Half-Life Wiki:Manual of Style

This Manual of Style for the Combine OverWiki is a guide for editors on how to properly format articles.

In the interests of keeping the articles as clean, concise and professional as possible, all wiki contributors should strive for consistency of content. That is, articles of a similar type (such as a chapter walkthrough, of which there are many) should follow a similar layout in order to be consistent. See Point Insertion for a good example of a chapter walkthrough layout.

As any experienced editor can tell you, some things can be written dozens of different (and, arguably, correct) ways. Inevitably, everyone has a different opinion on which way is best. Without some kind of established policy on these issues, wiki articles quickly become untidy and inconsistent as each contributor chooses to do things their way, and this may also give rise to arguments between contributors about which way is best.

The Manual of Style - a collection of guidelines and policies - is an effort to overcome these problems by providing an itemized list of examples of the right way to write articles. All of the below guidelines can be assumed to be officially sanctioned unless otherwise stated. Opinions and feedback on these guidelines is welcome in this article's talk page.

Please learn how a wiki works before starting editing here, that will help us a lot!

Registering
Please register before adding anything. It's simple, fast and free, and it is so much easier to communicate with you that way. It is not mandatory, but heavily advised.

General

 * Please categorize articles and insert navigational templates appropriately to ensure that the OverWiki is a more orderly compendium of Half-Life knowledge.
 * Please do not insert a heading, such as ==Overview==, if there is only a single heading within the article. Just don't put a heading until you feel the need to insert two, and then you may create two.
 * Always insert pictures in "thumb" format, such as [[Image:Random.jpg|thumb|left]] (but not if the picture is in an infobox). When doing so, be sure to add a proper caption like [[Image:Random.jpg|thumb|left|Caption goes here.]].
 * Refer to the Half-Life universe from an in-universe perspective. Always use third-person writing.
 * Never use "you" outside of the walkthrough section and "Tactics" sections of the enemies articles. Even if most of the people reading this wiki are players, an encyclopedia does not directly talk to its reader. So prefer "the player" or the playable character name, e.g. "Gordon Freeman", "Freeman" or "Gordon".
 * Refrain from using slashes whenever possible. Instead, work the word "or" into the sentence, or figure out some other way of stating it.
 * Always remember to put spoiler tags around any important plot information. In many cases, it is possible to mark only the sentence or paragraph containing the spoiler(s), but content like plot summaries and the "Biography" sections of character pages are often loaded with spoilers, leaving little choice but to mark whole sections or even the entire article with spoiler tags. Finally, avoid placing any spoilers in infoboxes until a system for marking them is devised. Put them in the article text itself where they can be properly marked.
 * Quoting relevant game dialogue at the top of an article is common, but please avoid adding any quote that mentions the subject without first considering if it will in fact add to the article in question; it is not that every single article should feature a quote. For example, various characters exclaim "Grenade!" during the course of the games, but such a quote is meaningless in the context of an article about grenades. A good quote should add meaning to the article. It should sum up the topic at hand or at least strongly refer to it.
 * Don't overuse capitalization in subtitles. ==Behind the scenes== or ==See also== instead of ==Behind the Scenes== or ==See Also==.

Fanon
This wiki is not a place for fanon. Speculation and fan-made information will be deleted and you will be blocked. If you think that the info you added is canon, please provide a reliable source.

Images

 * Add only canon image, not screenshots from customized/tweaked canon games or mods.
 * Avoid uploading pictures you don't have a purpose for, unless they can add to a subject gallery. Before uploading, read all the instructions given on Special:Upload. Disregard of them will have you blocked and your picture deleted.
 * See Help:Images for more information on image use.

Article structures
As mentioned above, articles of a similar type should follow a similar layout in order to be consistent. Although it has not been precisely defined properly, some tacit layouts have been applied to some articles. Some are good, some are bad. They will properly be defined in the future. The only defined layouts so far are thus:


 * Like on any wiki, the article must feature a short introduction, starting by the article name in in bold. A game title must be in bold and in italics. At least one relevant picture should be at the right side of the article (in the infobox when there is one). Then the main article starts, with its first or only subtitle.
 * After the main contents, the end of an article should include ==Behind the scenes==, ==Trivia== , ==Notes and references== , ==See also== and External links== in this order. When there is nothing to say in these sections, they must not be included.

