View source for CrawlWiki:Style guide

CrawlWiki has no formal style guide as of yet. Changes should be discussed on the talk page.

(currently this style guide is shamelessly copied from the [http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/NetHackWiki:Style_guide nethackwiki style guide])

== Tone ==
CrawlWiki is not just an encyclopedia of ''DCSS'', but articles in the main namespace should be written in a largely encyclopaedic tone. That means clearly separating facts from comments, by putting strategy tips in their own section, and comments on the talk page. Spelling and grammar should follow (american/british standardized?) rules.

Please keep your sentences short, especially if your native language favors long ones.

== Namespaces ==
Factual articles about ''DCSS'' belongs in the main article space. Strategy guides for background/race combos that are more subjective belong in the _____ namespace. Anything to do with CrawlWiki belongs in the CrawlWiki 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 CrawlWiki account and put personal information on your own User page.

== Article names ==
Try to be consistent with existing articles:

* Name most pages with lowercase letters, like [[scroll of identify]], but use uppercase for proper nouns, like [[Orb of Zot]]. 
* Prefer singular to plural (i.e. [[Dragon]] instead of [[Dragons]])
* Redirect acronyms like [[GDA]] to pages like [[gold dragon armour]]. However, [[identification]], [[scroll of identify]], and [[identify]] can be three separate pages.

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. In-game messages documented in a definition list will be bolded automatically:

 ; "You feel centered in your personal space."
 : You gained teleport control through eating a corpse, while hallucinating

formats into

; "You feel centered in your personal space."
: You gained teleport control through eating a corpse, while hallucinating

===Redirects===
When creating a new article, redirect variations on that name to it, to avoid someone duplicating the article under a slightly different title.

For in-game messages, redirect the message (e.g. [[The golden haze around you disappears]]) to the article about the thing that caused it. If the message can have multiple causes, create a disambiguation page (e.g. [[Your skin feels warm for a moment]]).

The syntax for a redirect is like this:

 #REDIRECT <nowiki>[[spellbook of protection]]</nowiki>

See [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Redirect] for help creating redirects.

==Headers==
The highest header level that should be used is <nowiki>==This==</nowiki>. Do ''not'' use <nowiki>=These=</nowiki>, 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 <nowiki>==Introduction==</nowiki>, 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 like "Messages given", "Behavior in previous versions", or "External Links". Known standard sections are:

* (insert other standard sections here)
* Strategy
* Mythology/Trivia? 
* History
* See also
* References
* External links

Generation should explain where and how the thing can be found or created.

The History section should be for explaining what the thing did in previous versions of ''DCSS''. Actual history should go in Mythology (if the thing is based on real life, Origin may be a better heading).

==Other links==

[http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/NetHackWiki:Style_guide nethackwiki style guide]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style wiki's manual of style]

[[Category:Guides]]