Battlestar Wiki:Standards and Conventions/Formatting

This page (like all pages on this wiki) was imported from the original English-language Battlestar Wiki based on what was available in the Wayback Machine in early 2017. You can see the archive of the original page here.

This page is one of Battlestar Wiki's many projects. This page serves to coordinate discussion on a particular aspect of this Wiki. The formal recommendations of a project may be treated as policies.

Battlestar Wiki's Standards and Conventions
Standards for...
Overview ... Page Formatting ... Article Prose and Grammar ... Cast and Crew Biographies ... Episode Guides ... Disambiguations ... Quote of the Day pages

HTML vs. Wiki code

Main article: Battlestar Wiki:Markup

The usage of Wiki code supersedes the use of HTML coding on Battlestar Wiki. Wiki code is faster to type and, if everything is in wiki code, allows changes to cascade automatically in the event that a format or style is modified, thus reducing mass re-edits to all pages during a huge update.

Especially, <b> and <i> should always be replaced by their wiki code equivalents (''' and '', respectively).

For a tutorial on coding and formatting using Wiki code, see: Battlestar Wiki: Tutorial (Formatting).

Images

All episode screenshots are copyright NBC/Universal or Universal Studios, and should be credited as such on image pages. If you upload an image, make sure you tag it correctly. You can do that by following the correct formats on the official policy on image tagging.

Images are desirable wherever their use is appropriate. Character pictures are currently being handled on the Battlestar Wiki:Characters project. Other articles needing images are listed at Battlestar Wiki Media:Requested Images.

To find out how to add images using Wiki code, see: Battlestar Wiki:Tutorial (Images).

Image galleries

Image galleries should be used sparingly, and then only in extreme circumstances.

We do not permit image galleries to depict multiple shots of a character or of events in an episode, due to fair use issues. Image galleries, like the ones on certain image gallery websites that will remain nameless are illegal, since their use is not covered under the aforementioned fair use copyright laws of the United States.

Where to use image galleries:

• On ship pages, such as Galactica.
  • At maximum, a "ship image" gallery would include various views of the ship (forward, stern, port, starboard, topside, and underside), as well as some interior shots of the ship (corridor, major areas, etc.) Do not include multiple pictures of the same thing.
• On pages that are too small for images to be included inline with text.

Pages with galleries containing one picture will most likely have the gallery removed and, at worst, the picture deleted.

Audio

All audio clips from the show are copyright NBC/Universal or Universal Studios, and should be credited as such on their file's description pages. If you upload an audio clip, make sure you tag it correctly. You can do that by following the correct formats on the official policy on audio tagging.

Audio clips are desirable wherever their use is appropriate. For instance, it is acceptable to use audio on the following pages:

• To help illustrate articles in a way pictures cannot.
  • Examples: Case Orange, Action stations
• To bring notable quotes to light in audio format, namely on episode guide entries:
  • Examples: Crossroads, Part II#Noteworthy Dialogue

Category Rules

Main article: Battlestar Wiki:Categories

All manually entered categories for any page should be in alphabetical order: 0-9 then A-Z. Categories should go below templates (if it's the last item) and before BW:FA and BW:QA templates, All interwiki language links should be last and should also be in alphabetical order. Interwiki links are maintained by Interwiki Bot.

All categories up to the "parent" category should be included. For example, Colonial One has all of these cats:

{{Ships}} ↔

[[Category:A to Z]] ¿
[[Category:Colonial]] *
[[Category:Colonial Craft]]
[[Category:Colonial Craft (RDM)]]
[[Category:Ships]] *
[[Category:Ships (RDM)]]
[[Category:RDM]]

{{quality article}} ↔
{{featured article}} ↔

or

[[de:Colonial One]] ‡

The categories marked with a * are the parent categories, because the next category after that is "A to Z" in which is included in all article pages. The A to Z ¿ category is always first and always included on every page.

Note: The "Ships" template ({{Ships}}) is before the categories. The one interwiki link for Colonial One is after "RDM" category but before the featured and quality article templates. The FA and QA templates are not used if the article conforms to "Real Point of View" rules. If a template auto-creates "categories", place the template in-between the categories so that it would not break the alphabetical order of the categories.

From "Antibiotics"...

[[Category:A to Z]]

{{Drugs}}

[[Category:Technology]]
[[Category:Technology (RDM)]]
[[Category:Terminology]]
[[Category:Terminology (RDM)]]
[[Category:RDM]]

By doing this, this allows people to browse by series or non-series if they goto the category view.

RDM                              TOS                             Ships
|- Colonial Craft (RDM)   |- Colonial Craft (TOS)  |- Ships (TOS)
|- Ships (RDM)               |- Ships (TOS)              |- Ships (RDM)

The only time that this does not apply is to the series category. TOS, TSC, 1980, RDM, Comics, and Video Game should be be the last category added and this is also the list of the "top level" categories on Battlestar Wiki. If the article contains more than one series or genre, make sure they they are in this order also. This includes any double categories as shown by the example for Richard Hatch:

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatch, Richard}}
[[Category:A to Z]]
[[Category:Cast]]
[[Category:Cast (TOS)]]
[[Category:Cast (TSC)]]
[[Category:Cast (RDM)]]
[[Category:TOS]]
[[Category:TSC]]
[[Category:RDM]]

Pages that are lists should be categorized in their sub-category itself with |*, but not when you add the [[Category:Lists]]. It makes the lists the first items in the category view.

Individuals and characters with proper names should be sorted by last name, then first and middle names. To achieve this, use:

{{DEFAULTSORT:lastname, firstname middlename}}

You may still override the default sort by piping the [[Category:]] syntax like so:

[[Category:A to Z|Hatch, Richard]]

Be sure to check your work. Make sure there aren't other sub-categories that you can add to to the article to make navigation and reference easier. Categories are an easy and powerful addition to every article, so be sure to be thorough.

Caprica (series)

All Caprica series related articles should have Caprica (series) category before RDM as it is not a top level category.

Links

Links to Episodes

When referring to episode titles as part of a sentence, place quotation marks around the episode name. This helps keep the title distinct from other text. This is especially useful for unwieldy episode names such as "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I".

• Example: "In the episode "Pegasus", Galactica finds Pegasus."

When citing a single episode title as a source for a body of text, use parentheses, but do not place quotes around the episode name. Citations go inside the sentence's punctuation.

• Example: "Galactica finds Pegasus (Pegasus)."

When citing multiple episode titles as a source for a body of text, place all episode names within one set of parentheses. Each episode title should use commas to separate them within the parentheses. (Do not place quotes around the name of Miniseries, as this is a designation and not an actual episode name.)

• Example: Lee Adama is moody often (Miniseries, "33", "Water", "The Hand of God").

Although Battlestar Wiki uses American punctuation rules otherwise, placing commas and periods within the quotation marks, make an exception for episode titles by placing them outside the quotation marks.

"Red Links"

A "red link" is a term for a link to an article that does not exist on the wiki, but can be created.

There are many methods to dealing with red links:

1. Determine whether or not the link contains a misspelling. If so, correct it.
2. Determine if the link needs to be piped, i.e. [[Lee]] should be [[Lee Adama|Lee]].
3. If the article does not exist in any namespace or any form, then create the article. You can either fill it out with content or simply tag it with {{requested}} and save it.

While some believe that red links out there help create articles here, the overwhelming fact that many red links on the "Wanted Pages" list are links to images served on our Media repository necessitates the usage of creating an article and applying the {{requested}} template.