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Revision as of 01:06, 1 July 2008
The Manual of Style is a style guide meant to standardize MTG Salvation Wiki as much as possible. This will improve the readability of the Wiki by providing a consistent, easy-to-read format for readers. It will also serve as a guide to contributors.
Basics
American English
AE is preferred, since Wizards is a U.S. based company.
Article titles
The title should be the subject of the first sentence of the article (and rather at its beginning than at the end). On first reference within the article, the title should be in bold, achieved by adding three apostrophes before and after the text: '''Article title''' gives Article title.
Casing
Normal English orthography applies here, unless an expression is used as a proper noun in Magic.
Also note that, due to technical reasons, lemmas begin with a capital letter. There are some cases were this might be inappropriate (magicthegathering.com, rancored_elf). If so, use {{DISPLAYTITLE:example}} to have "Example" displayed as "example".
Magic & Magic: The Gathering
The short and long forms of the game title are both proper nouns. All words in each version of the name are capitalized on every reference.
Linking plural nouns
When linking a plural noun, link only the singular form of the noun and leave the plural suffix outside the wiki link. For example, [[interrupt]]s is preferable to [[interrupts]] or the even more complex [[interrupt|interrupts]].
Person
Indefinite third-person ("one") is preferred. Avoid second-person ("you") whenever possible. First-person ("I", "our") in reference to the editor(s) of an article should never be used.
Redirects
Redirects are meant for:
- Abbreviations
- For example, users are more likely to search for "Ravnica" than "Ravnica: City of Guilds".
- Alternate names
- Foreign letters
- The English article about Raphaël Lévy should have a redirect from Raphael Levy, while the French one does not have to
Common typos should NOT be created as redirects. First, this encourages people to make the same mistake again, and second, we would get a dozen of redirects in some cases.
Section headings
Section headings are created by adding == before and after the text. No other emphasis is needed. Capitalize only the first word, and any proper nouns in the section heading, leaving all other words in lowercase. Also please do not make headings questions or long sentences.
Avoid first level headings (i.e. =Section=), since they appear at the same size as the title of the article.
Special characters
Use the correct spelling ("Æther", not "AEther"). If the letter in question is not found on your keyboard, copy & paste from the Help:Cheatsheet or ask for help.
Expansions and sets
Use the {{Expansion}} sidebar template, copying it from a previous expansion and replacing relevant information. The first paragraph should be an introductory statement about the Expansion that should answer the following questions:
- What number expansion or core set is it?
- What block and what is its place in that block?
- When was it released?
- When were the pre-release events held?
To streamline sections in Expansions and Sets, these are the goals for each section:
Set details
A description of how the expansion is sold, booster pack contents and rarity breakdown. When were the cards available? What size was the print run?
Mechanics and themes
This section describes all ability words, keywords and mechanics. Themes are things that are grouped together but cannot be described by an ability word, keyword or mechanic. Examples of themes are alternative casting costs, flowstone creatures, spellshapers.
Storyline
This section describes the basic storyline / setting of the set.
Cycles
This section describes horizontal or vertical cycles found in the set. It can also mention cards in the set that are part of a mega cycle or a mega-mega cycle.
A cycle should appear in the form of:
An asterisk, followed by a bolded name of the cycle using one to three words, followed by a colon, then a one or two sentence more in-depth description followed by a long dash (using {{-}}) followed by the cards in the cycle with card tags around each card with a period at the end.
Example:
- Common Slivers: Each of these common monocolored Slivers grant abilities that their color doesn't normally have — Poultice Sliver (regeneration), Synchronous Sliver (vigilance), Spitting Sliver (first strike), Battering Sliver (trample), and Reflex Sliver (haste).
- See also Cycle.
Mirrored pair
This section describes pairs of cards that are alike in most every way except for color (the very first mirrored pair was Black Knight/White Knight). These occur less frequently then cycles. Putting this section directly below cycles makes for a good grouping (cycles then pairs).
- See also Mirrored pair.
Hosers
This section mentions any notable hoser-type cards.
Tournament Impact
This section describes cards instrumental in tournament decks. It is also a place to mention cards that are banned from tournament play.
Notable cards
This section is for notable cards that do something, well, notable.
Theme decks
This section is for the theme deck template. It is also a place for major trivial facts about the theme decks in this set (i.e. was the first expansion set to have a three-color theme deck)
Reprinted cards
This section lists any cards that were reprinted from previous sets.
- See also Reprint.
Functional reprints
This section lists any cards that are functional identical to previously printed cards but differ in name or name and subtype.
- See also Functional reprint.
Trivia
General trivial facts should go here. If this section becomes too long it should be branched off.
- See also Alliances/Trivia about individual cards.
Misprints
If there are any misprinted cards, this is the place to mention those.
Core set only sections
These sections apply only to core sets. These sections are long so they should be branched off.
Cards added to Xth Edition
This is a list of cards that were added to the current core set that were not in the previous edition.
Changes in rarity
This is a list of cards that have changed rarity since the last time they were printed in a expansion set to the time they were printed in this core set.
Cards removed from Xth Edition
This is a list of cards that are not in the current core set but were in the previous core set.
External links
Each link should be preceded by *’s. These links should be for official expansion set pages and major articles about the set. If there are many articles, it is ok to break the links by adding subsections See 10th Edition.
References
The reference section is the very last section. The only thing that should be in the reference section is the reference template {{reflist}}
Lastly, all expansions and sets should have the following placed at the bottom of their page which add the "Sets" template and the "Expansions and sets" category:
{{sets}}
[[Category:Expansions and sets]]
Card tags
- See also Help:Card tags.
Follow capitalization on the card. Also use the wiki card tag template for card names: <c>Dark Ritual</c> gives Dark Ritual.
Deck tags
- See also Help:Deck tags.
Cards in the main deck should be separated by card type (in singular number), with a line preceding each section containing the card type. Lands should appear first, then creatures then the rest in any order. All cards should be alphabetical within each section. The sideboard should begin with a line that says "Sideboard" to separate it from the main deck.
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Rats |
Keywords vs. ability words
Ability words should always be italicized in running text (Gotcha! is an exception). Keywords should never be italicized to avoid any confusion.
Set and block names
Set names should generally be italicized in running text, i.e. Shadowmoor. The set name should NOT be italicized when referring to a block, i.e. Shadowmoor block.
Additionally "block" should only be capitalized, when referring to a Block Constructed format ("Shadowmoor Block" vs. "Shadowmoor block")
Theme decks
Decks should be listed alphabetically.
Tournament formats
The "Type" designations have been deprecated by Wizards years ago and should not be used outside of a single reference in the main article for each format. The correct constructed tournament format names are:
Storyline
- See also MTG Salvation Wiki:Storylines.
Book titles
Book titles should be presented in italics, achieved by putting two apostrophes before and after the title: ''Brothers' War'' gives Brothers' War.
Categories
Categories should be sorted like this:
- Storyline stub
- Storylines
- Publications
- Affiliations
- Guilds (of Ravnica)
- Artifacts (only non-sentient)
- Characters
- Planeswalkers
- Events
- Wars
- Locations
- Planes
- Spells and Magics
- Species and Races
- Creature types
- Setting, e.g. Weatherlight Saga
Epithets
Epithets should not be part of an article name, since that makes searching and linking more difficult. They should appear in the character box though.