Divine Sister Wikia has a set conventions all users are required to follow when creating a page. This page serves as a general guideline, so everything on it is subject to be changed or overidden.
Not every specific policy is listed on this page, so a more extensive list of policies may by found on the official Wikipedia Wikipedia Manual of Style.
Naming conventions
Divine Sister Wikia follows Wikipedia's naming conventions, which state that each word in titles and headers should be lowercase unless it is the first word or it is always capitalized (ex: Divine Sister, The Sister's Order, Valindra). The same rules apply to categories, section headings, etc. They also state that nouns should always be in singular and verbs in gerund-form (verb + -ing: "making a cake") unless the words are only used in one particular form ("scissors", for example).
Articles should be named in such a way that each has a unique title. Articles' titles usually indicate the name of the topic. When additional precision is necessary to distinguish an article from other uses of the topic name, over-precision should be avoided. This can be done by adding a disambiguation tag in parentheses (or sometimes after a comma); however in certain cases it may be done by choosing a different form of the title in order to achieve uniqueness.
Grammar
Articles on Divine Sister Wiki should always follow standard English grammar. Extensive failure to follow this rule is likely to result in consequences.
Point of view
Rule of thumb: All articles on Divine Sister Wiki should be written in point of view. Articles on Divine Sister Wiki are intended to all share the same narrative point of view; point of view is here defined as the perspective from which the narrative (i.e., the topic of the article) is viewed. Having a cohesive point of view across all articles encourages more well-written, encyclopedic articles, and aids in audience understanding of a particular topic. Articles on The Sims Wiki should not use first-person or second-person points of view, but should instead only be written in third-person point of view (except in directly quoted text).
- Examples of different narrative perspectives
Many editors make the mistake of writing articles or article sections in the wrong narrative point of view. Some editors may write as if they themselves are speaking on behalf of the article. For example, read the following statement:
- "In De Pride Isle Sanatorium, I can turn into a monster."
The example above is written in first-person point of view. Articles on the wiki should not use this point of view, as it makes the article appear to be written from a single player's experience, rather than the experience of all players. To that end, avoid using first-person pronouns such as I or me (unless used in a quotation).
Additionally, many editors mistakenly write in this manner:
- "In De Pride Isle Sanatorium, you can turn into a monster."
This example demonstrates second-person point of view. Second-person point of view is often informal and ambiguous, and should not be used in main namespace articles. Second person view is appropriate for separate guide pages, and is never to be used in actual articles.
The following example demonstrates a correct point of view usage:
- "In De Pride Isle Sanatorium, players can turn into monsters."
The example is written in third-person point of view. This point of view refers to the subject in an objective manner and from an external perspective.
Tense
Articles on Divine Sister Wiki should, by default, be written in present tense. Past tense is permissible when writing about past events or about subjects that existed in the past but no longer exist, or about characters, games or other entities that are no longer alive or operating. Individual sentences or paragraphs within an article may be written in tenses other than present tense as the need arises.
Examples; When describing a game that was released but is no longer playable, past tense may be used.
Capitalization
It is advisable that all editors follow these guidelines to avoid inconsistency and unnecessary capitalization. While Template:WP can generally be used in most cases, there are specific guidelines for the most common capitalization issues on Divine Sister Wiki.
Common uses in the article format include the following:
- All capitals are not to be used for emphasis. Use italics instead.
- Article titles, headings, and captions must use sentence case.
- Only the initial letter in sentences and list items is capitalized.
- Words that follow hyphens should not be capitalized.
Certain words and terms must be capitalized in articles. The words include the following:
- Proper nouns and proper names
Categories
Adding categories to an article makes it easier for the reader to find information within a specific area. Categories are added by putting [[Category:Category name]] in an article. An article may be in more than one category, but the editor should make sure not to put an article in categories just because it might be remotely related to them, but rather because it is directly related to them. Many categories are automatically added by templates added to the article.
All categories should be part of at least one higher-level category. Avoid creating orphaned categories whenever possible. In practice, each and every category should be able to be reached from Category:Browse, Divine Sister Wiki's top-level category. Each article should belong to at least one category, meaning that each article on Divine Sister Wiki should be accessible from Category:Browse as well.
Galleries
If your article has a large amount of images that are clumped together, making a gallery is generally a good idea. The syntax for a gallery is simple:
<gallery> Image:Wiki.png Image:Wiki.png|Captioned Image:Wiki.png Image:Wiki.png|[[Wikipedia|Links]] can be put in captions. Image:Wiki.png Image:Wiki.png|Full [[MediaWiki]]<br />[[syntax]] may now be used… </gallery>
Galleries should be left-aligned, including captions and width set to either 120 or the default (no defined setting)
Stubs
An article that is a stub is an article that is incomplete and/or too short. To tag an article as a stub, simply add
to the top of it.
You can find more specific stubs in the stubs category.
Articles that are blank or contain no useful information will be deleted.
U.S. English and Commonwealth English
Cultural clashes over grammar, spelling, and capitalisation/capitalization are a common experience on wikis. Remember that millions of people have been taught to use a different form of English from yours, including different spellings, grammatical constructions, and punctuation.
Where possible, the preferred use on The Sims Wiki is U.S. English for spellings. Where certain words might cause confusion (see American and British English differences), it is preferable to avoid the word or phrase altogether. Where possible, international standards are to be used for dates, names, etc. to avoid confusion.
- Note: The standard format for all-numeric dates in the United States is month/day/year, while in many other parts of the world, dates are listed as day/month/year. This can cause confusion if a date is valid in both formats; for instance, 5/10/13 is read as May 10th for Americans, or as the 5th of October for others. It is best to avoid use of purely numerical dates; listing a date as 5 October/October 5th or 10 May/May 10th avoids this confusion. If a numerical date is necessary or preferred, please follow ISO standards regarding dates (YYYY-MM-DD format).
Articles should generally follow the same style throughout. Each article should have uniform spelling and not a haphazard mix of different spellings, which can be jarring to the reader. For example, do not use center in one place and centre in another in the same article (except in quotations or for comparison purposes).
Bear in mind that some words shared by all English speakers are spelled one way by Americans (and at times Canadians and Australians) but are spelt differently in most other English speaking countries; it is generally acceptable to leave an article alone where the style is consistent throughout the article - though changes to important articles to adapt them to house style are occasionally useful, please don't make a point of changing an article to your preferred style. Also, please remember that a spell-checker dictionary made for one form of English may not include spellings used in other forms; a dictionary which recognises "centre" and "neighbourhood" as correct may not recognize "center" and "neighborhood", and vice versa.