Uncle Sam wants you to keep this wiki as serious and up to date as it can be.
This Manual of Style for Serious Sam Wiki is a guide for editors on how to properly format articles.
In the interests of keeping the articles as clean, concise and professional as possible, all wiki contributors should strive for consistency of content. That is, articles of a similar type should follow a similar layout in order to be consistent.
When being an editor on Fandom for a while, it should be obvious that there are a number of different (and correct) ways to know how to write articles. Without a policy dedicated to such a topic, wiki articles can become messy and inconsistent as each contributor chooses to do things their own way, which can result in conflicts and arguments about which is better.
The Manual of Style - a collection of guidelines and policies - is an effort to overcome these problems by providing an itemized list of examples of the right way to write articles. All of the below guidelines can be assumed to be officially sanctioned unless otherwise stated. Opinions and feedback relating to these guidelines is can be mentioned on the talk page.
Registering[]
It is not mandatory to register with this wiki, but it is recommended. It's simple and free and makes communication a whole lot easier.
General[]
- Please categorize articles and insert navigational templates appropriately to ensure that the Serious Sam Wiki is a more orderly compendium of Half-Life knowledge.
- Articles with a single heading should not be inserted with something like ==Overview==. Just don't put a heading until you feel the need to insert another one, and then you may create two.
- Inserted pictures should be in "thumb" format, such as [[File:Random.jpg|thumb|left]], unless the picture is in an infobox or gallery. When doing so, be sure to add a proper caption like [[File:Random.jpg|thumb|left|Caption goes here.]].
- Refer to the Serious Sam universe from an in-universe perspective. Always use third-person writing.
- Never use the second person singular (therefore "you" or other expressions) in the main namespace, (such as the Tactics section on an enemy/weapon page for example). Even if most of the people reading this wiki are players, an encyclopedia does not directly talk to its reader. So prefer "the player" or the playable character name (e.g. "Sam Stone", "Stone" or "Sam") or any other relevant adjective or other phrasing (such as the passive voice, "The Beheaded Kamikazes must be killed as soon as possible" being better than "The player must quickly kill the Beheaded Kamikazes"). A sentence does not require to feature the word "you" to be in the second person singular, so be careful how you phrase things.
- Refrain from using slashes whenever possible. Instead, work the word "or" into the sentence, or figure out some other way of stating it.
- The spoiler tag should always be at the top of the article and not anywhere else. This to avoid confusion for the reader.
- Avoid leaving broken links on articles. If the page where the link is supposed to lead to exists, it should be green. Double-check your spelling and don't go away from the page until the link is green.
- Don't overuse capitalization in subtitles. ==Behind the scenes== or ==See also== instead of ==Behind the Scenes== or ==See Also==.
- Before adding any trivia-like facts to an article, consider if the fact is both useful to know and fully informative or a complete thought. If it is not, try to work it properly into the article somewhere or do not add it.
Fanon[]
Fanon of any kind is not allowed on this wiki. Speculation and fan-made information (and images) will be deleted and you may be blocked. If adding information that you consider to be canon, provide a source.
Images[]
- Screenshots have to be from the actual game, not screenshots from ones from customized/tweaked games or mods.
- Do not upload images onto the wiki that don't serve a purpose, unless they are to be added to a subject gallery. Before uploading, read all the instructions given on Special:Upload. Failure to ignore will result in a block and/or deletion of the uploaded picture.
Names[]
- Please name all character articles by their full known name, not their title/rank as well. Captain Sam Stone's article is titled Sam Stone, not "Captain Sam Stone".
- Any game and level title should be written in italic text.
Written tense[]
When writing articles, it can be difficult to know which tense is more appropriate for that page. When possible, always use the present tense, except for in some cases, such as the when the part of an article relates to an event that takes place in the past, such as when a Serious Sam 3 event for Sam refers to the Serious Sam events. The article about Earth uses present tense, since it is still there in the past timeline, despite having been destroyed in Serious Sam 3. Overall, as long as a subject is seen alive or intact in one or more games, it must be referred to in present tense.
See also[]
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