Halopedia:Layout guide
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This page is an official Halopedia policy Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page. |
This layout guide is the wiki's official guide to laying out a typical basic article. Complicated articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure.
Objectives
This layout guide's objectives are as follows:
- to promote consistency in articles.
- to encourage users (editors and readers alike) to organise content in a cogent, concise and coherent manner.
- to enhance the wiki's reputation not only as a reputable wiki, but also as a professional fan-based website.
General
Sections listed below are for any type of article. They are optional sections; if they are applicable to the topic of the article, include it in the article.
- If the article can be illustrated with images/pictures, find an appropriate place to position these images/pictures. Ensure that their width is no larger than 250px.
- Sections can feature subsections and are obviously not all used all the time.
- "Production notes" is reserved only for development information, such as design evolution, cut content, name change, etc. It should be titled as "Production notes" and not "Behind the scenes". For more information, see General sections.
- The section "List of appearances" must only contain official Halo titles in release date order.
- Halopedia has no preference as to whether to use American English or British English - however, once one style is defined within an article it should be employed consistently. Article titles, however, still preference American spellings.
- Unless presented as such, always use the Metric system over US customary units as the primary measurement. Make sure to present the US customary units in brackets after the metric system. For editor's ease of editing, it is recommended to use the Convert template to avoid unnecessary debates on conversion issues.
Introduction
Like any article on any wiki (or any encyclopedia), the article must feature an introduction. The introduction must be kept simple, and as an overview of what the article is trying to present. The subject of the article (or the name of the article) should be mentioned in bold in the first sentence.
Note that if the subject of the article is a media title, that title should be italicised.
It is also suggested that an image/picture should be inserted in the introduction if it is available. The image/picture should be placed on the right side of the article, at a pixel size of 300px. The image/picture can be either a thumbnail (that is, it features a caption) or as a standalone image/picture (for example, the number "7" image on the "Seven" article.
In some cases, an Infobox may be inserted if there is enough information that warrants one. For further information on infobox usage, see Templates.
General sections
While certain articles may follow a particular layout, there are several general sections that can be inserted into an article. For example, an article covering an event may have a lengthy introduction. It would be better for such article to break down the introduction by moving the relevant parts into a Overview section, or a Background section.
If there is a substantial information in relation to the production or development information of the subject (such as behind-the-scenes information), users may find it fitting to include a Production notes or Behind the scenes section before the ending the article.
Article's end
Once all the essential content has been added to the wiki, users should consider concluding the article with the following sections (in such order):
- Trivia
- Gallery
- List of appearances
- Notes (applicable whenever reference notes are present: the wiki will highlight it for you)
- Sources (compulsory for citing sources/references)
- External links (applicable if there is a relevant external link)
It should be noted that each section should be its own section and not a sub-section. It should also be noted that the sections mentioned above are only necessary if they are applicable to the article.
Trivia section
The Trivia section is for noteworthy trivial information, such as little details that does not add much to the subject, could even be disregarded, but are fun to know. Pointless and irrelevant trivia will be removed however. It may have subsections such as a subsection on "Easter eggs", "Glitches", or even "References" to other media. It can even have a "Production notes" subsection if the information is noteworthy but not substantial enough as to having its own section. If there is only one trivia entry, no bullet point is needed.
While it may be a user habit to include an image alongside a trivia, it is recommended that users should avoid this as it may cause layout issues with the rest of the sections.
Gallery section
The Gallery section is the section for images/pictures. It is there to present images/pictures related to the subject, or having some relevance at the very least. The gallery section must accompanied by a gallery tag, expressed as such: <gallery></gallery>.
To use the gallery tag, begin by adding <gallery>, then add in your images/pictures in the subsequent line, and finally close the tag with </gallery>. The following is an example:
<gallery> File:Wiki.png File:Halopedia.png|This inserts a caption. </gallery>
When a gallery becomes too large (typically, this means more than 12 images, though at your discretion), sub-sections should be created for better organization and presentation. Sub-sections in a gallery section should broadly follow these categories:
- Concept art: Illustrations or artwork created during the development of any media.
- Development images: Renders, screenshots, or even photographs taken during the development of any media. This section could include concept art, especially when there is only one or two images of concept art.
- Illustrations: Finalized versions of illustrations, excluding concept art, such as cover art, comic panels, promotional artwork, etc. This section could be combined with concept art into a "Concept art and illustrations" sub-sections if there is only one or two images of illustrations.
- Renders: Renders from games. These images should have a transparent or relatively neutral background.
