Feed The Beast Wiki:Manual of Style

At the, we try to keep a fairly consistent tone and style across our articles. It makes the wiki easier to read. This guide page outlines the general style used in the writing of pages and articles. If other guide pages would conflict with this, this page takes precedence. Changes made to this guide should reflect the general consensus, and should be first discussed on the community discussion board.

Use common sense while following this guide. There are occasions when certain rules should be ignored.

Rules of Thumb

 * Use common sense.
 * If you need advice, ask an active editor for advice. They are often welcome to help, and if they specifically are not, somebody will be.
 * Do not copy content from outside sources. Originality is greatly preferred.
 * Advertising, vandalism, and spamming are strictly prohibited.
 * Articles should be simple, factual, and technical. Novels should be written elsewhere.
 * Maintain a neutral point of view and encyclopedic tone. We are here for information, not demagoguery.
 * Use templates when appropriate. All templates have documentation to explain their usage. Most machines have their own crafting grid templates; see the crafting grid guide for more information.
 * When creating an article for an item, do not list all of its crafting uses; the accepts it cannot compete against modern utilities like NEI in this area. However, a short description of its major uses is acceptable.
 * When referencing modpacks, please use the word "modpacks" not "mod packs", "mod-packs", etc.
 * When creating pages, use categories. Every page should fit within at least one category, and may be in more than one.
 * Do not randomly create new categories; use common sense, and try to use the categories in place (see below). If you feel a new category should be added, place a message on the article's talk page or on the discussion board.
 * All existing categories are listed below:

Plagiarizing
Creation of original content is by far preferable when creating articles. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. Editors found to be plagiarizing will be warned for their first offense.

Copied content that falls under fair use may be used but must be properly cited.

Vandalism
Creation of empty pages, pages that contain nonsensical information, or pages that are blatantly and meaninglessly offensive, edits that deliberately disrupt other editors or readers, engaging in edit wars, flooding the recent changes, and creating misleading edit summaries are all considered vandalism. Editors that engage in vandalism will be blocked, usually for a week.

Spam and advertisement
Spamming and advertising are strictly prohibited. Editors who post pages of spam or advertisement will be blocked.

Unofficial wikis
Hostility towards other wikis is not tolerated. Editors who make hostile comments about other wikis will be warned and may be blocked.

Linking to other wikis is not prohibited, if you feel that such links would contribute to the quality of the content. Interwiki links can be requested on the Project:Administrators' noticeboard.

It is however recommended that editors only contribute to one wiki at a time, to ensure they do not inadvertently violate the copyright policies of the wikis they edit.

Article titles, headings, and sections
Article titles and section heading should reflect the content they contain. Titles and section headings should be concise and precise. Titles should be consistent with the titles of related content.

Article titles

 * Capitalize letters in a title as they would be capitalized in a sentence.
 * This applies to parenthetical disambiguation. For example, Some Mod (mod) instead of Some Mod (Mod), or Apple (item) instead of Apple (Item).
 * The first letter of a title will always be automatically capitalized. This can be suppressed with the Lowercase title template.
 * Articles on items should be titled exactly as the items appear in game. If multiple mods add items of the same name, append the full mod name in parentheses to the title. (For example, Wrench (BuildCraft)).
 * Do not use A, An, The as the beginning of a title, unless it is an inseparable part of a name.
 * Titles should not normally end in punctuation marks.
 * Titles should not normally contain Unicode (non-alphanumeric or punctuation) characters.

Section organization
An article must always start with an introductory lead section. The lead section must provide an overview of the entire article. A Table of Contents will be automatically inserted after the lead section if enough sections exist in the article.

An article that expands upon a section may be linked with Main and related articles may be linked with See also.

More information regarding the layout and order of sections can be found in the Project:Article creation guideline.

Section headers
With spaces: Without:
 * Capitalize letters in headings as they would be capitalized in a sentence.
 * Do not use links for headings or section titles. Use Main or See also to link to related content.
 * Header titles can be separated from the equal signs by spaces or not separated.
 * It is more important to keep consistency in an article than to follow your preferred method.
 * Level 1 headings must never be used.
 * Section headings should be unique to avoid ambiguity in automatically generated edit summaries.
 * Headings should not start with numbers or contain images. If absolutely required however, numbers may be used.

