Manual of Style

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For an introduction to Wiki editing, please see the Mediawiki formatting page on Mediawiki.

General Guidelines (Specifications)

The following sub-headings indicate various topics for which stylistic direction or guidelines exist.

The following stylistic guidelines currently exist:

  1. Article Naming Conventions
  2. Categories
  3. Citations
  4. Dictionary Entries
  5. Grammar, Spelling & Style Conventions
  6. GURPS Traveller Writing Conventions
  7. Links
  8. Source Citations
  9. Table & Listing Conventions
  10. Traveller Wiki Headings
  11. World Articles
    1. Multiple Worlds (with the same name) or Dismabiguation

Article Naming Conventions

There are some rules regarding how articles on the Traveller wiki should be named.

  • Article names should be in singular form, not plural. (i.e. Aslan not Aslans)
  • The titles of articles about individual people should be the name by which the person was most commonly known in the the Traveller universe, with later names preferred to earlier names, and full names preferred to partial names or nicknames. Titles, such as military ranks or titles of nobility, should be omitted. Articles titles about people should be in the form of "Family Name, Personal Name(s)". (i.e. Alkhalikoi, Strephon Aella not Strephon Aella Alkhalikoi)
  • Unless the name of the article contains a proper noun, only the first word should be capitalized.
  • Articles about a world (like Regina, or Terra) should have the text "(world)" appended to their article title. This is so we can distinguish between (for example) the Domain of Antares, Antares Sector, Antares Subsector, Antares (system), Antares (star) and Antares (world).
  • Similarly, articles about Sectors or Subsectors should be name "X Sector" (e.g. Antares Sector) or "X Subsector" (e.g. Antares Subsector).

Categories

All Library entries should include either the {{LE}} (for canon articles) or the {{LEN}} (for non-canon articles) template at the bottom of the article. Please see the Templates for more information.

Dictionary Entries

In addition to the library entries, the Traveller wiki contains a dictionary of terms specific to the Traveller universe and translations of words from the numerous alien languages. The Traveller wiki follows the Wiktionary's manual of style for entry layout. The fundamental elements of an article:

  1. a word’s language (as a level 2 heading),
  2. its part of speech or "type" (as a level 3 heading),
  3. the inflection word itself, including pluralization for nouns, comparatives for adjectives and the verb tenses,
  4. a definition (preceded by "#", which causes automatic numbering), and,
  5. links in the definition for key words

The entry layout article goes into more depth about additional information to be included in each dictionary entry.

Date pages

Please see Manual of Style/Date pages for more information.

Grammar, Spelling & Style Conventions

The following grammar conventions and spelling conventions are suggested:

  • Use standard American spelling and grammar conventions although British spelling and grammar conventions are also accepted.
  • Unless a specific style convention is requested, use MLA standards, which are readily available online or in printed book form.
  • Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" is a great style guide to start with and is readily available online and in printed book form.
  • Many publishers have their own style requirements such as Steve Jackson Games.

GURPS Traveller Writing Conventions

Please see the page GURPS Traveller Writing Conventions for more information about the writing conventions and universe considerations made when writing for GURPS Traveller.

Links

External links can be made to wikipedia. Links to less than common terms, or articles on TL–8 or less technologies would be appropriate. Links to any other web site should normally be in a section labeled as such.

Internal links should be made to any traveller-specific term (e.g. Vargr) this should include races, places, historical events, people, etc. Link to all current articles, and everything that you think should be an article. This includes all references to authors, elements, books, magazines, high technology, even if they don't exist yet as we can use the most wanted list to determine articles to research. Links should be made once on the page for each term, the first time the term is used. (e.g. Aslan should be linked the first time it is used, and not linked afterwards).

Links to worlds should use the WorldS template. This gives a consistent look and feel (and link standard) for all the world articles.

