Gaiapedia:Policy/Manual of Style

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This subject is a policy. Index: Wiki polices (General Policies) • What Gaiapedia is not • Manual of Style • Page Guide (Create) • Category Guide • Image Guide • Page Protection • Privacy Policy • General Disclaimer • Copyrights Maintenance: About templates • Preload templates • Infobox templates • Notify templates, (Message Templates) • Interwiki templates  • Work in Progress category • Color template • Sandbox user header. More subjects categorized here.

Style

Writing style

• Gaia Interactive, Inc. is a North American (United States) company, and thus this Wiki will use standard American English.
  • The exceptions are if Gaia Online provides words in a different language or standard.
• Internet slang (netspeak) shall not be used when it comes to writing comprehensive articles.
  • While Gaia Online is known for adopting netspeak, this should be done as reference while on Gaiapedia.
  • If this involves specifically named subjects by Gaia Online itself then the Wiki will adhere to it.
• Articles will commonly be written in past-tense, given that this is an archival Wiki.
  • Present-tense will only be used when a subject, such as character or storyline, allows for it.
• Grammar, Punctuation, and proper Capitalization is to be expected.

WikiText style

• This Wiki has its own set of namespaces, they are: Item:, Animal:, NPC:, Map:, Manga:, and Merch:.
  • A pipeline can be used when required, so [[Item:Angelic Halo|]] will become [[Angelic Halo]] upon saving an edit.
• Things like [[gaian|gaian]] and [[Gaian|gaian]] are pointless, only [[Gaian]] should be used.
  • This also applies to links written to denote a plural: don't write the link as [[Gaian|Gaians]]; instead use [[Gaian]]s.

Article titling

Unless normally written with different capitalization or the article follows one of the other standards below article titles use Title Case, otherwise known as Book Case where all words except unimportant ones such as "the", "in", "of", etc... are Capitalized (e.g. Manual of Style)

• Names are not stored in biographical format, but in normal English. e.g. Gino Gambino as opposed to the biographical format Gambino, Gino.

• With the exception of improper names(Superhero style if you wish to call it so), "The" is not part of a name, so The Von Helson Sisters article is [[NPC:Von Helson Sisters]] not "The Von Helson Sisters". The only exception for this is for official names that are not proper names such as and The Overseer.

• Yearly events such as holidays, anniversaries, and balls are suffixed with the year. So the April Fools' Day event for 2004 would be April Fools' Day Event 2004. The official name of the event via Gaia announcements is to be used on the event page article at the beginning.

• Articles for features such games and towns are to have "Gaia ____" as its starting name. So Towns is Gaia Towns, then there is Gaia Slots, Gaia Homes, Gaia Cards and so on. Some will have redirects for common names such as Guilds to Gaia Guilds.

• Along with this, currency is named similar, Gold is redirected to Gaia Gold and the same goes with Cash redirected to Gaia Cash.

Upkeep

Merging and moving pages

Reasons for merging a page or content:

• There are two or more pages on exactly the same subject.
• There are two or more pages on related subjects that have a large overlap.
• If a page is very short and cannot or should not be expanded terribly much, it often makes sense to merge it with a page on a broader topic.
• If a short article requires the background material or context from a broader article in order for readers to understand it.
• See Template:Merge for more information.

Reasons for redirecting a page:

• Abbreviations, Misspellings, Accents, Related words
• Other spellings, capitalization, other punctuation
• Other names, pseudonyms, nicknames, and synonyms
• Plurals, tenses, etc
• Redirect a page by using this code, #REDIRECT[[Article_title]]

Citing sources

Reasons for citing sources on a page:

• To ensure that the content of articles is credible and can be checked by any reader or editor.
• To enhance the overall credibility and authoritative character of Gaiapedia.
• To reduce the likelihood of editorial disputes, or to resolve any that arise.
• To credit a source for providing useful information and to avoid claims of plagiarism.
• To provide more information or further reading.

When referencing a thread on Gaia use the following <ref>{{Topic|id||}}</ref> . And when there is a factual dispute use {{cite}} after the relevant passage.

General standards

Point of View problems

Articles on Gaiapedia should always be neutral. Sometimes there might be controversial topics or events that the source may be biased. If you see a biased article and you think that may be bias put the {{POV}} tag at the top of the article. There should always be two points of available on the subject, meaning don't be a hypocrite.

Ways to stay Neutral

1. Do not only provide one point of view, but all relevant viewpoints as necessary.
2. Support your article with actual facts.
3. Use a reliable source.

Ways to detect Bias

There are ways to detect if the article is biased. Here's how.

1. The article only provides one point of view.
2. Facts come from the source may be biased.
3. Is the article lack diversity?
4. Do the facts in the article have to deal with the article?

Cleaning up Bias

Cleaning up Bias may be difficult, but it can be done.

1. Gather facts from other perspectives or another points of view.
2. Make sure your sources are not biased.
3. Support your facts with valid sources.
4. Never use user comments.
5. Make sure your facts deal with the article.