Help:Style guide

From PZwiki
Revision as of 15:37, 25 July 2018 by Vaileasys (talk | contribs) (added article layout. This isn't currently a strict guideline as it likely needs some work.)
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

The purpose of this page is to provide general stylistic guidelines for articles to follow. Wikipedia comes with a great general style guide, so this page will only contain rules and guidelines specifically for The Project Zomboid Wiki. A wiki’s purpose is to document facts, thus you should avoid opinionated and speculative information.

If you have any questions, suggestions or complaints, please leave a comment on the discussion page. Please do not introduce or alter guidelines on this page without consensus.

Article titles

Pages must have appropriate titles.

  • Articles about items, tiles, structures, non-player characters, locations, quests or stories should be titled exactly how the name appears in-game.
    • This includes, but is not limited to, capitalisation, spelling mistakes and UK English vs US English.
  • Articles about in-game characters should contain their first and last names, rather than their nickname. For example, rather than Bob or Baldspot, the article would be called Bob Smith.
    • The exception is if the full name is not known, therefore only the first name is required, otherwise the nickname.

Redirects

A redirect can be created if it fits one of the following criteria:

  1. Alternate spelling of the title, such as "Duffel Bag" for "Duffel Bag".
    1. This includes differences between UK and US English, such as "Tire" for "Tire".
  2. Previous in-game names, such as "Sack" for "Sack".
  3. Alternate names, provided that it is widely used, such as "Pants (disambiguation)" for "Pants (disambiguation)".
    1. This includes differences between UK and US English, such as "Bell Pepper" for "Bell Pepper".
    2. This also includes first names or aliases for devs, such as "Chris Simpson" or "Chris Simpson" for "Chris Simpson".
    3. This also includes names and nicknames for in-game characters, such as "Bob Smith" or "Bob Smith" for "Bob Smith".
  4. Alternate capitalisation or form, such as "Baseball Bat" for "Baseball Bat".
  5. Linking a language subpage to the correct title, such as "Кастрюля" for "Кастрюля".


Writing

A standard writing style needs to be maintained for ease of reading and consistency across pages.

  • Articles outside of the Guides section should be written without referring to the reader directly.
  • Abbreviations are to be avoided.
  • Emphasis should be made via italics, not bolds or CAPS.
  • Proofread your own articles.
Incorrect
DO NOT place the generator inside the house. The generator will degrade your health very quickly because of the its exhaust. If you happen to have done so, go outside ASAP to stop the damage, but the house won't be safe until the generator is turned off.
Correct
Players should not place the generator inside the house as it will degrade a character’s health very quickly, because of its exhaust. If the player happens to have done so, going outside will stop the player from taking damage, but the house will not be safe until the generator is turned off.
  • Information about modifications should not be part of an article unless the article itself is about a mod.
  • Articles should also contain no links to or IPs of servers or unofficial communties.


Capitals

  • Words should only be capitalised at the start of a sentence or if the word is a proper noun. Items and tiles should not be capitalised as they are common nouns.
    • This includes section headings, such as "See Also", which should be "See also".
    • Exceptions to this rule are article titles.


File uploads

Everyone has the freedom to upload a new file, so long as it complies with the wiki rules.

  • If uploading a game icon, files should be at the resolution they appear in-game. For example, all items should be at a 32 x 32 pixel resolution.
    • Tile icons (ground) should be at a 128 x 64 pixel resolution for 2x textures, or 64 x 32 for 1x textures.
    • An exception to this rule is the uploading of certain furniture tiles as sticking to their standard resolution can result in large amounts of empty space.
      • This is the same for some interface icons, such as the time buttons.

Naming conventions

  • Game items should be named the same as they are within the game code, which can be found within the text files found in [ProjectZomboid > media > scripts].
    • Items that aren't named within these text files, such as cooked food, can be found within the UI1.xml or UI2.xml files, which are found with the image files.
  • Furniture and tiles are not easily identifiable within the game code, therefore a descriptive name should be given to them.
    • CamelCase is preferred, however since there is no current standard for this, snake_case is also acceptable.
  • Animated images, whether they be a GIF or PNG file, should have a title that can be easily identified as an animated image, other than the file extension itself. For example, File:FishingTackleAnim.gif.
  • As the current standard item size is 32px, when their size is increased beyond this value they can appear blurred. Therefore uploading a larger file may be required. These files should contain an informative title, such as File:PotFull_120px.png.


Article Layout

Titles

Pages must have appropriate titles.

  • Articles about items, tiles, structures, non-player characters, locations, quests or stories should be titled exactly how the name appears in-game.
    • This includes, but is not limited to, capitalisation, spelling mistakes and UK English vs US English.
  • Articles about in-game characters should contain their first and last names, rather than their nickname. For example, rather than Bob or Baldspot, the article would be called Bob Smith.
    • The exception is if the full name is not known, therefore only the first name is required, otherwise the nickname.

Language bar

This section is for the language bar. The languages section is used to link all the different languages that article can be found in. For example: {{languages|Nails}} displays a link to every page that is connected with /## on the end (e.g. Clous), even if the article contains redirects.

Header/Navbar

The header/navbar displays a navigation bar, when the article was last updated and a background for the article. Due to current wiki policy, articles that are about an in-game item or mechanic must include a version category based on when they were last updated in the wiki. This allows us to track which articles may be outdated.

Infobox

This section is for the infobox which will be positioned on the right-side of the page. The infobox provides a quick summary of important points and are easy-to-read.

Notices and notice boxes

Notices can be anything from a notice box, which alerts both readers and editors of something important about the article, to a disambiguation link, which is used to present a link to what the reader may have been searching for instead.

Introduction

  • This section should contain a brief introduction to the subject in question.
  • It should begin with an indefinite article ('a' or 'an'), followed by the singular form of the subject in bold and lowercase.
    • An exception is if the in-game name of the item/object/mechanic is pluralised or contains a proper article, in which case 'a' or 'an' should be removed.
    • If the item/object/mechanic is a proper noun, then it should be written in uppercase.
  • Links to other pages within the wiki should be added where appropriate.

Table of contents

A table of contents (TOC) is automatically added to articles with at least 4 sections. It is positioned on the left-side above the first section by default.

  • If the TOC is not needed then, then it can be removed with: __NOTOC__
  • Alternatively, the TOC can be positioned manually with: __TOC__

Article sections

  • Overview or Mechanics: this section should only be included if there is a significant amount of detail that needs to be covered and cannot be placed in the introduction.
  • Usage: This section should contain all the uses for the item. Topics can be separated into additional sections if required, no matter how little information there might be.
  • Crafting: All the crafting recipes the item is involved in should be included in this section.
  • Distribution: How/where the item/object is distributed should be included within this section. This can be broken down further into "buildings" and "vehicles" if necessary.
  • Gallery: An assortment of relevant images, organised within the <gallery></gallery> container.
  • Trivia: A list of interesting facts directly related to the subject of the article. Try not to duplicate information already included in the other sections of the article and avoid points that may be considered common-sense.
  • Code: Code directly related to the subject found in txt files should be placed here.
  • See also: Links to any articles that may be related to the subject of the article and weren't mentioned in the article, should be listed here.
  • References: A list of any references used to suppоrt any statements made with in the article. Read more about citing sources.

Navigation footer

Many articles will require having a navigation footer, recognised as a navbox, which lists all similar items/objects.


Other help articles