This is the official style guide that is to be followed for the Watch Dogs Fanon Wiki articles. Every article on this wiki needs to follow this Manual of Style to have a good presentation, if you need help ask one of the administrators. Of course, this is a fanon wiki, so authors have a bit more freedom than a strict canon wiki. However, these rules still apply and MUST be followed.
General[]
Best practice[]
One of the best practices to while editing the wiki is to refrain from pasting the information you copied from a source. The exception is that the copied content is used as a filler for an introduction of an article or a section of an article, it is strongly recommended that you should (learn to) rewrite the information you have came across in your research, using your own words. It is also highly recommended that you should know how to perform copy editing and content editing.
Copy editing demands the basic knowledge of the English language. This covers from correcting spelling and grammar errors, using the proper verbs tense and fixing common punctuation mistakes. On the other hand, content editing dilates this knowledge by assessing whether the written content meets the standards of a good encyclopedic entry. Elements of a good encyclopedic entry are explored further in the following sections.
Internal consistency within an article[]
An overriding principle is that style and formatting choices should be consistent within a Watch Dogs Wiki article, though not necessarily throughout the wiki as a whole. Consistency within an article promotes clarity and cohesion.
Stability of articles[]
If you put an article through a large style overhaul, you best have a logical reason for why. Editors should not change an article from one guideline-defined style to another without a substantial reason unrelated to mere choice of style, and that revert-warring over optional styles is unacceptable. Where there is disagreement over which style to use in an article, start a discussion on the talk page of the article and try to find ways to overcome the issue.
Clarity[]
Writing should be clear and concise. Plain English works best: avoid jargon, and vague or unnecessarily complex wording. Remember, the encyclopedia is aimed at late high school, early college reading proficiency, and general educational levels. Articles should be fully comprehensible to non-specialists.
Do not use conversational style[]
As Watch Dogs Fanon Wikia is an open encyclopedia site, it should read like an online encyclopedia. To be more specific, it should be something like Wikipedia.
- Check your spelling and grammar. Do not use internet slang (ex. "How r u?" or "c u 2nite"). If you are not 100% sure about the way a word is spelled, type it into Google or Dictionary.com. If you know that you are not the strongest speller, compose your edits in a word processor like Microsoft Word or use an Internet browser like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, which has spell-checking built in.
- Do not "reply" to content others have posted. If you think a particular point warrants discussion, post on the article's talk page. If you are 100% sure that something should be changed and do not think a discussion is necessary, just change it. Dialogue goes only on articles' talk pages or the forum.
- Avoid using second-person narrative in articles. As noted earlier, this wiki should read like an encyclopedia.
- Never abbreviate the names of characters or places. Wherever possible, use the full name of a character the first time they are mentioned. It is acceptable to abbreviate the title in some cases, including names that are commonly abbreviated in official material.
Articles style[]
All articles on Watch Dogs Fanon Wikia should have the following elements:
- The first appearance of the article's title within the text should be in bold type, as should the first appearance of common alternate names; do this using three apostrophes — '''article title''. The introduction title/name should not have links within them.
- Aiden Pearce, also known as The Vigilante, is a grey-hat hacker...
- Words that are themselves titles of additional articles should be linked only on their first occurrence in each article section.
- The titles of all games and comics should be in italics:
- Watch Dogs is a game by Ubisoft.
Naming articles[]
Article names should be written in sentence case, which is the capitalization of the initial letter of a title; otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence. Sentence case should only be ignored for mission, game, mini-game titles and proper names, which should be written in title case.
- Article names should be singular, e.g. "ATM Machine" not "ATM Machines". Plural titles are acceptable only in the case of groups with a plural name, e.g. the Black Viceroys.
Usage and spelling[]
Tense[]
For real world articles, whatever tense guidelines apply on Wikipedia will apply here. However, there are some policies that must be noted for in-universe articles.
- Past tense must be used on any event articles, or sections of any in-universe article detailing past events, e.g. History sections. For example, "Aiden kills Joseph DeMarco" is incorrect on any in-universe article. It should be "Aiden killed Joseph DeMarco". The only exception to this rule is mission articles and quotations, which should be written in present tense.
- Present tense must be used on any location, vehicle, or weapon article, where this does not conflict with the above guideline on sections of articles detailing past events. It should also be used to describe ongoing actions or events, a relatively unchanging quality, or a universal truth. Example, "Aiden Pearce is obsessed with surveillance."
Perspectives in articles[]
When writing an article based on canon content, the author should do so from an in-universe perspective. Assume you are an omniscient inhabitant of the Watch Dogs Universe living at a point in time after all events in the Watch Dogs have already occurred, and you are writing an encyclopedia entry. So, when writing an article, the author should never write something like this:
- The player is able to purchase the 417 from a Gun Shop in Chicago.
But should write:
- Aiden is able to purchase the 417 from a Gun Shop in Chicago.
This rule is limited only to in-universe article though, and content marked with the "Real world" category must be written from an out-universe perspective. For example, plot summaries must use present tense to maintain the narrative. Chapter summaries summarize a chapter's events in a "this is what happens in this chapter" fashion, as opposed to a "this is what happened in that chapter" fashion.
- DO NOT include redundant phrases like "his ultimate fate is unknown" or "what happened to the ship after that is a mystery."
Images[]
"File:Running across the L-Train, Watch Dogs.png|thumb|Caption."
Images are usefull to contribute the explanation for certain actions, character(s) or thing(s), for example.--->
The images that the users upload to the Wikia, should be ones without the logos of the series where it airs.
- A picture is better than no picture. Where an article has only one image, do not remove this image, even if it doesn't conform to these guidelines, unless you replace it or the image is a copyright violation.
- Images that are not part of an info box should have a caption (use the "thumb" function in the image tag).
- Avoid sandwiching text between two images that face each other, or between an image and an infobox.
Info boxes[]
Images in a character's info box should be:
- High quality: Ideally, profile images should have high-definition image quality.
- Good angle: The image should preferably depict the character from a front angle, with the face and shoulders clearly visible. However, a 3/4 position is also acceptable. The character's face should not be tilting. The image should be no less than 200px wide and no more that 300px wide.
- Suitable expression: The expression should depict the typical personality of the character. The character should not be talking.
- Good lighting: Profile images should be bright enough so that the character is clearly visible. Avoid images that depict the character at nighttime or in poor lighting conditions.
- Recent: The image should preferably depict the character's most recent appearance.
- Image we want: Screencaps, not promotional images.
Character models[]
Character models should only be used if no clear screenshot exists (some characters with only cameo appearances fall into this category).
Notes[]
- This Manual of Style is based off of three other already-existing Manual of Styles, with a few changes and original content. These templates were: Destinypedia, Young Justice Wiki, and WoWWiki's Manual of Styles. Credit is given where credit is due.