HRWiki:Standards
From Homestar Runner Wiki
This page describes the standards currently accepted for page formatting and composition by the Wiki community. Please try to follow theses standards when creating and editing pages.
Contents |
General
A few guidelines that it is wise to follow when creating and editing wiki pages:
Don't link to the current page
In other words, a page should not link to itself. If you're bored, check out the Maintenance page for a list of pages which link to themselves and delete some self links.
=== Link once === A given page should only contain one link to any other page. If a page links to Strong Bad in one place, then that should be the only link to Strong Bad on that page.
Don't use conversational style
This is an information site. It should read like Wikipedia, not like your diary.
- Check your spelling and grammar. If you're not 100% sure about the way a word is spelled, type it into Google or Dictionary.com. If you know that you're not the strongest speller, compose your edits in a word processor like Microsoft Word which has spell-checking built in.
- Easter Eggs and Fun Facts should be written as statements, not questions. If you're not sure about a fun fact, use language like "may" or "could be" to indicate ambiguity; don't phrase it like as question.
- Don't use "smileys" or "emoticons".
- Don't "reply" to content others have posted. If you think a particular point warrants discussion, post on the article's Discussion page. If you're 100% sure that something should be changed and don't think a discussion is necessary, just change it. Dialogue goes only on articles' Discussion pages or the forum.
Don't sign your edits
All contributions are appreciated, but if every user left their mark on every contribution they made, the Wiki would be nothing but signatures. If you've made an edit that you're particularly proud of (such as a transcript or screenshot), the correct place to take credit is on your own userpage. If you do not have a user account, we respect your anonymity, but your edits will remain anonymous, too.
Toons
The basic format for Toons pages looks like this:
== Screenshot ==
[[Images:<name of toon>_screenshot.png]]
== Summary ==
A short summary of the Toon's premise followed by the cast
listing.
'''Cast (in order of appearance):''' [[Homestar Runner]],
[[The Cheat]]
'''Page Title:''' What appears in the browser's titlebar
== Transcript ==
''{A brief description of the scene.}''
'''CHARACTER A:''' What Character A said.
'''CHARACTER B:''' ''{singing}'' What Character B sung.
''{Cut to some other scene.}''
== Easter Eggs ==
*A bulleted list
*Of all of the toon's easter eggs
== Fun Facts ==
*A bulleted list
*Of fun facts about the toon
== External Links ==
*[http://www.homestarrunner.com/filename.html watch <Name
of Toon>]
*[http://www.homestarrunner.com/filename.swf view the flash
file for <Name of Toon>]
*[http://forum.hrwiki.org/viewtopic.php?t=000 forum thread
re: <Name of Toon>]
[[Category:Toons]][[Category:Character A Filmography]]
[[Category:Character B Filmography]]
Screenshot
In most cases this shoud be a PNG image uploaded to the Wiki via the Upload file page. It should be optimized for the web and its size should not exceed 100 kilobytes. Its dimensions should be approximately the same size as on the official site and never exceeding 600 pixels in width. JPEG format is generally only desirable for "live action" toons such as Puppet Stuff, and GIF and BMP formats are never desirable. When uploading the file, be sure to give it a meaningful name which describes its content and more importantly, its use on the Wiki, as in the example above. "homestar_with_a_hat.png" is not meaningful. "dangeresque_3_screenshot.png" is more meaningful.
Summary
The summary section generally contains at most three things: a short synopsis, a list of the cast, and, if applicable, the page title.
The synopsis should be a brief description of the premise of the toon. It is not necessary to describe the entire plot of the toon or give away the ending, and the synopsis should only be a couple sentences long.
The cast list should take the following form:
'''Cast (in order of appearance):''' [[Character A]], [[Character B]], and [[Character C]] (easter egg)
Note that everything between (and including) "Cast" and the colon (:) is between the bold markers, and each character's name is separated by a comma and a space, with the word "and" before the last character's name. A comma is not necessary if there are only two characters. The characters should be listed in the order in which they appear in the toon. If a character appears only in an easter egg, then denote this as above, with the words "easter egg" (lower case) in parentheses.
Often it is preferable to link to the characters in the Cast list but not in the synopsis, so as to keep the Cast list consistent and so as to follow the Link Once rule.
Finally, if the page on which the toon appears has an interesting title, denote it after the Cast list like so:
'''Page Title:''' A Funny Page Title
The page title is found in the titlebar at the very top of your web browser window, usually next to the name of the browser, e.g. "A Funny Page Title - Mozilla Firefox" or "A Funny Page Title - Microsoft Internet Explorer".
Transcript
A transcript is a detailed account of a toon's dialogue and action. Its basic format is this:
''{A brief description of the scene.}''
'''CHARACTER A:''' Something witty.
'''CHARACTER B:''' ''{singing}'' Something melodious.
''{Cut to some other scene.}''
As you can see, a line of dialogue beings with the character's name in upper case followed by a colon, all of which is bold. This is followed by a space and then what the character said. When different characters are speaking their dialogue should be separated by a blank line.
If a character does something while speaking a line of dialogue, or if more description is needed for their manner of speaking or inflection (e.g. if they're singing or whispering) the action (if it is not too long to describe in a few words) can be enclosed in curly braces -- { } -- and made italic, like this: {goes to the refrigerator}. Note that the curly braces themselves are also italic. Short actions like these do not need to be proper sentences.
If there is a scene change or major action (which takes more than a few words to describe), it should be separated from the dialogue by a blank line above and below, and in this case complete sentences and proper capitalization and punctuation are desirable.
There is a special case for Strong Bad Emails. When Strong Bad is reading an email on his screen, its text should be enclosed in <pre></pre> tags like so:
<pre>Dear Strong Bad, I drank too much salty plum soda. -Stu< /pre>
Note: The closing </pre> tag should not have a space in it as above.
The email should be formatted as it appears on Strong Bad's screen, with line breaks, etc. in the same places.
Lastly, easter eggs should not be transcribed. More on this below.
Easter Eggs
An easter egg (or just "egg" for short) is a secret part of a toon that can only be accessed by performing a particular action (e.g. clicking on a particular word or object) during a toon or by waiting for awhile after the toon has "ended".
Easter eggs should be listed in chronological order (that is, the order in which they are accessible in the toon). Easter eggs do not need to be transcribed. Instead provide only a description of how to access the egg and a vague description of what happens in the egg. Being too specific can ruin the surprise for people who haven't seen it yet.
