Just Cause Wiki:Manual of Style

This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles on this wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles.

Article layout

One of the most important parts of wiki editing is how to structure an article. The structure is a powerful thing: it dictates what information the reader reads and when he or she reads it. It can influence what people contribute, where it goes, and how it might be written. Structure has the power to inform or confuse the same way good or bad writing does. Keep a well structured article, and you're more likely to have a high quality one.

Organize sections in an article in a hierarchical structure like you would an outline. Keep it logical, but feel free to forsake strict logic for readability. Wherever possible, try to have an introduction for each section. Just like the article as a whole, the section should start with an introduction and then have its subsections below it. Try using a shallow structure rather than a deep one. Too many nested sections usually leads to a confusing or unreadable article.

Above all, keep your layout consistent. Don't throw your reader a curve ball too often. The following sections will offer some good advice on keeping your articles clean, consistent, and clear.

Lead section

Every article should begin with a sentence that defines the articles subject.

For example: "Panau is the group of islands where [[Just Cause 2]] takes place." and "Emas Hitam Oil Refinery is an oil refinery and faction stronghold in [[Just Cause 2]]."

The first time the article mentions the title, put it in bold using three apostrophes — '''article title''' produces article title.

The leading sentence should always say what game the vehicle/location/mission/item is in.

All more accurate and detailed info should go into the other sections. See below for a list of sections.

Section headings

Use the == (two equal signs) style markup for main headings, equivalent to <h2>. Do not use a single =. This is because a single = creates an <h1> heading which is already used by the page header and would be bad coding. Also, do not use wikilinks in subject headings. When edited, these sections become confusing in the edit history because of the link code. Consider instead putting the word in the first or second sentence of the section and linking it there.

Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Use "Founding and history", not "Founding and History". Note that this is different from most section title rules you'll encounter elsewhere.

Avoid special characters in headings, such as an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]). In place of the ampersand, use the word "and" unless the ampersand is part of a formal name.

Always keep headings short and simple. Headings are guidelines to your page's structure and should inform the reader rather than confuse. To keep it short, avoid unnecessary words or redundancy in headings, i.e. avoid a, an, and the, pronouns, repeating the article title and so on. Also, try to avoid giving identical titles to different sections.

List of headings for vehicle articles: See Sample page for vehicles.

List of headings for location pages: All these sections should be in "heading 2". Subsections should only exist if the section would otherwise be too complicated.

Description - Use this section to describe the appearance of the location. This section should also include all info that doesn't fit into the other sections.
Location - Use this only if the location section could contain more info than the infobox. This section can contain info about the territory/Provinces, the coordinates and the description of the location, if there's something notable about it, like a riverbank, beach, hillside, ... This section should never be the first section, to avoid people leaving the site as soon as they've seen the coordinates.
Completion - Use this for a bulleted list of all items needed for completion (Collectable Items and sabotage destructible objects).
Vehicles - Use this for a bulleted list of vehicles that spawn there. Don't forget to make every vehicle name a link and say where exactly the vehicles are, if it might otherwise be difficult to find them.
Trivia - This section is for a bulleted list of all additional info that doesn't belong in other sections.
Gallery - This section should only be used if the article has at least 3 pictures. See the gallery section of this article below.

List of headings for missions:

Introduction - This section should contain info about where it begins; who it's for and what you're told to do when the mission begins.
Walkthrough - This section should begin with: {{Spoiler}}. After that there should be a complete chronological description of the mission. Everything that happens and is seen. Don't forget to add links.
Trivia - This section is for a bulleted list of all additional info. Info like what might become of the location after the mission; what the mission refers to (like how the mission Stranded refers to Lost) and all other info that isn't relevant in the other sections. Use links to wikipedia when needed.

Pictures/Images

A picture speaks a thousand words, but a misplaced or untidy image can detract from an article.

When choosing images, keep in mind placement, size (the standard size is 264px) and the appropriateness of the image to the section. Let images flow with the text instead of break it up.

Images should generally be right aligned to enhance readability by allowing a smooth flow of text down the left margin - the "thumb" option does this by default. If an infobox is not being used in an article, then the first image should be at the end of the first sentence.

