Help talk:Style guide

In-game message redirects

I saw some doubts if we need this: "For in-game messages, redirect the message (e.g. Something just walked over your grave. No, really!) to the article about the thing that caused it. If the message can have multiple causes, create a disambiguation page." I think this is not necessary and will clutter wiki with such messages, so I propose to delete that section. -- Derrek (talk) 18:56, 20 May 2014 (CEST)

I concur Derrek, not necessary for Wiki unless they are used as flavour on specific pages. DC Malleus (talk) 04:49, 26 May 2014 (CEST)

No, I don't think that's a good idea: for fear of *possibly too much* redirects to delete the whole way of retrieving connections. Some mysterious in-game messages ("You hear...") should be connected to the things that caused it. So even newbies have a chance to catch it. I'm contra: no deletion of such useful wiki contents. -- Bwijn (talk) 20:11, 26 May 2014 (CEST)

Can't one use search for that? I mean, browsing search results for such phrases (articles that contain flavour text), rather than finding a redirect page. -- Derrek (talk) 20:17, 26 May 2014 (CEST)

That advice has long, long ago been deemed really unnecessary. I think the odds of a user typing in the exact flavour text the game throws at them is much less likely than them looking up the monster they're facing or the item they just used. It's still there simply because no one's gotten around to removing it. I'm in favor of removing that instruction from the guide. --MoogleDan (talk) 13:50, 27 May 2014 (CEST)

Section Headings

Should the recommended section heading be Useful Info instead of Useful Infos? Wwf (talk) 01:49, 20 March 2022 (CET)

Americanized language rules?

Spelling and grammar should follow Americanized language rules. As a Canadian I find the spelling and grammar of the in game documentation and the wiki very familiar. In Canada the words "armour", "colour", and "flavor" are favored over "armor", "color", and "flavour" but both are acceptable. Even putting the comma before "and" in a list was correct when I learned grammar, but now it is optional. I don't think it is important enough to strictly follow the Americanized (Americanised? :) language rules for me to correct any pages or even change a page that I am updating. Do the guardians of the wiki have any feedback for me? Wwf (talk) 01:37, 22 March 2022 (CET)

DCSS uses Australian english (armour, artefact...), so the wiki should use the same (when talking about terms used in the game). But I'm not very consistent with it, so I default to commonwealth spelling that I know of. Not sure about the rest of grammar, so I defer to somebody else --Hordes (talk) 02:28, 22 March 2022 (CET)

Hashing Out Renames

With all the renames in current version (0.31) I think it's best to explicitly state what should be a page move, and what should be two different pages. Here's what I say:

• Species/Backgrounds: There's an official stance: if bot commands recognize them as different species, they get different pages.
• Unrands: If the name changes, it gets a new page.
• Other items: Make redirects so that readers are least surprised. So hand crossbow should redirect to hand cannon, they share an identical role. Same with potion of flight and potion of enlightenment. But potion of agility and potion of attraction are two separate things.
• Spells: If a spell still exists for monsters, it definitely gets its own page (e.g. Bolt of Fire/Starburst, Iron Shot/Bombard). Otherwise, follow the least surprise rule: PVapours should redirect to MVapours.
• Monsters: If it was just a rename, or only slight mechanical changes, then it should redirect. Otherwise new page.