Wikizilla:Manual of Style

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Wiki.png This page documents an official Wikizilla policy.
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Wikizilla's Manual of Style is a guideline on how to properly write and format articles on Wikizilla. It is not an absolute law, but it should not be deviated from without a valid rationale.

For a guideline of structuring article sections, see the Structuring Manual.

General principles

Articles must be written in an encyclopedic tone with proper grammar and spelling. Personal opinions and commentary are NOT to be included in articles unless they are noteworthy and then they should be included as either part of the "reception" or "trivia" sections.

Language

Main article: Wikizilla:Syntax.

English is the official language of this wiki. Articles in other languages are not acceptable and will be deleted.

In terms of convention, the site uses American English. Other English conventions, if added, will be converted to American English for the sake of consistency.

Structuring

Main article: Wikizilla:Structuring.

There are guidelines on organizing sections in articles on Wikizilla, depending on the type of article.

Article style

Standard templates

The Era template should be added to every single content page. This template assures that comments are added to the bottom of the page, and it's also to help catalogue each and every single page.

Also, for Japanese words in parenthesis (normally used to give the Japanese name of something that has been defined), use Nihongo template. Example: "Godzilla (ゴジラ) is..."

Transliteration or literal romaji for titles?

Wikizilla uses the official international names for movies, and the American names of games, toys, and other such things. If it has an official English name, do not use the literal Japanese translation. For things that only have a Japanese name, use a translation (if applicable) or a transliteration--try not to use the romaji (Japanese words in Latin letters, which are the ones used in English). For example:

For the names of Japanese persons, try not to put characters that cannot be accessed on the spot by a keyboard. In other words, try not to use ā, ē, ī, ō or ū in titles or as the primary way that something is referred as in a page.

Formatting the first time an article's subject appears in the article

What this means is the bolded name at the beginning of pages, such as "Godzilla (ゴジラ) is a daikaiju..." Here are the correct ways to format these first instances, in addition to bolding.

  • Names of monsters are never italicized.
  • Movie titles, book titles, comic titles (ignoring the "#" and issue number), and video game titles, as well as the names of naval ships are to be italicized. Underlining will never be used on this site.

Tone

Articles should be written in an informative, encyclopedic tone. Personal opinions and excessively flowery language are inappropriate for article content (and try to avoid writing in parenthesis). Do not use idioms, and do not go out of your way to use complicated language.

Tense

Articles on Wikizilla are written in both the present and past tenses, however each tense should be reserved for specific uses. Generally speaking, all descriptions of real-world things (persons, films, companies, etc.) should be written in the present tense, for example "Toho Company, Limited (東宝株式会社,   Tōhō Kabushiki-Kaisha, lit. Toho Co., Ltd.) is a large Japanese film studio." However, when providing biographies or histories of such real-life subjects, past tense should be used. Present tense should also be used when providing out-of-universe descriptions of fictional objects and characters, for example "Godzilla is a daikaiju created by Toho..." Plot summaries for films, books and shows and walkthroughs for video games should be written in the present tense, while the "History" sections on various pages, which are written from an in-universe perspective, should be written in the past tense. Past tense should also be used when chronicling real-life events. For any scenarios not covered by those listed above, tense may be determined on a case-by-case basis.

When writing for an article, it is paramount that you do not change tense mid sentence. Sentences like:

It was first appears as a wreckage in 2014 American film Godzilla.

show clear signs of tense swapping, and are thus not considered grammatically correct, nor suitable for use in the article.

Trivia

Any interesting information that does not fit into one of the other sections should be listed here. Remember, although Wikipedia discourages trivia, Wikizilla permits it. However, some trivia may be too incidental or insignificant to warrant listing. Trivia notes will be decided on a case by case basis. Do not add obvious things (for example, adding "The MUTOs first appeared in this film" on the Godzilla (2014 film) page") or false trivia. If you add false trivia maliciously, you will be blocked. If you continually add obvious / unconfirmed trivia, you will receive a warning, and then a temporary block. Several violations will increase the block's severity.

Information which is factual and important to the article itself does not belong in said article's trivia section, and is better suited to being placed in the main body of the text. Non-trivia such as 'Godman and Greenman fought Gaira and Shilarji after Tsunojiras was defeated' is an example of this; such non-trivia is almost always deleted on sight or moved into the main body of the text, as it is an important piece of information that should not be glossed over.