, like ==Introduction==, because it is obvious and because when omitting it, the introduction appears before the table of contents as it is supposed to.
Section names
Some sections are common to many articles. Try to use one of these for the section header rather than a variant.Known standard sections are:
- History
- Traditions
- Trivia
- References
- External links
Categories
Each new article should have at least one category assigned to it; read the category tree to find an appropriate one. Remember to update that tree if you create a new category.
Useful templates
{{fact}} should go after any unsourced or uncited fact that may be controversial.
Namespaces
Anything to do with Drum and Bugle Corps belongs in the main article space. Anything to do with Drum Corps Wiki belongs in the DrumCorpsWiki namespace.
User pages
You can create a vanity page in the main namespace if you want to, but unless you are famous or otherwise notable it would be a better idea to create a Drum Corps Wiki account and put personal information on your own user page.
Sign your posts
When writing on articles'/users' talk-pages or on certain community pages, sign your posts with four tildes, ~~~~. That will automatically expand to your signature with timestamp, as in "ZeroOne 17:57, 15 August 2006 (UTC)".
General principles
- Consider consulting Wikipedia's Manual of Style on the matter; some editors think that it is pretty good.
