Vikingskool Wiki:Manual of Style

The manual of style serves as a reference to help maintain uniformity of all articles in the. Please keep in mind that these serve as guidelines and not rules. Though these guidelines are enforced across the wiki, certain exceptions to these can apply when necessary. The manual of style is ultimately dictated by the community, and as such, this manual is subject to change at any time.

Before editing, please make sure to read the wiki's Rules!

Language
For the purpose of maintaining consistency, and because the subject of this wiki originates from the United States, words on this wiki should conform to the spelling used in American English. This applies only to main namespace pages, not talk or user pages. Although no user should be harassed or punished for using other regional spellings of words, editors are encouraged to conform text in articles to U.S. spelling. If you come across a word spelled the way it is in another country (for example if you see "color" spelled as "colour"), just change it to the U.S. English spelling and be done with it.

Articles
Avoid making articles with conjectural titles. Please make sure the article name for a subject is its official name. Similarly, please do not use nicknames or alternate names for an article's title. (e.g. "Erik" instead of "Main Character.")

Article names must also be written in the singular form rather than the plural. (e.g. "Dog" instead of "Dogs.") Certain exceptions may apply, such as if an article is a list. (e.g. "List of dogs.") Additionally, the definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles except when they are part of an official title.

When starting an article, make sure to always include at least a single sentence about the subject. This sentence should include a brief definition of the subject, and don't forget to bold the first instance of the article name.

POV
Situations must be discussed in a disinterested tone, giving no bias or preferences and avoiding giving unimportant issues undue weight. Avoid the use of imperative form and second person (you) when writing articles.

Formatting
Capitalization of article titles and section headers should include the first letter of the first word being a capital letter, but it should otherwise follow the normal English rules of capitalization. For example, a section title should be "External links" instead of "External Links." An exception is the capitalization of article titles for characters.

When bolding an article's title within the article itself, only the first instance of the article's name should be bolded. In instances where alternate names or nicknames for the article's title are added, the first instances of them should also be bolded. Here is an example of this:


 * A bag (also known regionally as a sack) is a common tool in the form of a non-rigid container. The use of bags predates recorded history, with the earliest bags being no more than lengths of animal skin, cotton, or woven plant fibers, folded up at the edges and secured in that shape with strings of the same material.
 * View the original article here.

When viewed in Source mode, this is what it would look like.



When referring to the names of media, such as the title of a television show, these should be italicized (e.g. Vikingskool) while things like episode names should be surrounded with quotation marks. (e.g. "Episode name" from Season 1)

Stubs
Do not add the "Article stubs" category directly to an article. Instead, append  to the beginning of an article. Articles should only be marked as a stub if the article is incomplete and is missing some basic information.

Linking
Linking is usually limited to the first occurrence of the word or phrase in each article, not counting links inside infoboxes. This is because spamming too many wiki links makes articles difficult to read. Adding multiple links for the same term might be acceptable in very long articles, where linked instances of the term are very far apart. Another exception to this is if multiple links lead to different sections on the same page.

File Standards
Always remember to refer to the File Policy if a file follows the regulations of the wiki.

File Naming System
The name of a file should be as clear and descriptive as possible without being excessively long. The style provided here are examples of good naming conventions.
 * Titlecards: Episodename_Titlecard (i.e. Reunion Titlecard)
 * Episode Screenshots: Episode name number (the episode gallery must be in chronological order) (i.e. Reunion 1)
 * It's recommended to keep the image count around 200-350.
 * Should have no edits (i.e. cropping), logos, watermarks, and/or texts.
 * Programs such as VLC can screenshot images more efficiently than manually.
 * Storyboards: Episodename_Storyboard_with description (i.e. Reunion Storyboard Anne fights Sasha)
 * Promotional Artwork: Episodename_Promo (i.e. Reunion Promo)
 * Model Sheets: Charactername_(design) Model (i.e. Molly McGee Prom Model)
 * Backgrounds: Episodename_Background_with description (i.e. Reunion Background Pure Heart Valley)
 * Staff Artwork/Drawings: Description of art (suggested to add the artist name)
 * Other: The file itself is what the file is that has been uploaded and to be named accurately.


