Legacy:Writing guidelines
Version 1
Date: 2008-01-06 02:11:22 GMT Author: pm Comment: Initial version
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Name components that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular names for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alternate text operator in links ([@|]) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names. Example: !Casting the [[Aegis of the Hearth|Aegis]] is essential for most ![[Covenant|covenants]] at [[Hermetic year|midwinter]].
Version 2
Date: 2008-01-06 02:18:27 GMT Author: pm Comment: Replaced ambiguous term.
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Termresent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular names for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alternate text operator in links ([@|]) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names. Example: !Casting the [[Aegis of the Hearth|Aegis]] is essential for most ![[Covenant|covenants]] at [[Hermetic year|midwinter]].
Version 3
Date: 2008-01-07 16:30:50 GMT Author: pm Comment: Names -> forms
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alternate text operator in links ([@|]) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names. Example: !Casting the [[Aegis of the Hearth|Aegis]] is essential for most ![[Covenant|covenants]] at [[Hermetic year|midwinter]].
Version 4
Date: 2008-01-08 03:15:53 GMT Author: AndrewGronosky Comment: Added section on copyright infringement
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content * First, please do not infringe the copyright of any published Ars Magica book or magazine. This means not copying any text from those works. http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html provides an introduction to U.S. copyright law. * First, please do not infringe the copyright of any published Ars Magica book or magazine. This means not copying any text from those works. http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html provides an introduction to U.S. copyright law. * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alterna
Version 5
Date: 2008-01-09 16:53:29 GMT Author: AndrewGronosky Comment:
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content Questions? Please see our [[Content policy discussion]] page. * It is very important that we, as members of the Ars Magica community, do not do anything to hurt long-term sales of the game. Therefore please do not post so much detail that a reader could use your post as a replacement for published material (whether they are out-of-print or not). * It is preferable to use your post as a replacement for published material (whether they are out-of-print or not). * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alternate text operator in links ([@|]) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names. Example: !Ca
Version 6
Date: 2008-01-09 16:54:14 GMT Author: AndrewGronosky Comment:
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content Questions? Please see our [[Content policy discussion]] page. * It is very important that we, as members of the Ars Magica community, do not do anything to hurt long-term sales of the game. Therefore please do not post so much detail that a reader could use your post as a replacement for published material (whether it is -of-print or not). * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alternate text operator in links ([@|]) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names. Example: !Casting the [[Aegis of the Hearth|Aegis]] is essential for most ![[Covenant|covenants]] at [[Hermetic year|midwinter]].
Version 7
Date: 2008-01-10 00:38:58 GMT Author: pm Comment: About comments.
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content Questions? Please see our [[Content policy discussion]] page. * It is very important that we, as members of the [[Ars Magica]] community, do not do anything to hurt long-term sales of the game. Therefore please do not post so much detail that a reader could use your post as a replacement for published material (whether it is out-of-print or not). * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. * Use the comment field in the editing environment to leave a comment about what you did. Especially in a multi user environments like this, any changes made to texts benefit from brief comments about what you did and why. This is almost imperative with regard of clarity because the content of a single page is derived from the input of multiple users. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alternate text operator in links ([@|]) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names. Example: !Casting the [[Aegis of the Hearth|Aegis]] is essential for most ![[Covenant|covenants]] at [[Hermetic year|midwinter]].
Version 8
Date: 2008-03-15 12:37:13 GMT Author: AndrewGronosky Comment: Changed orphan link to a live one
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content Questions? Please see our [[Administrati * It is very important that we, as members of the [[Ars Magica]] community, do not do anything to hurt long-term sales of the game. Therefore please do not post so much detail that a reader could use your post as a replacement for published material (whether it is out-of-print or not). * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. * Use the comment field in the editing environment to leave a comment about what you did. Especially in a multi user environments like this, any changes made to texts benefit from brief comments about what you did and why. This is almost imperative with regard of clarity because the content of a single page is derived from the input of multiple users. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to [@John of Gloucester], [@John of Edinburgh], etc. = Linking Pages * Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#=Content]]). * Use the alternate text operator in links ([@|]) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names. Example: !Casting the [[Aegis of the Hearth|Aegis]] is essential for most ![[Covenant|covenants]] at [[Hermetic year|midwinter]].
Version 9
Date: 2008-07-12 13:37:31 GMT Author: pm Comment: On section headings.
