This is not a proposal or anything in itself, I just wanted to list a few things I thought might be good to address since apparently multiple people are working on revisions to the MoS and Community Guidelines. No fancy formatting as I don't have a lot of time.
List of things to include or address in a new Manual of Style
- For file guidelines and images, if the rule is for location images to be 400px and all subsequent images be 340 px then that should be codified.
- A section on how changes to the MoS are to be proposed, discussed, and implemented (even if it's the same as how any policy is to be implemented, I think having a section on Amending within the MoS itself is still important
- A section dealing with anything that's "unwritten" but that will be enforced as per "longstanding precedent, custom, standard practice" etc. While I'm not objecting to such "unwritten common law" existing and indeed I recognize it's inevitable, I think what we CAN put in writing is how to handle issues of "unwritten rules" -- who gets to say what they are, how much deference does it get, handling disputes, etc. At least we can put in writing that such things may exist.
- More guidance on Unique Dialogue sections -- this is a challenging area that's taken me some time to really learn and I think it often trips people up (also some of the pages have inconsistencies). Also each game can have different unique aspects to Unique Dialogue that deserve some explanation, e.g. how in ME3 dialogue triggers and who gets what lines varies depending on squad composition. Also there's an "unwritten rule" that paraphrasing is preferred over direct quotation; that should be in writing in the MoS (I don't believe it is). I think the rules could just be filled out to account for "likely errors" people are apt to make.
- Actually, based on the above maybe a "common errors newer editors make" would be a useful section for either MoS or Community Guidelines, stuff like "race names not capitalized" or "leave Brit spelling alone", "trivia" as well as "in-universe" style could be included there.
- Rules on how to deal with citing outside sources and works, like in Trivia sections (books, movies, games, etc.) though I think Elseweyr has got that covered.
- This may need to be a separate proposal, but I would like to see the rules for Voice Actor Trivia relaxed to allow an exception for cameos and Easter eggs. This would be a very narrow exception (I can't think of it applying to many things) but would allow Trivia notes for things like Buzz Aldrin's appearance as the male Stargazer and the appearances by Garrus and Tali's VAs in Andromeda.
Additions:
- Product page guidelines (if rules/guidelines for them exist, couldn't find 'em) - do they have to be verbatim from an official source? What is or isn't allowed?
- Verbatim things generally - what needs to be verbatim, what isn't? Might be something to file under "common editing mistakes"
- Guidelines for letters/emails/communications/texts in-game (not sure that's unified if it exists, at least)
More additions (8/6/2021):
- A pointer on dead links. As per a recent Discord discussion, many old links back to the defunct BioWare Forums were legitimate dev-confirmed sources for a lot of things but are now dead. If Web Archives can't be found to update them, there should still be a guidelines around that says those links should still be preserved to at least show there WAS support for something, with a superscript marker to denote the link doesn't actually lead anywhere anymore. I've seen people remove dead links before and I've actually done it myself once or twice I think, which is why I think it's worth warning of.
Neo89515 (talk) 23:22, 23 June 2021 (UTC)
- Thanks for putting these down "on paper". I'll see if I can add something in as I advance my revision of the current MOS, since it's going to be voted on anyway. Do feel free to directly propose individual sections or amendments to the MoS that can be voted on separately, especially if they concern policy changes like the voice actor trivia suggestion. Elseweyr (talk • stalk) 20:48, 24 June 2021 (UTC)
- Hey, as I'm in favor of every proposed changes, I suggest to add them into my new MoS proposal in order to vote it all in once. Feel free to update my sanbox accordingly Forum:MoS_revamp_&_other_clarifications (with a small link to here). For the "commons new errors", I would add it into the FAQ of community guidelines.DeldiRe (talk) 14:40, 26 June 2021 (UTC)
- Regarding the issue of updated enemy appearances in MELE, couldn't we follow the same policy we adopted for Elanos Haliat? Putting his original appearance and discussing it in the Trivia section? As an alternate idea, what about a collapsible or thumbnail image for the original appearance in the main text body? This would be a change to the usual "no thumbnail" policy yes, but just throwing that out there.
- Does the Wiki have a policy regarding "comment" edits on pages? Since a lot of casual users tend to use the Visual Editor, they won't see the grey markup language in the source Wikitext. We do have a couple of on-page "comment" templates like [citation needed] , but maybe we could provide more guidance in the MoS on exactly when and how to use them (because even I want to know, I frankly don't)
Neo89515 (talk) 16:33, 12 July 2021 (UTC)
- comments now show up on visualeditor just fine. people are just too impatient to notice whatever the editor they're using. T̴̴͕̲̞̳̖̼̱͒͛̎͒ͫ̃ͧeͩ̈̽̈҉͓̝̰̼̦̫̤̀͠m̫̪̪̯̻͎̫̅̇̓̇͌̚p̸̙̝̓̓͌ͨ͆ͣͥ̂̕o͒̽͐̽͏̞̬̻͕͔͕͚̰͍͠͞ṙ̢̞͚͈̹̰ͨ̓ͭ̈́̌ạ̢̧̪̹̺̺̣̹̲͂͆̏ͪͨ͒ͭř̹͈͜͠y̷͍̻̜̹̼̾̽̈́e̵̹̼̟̦͚͐̈́͌͘d͉̲̣̻͉̱͗̅ḭ̷̻̆͋̆̓̔͝t̨͍̦̫̗͂̅̍̋̆ͩ͝ộ̫̟̬̳̝̲̾ͫ̒̿ͮ̑̚rͯ̎ͨͭ̄̿̽͛҉̠̫̱̠̘̘̲́ͅ7̩̻ͤͩͨ͝͡8̜̣̙͇̻ͨ͛͛̆͒̆̽̒͐͜͡ ͥ̍̉̃̇ͥ̓ͨ͏̕҉̥̹͓̗̤̠̖̤ (talk) 01:20, 13 July 2021 (UTC)