"Behind the scenes" and "Trivia" sections

 * "Behind the scenes" is for development information, such as design evolution, cut content, name change, etc. "Trivia" is for trivial information, such as little details that does not add much to the subject, could even be disregarded, but are fun to know. Pointless and irrelevant trivia will be removed and you might be blocked. Rather concentrate on the article itself. Judith Mossman is a good example of the use of these sections.
 * If these sections contain several items, use * to list each one.
 * Please note that "trivia" is spelled trivia and not triva.

"Notes and references"

 * List all references inside the article text, by using . It will automatically show at the end of the article if the template Reflist is already included under the subtitle "Notes and references".


 * There is therefore nothing to write under this title, it's only there for the template to automatically display the notes and references put into the text. If you want to write something there, it will definitely better fit under "Behind the scenes" or "Trivia" (see above).


 * More info on the references subject can be found on Wikipedia, even though we don't closely follow the same guidelines.

Names

 * Please name all character articles by their full known name, not their title/rank as well. Doctor Gordon Freeman's article is titled Gordon Freeman, not "Doctor Gordon Freeman".
 * Any game and chapter title must be written in italics.

Weapons

 * Since many of the conventional weapons in the series are based on real weapons but possess only generic names in-game and are heavily fictionalized in their specifications and capabilities, the current policy on naming is to simply call the weapon by the generic, in-game name, and mention which real-life weapon it resembles in the "Trivia" section of the article. See Pistol (HL2).
 * Fill the weapon infobox with useful information, but carefully consider what each field means. For example:
 * As mentioned above the weapons are referred to by their generic names, so even if a weapon has a real-life equivalent from which you can gather this information, leave the Manufacturer, Price, and Model fields blank.
 * Effective range is what it sounds like. It is the range at which a player of average skill can engage an enemy and reasonably expect to hit. It may be possible to 'snipe' (sic) a Combine Soldier across a long distance with the pistol occasionally, but to reliably do so is impossible, therefore the pistol's effective range is medium.
 * Affiliation means who 'issues' the weapon, not who uses it, so the SMG would be affiliated with the Combine (even though it is used by both sides, the Resistance does not produce it, they use examples captured from the Combine), while the Gravity Gun is affiliated to the Resistance.
 * Every other weapon in the game should not be listed as a 'counter-weapon'. A weapon is only considered a 'counter-weapon' to another if it has a clearly definable defensive use against the weapon in question. A possible example might include the Gravity Gun used to catch an energy ball.

Past or present tense?
When writing an article, it's often hard to know which tense is most suitable. Here are some guidelines.


 * Use past tense when referring to specific events that have already run their course in the game's plot. Examples below:

Wrong
In the "Follow Freeman!" chapter of Half-Life 2, Gordon Freeman and Barney Calhoun lead a Resistance assault on the Nexus. After heavy fighting, they breach its defenses and destroy all of the generators, disable the Suppression Device and open the gates that were blocking access to the area...

Right
In the "Follow Freeman!" chapter of Half-Life 2, Gordon Freeman and Barney Calhoun led a Resistance assault on the Nexus. After heavy fighting, they breached its defenses and destroyed all of the generators, disabled the Suppression Device and opened the gates that were blocking access to the area...


 * Plot summaries and chapter walkthroughs are rare exceptions to this, as they use present tense to maintain the narrative. Chapter walkthroughs summarize a chapter's events in a "this is what happens in this chapter" fashion, as opposed to a "this is what happened in that chapter" fashion. Examples below:

Wrong
Nova Prospekt is the ninth chapter of Half-Life 2. In this chapter, Gordon Freeman attacked Nova Prospekt, a Combine stronghold, and breached it's defenses with the help of an army of Antlions.

Right
Nova Prospekt is the ninth chapter of Half-Life 2. In this chapter, Gordon Freeman attacks Nova Prospekt, a Combine stronghold, and breaches it's defenses with the help of an army of Antlions.


 * Use present tense when referring to gameplay elements, characters, weapons, enemies, and the like. Examples below:

Wrong
The 9mm Pistol was a handgun seen in Half-Life and its expansions. It was used by various characters and was the first ranged weapon the player encountered.

Right
The 9mm Pistol is a handgun seen in Half-Life and its expansions. It is used by various characters and is the first ranged weapon the player encounters.