Mummipedia Wiki:Manual of Style
The Mummipedia Wiki: Manual of Style sets forth the format to be followed for writing, titles, articles, and linking. This page is especially useful for first-time editors. Please keep in mind, that respect is paramount here - respect for the subject, respect for the contributors, and respect of the scholarship. There is no need to be overtly negative about the efforts of others, just do your best to improve content where possible.
Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation
- Proper spelling is essential! When editing, be mindful of spelling mistakes and typographical errors, if any are discovered, please correct them. Similarly, if you are unsure of how to spell a word, it is worth looking it up (dictionary.com) to determine the correct spelling before posting your edit. North American English is the language of the wiki. Proper English must be used at all times; and a neutral point of view must be maintained. Think of each article as an encyclopedia entry, your personal opinion is not required, only the facts.
- Grammar and flow are important in each article. Bad grammar detracts from the content, good grammar follows the basic rules of sentence construction, punctuation, and spelling. Do not, for instance, use contractions such as He'd, please use the complete words; 'he had.' Maintaining a neutral, formal voice throughout each article is required. Slang, profanity, stream of consciousness, and patchwork editing are unacceptable.
- Proper punctuation is a must. Punctuation makes the sentence. It is one thing to say, "Let's eat, Grandma!" but it is a completely different thing to say, "Let's eat Grandma!"
Page Names
- Title Case should be used in all page names and subheadings; capitalization of the first letter of each word excepting internal prepositions: the first word and the principal words are capitalized. Prepositions within the title such as in, on, the, at, or conjunctions such as, and, or, are written with lowercase letters. Never use all caps for a page title.
Linking
Linking to a page on this wiki is seen in source code as double brackets. Example: [[Seti]]. If you are going to link to a page, make sure it exists. If the page does not exist as yet, create the page; red links are to be avoided.
Images
- If you find a clearer or more accurate picture than the one already in place, it can be replaced by simply upload a new image to that file name instead of creating a new file name. This will eliminate the increase in unused images on this wiki.
- Do not overuse images where they may be unnecessary. Short articles, for instance, only require one image. For longer articles, it may be desirable to use multiple images. Do not be overzealous, however, and please consider the purpose of each image.
- Do not stack images. If more than one image is to be used for an article, make sure they are staggered from a left-to-right orientation alternately, images should not be stacked one atop the next.
- Naming images is important. Try to use a short file name when uploading; perhaps citing both the image content and only upload relevant and high-quality images to the wiki.
- When sizing images for an article, 250 pixels will be more than adequate for most purposes. You can input this by entering the size in the source code view on the article editor. Simply replace "XXXpx" with a suitable number.
- Attribution. When images are uploaded, an attribution should be specified. This can be done by clicking on "More Options" within the upload window and selecting one of the options.
New Article
When creating a new article for this wiki, please make sure you are writing it and not simply cutting and pasting someone else's work. There are certain things you should include to make your article the best it can be.
- Link from - An article that doesn't contain any links is known here as a "Dead link" page. This means that after reading it, the reader has nowhere else to go. To solve this try to include links to relative articles in yours, e.g. if you mention a pharaoh or related find, link to the page.
- Links to - Articles that have nothing linking to them are called "Orphaned pages," such pages are less likely to be read. To avoid this, create links in RELATED articles such as a relevant relatives, antecedents, or location.
- Links to nowhere – Linking pages is necessary, linking to a page not yet written is not. Creating a dead link is pointless, if you feel a person, place, or thing in a given article deserves a link but the page does not yet exist, create the page, do not simply link to nothing, and hope someone else will do the work.
- Categories - Every Article or Page must have at least one Category. If in doubt of which category to use, examine similar page(s) to see which categories have been used.
Layout
An infobox should accompany each article. The templates are linked to here. The categories that can be used in each article are then listed. Don't worry that there may not be enough information to complete each heading. Any heading not utilized can be left blank until further information is uncovered.