Little Tail Wiki:Manual of Style

This page serves as a general guide to constructing clean, consistent and easy to parse pages for all of Little Tail Wiki. By following the Manual of Style and other guides listed in the bottom navigation box, users should be able to smoothly form articles, upload files appropriately, and so on.

Little Tail Wiki is powered by MediaWiki, an open source wiki software that many independently-run encyclopedias use. As such, we utilize extensions and Gadgets to bring everything together.

Language and formatting

This wiki is purely in American English. If you are not confident in the ability of your English, consider asking someone else to proofread your edits for you. We currently do not have any plans to host other languages. As Little Tail Bronx is a Japanese series, there will be some instances where Japanese is used throughout the site, primarily to display names, titles, quotes, interview transcripts, etc. in their original language. For editors, it is not required to be fluent in Japanese.

When writing, there are some general language and formatting rules to follow.

Punctuation

In addition to sticking to American English, for consistency, the Oxford comma is preferred. Singular possessive noun's should also always end in an apostrophe and "s" regardless of if the name ends in "s" (e.g., Taranis's).

Headings

Headings should be written with sentence case capitalization, as seen throughout this article. This applies to all header sizes.

DO NOT insert links within headers! This is disastrous on mobile and can throw off articles functionally and visibly.

Perspective

Story summaries and history sections should always be written using an in-universe perspective. Write as if you are part of the world, and avoid phrases such as "in X chapter."

When the real world perspective is being used, editors should never say "you" to refer to the player. Phrases like "the player" or "the playable character" should be used instead.

Tenses Used

Articles must be written in the present tense by default. When editing an article about a character, it does not matter if said character is deceased, missing, or absent in any other fashion. Please write in present tense in order to avoid confusion.

Past tense is allowed to avoid confusion if summarizing a story and a flashback occurs or an event is mentioned to have occurred in the past, such as when summarizing a character's backstory. However, in the case of summarizing works fully set in the past such as Red Data Children, default to present tense.

Names and titles

Many names and titles need to be capitalized in title case. This includes:

• Character names
• Robot/vehicle names
• Attack names
• Location names
• Group names
• Video game names
• Chapter names
• Any proper noun

Certain words are specific to the Little Tail Bronx series and should always be capitalized. This includes:

• Caninu
• Felineko
• Wolf
• Lion
• Hybrid
• Juno
• Titano-Machina
• Hunter
• Cloud Sea
• Nono

Additionally, certain names and titles, particularly standalone works, must be italicized in this wiki. This rule is to help keep articles tidily written and easy to parse for readers. Please apply this to the following:

• Website names
• Video game titles
• Book titles
• Manga titles
• Magazine titles

Editors do not need to italicize character names or proper nouns that are outside of these requirements.

The italicization rule does not apply to infoboxes.

Page creation

Editors are encouraged to create new pages to fill out the wiki, but there are certain guidelines to follow to determine whether a subject is deserving of its own article. The foremost guideline to follow is that pages should only be made if there is enough information to avoid being a stub.

Characters

Major protagonists and antagonists and especially playable characters should always have their own pages. Major characters qualify as anyone involved in the main story to a significant degree, appearing repeatedly. Other characters, such as NPCs involved in quests, should be placed in lists of minor NPCs by default unless they appear several times and have enough info to receive their own pages. An NPC with only one or two lines not involved with any quests or a character in a side story who is only briefly encountered would likely be undeserving of their own pages.

Locations

Named locations that are visited during a game should typically have their own pages. Individual rooms within those locations likely shouldn't have their own pages and should instead be described on the overarching location page. Other locations that are not visited in any games or only appear in side stories may have their own pages if they are significant and described in enough detail.

Enemies

Enemies encountered typically should not need their own pages and can instead be placed in the proper list page. Bosses are generally the exception, and enemies that are notable enough may deserve their own pages.

People

Staff and other real life people may have their own pages if they can be filled out enough with a proper biography, their credits, and any relevant media.

Other

Other topics that may need pages are:

• Games
• Game chapters
• Book/manga chapters
• Robots and vehicles
• Significant items
• World lore

Page content

Pages should be properly filled out so that they are not stubs, but not all content is good content. Some rules must be followed when writing articles.

Introduction

Most articles should begin with the relevant infobox with as many fields filled out as possible. The introduction should then be placed after it, beginning with the article's title restated and highlighted in bold. The Nihongo template should always be used unless there is no original Japanese spelling (e.g. unnamed subjects or employees not from Japan). For example:

{{Nihongo|'''Red Savarin'''|レッド・サハラン|Reddo Saharan}} is the main protagonist of...

If the topic of the article is a standalone work such as a game, the title should be italicized as well. The rest of the introduction should be a brief paragraph summarizing the topic's role in the series, such as what it is, which works it primarily appears in, where it appears, what does it do, etc. The introduction does not need to go into great detail since the following sections of the article should accomplish that, but it should provide a solid enough overview that someone who is not familiar with the subject should immediately be able to gain a decent grasp of it just from the article's intro.

Trivia

The trivia section of articles should be reserved for interesting facts that do not belong in any other sections of the article. For more details, see Trivia.

Navboxes

At the bottom of any given page should be a section with the title "Site navigation." Navboxes belong there. Navboxes are tables that contain organized lists of related articles. Any navbox containing a link to the current article should be added.

Categories

At the very bottom of any page belongs applicable categories. Categories are set up so that broader categories often contain more specific subcategories rather than only pages. Therefore, users should not simply add as many categories as possible but rather search for more specific categories that fit the current page. For example, instead of adding a blanket "Characters" category to the page of a male major ally from Solatorobo who pilots a robot, a user should add categories such as "Solatorobo characters," "Male characters," "Robot pilots," and "Major allies."