Source Citations

For all library articles, include a Sources template, even if you are the author. For an article published here, or other website on the internet, include the author's name in a link to the author's page. Example:

{{Sources|S1=[[Marc Miller]]}}

which produces:

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

If the article comes from a book we recommend using the Template:Ludography cite which produces a formatted citation to the source material. Example:

{{Sources|S1={{Ludography cite|name=The Spinward Marches|page=32}}}}

which produces:

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

If the article comes from a magazine article the Ludography cite template should include the article name:

, include both the magazine, the issue and the author of the article. Example: (Also see Templates)

{{Sources|S1={{Ludography cite|name=Signal-GK 1|article=Library Data: Argi Subsector|page=45}}

which produces:

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

If the article has multiple sources, either republished or expanded on, include all (or as many as you are sure of). Example:

{{Sources |S1={{TDref|11}}, [[Joe Fugate]] |S2=[[Alien - Vilani & Vargr]] }}

which produces:

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

Table & Listing Conventions

Lists are groups of numbered or bulleted items and the following conventions are suggested when using them:

  • List them alphabetically. This includes source, or reference, lists.
  • List them using bullets unless the numbering has purpose, such as a chronological list.
  • It's fine to use non-alphabetical lists when there is a purpose for doing so such as a technological history list, thematic list, or for other purpose-driven sorting reasons.
  • When using tables, use the "sortable" function whenever possible.
  • Do not build tables using a black background. This makes tables very difficult to read especially when font colors are a default black.

Traveller Wiki Headings

Use the == (heading) markup for headings, not the ''' (bold) markup. Example:

===This is a heading===

which produces:

This is a heading

If you mark headings this way, a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article. Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article.

  • Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case.
  • Avoid links within headings.
  • Avoid overuse of sub-headings.

World Articles

These are articles about the mainworld of a system, usually the largest and most important one.

As stated above, the article should be the name of the world followed by the text " (world)". This is to distinguish the world articles from other astrographic features with the same name. Also many of the templates assume this text is part of the article name.

The article must include the {{World|...}} template with the full name and location of the world. Usually the best place for this is in the {{UWP|...}} template as the name parameter.

Multiple worlds with the same name disambiguation

The article name should include a two letter code for the sector (List is here) and the hex locations in parentheses.

For example Zephyr'

  • Zephyr (Il 3219) (world)
  • Zephyr (SM 3138) (world)
  • Zephyr (TR 0702) (world)

There should also be an (e.g. Zephyr (world)) article with a {{Disambig}} template and links to each of the duplicate named world articles.

The two letter abbreviation for each sector does produce some duplicate codes. "Da", "Ga", and "Ha" each have four, with several other combinations having three. But there have been no duplicates of name + code + hex.

Templates (Specifications)

The Traveller Wiki Team has developed a number of templates for the site which fall into several categories.

These can all be seen on the Template List page.

Article Refinement Templates

These templates should be used to signify that the article has issues, room for improvement, and needs for future editors to address. These are used to mark articles that are not up to standards in one way or another. It is preferable to fix the issue, but labeling it will allow other future editors to easily identify the articles that need work.

  1. Template: Stub - For Stub or placeholder articles
  2. Template: Source - For articles missing the Template:Sources
  3. Template: Infoboxneeded - For articles missing an infobox template
  4. Template: Incomplete - Articles missing basic formatting
  5. Template: Detail - Articles missing important details
  6. Template: Language - Article text needs to be improved.
  7. Template: Complete - Article has all canon information and should not be altered due to copyright issues.

Infobox Templates

There are a number of infobox templates that put a box with information at the side of the page (as yet we do not have bottom boxes linking similar pages as in wikipedia. Articles that fit the type should use these templates, which include:

Text Expansion Templates

There are templates to expand text and possibly reference one or more other pages. The World and WorldS for example will reference the World, Sector, (Subsector) and present the format for world references in a common format.

Others include TDRef and JTASref to make reference to articles for those publications (others will likely follow), and short forms Imperium and Imperial (both link to Third Imperium), HIWG, sm and GDW which refer to their longer named pages.

Category Templates

The Traveller RPG Wiki uses a set of categories marked at the bottom of each article. These help to make articles more accessible and searchable. The Category Templates insert a standard set of categories for each page depending upon the intended use.

