GargWiki:Manual of style
The GargWiki Manual of Style should be taken into consideration when working on articles. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the conventions regularly used throughout this wiki.
Contents
Few Things Are Accurate
Canonicity
- See also GargWiki:About#Canonicity
GargWiki prioritizes the television episodes and comics issues that are part of the Gargoyles Canon. This wiki next prioritizes canon-in-training, usually statements from Greg Weisman himself regarding his Master Plan for the Gargoyles Universe. This careful curation is distinguished with pages categorized under Canon-in-training, or, in a chiefly canonical article, marked in bold, blue text using Template:CIT.
Much of Gargoyles incorporates elements that are in the public domain, and thus, much of the story has plenty of Real World Background. Real world details in the main section of an article that have yet to be included in the series should be labeled as Canon-in-training, while background details in the appropriate sections (see below) do no need the CIT template. Further, as standard practice, do not simply copy and paste real world information from other websites. For more information, please refer to GargWiki:Copyrights.
GargWiki then covers all apocryphal stories and any and all out-of-universe references and cameos as well as merchandise. References and cameos from other media may be mentioned on the relevant page(s), but this should not give way to details unrelated to Gargoyles. Finally, Although this wiki addresses some aspects of the Gargoyles Fandom, it does not cover unofficial works such as Fanfiction.
Cast and Crew
Pages on the real individuals who work (and worked) on Gargoyles, such as writers, artists, voice actors, need only contain a description of their work on Gargoyles and not necessarily everything they've ever done. The article on Frank Welker, for example, should not provide his complete career filmography. On the other hand, an external link to a complete filmography on Wikipedia and IMDB is totally fine. Examples of their other non-Gargoyles work are acceptable in the lead paragraph, but only if limited to a small handful of their most notable work. For example, voice actor pages should generally mention works that are already referenced on GargWiki, which should be just enough to adequately introduce their career to the reader, but not enough that distracts from the priorities of this wiki.
Citing Sources
Episode and issue names should be parenthetically referenced in italics at the end of the relevant paragraph. For example, take this paragraph from the article, Archmage:
The Archmage was born in 914. [1] His real name is unknown, but he entered Prince Malcolm's service in 971 as his primary human advisor, after establishing himself as an invaluable ally against King Culen. [2][3] After the coronation of Kenneth II, the Archmage approached Angel and invited her to become his apprentice, even teaching her how to read (although the position would devolve into servitude, one marked with considerable contempt and cruelty). He later helped defend Wyvern Hill when it was attacked by Wyvern, damaging the dragon's eye with his Lightning Spell. The blow drew the ire of the dragon, attacking the sorcerer with a blast of fire. Prince Malcolm quickly saved him, and refused to let the Archmage think he was indebted to the Prince. The Archmage would later help the Prince in the construction of Castle Wyvern. ("The Draw", "The Oath", "The Dream", "The Pledge") [4]
Should an article cite an episode or issue more than once, only the first mention needs to be linked.
Canon-in-training (CIT) is routinely cited by external link (often, but not limited to, responses on Ask Greg). To allow readers easy reference to which external links refer to which CIT, external links are posted right after the CIT template, and, when possible, not cumulate at the end of a paragraph. Warning: Do not provide an external link inside the CIT Template. Otherwise, the template will malfunction, resulting in a {{{1}}}, or even wipe the impacted text from the page altogether.
Should Canon-in-training be the last sentence at the end of a paragraph, the external link providing the reference should be included after the canonical episodes/issues.
Things Need Names (Also, when to link)
Generally, only the first occurrence of a word should be turned into a link. Not every instance of, for example, "Demona" on a page needs to link to the Demona page. An exception to this is when referring to characters by different names, such as Demona before she was named, i.e., Angel.
Characters
Some characters never had a name in the Gargoyles Universe, and, as such, their articles are distinguished with quotes (e.g., "Sacrifice" or "Second" because these names serve as placeholders for the script and art direction). Some characters are named later in their respective story arcs, and thus, their article is that name, such as Coldfire. In articles that refer to a character before they were named, use the known placeholder name. Thus Coldfire should be referred to as "Desdemona", linking to the character's article (if it is the first time they are referred to that placeholder name) with quotes around the placeholder name.
Some characters, while canonical, have no canon name, and are thus referred to by their canon-in-training name. In these situations, directly naming them requires the CIT template. The character may also be referred to in another way (such as Maria Chavez's daughter for Sonia Chavez).
It's also okay to link to the same article several times if you are linking to different specific sub-headings each time. This is most typical with the Timeline page, which can be redirected to specific sections such as 994, 1997, or 2198.
Some article titles have similar names and often have an additional distinction in parentheses to avoid ambiguation. In these instances, it is necessary to rename it when including the link on the page, using a vertical bar within the brackets that create the link. Thus, Coyote (robot) and Coyote (Child of Oberon) can be rewritten as [[Coyote (robot)|Coyote]] and [[Coyote (Child of Oberon)|Coyote]], creating Coyote and Coyote, with details in the article providing the necessary context. Any immediate confusion can also be clarified by utilizing the tooltip (aka, the rollover text) when a cursor hovers over the link.
