DramaWiki:Style guide

Style guide is currently in first-draft production. Groink 21:29, 24 Jun 2006 (EDT)

Style disputes

When either of two styles is acceptable, it is inappropriate for a DramaWiki editor to change from one style to another unless there is some substantial reason for the change. For example, with respect to British spelling as opposed to American spelling, it would only be acceptable to change from American spelling to British spelling if the article concerned a British topic. Revert warring over optional styles is unacceptable; if the article uses colour rather than color, it would be wrong to switch simply to change styles, although editors should ensure that articles are internally consistent (i.e. the word colour is used throughout the article.) If in doubt, defer to the style used by the first major contributor.

If there is a style being used that an editor disagree with, the proper thing to do is to bring the issue up in the article's discussion page. This will give the chance for other editors to chime in their opinions, and eventually take the necessary action (or no action if the dispute is groundless.)

Capitalization

It is a general rule on DramaWiki that we apply the principles of capitalization on romanized artist and TV show names, using the same princples English writers use. Capitalization is the process of capitalizing the first letter in a word. Components of a DramaWiki article requiring capitalization include article names and headers.

It is therefore a DramaWiki policy that the rules of capitalization apply, in that all words, except for internal articles, prepositions and conjunctions, must be capitalized. DramaWiki also does not capitalize most particles used in Asian languages. Please consult DramaWiki's romanization article for the specific language. Briefly, particles used in Asian languages are very similar in use as adpositions and similar components (prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions, conjunctions, etc.) in the English language.

Acronyms, abbreviations and nicknames

See DramaWiki's Acronyms & Abbreviations for a list of acronyms and abbreviations used on DramaWiki.

An abbreviation is a letter or group of letters, taken from a word or words, and employed to represent them for the sake of brevity. An acronym is a form of abbreviation, where the first letter of each word in a name or statement is put together, again for the sake of brevity. For example, "Co." is the abbreviation for company, while ROYGBIV is an acronym for the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and yellow).

Editors should avoid assumptions that the reader is familiar with a particular acronym or abbreviation. The standard writing style is to spell out the acronym or abbreviation on the first reference (wikilinked if appropriate) and then show the acronym or abbreviation after it. This signals to readers to look out for it later in the text and makes it easy for them to refer back to it. For example:

Matsuura Aya appeared in several commercials (CM) for the Japan-based company Seiko EPSON Corporation. Ayaya-chan's CMs appear to have improved sales for EPSON in the Japan electronics market.

Notice that the abbreviation for the word commercial was used once it was defined by a previous sentence. Also notice that the formal name of the company was mentioned in the first sentence; once defined, it is okay to use the company's more common name. And, the artist's nickname was used because the full name was established in the previous sentence, setting the basis that the paragraph is about the artist.

In lengthy articles, it can be helpful to spell out the acronym or abbreviation for the reader again or to rewikify it if it has not been used for a while. It is also not good writing technique to keep using the artist's nickname throughout the article; doing so gives the article a fan-like feel, rather than a formal feel DramaWiki strives for.

When abbreviating a country name, please use periods between the letters. For example, United States should use the abbreviation "U.S."; this is is the more common style in that country. When including a particular country in a list of countries, do not abbreviate the country name (for example, "France and the United States", not "France and the U.S."). And, avoid using abbreviations, acronyms and nicknames that may be offensive to even the smallest of on-line user communities (ex: japs, flips, etc.)

Article names

Article names should conform to the following format:

• Because of the characteristics of the MediaWiki software, the first letter of an article name will be capitalized. There is no work-around for this. For example, if you create an article with the name iPod, the article name will come out as IPod.

• Special characters are acceptable. Special characters include the dash ("-"), exclamation point ("!"), comma (",") and tilde ("~"). However, the following special characters should be avoided:
  • Underscore ("_") seeing this character is already being used by the MediaWiki software.
  • Macrons, as is stated in the romanization articles on DramaWiki.
• Article name must match either the TV show or artist name.
• Taglines must be left out of the article name.
• All other formatting issues for article names are covered in the language-specific formatting articles.

Heading and field names

A heading is the component that provides categorization within an article. A field name is a component that identifies a parameter within an article.

== Header ==
*'''Field name 1:''' information
*'''Field name 2:''' information

For headers:

• The capitalization rules for titles also apply to headers.
• Good headers:
  • The Pig Can Jig
  • President of the United States
  • Hen in the Fox's Den
• Bad headers:
  • President Of The United States
  • hen in the fox's den

For field names:

• Field names must be in bold type.
• Field names are not proper nouns, nor are they titles. Therefore, capitalization rules regarding titles or proper nouns do not apply to field names.
• The first letter in the first word is capitalized. All other words are in lower case, unless the word is an acronym.
• Acronyms must be all in upper case letters (KPOP, JPOP, KBS, etc.)
• Good field names:
  • Talent agency:
  • KPOP group name:
  • Real name:
• Bad field names:
  • Real Name:
  • real name:
  • kpop group name:

Suggested use of headers

The use of headers in an article is very similar to topics in an outline you would use when putting together a term paper. A header in a wiki article can be thought of as a topic in an outline. All editors of DramaWiki should organize the headers and sub-headers in a logical form, so that all sub-topics fall under a main topic.