When an article has many images, or can be improved by having more, then all but the first picture at the top of the article, should be gathered into a separate "Gallery" section. The gallery section should be the last section and the pictures in it should be in a gallery. A gallery can be made by clicking the "Gallery" link in the "Add features and media" area at the right edge of the screen. If there's also a "videos" section, then the videos section will be the last.

Navigation boxes and templates

Navigation boxes are used to navigate between related articles, such as the weapons in Just Cause 2. If a navigation box is used, all articles in the navbox should have the navbox located at the bottom of the page.

References and sourcs

This is a gaming wiki and as such, absolutely all info here is what the wikipedia defines as "original research". There's almost never a need to provide references, or sources. We all check each others edits anyway and more experienced players will always set the record straight.

Disambiguation

A disambiguation line is sometimes put at the beginning of an article to link to another article with the same or similar title.

An example could be:

"For other types of Something, see [Something disambiguation]."

Quotations

A quote should always be surrounded by quotation marks and it may be italic.

Grammar

Grammar is extremely important. You can't build good sentences without knowing how to use it. Since a wiki article must be as clear as possible for all the people reading it, editors must keep close to correct grammar standards to ensure clear communication.

Capitalization

Titles such as lord or king start with a capital letter when used as a title (followed by a name): "President Panay", not "president Panay". When used generically, they should be in lower case: "Baby Panay is the son of the previous president."

Titles of works

There's no need to make titles italic, however depending on the title, it may need quote symbols, because some movie titles are purosely worded like sentences or short statements.

It's always a good idea to turn the title into the appropriate link. Either internal link, or external to another on-topic wikia, or to wikipedia.

Writing

“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” -- Stephen King.

Keep in mind that this is a gaming wiki and many players are kids from non English speaking countries. This doesn't mean you should ever dumb things down, but don't make things needlessly complicated either.

We now come to the meat of an article: the words themselves. When you are editing wikis, you must be both academic and artistic. You have to be accurate, but you also have to be interesting. Neither one can dominate; you must skillfully balance both.

Keep your writing concise. Don't use two words where one will do. Keeping your writing simple will make it easy to understand and easy to expand on. Use complete sentences whenever possible. When you write, use grammar as a toolbox: know the rules, but only break them on purpose. However, at the same time, do not use contractions in articles (words that are made by combining two words with an apostrophe, such as "don't" instead of "do not").

Check your spelling and grammar. Do not use 'u' in place of 'you' or '2' in place of 'to'. Write the way you would for a class paper or a newspaper article. You're is the contraction for "you are" and your refers to possession.

Keep all of the topics you cover within the scope of the article. What that means is, you don't need to give a detailed history of humans on the page about Winston Churchill. Consider the article's title as your point of origin and write from that perspective. Make use of the wiki's ability to link to more detailed articles or external sources for more information.

Write from an impersonal perspective.' Do not use "I." For example, do not write, "Hellscream was a fervent member of the Horde. He served both the Old and New Horde, ~~As far as I know~~." Completely avoid drawing attention to the author (yourself). Do not use the impersonal "you," either, which refers to the reader or player. When writing tips, say "the player should" instead of "you should." The only exception to the impersonal you rule is when writing a walk-through for a mission.

Be bold. If you know something is wrong, correct it. If you think you could word something better, write it. If an article has a glaring deficiency, fill it. Even if your first attempt isn't golden, you can fix it later or someone else will come along and fix it for you. Don't be afraid to screw up.

Maintain article neutrality. Do not definitively say that something such as a weapon or vehicle is relatively good or bad unless you will also explain why that is. Keep in mind that nothing is "good" unless it's good in comparison to others.

Choice of Words

Don't make up words. English is the world's most comprehensive language, so there is bound to be a word to describe the writer's needs. Remember, no wikian is Shakespeare. If stuck, use the Wiktionary.

Maintain good usage. Try to use words that all wikians will understand rather than using rather localised terms or slang. For example, use "confused" rather than "miffed", to help maintain formality and to make sure other players aren't "miffed" by strange terms that don't appear in most dictionaries.

Conclusion

Every article can be improved (even this one). Following these guidelines will not ensure a perfect article the first time, but it will give the article a stronger skeleton. It is ultimately your job as an editor to put meat on it.