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Cactusfish

This page is an attempt to collaboratively build a standard of style for use throughout the wiki. Key in this effort are the Templates. Use this space to highlight good or bad practices you find in articles, to make recommendations, and to name the conventions we've been using so far.

Images and Videos[]

  • We usually make them 320px (320 pixels wide) when you use the right tag to add them to the sidebar.
  • Videos under a video section, but not in the sidebar, are 500px.

Major Types of Article[]

Games[]

  • Use "subst:Game" in double braces when creating a new page, to use the template.
  • List games by their full name, unless it's outrageously long; then use the shortening the developer uses as a shortening.
  • If a game has elements of several genres, it's okay to list it under all of those genres. Games don't have to be in only one genre.

Developers[]

  • Use "subst:Developer" in double braces when creating a new page, to use the template.
  • List developers by their real name when it's known, unless they specifically don't want it to be known or used on this wiki. Make their alternate name(s) redirect to their real name.
  • Don't use their middle name unless it's necessary to distinguish them from someone with an identical first and last name who is more famous than they are, or unless their middle name is often used by them when they refer to themselves.
  • If they initial their middle name, initial it as well.
  • If someone has several arguable real names (like Jenova Chen and his Chinese name) use the name they are more famous for.
  • If someone has special characters in their name, such as accents or umlauts, make their name without those special characters be a redirect to their name with those special characters.
  • List only the country a developer is a citizen or resident of. Don't call someone a Russian developer just because their grandparents immigrated to America from Russia, for instance.

Tools[]

  • Use "subst:Tool" in double braces when creating a new page, to use the template.
  • For each game-making tool, make a list of notable indie games which use that tool.

Alphabetization[]

  • Long lists should either be alphabetized or arranged in chronological order (which depends on context and how big the list is)
  • Don't include a, an, the, etc., The Graveyard should go under G, not T.

Grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling[]

  • Use normal American English grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling, with the exceptions of when the name of a game uses non-American spelling, or when a quotation does.

cactus[]

  • Don't capitalize cactus, not even at the beginning of a sentence .screw you, you cant just go and change grammar rules like that
  • And his site is CACTUS SOFTWARE, not Cactus Software or cactus Software.

clysm[]

  • Clysm is spelled as Clysm, clysm, and cly5m -- all of those have been used to refer to clysm.

thatgamecompany[]

  • thatgamecompany is not Thatgamecompany or That Game Company, it's thatgamecompany.

Other Issues / FAQ (if you're unsure about something, ask it here and an admin will answer!)[]

Should game names be written in italics?[]

I think there are specific cases where it is okay to write a game in italics. For instance, if the game italicized is one of the names for the game described on a particular page (like Zeux's World being italicized in the Zeta's World page). But I think that italics are only necessary on the FIRST identification of this name. This is the only time I've been using italics, personally. Bananattack 19:34, May 12, 2010 (UTC)

Should we link country names to an article on the country? To a list of developers from that country?[]

we're already using categories like Category:UK developers to get lists Ortoslon 18:25, May 12, 2010 (UTC)

question is then should we link the text "UK" from articles to that category? to a page describing the indie scene in the UK? etc. Fartron 18:28, May 12, 2010 (UTC)

the latter, since linking to a category isn't intuitive. we can then either include Category:UK developers in the UK page by transcluding it as if it were a template, or maintaining the list manually if we want to sort it in a non-alphabetical order Ortoslon 19:17, May 12, 2010 (UTC)

Why the heck are there swear words in some areas?[]

Halls of Fame and Shame[]

Put links to pages with particularly good or bad style decisions here, along with brief descriptions of what about them you did or did not like.

Good Articles[]

Category:Good article

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