Citing references

To maintain trustworthiness and ensure that users can find the sources of information themselves if they desire, references should generally be cited on every article.

Basic information directly from the games such as gameplay mechanics or the story usually do not need to be cited (this also applies to story summaries of manga, novels, etc.). More specific parts of the games may need to be cited, however, when the need arises to cover more obscure information such as when describing a character's personality or describing in-universe history in detail. In that case, a reference should mention what part of the game this info can be found in. As an example, if an article requires a citation of a chapter from Solatorobo, the citation could be <ref>[[Solatorobo Part Two Chapter 2]]</ref> or a link to a specific quest. In a more specific case where a quote from a game may need to be cited, the general format should be <ref>"Insert dialogue here," - [[Character]], ''[[Game]]''</ref>. Quote citations should not be overused as they can easily be seen as unnecessary and clutter the references list. Linking a YouTube video showcasing a specific part of a game as a reference is also acceptable.

More frequently, sources from outside the games such as game manuals, art books, and interviews may need to be cited. In those cases, references should name the outside source and the page or any specific section if possible. The name of the source should also link to a page on the wiki about the source if it exists. If the source fully exists on the wiki, such as an interview archived on the wiki, the reference can just link to that page by name. References to sources that exist online and are not archived on the wiki should contain an external link to that source. Professional citation styles such as APA or MLA are not required.

Linking to articles

Linking to other articles whenever possible makes the wiki easier to navigate. Typically, you should only link to the first mention of a topic in an article. It is not against the rules to have duplicate links, but generally, they should be sufficiently spread apart. Duplicate links can be useful with longer pages. Topics mentioned in infoboxes and other tables such as appearance lists and navboxes should also always be linked regardless of if they are linked elsewhere in the article.

As an example, if the word "Felinekos" is used as the first reference to the species within the main body of an article, editors can create an internal link displaying the text appropriately as so:

[[Felineko]]s = Felinekos

This can be applied to any similar case. For more information, see the MediaWiki help article.

Empty categories

Often, sections may begin with a link to a more comprehensive article covering the subject using the Main template. These sections should not be left empty and should still provide a brief overview.

Speculation and misinformation

Do not add speculation to articles. The primary goal of the Little Tail Wiki is to be a resource for factual information about the series. It is not our role to provide speculation about that information. That should be left to the reader while we provide facts. To list conjecture could lead to the spread of misinformation. Certain limited speculation may be allowed given enough evidence such as namesakes, but if a source is found confirming said speculation, it must be cited.

In the case of articles where there is limited information such as content from an unreleased work or something without a name, the page should be clear about the lack of information. Do not add anything that could be misconstrued as fact.

Canon

While the primary canon is considered to be the main games of the series as well as the side stories mentioned in the official Solatorobo timeline, CyberConnect2 does not frequently confirm the canonicity of the various works of the Little Tail Bronx franchise. The wiki should avoid explicitly referring to works as canon or non-canon unless officially confirmed as such.

Translations

As a series made in Japan, there are many things that need translating, particularly interviews. While help in that area would be much appreciated, please avoid using machine translation. Machine translation very frequently translates Japanese incorrectly since it is a very different language from English and relies heavily on context. Only translate if you know Japanese well, and if you are not sure about the quality of your translation, consider having it reviewed by others who are versed in the language.

Editing pages

Little Tail Wiki has two editing modes - the Visual Editor and the Source Editor.

Visual Editor

The Visual Editor is a simple yet powerful way to edit most pages here in the wiki and was present in the previous host of Little Tail Wiki. To enter the Visual Editor, click the "Edit" button atop the article if it's available.

This mode is perfect for quick simple edits and image formatting. If an editor is aiming to make more delicate and specific edits then it is advised to use the Source Editor instead.

Source Editor

The Source Editor is the default mode to editing all articles, templates, modules, CSS and Gadgets within the wiki. It is the recommended method to editing here in this wiki as it can more precisely put pages together and make proper use of Lua-based templates. To use the Source Editor, click the "Edit Source" link seen atop the page.

The Source Editor makes use of Wikitext, a unique coding language used in MediaWiki-based websites. If extra guidance is needed, please refer to the official formatting guide from MediaWiki.

Templates and modules

This is for advanced editors.

Templates and modules work on two different coding language sets, but can also work in tandem. Templates utilize Wikitext, HTML and sometimes CSS if needed. Modules exclusively work on Lua, Scribunto and Captiunto and must be called upon with an invoke command through its template counterpart in order to render.

Creating

When creating a template, it's heavily advised to provide documentation as some templates will not appear on their respective pages.

Here is how to properly format a template page:

<includeonly>
[TEMPLATE CODE OR INVOKE COMMAND HERE]
</includeonly>
<noinclude>
{{documentation}}
</noinclude>

It is imperative that the includeonly and noinclude tags are used in this fashion, as the lack of both will render the documentation box with the template in all articles it's used in. When the documentation template is created, there will already be a hyperlink ready for editors to quickly jot down that template's syntax guide.

Modules, when created, will also provide its own module-focused ".../doc" hyperlink for the same purpose. These should be made for more comprehensive guides, while the template's documentation provides a more easily digestible guide for users who are not as familiar with Lua.

Utilizing

To use a template, always refer to the documentation to know how to properly place and form it. Every template is called upon using curly braces, such as this:

{{ContentWarning}}

The above is an example of a plain notice. It does not need any additional information. Many templates do require more input, in which case often looks like this:

{{MissingInfo|This is where custom text goes}}

Placement and rules for templates vary. Again, please refer to the documentation if necessary. All templates can be searched by typing Template:X in the search bar, where X is what the specific name is.