Format of a properly written outline:

I. First main topic
   A. First subordinate idea
      1. First supporting idea
      2. Second supporting idea
      3. Third supporting idea
   B. Second subordinate idea
      1. First supporting idea
      2. Second supporting idea

II. Second main topic
   A. First subordinate idea
      1. First supporting idea
      2. Second supporting idea
         a. First supporting detail
         b. Second supporting detail

This outlines can be converted to a wiki-written article:

== First Main Topic ==
=== First Subordinate Idea ===
==== First Supporting Idea ====
==== Second Supporting Idea ====
==== Third Supporting Idea ====
=== Second Subordinate Idea ===
==== First Supporting Idea ====
==== Second Supporting Idea ====

== Second Main Topic ==
=== First subordinate Idea ===
==== First Supporting Idea ====
==== Second Supporting Idea ====
===== First Supporting Detail =====
===== Second Supporting Detail =====

It is important that all like-information is kept under the same header. For example, if a TV drama article has two seasons:

• Example of good use of headers and sub-headers:

==Details==
*'''Title:''' That's Showbiz
*'''Broadcast network:''' ABC123
*'''Genre:''' Family comedy

== Synopsis ==
A family comedy drama about an actor who just can't do thing right.

== Seasons ==
=== Season 1 ===
*'''Broadcast period:''' 2004-Apr-01 to 2004-Jun-30
*'''Episodes:''' 12
==== Episodes ====
# - ''I Fell on My Face'' - 13.4
# - ''I Ripped My Pants'' - 14.2

=== Season 2 ===
*'''Broadcast period:''' 2005-Apr-03 to 2005-Jul-01
*'''Episodes:''' 11
==== Episodes ====
# - ''I Fell and I Can't Get Up'' - 11.8
# - ''I Love Sakai Noriko'' - 24.5

Notice that Seasons is the main header, while all the related elements - the seasons themselves - fall under as sub-headers. Also, the fields specific to the season were placed under their respective sub-headers, rather than being placed under the Details header. And, notice that Episodes was turned into sub-headers, and placed under the Season X sub-header. Again, the ideas behind the development of properly organized headers are that:

• All major ideas are developed into headers.
• A field related to any one idea is placed under its respective header.

Dates and times

Entering dates

Because dates and times can vary from country to country, DramaWiki must settle down on a format that is to be used by all editors, regardless of the formatting they use in their everyday lives.

Examples of formats, depending on the components of the date being made available:

Year only

• Use all digits of the year.
  • Good examples: 1974
  • Bad examples: "74" or "'74"

Month only

• Use full name of the month.
  • Good example: Sayako was born in January.
  • Bad examples: Sayako was born in Jan.

Century

• Address a century as a century, or use all the digits of the century followed by an "s". Okay to use ordinal suffixes.
  • Good example: 20th century or 1900s
  • Bad examples: 1900's

Decade

• Address a decade using all digits of the decade, and without an apostrophe before the "s".
  • Good example: 1970s
  • Bad example: 1970's, 70's, 70s.

Year and month

• Situation 1: Referencing the date in a complete sentence. Spell the month in its entirety, followed by the year.
  • Good example: Sayako was born in January 1982.
  • Bad examples: Sayako was born in 1982-Jan. Sayako was born in Jan 1982.
• Situation 2: Referencing a year and month as data. Year, dash, and abbreviated month>
  • Good example: Birthdate: 1982-Jan
  • Bad examples: Birthdate: Jan 1982, January 1982, 1982 January

Year, month, and day

• Situation 1: Referencing the date in a complete sentence. Use either Day Month Year, or Month, Day Year. The original editor of the writing chooses what format to use. At the same time, however, other editors have no right to change the format to his/her preferred liking. In any situation, do not use ordinal suffixes (ex: February 14th) or articles (ex: the 14th of February).
  • Good examples: Sayako was born on 9 January 1982. Sayako was born on January 9, 1982.
  • Bad examples: Sayako was born on 1982-Jan-9. Sayako was born on 1982-1-9.
• Situation 2: Referencing the date as data. Use the format Year-Month-Day for all dates. Abbreviate the month.
  • Good example: Birthdate: 1982-Jan-9
  • Bad examples: Birthdate: 9 January 1982. Birthdate: January 9, 1982.

Entering time

24-hour clock	12-hour clock
12:00	12:00 p.m. (noon)
13:00	1:00 p.m.
14:00	2:00 p.m.
15:00	3:00 p.m.
16:00	4:00 p.m.
17:00	5:00 p.m.
18:00	6:00 p.m.
19:00	7:00 p.m.
20:00	8:00 p.m.
21:00	9:00 p.m.
22:00	10:00 p.m.
23:00	11:00 p.m.
24:00	12:00 a.m. (midnight)

To avoid disagreements with time formatting, DramaWiki has set a standard when expressing time.

