Lylat Wiki:Quality Standards
Language
inappropriate tone or style
Articles should be written in an encyclopedic tone. Any of the following tones should be considered in appropriate unless there is a specific reason why it is that way, and the reason is clearly marked or visible.
- advertisement
- biased
- biography - auto, unreliable citations
- written like a travel guide
- like a resume
- a howto
- essay
- reads like a story
word usage
Articles should use the correct words. Which means no or little of:
- colloquial terms or jargon - including gaming terms, scientific, or slang, without an appropriate link to explain the meaning.
- containing weasel words - Words that appear to be specific, but aren't.
- wording promotes subject - is written in such a way that it promotes the subject, rather than inform about it.
- unencyclopedia
Point of View
Articles need to be written in a 3rd Person Point-of-View. They need to be written in a in-universe.
- first-person or second-person
- fiction vs. fact
- in-universe
- globalize
- not neutral
conflict of interest
Articles need to be written in such away that doesn't cause it to conflict with itself. It should also not be written by the person it is written on.
confusing
Articles should be written in a clear and precise manner.
context
Articles need to contain only the information related to the title, and nothing outside of the articles context.
contradiction
example farm
Unless there is a good reason, an article should exist to simply be an example of something. This means no:
- Demonstrating of Templates,
- Filling up Random Categories
- Using Random Files.
clean up
Because an article can be written by anyone, and since we are all individuals, Not every article will be up to someone's spelling and/or grammar. If you find an article that needs some linguistic love, please either edit it yourself or mark it with Template:Tl.
Time
Due to Lylat Wiki being an encyclopedia, and since no one has any clue when an article will be read, it is considered best to write in the past tense, unless there is a very good reason why it should be otherwise. Please be wary of the following:
- recentism
- Writing an article to
- proseline
- updated
trivia
unbalanced
Verification
Any information can be put on a wiki, and Just as easily removed. With that kind of inconsistency and questionable reliability, it is best to verify something you put on the wiki with a reputable outside source. Just the same, if you see something on the wiki, you believe would be better said if it could be verified, please mark it so, or find a way to verify it yourself and post the link on the article. See Template:LW:CP and Help:Citing Sources for more info.
The following are possible situations related to citing sources, and how to handle them.
Missing citations
In the event an article has little to no citations, please put Template:Tl at the top of the article, and Template:Tl near any statement that you believe needs citing. This should be done, even if the entire article is to your knowledge of the truth, since it may not be to someone else's.
wrong citation style
If one or more references in a #References section are of the wrong style (e.g. references an archived website, but instead is styled for a print article, or is even not styled at all), please place Template:Tl along with the ref #'s, if available.
citations may not verify text
In the event a piece of text has a reference [number], but the supplemental information doesn't really verify the statement, please place Template:Tl at the top of the article, and give more details as to why you believe this to be so on the article's respective talk page.
criticism
speculations
accuracy disputed
Think an article contains unlikely statements? Think it says something that needs needs more references, even if there are some already there? Calling the accuracy into question, for these or any other reason, happens when you place Template:Tl on top of the article.
needs expert
Feel a page needs more verification? in doubt of an article's related scientific or game-play knowldge? Think we should bring an expert in on the subject? Then place Template:Tl on the article, and maybe a expert will get to it... if they aren't to busy be an expert :P.
hoax
written like a review
original research
needs more references
Policy
external links conflict guidelines
Fanon
over-detailed
too narrow of audience for details
trivia
prose
needs references from first-party (in game), secondary-party (e.g. Nintendo) or third-party (fan site).
relies too much on one source
unreferenced
Style & Content Guide
introduction
- too short
- too long
- missing
- rewrite
lacks historical info
quotes
- too many
- too little
plot
- too much info
- too little info
- spoiler
rewrite entirely
needs reorganized
- secitonalized
list of non-notable stuff
Linking
One of the beautiful things about wikis, are there ability to wikipedia:hot-link to other articles. But how often should something be hot-linked? and how many links should an article have?
- Well, first, if you are linking to a word multiple times in an article, please only do so once per scroll-height - i.e. the amount you can see on a page without scrolling up or down.
- Second, only link words that are not commonly used. So, no "is", "as", "of", etc.
- Third, if you wish to link outside of the wiki, please link in accordance with Template:LW:IWP.
Terminology
In the event you find a page that needs some linking help,
- A page without links going to out to other pages is known as a dead-end. Please mark it with Template:Tl.
- A page without linking going into it is know as a Orphan. Please Mark Template:Tl on any page you find that you believe needs more links towards it.
to disambiguation pages
wikify
If a page needs some help linking to others, please place Template:Tl on it.