 * Correct:
 * For any image/audio file examples:
 * "POINT Prep Daytime.jpeg"
 * "Molly McGee Wiki Theme Song.ogg"
 * "Ghosts.svg"


 * Incorrect > Examples:
 * "Image01.jpeg"
 * "Huzzah!.ogg"
 * "Screenshot 2017-08-01-6.00.05.pm.png"
 * "Tumblr1a2b3c4d5e6f7g.jpeg"

This is necessary because it helps to find the image easier through search tools such as Special:Search, the editor's image search, and even external search engines like Google.

Format
The format for the file must be: For images: An SVG (for simple images usually being scaled), JPG (for photographic/detailed images), or PNG (all-rounder/original quality) for static and GIF for animated. Audio: Ogg with the FLAC codec. The rest are prohibited for security reasons, and videos are uploaded from trusted domains instead.

Quality and Size
Why File Compression is Important for Wikis

Images are important because they make an article and the wiki pop with visual stimulation so one does not become bored. When this is not possible due to the lack of these resources or if they are misused, it poses a problem.

Images with a large resolution, for example, can sometimes be unnecessarily large and only serves to mimic what a simple .svg image does: hides the pixels as much as possible when zooming in and maintain the shape of pixels rather than the artifacts. Most wiki users do not have a screen that requires a large resolution, so it is recommended to stick around 1920x1080 for episode shots, around 4000x3000 for character model sprites, and so on, for the sake of convenience.

It is not over when the resolution is perfect. What needs to be done next is the compression of the image's byte size. This can be done with various online tools such as lossless compression provided by JPGMini, PNGGauntlet, and so on. Saving an image into a JPG format also works, and while it reduces the size drastically, it is a lossy compression, which means the quality of the image is lost. It is recommended to have the original image and save it as a JPG with 90% quality for the best compression/quality ratio, and the quality itself will have a difference that is barely noticeable to the original work.

Other methods exist, but that will need to be found on one's own.

File Categorization
After the file is uploaded and named properly, the file category can be applied to them. The wiki utilizes the Images category.

Official Staff Artwork Categories
The Vikingskool crew would occasionally release artworks of the show from episodes to characters, and other features such as props, backgrounds, etc. in their social media accounts. When uploading their artworks, make sure they are named properly and posted on the corresponding staff page and to the correct characters and episodes galleries pages. To distinguish the staff artwork from fan art or user edit based images uploaded from the wiki. category = Gallery files namespace = Category

Note that fan art never use any of the official staff artwork categories as they always use User files.

Videos and Audio Files
Videos are always automatically categorized under the Videos category. If the video is used in the main-space article, add the Gallery files category to it. Audio files such as .ogg will need to be added under the Audio files category.

Disclaimer: User files, Gallery files and all of its branches are case sensitive. This means that the categories User files, user files, User Files, and USER FILES are all different categories despite identical spelling. Please follow the correct underline format listed in the categorization guide.

File Content
The purpose of the file's page is to provide information about the file. This can include its origins, modifications, licensing, and its description and/or purpose. The file must contain:

Metadata
Metadata is the comments made within an image. They usually tell what has modified it, which date it was modified or created on, who took the picture, the location the picture was taken, and so on. This information is usually added without one knowing, which can lead to the size of a file increasing or worse, having their privacy violated.

When adding a gallery image, it is recommended not to have the metadata of an image and should be removed prior to uploading. Programs such as PhotoME allow this to be done.

File Usage
How a file is used on a page and its given criteria will be detailed here.

Gallery Images
See mw:Help:Images#Gallery syntax for parameters The gallery must have a simple syntax forming it as long as it makes the images look consistent with each other on the page and wiki-wide. To achieve this, the resolution of the images should be consistent with the page so the wiki can scale the image to have its size consistent with the rest while maintaining its quality. This only goes for the gallery section. For any other section, the gallery should have a simple syntax forming it as long as it makes the images look consistent with each other on the page and wiki-wide. If other options make the set of images look better (for example, a panorama or "pack"), then the appropriate syntax may be utilized.

Audio
Audio on pages is to be used when text cannot describe a subject, no video is available, or if the page is excessively large (to save data). In this case, an audio file can be its placeholder or permanent holder on the page.