Forum:Style guide

I would like to propose a style guide for the FarmVille Wiki. This is to ensure that all edits are consistent with each other and to make using the Wiki easier. The following is what I would propose for the style guide. Feel free to discuss it at the end.

=Style Guide=

The style guide exists to ensure all edits on the FarmVille Wiki are consistent. Although one way is often as good as another, keeping the articles consistent means that they will be easier to read and to use.

Article Titles
Articles must have appropriate titles. The first word of each title should be capitalised but subsequest words should not be (for example, Bell peppers. In certain cases, where the article title is the title of something in FarmVille (such as a ribbon), the title should be capitalised as it is in the game (for example, Cream of the Crop. Do not put a capital for every word in a title, except where stated above. Items such as seeds, trees, animals, etc should only have the first word capitalised.

Titles of singular topics should not be pluralised. Therefore, an article about trees should be named Tree and an article about neighbors should be named neighbor. Only where the item is pluralised in the game should the article be pluralised (for example, Strawberries.

The subject of the article should be in bold only in the first occurrence''' of the word. Any subsequent occurrences are left as plain text.

Sections
Where appropriate, articles should be split up into sections. This maks them easier to read and edit. Each section should have a title.

The title of each section should follow the same guidelines as article titles. These are as follows:


 * The title should not capitalise all words and should only capitalise titles of items in game
 * The first word should be capitalised
 * Only titles of plural items should be pluralised
 * There should not be links in the title
 * The title should be as short as possible

Markup
Use two equal signs style markup for headings. Start with, add the heading title, then end with.

This section's heading was created with the markup:

This subsection's heading was created with the markup:

Text
Text may be styled to improve the appearance of the article.

Font colour
In rare cases, font colour can be used in articles. Dark colours should be used to emphasise certain points. Using bold is a preferred alternative to using colours. Do not use light colours, as the do not show up well on the white background.

Bulleted lists
Bullet points can be used to create a list. To use a bullet point, put an asterisk (*) before each point. For example:

*Point 1
 * Point 2
 * Point 3
 * Sub-point 3

Comes out as:


 * Point 1
 * Point 2
 * Point 3
 * Sub-point 3

Numbered lists
Numbered lists are similar to bulleted lists. They should be used to order items or in step-by-step instructions. To create a number list, put a number sign (#) before each point. For example:


 * 1) Point 1
 * 2) Point 2
 * 3) Point 3

Comes out as:


 * 1) Point 1
 * 2) Point 2
 * 3) Point 3

Bold and italics
Put two apostrophes ( italics ) around text to make it italic. Italics should be used to emphasise single word or phrases. It should not be used for long bits of text.

Put three apostrophes ( '''bold;;; ) around text to make it bold. Bold should be used to emphasise longer parts of text, or where italics is not enough. The first appearance of an article's title should be in bold. Any subsequent appearances should be left as plain text.

Links
A link is places by putting square brackets ( link ) around words. This will make a link to the article, using the exact words in the link. A link can also be made with a different word as the link, bye putting the title, a | symbol then the word you want to appear in square brackets. For example, player appears as player but is linked to the farmer article.


 * Links should be added to any articles on a page
 * Links should not be made to the same article multiple time. This means that is the word farmer is mentions 5 times, only the first appearance of the word should be linked.
 * Plurals can be linked to by placing the s outside the box. For example, farmers will link to farmers.

Writing articles
The following should be kept in mind when writing articles.


 * Nobody own articles. This means that words such as 'I' should be left out.
 * Keep bias out of articles. The Wiki should remain neutral and any personal opinions must be kept out. Useful ideas are allowed in articles.
 * Do not add any unverifiable facts without sourcing the proof.

=Discussion=