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content Questions? Please see our [[Administration]] page. * It is very important that we, as members of the [[Ars Magica]] community, do not do anything to hurt long-term sales of the game. Therefore please do not post so much detail that a reader could use your post as a replacement for published material (whether it is out-of-print or not). * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use section headings in ascending order (descending font size), starting at level 1. Don't start with subsection headings (level 2 and higher) just because it feels right or looks good. Should the form of the site, that is, its layout and typography, ever change, your temporarily appropriate look & feel will be null and void. Moreover, automatic tables of contents of pages will not produce reasonable results. Ask yourself if you'd start a nested enumeration with 1.1.1, or rather with 1. followed by 1.1 and so forth, which is considered well formed. * Use your own words for descriptions. * (descending font size), starting at level 1. Don't start with subsection headings (level 2 and higher) just because it feels right or looks good. Should the form of the site, that is, its layout and typography, ever change, your temporarily appropriate look & feel will be null and void. Moreover, automatic tables of contents of pages will not produce reasonable results. Ask yourself if you'd start a nested enumeration with 1.1.1, or rather with 1. followed by 1.1 and so forth, which is considered well formed. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. * Use the comment field in the editing environment to leave a comment about what you did. Especially in a multi user environments like this, any changes made to texts benefit from brief comments about what you did and why. This is almost imperative with regard of clarity because the content of a single page is derived from the input of multiple users. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a list of links on it, referring to
Version 10
Date: 2009-02-16 15:33:44 GMT Author: pm Comment: Fork & join
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site. = Content Questions? Please see our [[Administration]] page. * It is very important that we, as members of the [[Ars Magica]] community, do not do anything to hurt long-term sales of the game. Therefore please do not post so much detail that a reader could use your post as a replacement for published material (whether it is out-of-print or not). * It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible. * For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page. * Use section headings in ascending order (descending font size), starting at level 1. Don't start with subsection headings (level 2 and higher) just because it feels right or looks good. Should the form of the site, that is, its layout and typography, ever change, your temporarily appropriate look & feel will be null and void. Moreover, automatic tables of contents of pages will not produce reasonable results. Ask yourself if you'd start a nested enumeration with 1.1.1, or rather with 1. followed by 1.1 and so forth, which is considered well formed. * Use your own words for descriptions. * Indicate the sources of literal quotes. * Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement. * Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it. * Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page. * Use the comment field in the editing environment to leave a comment about what you did. Especially in a multi user environments like this, any changes made to texts benefit from brief comments about what you did and why. This is almost imperative with regard of clarity because the content of a single page is derived from the input of multiple users. * Feel free to _fork_ pages. A fork should be considered when the content of a page grows too large to be browsed conveniently, or if it contains a topic that, due to its relevance or size, deserves a page of its own. * A _join_ occurs, if two or more pages cover more or less the same topic, and could be easier dealt with when treated on a single page. Joining two or more pages is an advanced technique because one not only copies the content of a page to another, but must take care of the existing references that are likely to end up as dead links once one of the pages is removed. Feel free to _fork_ pages. A fork should be considered when the content of a page grows too large to be browsed conveniently, or if it contains a topic that, due to its relevance or size, deserves a page of its own. * A _join_ occurs, if two or more pages cover more or less the same topic, and could be easier dealt with when treated on a single page. Joining two or more pages is an advanced technique because one not only copies the content of a page to another, but must take care of the existing references that are likely to end up as dead links once one of the pages is removed. = Page Names * Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like [@Technique] instead of [@technique]. * If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in [@Order of Hermes] or [@Faerie Lore]. * Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case. * Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like [@Spell guidelines] instead of just [@Guidelines], which is an ambiguous term to be referred to. * Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: [@Muto Corpus], alias [@MuCo] that links to [@Muto Corpus]. Example #2: page: [@The Mysteries Revised Edition], and an alias [@TMRE] linking to it. * Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]). * If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named [@John]. Put a lis
Version 11
Date: 2010-05-02 17:56:40 GMT Author: pm Comment: More suggestions on linking pages (and links in general)
This page contains a couple of brief writing guidelines that, if borne in mind, will add considerably to the all-over readability and uniformity of the site.
= Content
Questions? Please see our [[Administration]] page.