The DramaWiki standard is to write all times in 24-hour notation. Advantages to using 24-hour notation:

• There is no possibility of ambiguity between times in the morning and evening (in the 12-hour system "seven o'clock" can mean both 7 am and 7 pm). In reading schedules and the like, it is easy to see at a glance whether times refer to before or after noon. This is especially important for organizations that run services 24 hours a day, such as airlines, railways, and the military.

• Entries that use the 12-hour system usually show noon as 12:00 pm and midnight as 12:00 am — a convention which is ambiguous and therefore confuses many people. The workaround of writing "noon" or "12 midnight" requires more space, makes the notation language dependent, and still fails to distinguish between midnight at the start and at the end of a day.

• The duration of time intervals is easier to see in the 24-hour notation. From 10:30 a.m. till 3:30 p.m. is 5 hours. From 10:30 till 15:30 indicates this more clearly.

• The 24-hour notation is shorter, which can save space in tables.

• The 12-hour notation obscures the fact that the date changes between 11:59 p.m. and 12:00 a.m., which regularly confuses people who program their video recorder. The transition from 23:59 to 00:00, on the other hand, provides a clear reminder that a new date starts.

• Many Asian TV schedules use 24-hour notation. Many Asian TV drama web pages also use 24-hour notation.

When expressing time in terms of scheduling, always use the time zone of origin. For example, when listing air times for a Japanese TV drama, all times should be written using Japan Standard Time (JST). It is also important to enter the abbreviation for the time zone. For example, 19:00 in Japan should be entered as 19:00 JST.

If a TV show time period runs into the next day, it is best to use 24:00 for 12:00 midnight. For example, some TV shows start at 11:54pm and ends at 12:54am. To prevent further confusion, editors should write it as 23:54 to 24:54.

It is quite easy to calculate 24-hour time in your head. Any time from 1:00pm to midnight, just subtract two from the hour. For example, 13:00 is 13 minus 2, or 1:00. 19:00 is 19 minus 2, or 7:00pm.

Pictures

DramaWiki is based on the MediaWiki software. MediaWiki requires that all images used in an article be uploaded to DramaWiki first. Once uploaded, they can be used in the article. In case there is a method of referencing images off-site, DramaWiki does not allow this form of practice.

Guidelines on image selection:

• Images should not be scaled upward. Example: 120px scaled up to 200px. This causes the image to have a bitty or jagged look.
• Attempt to edit the image to the correct size before uploading to DramaWiki. Using the thumb parameter requires additional processing by the MediaWiki software, and also uses up additional disk space to store the cached version(s) of the re-sized image.
• Avoid uploading of images that contain copyright or trademark symbols, or other markings not a part of the photo's theme (talent agency names, other markings left due to cropping, etc.) Remove these markings with image editing software before uploading to DramaWiki.
• Crop images prior to uploading. Apply some artistic sense when working with images. For example, it is better to focus on a person's face than to display the entire body.
• For images used in artist articles, the entire head, along with the full face should be viewable. Focus on images where the parts of the face is not covered up, such as hair covering up the person's eye, or the person is wearing sunglasses or an eyepatch (unless, of course, these items are actually a part of the artist's persona.)
• Images should be sharp and in-focus. Avoid images that are badly colored and bitty, such as amateur scans from a magazine.
• If the owner of the image requests the image to be removed, please do so. Technically, it is illegal to upload copyrighted images to DramaWiki. DramaWiki leaves the declaration of licensing purely up to the uploader.

Filenames on all images must be properly named. A good rule-of-thumb is to use the article name as the filename, along with some form of indication as to the type of image. Good names in filenames help identify the content of the image without having to open the image.

• Good filenames:
  • The_Greatest_Drama-banner.jpg
  • Sakai_Noriko-headshot.jpg

• Bad filenames:
  • file01.jpg
  • picture.jpg
  • DCM384789.jpg

When placing images in an article, apply some webpage design sense. Do not allow the image to take up a good portion of the screen. A good rule-of-thumb is to keep all images at a maximum size of 250px.

DramaWiki recommends using JPEG and GIF images. Although other formats, such as PNG, are supported, JPEG and GIF are universal across all web browsers and all computer operating systems.

Currency

Referencing currency

There are situations where references are made to measurements of currency, such as an artist's salary, or the cost of producing a show. When referencing currency, use the original currency value. Do not convert the value of the currency to another currency format (ex: yen to british pounds). It is also preferred that editors use the latinized symbols for the currencies rather than the UTF-8 based symbols. Last, it is important to avoid ambiguities when entering currency values where the symbol used is identical to other currencies (ex: US dollar ($) and Canadian dollar ($)) Therefore, it is important to use the latinized symbol along with the currency code, standardized as ISO 4217.

Good examples of currency:

• JPY¥1,000
• KOR₩1,000
• CNY¥1,000
• US$1,000
• C$1,000

Referencing currency conversions

Conversions can be made into other currencies that are more familiar to most readers, such as the euro or United States dollar. Conversions should be in parentheses after the original currency, with the year given as a rough point of reference. And, always round the converted value to the nearest whole number. Good examples:

• JPY¥1,000 (approx. US$9, c.2006)

Resources

• How Users Read on the Web
• Wikipedia Style Guide (covers use of language)
• Wikipedia Manual of Style (covers formatting of content)