EVElopedia:Manual of Style

This is an unofficial style guide for the pages within the EVELOPEDIA website. At this time, an official guide does not exist. This manual includes a series of suggestions It is based on the official wiki

General Principals

The intention of this guide is to establish a series of common style and format practices to improve EVElopedia. Since an official style guide does not exist, this guide will act in its place. However, this guide should only be a consideration when writing EVElopedia articles, and following this guide is neither required nor expected by the CPP staff, YARR volunteers or its author. Additionally, due to the unofficial nature of this guide, readers should note that the content may change at any time.

The designs herein are developed around five goals: clarity, consistency, accessibility, stability, and identification.

Clarity:

All articles should clearly describe and discuss their specific topic. Supplementary information should be referenced through the use of links.

Consistency:

Within EVElopedia, articles should use common styles, presentations, and practices to create a familiar experience for the reader.

Accessibility:

All articles should be designed for and appeal to users of all ages, experience, and play styles. They should allow users to find information quickly and navigate to additional articles easily.

Stability:

Contributors should avoid unnecessary or constant changes to EVElopedia articles. Contributors should utilize offline tools or personal resources (like contributor pages) to write and finalize page edits. Disputed article topics should reference the dispute and provide the arguments made by all sides.

Identification:

Articles should reference the sources of information and topics whenever possible. Due to the evolving nature of EVE Online, contributors should also reference dates and game builds when discussing in-game elements that have changed.

Overview

Organization

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (organization)

Articles should be organized into discrete sections. Each section should discuss specific aspect of the article topic. Sections should be arranged and ordered in manner that best fits the article topic. Some pages work well when organized around the user experience. Others work better with a systematic organization (eg. chronological or alphabetical). When the number of sections is large, articles should include a summary or preface paragraph at the top of the page. Pages with large quantities of supplementary or related information should include a list of related links at the bottom of the page.

Formatting

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (page formatting)

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (text formatting)

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (media formatting)

Formatting should follow the standard formatting options provided by the EVElopedia markup. Additional or custom formatting should strive to improve reader comprehension, information accessibility, and organizational consistency.

Style

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (style)

Article style should reflect the page content and consider the user experience. Almost always, reader comprehension and information dissemination should take preference over creative expression.

Grammar

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (grammar)

EVElopedia does not prefer one style of English over another (ex. British English vs. American English). Regardless, content should be written in grammatically correct English.

Voice

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (voice)

First and foremost, EVElopedia is a reference. Therefore, articles should be voiced as such. Unless writing in-character or commenting on article content, authors should avoid writing in the first or second person voice. Authors should clearly identify when not writing in the expected voice.

Tone

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (tone)

Whenever possible, articles should maintain a neutral tone. Authors should avoid directly expressing bias or using biased phrases, words, arguments, and comparisons. This includes loaded words and slang. When discussing opinions expressed about a subject, the opinion holders should be identified and referenced (ex. In July 2010, players expressed their dissatisfaction toward in-game performance in a forum thread). When discussing arguments or contested subjects, articles should present all sides of the discussion.

Identification

Main Article: EVElopedia:Manual of Style (identification)

Articles should identify the source of any information not directly attributable to EVE Online. Information that is relevant to a specific release of EVE Online should identify the release, release date, as well as identify why the information is specifically relevant.