* It is very important that we, as members of the [[Ars Magica]] community, do not do anything to hurt long-term sales of the game. Therefore please do not post so much detail that a reader could use your post as a replacement for published material (whether it is out-of-print or not).
* It is preferable to keep texts as concise as possible and the word count as low as possible.
* For longer texts, use section headers to subdivide the content of the page.
* Use section headings in ascending order (descending font size), starting at level 1. Don't start with subsection headings (level 2 and higher) just because it feels right or looks good. Should the form of the site, that is, its layout and typography, ever change, your temporarily appropriate look & feel will be null and void. Moreover, automatic tables of contents of pages will not produce reasonable results. Ask yourself if you'd start a nested enumeration with 1.1.1, or rather with 1. followed by 1.1 and so forth, which is considered well formed.
* Use your own words for descriptions.
* Indicate the sources of literal quotes.
* Indicate the sources of canonical content by referring to the respective book or supplement.
* Cascade information and break your text down to multiple pages if necessary. If you feel like going elaborately into detail on a derived topic, create an additional page about it instead. Separating content that way helps to maintain it.
* Use footnotes for secondary information and lists of references that you do not want to put on a dedicated page.
* Use the comment field in the editing environment to leave a comment about what you did. Especially in a multi user environments like this, any changes made to texts benefit from brief comments about what you did and why. This is almost imperative with regard of clarity because the content of a single page is derived from the input of multiple users.
* Feel free to _fork_ pages. A fork should be considered when the content of a page grows too large to be browsed conveniently, or if it contains a topic that, due to its relevance or size, deserves a page of its own.
* A _join_ occurs, if two or more pages cover more or less the same topic, and could be easier dealt with when treated on a single page. Joining two or more pages is an advanced technique because one not only copies the content of a page to another, but must take care of the existing references that are likely to end up as dead links once one of the pages is removed.
= Page Names
* Use upper case characters (capital letters) as the first character of a page name, like %%Technique%% instead of %%technique%%.
* If the name of a page matches a proper name of a canonical term, keep the case of that name, like in %%Order of Hermes%% or %%Faerie Lore%%.
* Terms that represent component names _should_ be written as upper case letters, while other nouns _should_ be lower case.
* Choose page names that are as specific as possible, like %%Spell guidelines%% instead of just %%Guidelines%%, which is an ambiguous term to be referred to.
* Abbreviations make for poor page names. Instead of using an abbreviation for a page name, create a page with the full name, and then create an additional alias with the abbreviation as its name that links to the actual page. Example #1: actual page: %%Muto Corpus%%, alias %%MuCo%% that links to %%Muto Corpus%%. Example #2: page: %%The Mysteries Revised Edition%%, and an alias %%TMRE%% linking to it.
* Use nominative singular forms for page names unless the name is supposed to represent a proper name. This is especially important when creating links in continuous text ([[#=Linking Pages|see below]]).
* If multiple subjects or objects that are to be dealt with bear the same short same, create a cascaded page with that particular name, and put links to the actual pages on it. These links should refer to pages with names that are specific enough to resolve the name collision. Example: There are several persons to be dealt with, all of whom are called John. Create a page named %%John%%. Put a list of links on it, referring to %%John of Gloucester%%, %%John of Edinburgh%%, etc.
= Linking Pages
* Create as many links as possible, but not more than necessary. This means that you should consider each special term you employ in your text in regard of whether it deserves to be linked, and thus a page of its own (see [[#Content]]).
* Note that the casual reader might not be familiar with certain terminology you use and would prefer further elaboration. That's exactly what links should be used for. You may think that a term as common as the [[Order of Hermes]] is self explanatory. That might not be the case for a newcomer.
* Imagine a visitor �accidentally� being warped in via an external link on a related site, or a search engine. He reads your article, finds it fascinating, but stumbles across many unknown terms at the same time. Give this visitor a reason to stay on our site by providing links to related terms and articles.
* Links improve the page rank in search engines, which is an inexpensive spring board with regard to {{abbr|SEO|Search Engine Optimization}}.
* Use the alternate text operator in links (%%|%%) to create links from words that do not literally represent page names, but that deserve to serve as links nonetheless. Example:
!Casting the [[Aegis of the Hearth|Aegis]] is essential for most
![[Covenant|covenants]] at [[Hermetic year|midwinter]].