The Category Templates are:

  • DE: Dictionary Entry Template, Canon
  • DEN: Non-Canon Dictionary Entry Template
  • LEA: Alternate TU Library Entry Template (ATU or IMTU)
  • LE: Basic Library Entry Template, Canon
  • LEN: Non-Canon Library Entry Template
  • MET: Metastory: Articles about traveler that are not "in-universe" and pertain to rules, authors, and such. May also include non-canon materials although these are more typically organized under LEA.

Each article in the library section should use either the LE (canon) or the LEN (non-canon) template.

Wikipedia Template

Wikipedia template is used when the majority of the text is copied from wikipedia, if the article is significantly different (more comprehensive) than a similar article about traveller on Wikipedia, please add the Travellerwiki template to wikipedia.

Article Organization

Articles here at the AAB Vilani Galactic Encyclopedia follow a loose, not strictly enforced hierarchy. All wiki authors agree to allow their writing to be mercilessly edited by others with no exceptions.

  1. The simplest articles are stubs, not much more than a few sentences to a paragraph with little to no organization. And often without template or sources. Articles typically begin their "lives" as simple stubs or placeholders before being further developed. Sometimes stubs are little more than a brainstormed idea or a kernel of a creative thought. That's okay. FFE has graciously allowed fans to use this wiki for development of the universe, and not strictly limited it to only canon OTU data.
  2. Dictionary entries are also relatively basic, but use a standardized set of organization and a specialized namespace or coding feature. The wiki development team is currently working on a Traveller dictionary style format. Many Traveller specific terms might have both a dictionary entry and a conventional AAB expositional article. The term ihatei, for instance, will require both a dictionary entry and an expositional article.
  3. Basic (or mainstream) Articles collect several paragraphs or more of data and use an organizational format of several headers and sometimes a template as well. The basic structure for a mainstream article is:
    1. Synopsis (no header, designed to float at the top of an article). Templates are typically placed above the synopsis. Think of them as a sort of executive summary for the reader. Quick, direct information and definition. Articles with referral trees place them below the synopsis.
    2. Description, a two point heading
    3. History & Background, a two point heading
    4. References, a two point heading. Sources, categories, Canon tags, secrets, metadata, and other data are typically placed here.
  4. Advanced (or Complex) Articles are fully developed articles with great detail, richness of data, and a complex organizational structure. Sectors, subsectors, worlds, and other such article use complex article structure. Nearly all complex articles possess a template allowing them to be more easily searched and organized. Advanced articles use the same fundamental structure as basic articles (synopsis, description, history & background, references, etc.), but with greater complexity and development. Advanced articles are distinguished from basic articles by:
    1. A template typically placed above the synopsis. Some articles such as domains may use more than one template.
    2. While a basic article is typically composed of only three two point headings, complex articles might have many more than three two point headings.
    3. Three point headings help to add detail to an article and really bring it out. More complex articles often have a fairly standardized set of expansive three point headers. Many world articles have extensive detail with regular sets of three point headers.
    4. Fourth or lower levels of headers are generally avoided with the exception of very large and complex articles such as Third Imperium.
    5. Advanced articles very often include entabulated data to make it easier to grasp. Traveller is so big and complex that sometimes a well designed table is the only way to make it accessible. Please see an article like Languages of Charted Space for several examples of entabulated data. There is also an advantage that many tables have a simple sorting feature.
  5. Collective Articles pull together entire topics and make it easy for readers to explore the universe of Traveller. Collective articles usually include an overarching title such as Robots of Charted Space as well as a referral tree, a set of defined intra-wiki links helping a reader to find related information. Please see the article Jump Drive for an example of a well developed referral tree. The following features are indicative of a collective article:
    1. Has a broad overview of large parts of Charted Space and the greater Traveller universe.
    2. Has a referral tree to help new and older fans find related information.
    3. Contains extensive intra-wiki links to explain acronyms, specialized terminology, and Traveller specific details.

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.
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