Article titles for episode/issue titles
Given the use of quotes for placeholder names in character articles, television episodes and comic issues do not. As such, episodes are renamed in their links with quotes, such as [[The Thrill of the Hunt|"The Thrill of the Hunt"]], creating "The Thrill of the Hunt". Be mindful of episodes that are multiparters, such as "Awakening: Part Two" and "City of Stone" Part One. When in doubt, refer to the title card on the episode page.
Capitalization
Article and section titles do not need to have all of their "important" words capitalized as in a book title. Capitalize only the first word and any words that are always capitalized, such as proper names. If an article or section is named after a title, of course, its capitalization should match that of the title. Hence, "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time".
Additionally, all article titles must begin with a capital letter due to the software/database structure. However, when linking to an article, the wikilink itself need not begin that way. So, for a term which is not normally capitalized, such as "human", one can simply write [[human]] even though the article title is "Human". Writing [[Human|human]] is unnecessary. Article titles are case-sensitive after that first letter, however, so when writing links it is only the first letter of an article name that the case can be ignored.
Sections and subsections
Articles which are more than two or three paragraphs should usually be split up into sections. The Wikimedia software allows for easy creation of three levels of section headings, simply by placing equals signs around text.
Articles should begin with a general statement or two before the first section begins. If an article has more than three sections, the software will automatically generate a table of contents for the article using the section names. This makes your article much easier to navigate.
Do not try to create your own headings by simply bolding the text, as this sort of heading will not appear in the table of contents.
For articles about a specific television episode, the section breakdown is as follows:
- Summary
- Main Plot
- Subplots
- The Story
- Act One
- Act Two
- Act Three
- Featured Characters and First Appearances
- Quotes
- Continuity
- Tidbits
- Toon Disney/Disney XD Edits
- VHS/DVD Release
- See Also
For comic issues, the breakdown is different:
- Solicitation
- The Story
- Review
- Featured Characters and First Appearances
- Tidbits
- Cover Gallery
- See Also
For other pages (Characters, Places, Objects, etc), the section breakdown is different:
- History
- Characteristics
- Timeline (if applicable)
- Future Tense (if applicable)
- Appearances
- Apocrypha (if applicable)
- Production Background (if applicable)
- Real World Background (if applicable)
- See Also (if applicable)
Categories
Please categorize every page as best you can. At the bottom of each page, simply add [[Category:The Category]]. A list of categories is maintained in the special pages. Ideally, every article on the Wiki should be findable simply by browsing the category tree without ever typing anything in the search box.
What is Time to an Editor?
In cataloguing and chronicling a series that covers a large span of world (even galactic) history, careful attention is paid to the tense on each page. Articles throughout GargWiki are written in past tense, with a couple established exceptions. Present tense is used for the Timeline, and for synopses for episodes and issues. Canon-in-training taking place in the future (even on the Timeline) is written in the future tense. For easy reference:
- Canon History - Past Tense
- Past CIT - Past Tense
- Future CIT - Future Tense
- Timeline - Present Tense
- Episode Synopsis - Present Tense
To be consistent with the series itself, GargWiki uses the Gregorian calendar, with BC and AD used for dating purposes.
The Written Word (aka, Grammar)
This is an information site. It generally should be written in the third person and with a moderately "formal" voice.
- When incorporating Canon-in-training (and its bold, blue template) in an otherwise canon sentence, write the sentence so that it can be read and understood with or without the Canon-in-training information. A prime example is this sentence from the page for David Xanatos:
Xanatos was born in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1955, the only son and child of Petros Xanatos, a local fisherman. [5][6]
- Note that this only applies to Canon pages. Pages that are entirely Canon-in-training are marked as such at the top of their page with a separate template, {{CIT article}}.
- For titles to films, television series, periodicals, novels, and albums, italics are used, while episode names, chapter titles, articles, and songs are "quoted" to distinguish between the two. Italics may also be used for emphasis, and perhaps bold as well for particularly dramatic lines. When quoting spoken dialogue, use your judgment.
- Plurals when linking to that article will be recognized outside the brackets. Thus, [[Gargoyle]]s becomes Gargoyles. This does not happen with possessives, so if a link needs a possessive, be sure to supply it after the vertical bar in the brackets ([[Brooklyn|Brooklyn's]] = Brooklyn's).
- Possessives of singular nouns ending in s should generally maintain the additional s after the apostrophe. Thus the possessives for Xanatos, Sevarius, and the Magus should be Xanatos's, Sevarius's, and the Magus's.
- Quotations are enclosed within “double quotes”. Quotations within quotations are enclosed within ‘single quotes’.
- Punctuation marks are placed inside the quote marks only if the sense of the punctuation is part of the quotation (this system is referred to as logical quotation).
- A sentence's initial letter in a quotation may be lowercased if the quotation starts in the middle of a sentence and the quoted material is a natural part of that sentence. Where this occurs, it is unnecessary to indicate this change with square brackets. (For example, "It turned out to be true that 'a penny saved is a penny earned.'")
Apart from that, try to be consistent in a given article, and use your judgment. Remember that editors on this wiki assume good faith towards their fellow editors.