- Screenshots: Screenshots taken from any games, films, and videos. This section could be combined with renders into a "Screenshots and renders" sub-sections if there is only one or two images of renders.
- Merchandise: Photographs of real-world merchandise, most notably action figures.
Please note that these sections could overlap or contradict with one another; as such, it is down to your best judgment which one(s) are most appropriate for the page.
For more information about gallery and images, see Help:Images.
List of appearances section
This wiki uses dedicated appearance lists to list the appearances of fictional subjects in real-world works. There are a number of standards to follow when utilizing these lists:
The definition of "appearance" as used here varies depending on the type of media. As a general rule, in visual media (games, comics, films, etc.), everything the viewer can see constitutes as an appearance. In literature, the subject must be specifically mentioned by name, or described in enough detail to discern what it is, in order to qualify as an appearance.
Deriving appearances of individual constituents from an appearance of a larger whole should be applied with discretion. Although there are exceptions, it is generally advised that the appearance or mention of an entity alone does not constitute as an appearance of all of its constituents. For example, in Halo: The Fall of Reach, there are instances in which all of the SPARTAN-IIs are gathered in the same space; however, only the Spartans who are explicitly named or described in the narrative are considered to "appear" in the novel. Similarly, while the quantum mirror is a component of MJOLNIR Mark VI armor and is thus fictionally present in all media in which the armor appears, it is only mentioned or seen in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx which is thus listed as its only appearance.
Unreleased media should not be added to an article's appearance list until the subject has been confirmed to appear in that work. Concept art or similarly vague information releases are not regarded as a reliable confirmation of an appearance in the final work.
There are several templates which can be used to further detail specific types of appearances:
1st(First appearance) - used to identify a subject's first appearance in any work; if the subject is only mentioned for the first time, but does not appear as described above, use the "First mentioned" tag instead.Fm(First mentioned) - when a previously unseen or unmentioned subject is mentioned for the first time, use this in the place of "First appearance" and "Mentioned only".Mo(Mentioned only) - used if the subject is mentioned in the source, but is not physically present in the narrative; in visual media, this means that the viewer cannot see the mentioned entity.Im(Indirect mention) - applies to instances in which the subject is not directly mentioned by name, but is being alluded to in an unambiguous manner.C- can be used to provide more specific, although brief, information on appearances that do not fit any of the aforementioned categories; this may include notes such as "Cameo appearance" or "Possible appearance" (used in very rare cases in which the possibility is highly likely or strongly implied, though uncertain).
"List of appearances" in in-universe articles
Articles written from an in-universe perspective feature a list of appearances to detail the works in which the article subject has appeared. All works the subject appears in should be listed in chronological order of release date, regardless of the type of media. Appearance lists must only contain official and canonical Halo titles. A list of official media in chronological release date order can be found here.
"Appearances" in articles for real-world media
Pages for real-world media (e.g. games) have lists for the in-universe entities that appear within that work. In these lists, the appearances are grouped into categories (characters, technology, etc.) and listed in alphabetical order within their respective categories. The template Featurelist is used to organize these lists; the template page also contains the default layouts to use in appearance lists for games and other media.
An appearance list may be replaced with more specialized sections while there is very little information available on the final set of appearances in a given work; an unannounced game, for example, may use a tentative "Content" section to analyze the content shown in media released so far in prose form, rather than a bulleted list.
Miscellaneous sections
Editors should only include the following sections where necessary to do so:
- External links
- Related pages
- See also
An "External links" section should be included if there is a URL that directs readers to an external website. The URL must be relevant to the subject article and should be checked as a legitimate and relevant link. A "Related pages" section should be included if there is an article related to the subject article but is not expressly included anywhere in the content of the subject article. An easy example is an article on Beta-5 Division which lists out Beta-3 Division as a link in its "Related pages" section. A "Related pages" section is synonymous with "See also" section.
Templates
In addition to editing the articles according to this layout guide, it is a recommendation for users to consider adding templates to articles. The role of templates is to improve the presentation of an article (in terms of functionality, and not for "rule of cool"), providing readers ease of accessing other articles related to the subject within a few clicks rather than having to type in the search box.
The best of practice for adding templates is only to do so when it is necessary. Please note that while templates are intended to provide useful features and simplify the editing process, an excess usage of templates can lead to a cluttered and uncomfortable presentation. For more information on this, please see Wikipedia's entry on "template creep".
Individual layout styles
Listed below are layout styles tailored for specific articles.
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In-universe articles - These layout guides apply to articles focusing on lore and in-universe content.
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Real-world articles - These layout guides apply to articles focusing on gameplay and real-world content.
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