User:PaxMeridia/style guide

This style guide lists the conventions editors should adhere to when writing articles. In editing disputes or questions, it can serve as an authority, ensuring a consistent and professional look for the wiki. These policies are broadly approved by the community and should not diverged from without good reason, but keep in mind that policies shouldn't violate common sense—if a style convention doesn't seem sensible in a particular instance, ignore it. Additionally, these rules are not set in stone: ongoing discussion and revision of style policies is encouraged. This style guide does not attempt to reinvent the wheel; Wikipedia has a detailed manual of style available that will usually suffice, and this style guide lists helpful reminders or instances where our conventions differ from Wikipedia's.

In a nutshell

 * Use American English
 * Use sentence case for article titles
 * Bold the article title in the lead paragraph
 * Article titles should be true to in-game names
 * Avoid trivia sections

Use American English
Articles should use American English; edits made in other varieties of English should be revised. The wiki benefits from being consistent in its language, but the many editors use a wide variety of English variants that are quite inconsistent with each other.Sandswept and The Dead Linger both use American English, and any mention of in-game terms ought to be true to the game's spelling to avoid confusion. Hence, if any variant of English is to be preferred, American English is the logical choice. Because American English (like all types of English) is not itself fully consistent, disputes may still arise. When in doubt, determine what usage is most appropriate through discussion and by consulting Wikipedia's manual of style or the APA and Chicago manuals of style.

In-game names
The Dead Linger may sometimes use unconventional or incorrect spellings of terms and names, or it may have conventions inconsistent with those of this wiki. For example, the names of ordinary items are treated as proper nouns, e.g. "Discipline Paddle" rather than "discipline paddle". To prevent confusion, the game's usage should be copied, even when it violates standard wiki conventions. For terms that are clear misspellings, it is sometimes better to use the correct spelling in article prose—explain the discrepancy in a hatnote when doing so.

Trivia sections
Trivia sections at the end of articles have a habit of growing uncontrollably with relatively useless information. That is, after all, the nature of trivia, it's not important enough to warrant its own section. Having a separate section for trivia, especially one in list form, invites editors to add more and more. These trivia sections can often become difficult to read because of poor formatting, and contain little useful information. Hence, creating trivia sections should be avoided. For existing trivia sections, put useful or notable information in the main body of the text before removing the section; don't delete potentially good edits without looking at them.