Linking to sections
Links can be created to link to specific sections by using. To link to a section within the same page, use: ; to link to a section on another page, use:. Should a section name be repeated within an article, _2, _3 and so on will be appended to the anchor name to each subsequent appearances in the article.

To avoid links being invalidated when a linked section's name is changed, it is recommended to add a comment in the section heading. For example:

Heading
But not:

Heading
== Heading ==

Title of works

 * A title of a work should normally be italicized, but if the surrounding text is in italics, the title should be in a normal font.
 * Titles of works should retain their capitalization regardless of other rules mentioned in this guide.

Quotations

 * Quotes should not be in italics.
 * Quotes should retain any errors, marked with Sic when appropriate, case and formatting.
 * Quotes may be put in QuoteBox or Quote if long enough, or when appropriate.

Capital letters

 * Do not use capital letters for emphasis, please use italics or bold.
 * Incorrect: DO NOT put your cat in the microwave.
 * Correct: Do not put your cat in the microwave.


 * Do not capitalize the unless it is part or a proper noun or item name, in which case you must keep the original capitalization.
 * Incorrect: Attacking The Ender Dragon without proper gear may result in death.
 * Correct: Going into The Nether without proper gear may result in death.


 * "Creative," "Survival," "Spectator," and other game modes are capitalized when referring to them as game modes.
 * In-game text or item names should be capitalized exactly as they appear in-game.

Boldface

 * If the article title appears in the lead section, it may be highlighted with bold text.
 * Correct: Wool is a product you get from killing or shearing sheep with shears.


 * Bold can be used to indicate emphasis.

Italic

 * Italics can be used to indicate emphasis.
 * Titles of works should be in italics, but if the surrounding text is in italics, the title should not be in italics.
 * Italics can be used to introduce new terms.
 * Foreign words (in the source language) should be in italics. However foreign proper nouns should not be in italics.
 * Incorrect: ... München ...
 * Correct: ... in absentia ...


 * Scientific names should be in italics.

Spacing

 * A non-breaking space (&amp;nbsp;) ensures that a line will not be broken at that point.
 * A number and its unit should not be on separate lines, using &amp;nbsp; can avoid them being separated.
 * Correct: 10&amp;nbsp;blocks of Sand.

Numbers and dates

 * If a number takes many words to type out, use figures instead.
 * Incorrect: ten thousand and fifty six;
 * Correct: 10,056; 1/12 one twelfth;


 * Delimit numbers over 4~5 digits with commas.
 * Correct: 1,234; 1234; 12,345


 * Retain in game formatting when possible.

Abbreviations

 * Do not make up your own abbreviations.
 * If an abbreviation will be used in an article, type out both the full name and the abbreviation the first time it would be abbreviated.
 * Correct: ... Redstone Flux (RF) ...


 * Plurals can be created by appending -s or -es and possessive forms can be created by appending -'s or -'. Do not use -'s to create plurals.
 * To indicate approximately, c. is preferred over approx., ca. or circa.
 * Avoid using ampersands (&) to replace and.
 * Incorrect: ... Sand & Gunpowder makes TNT ...
 * Correct: ... Sand and Gunpowder makes TNT ...

Grammar and punctuation
Please do not contribute to the wiki without proper knowledge of English grammar. To find more information on English grammar, search "English grammar" on Google.

If you wish to contribute to the wiki but English is not your native language and you are not confident with using it, consider translating the wiki.

Wording and tone

 * Avoid double negatives.
 * Avoid using passive voice.
 * Use gender-neutral language when appropriate.
 * Use "it" to refer to in-game entities, even if their gender appears obvious or is defined.
 * Correct: The Dragon Queen is a hostile mob added by BuildCraft. It shoots fireballs.
 * When referring to a generic player, use the pronoun "they".
 * Correct: Eating this food may cause the player to become poisoned. They also may teleport around.
 * When referring to a specific person, such as a content creator, use whatever their preferred pronoun is.
 * Correct: Xbony2 is a mod author from the US. He has made many mods.
 * Avoid using an instructive or presumptuous tone. A tone that addresses the reader or author directly is considered unencyclopedic.
 * Guides may have an exception to this.
 * Incorrect: Note that an icon appears at the bottom right of the screen showing...
 * Correct: An icon at the bottom right of the screen shows...

Incorrect for American English: The ArmourPieceItem is an armour piece from that one mod. Correct for American English: The ArmourPieceItem is an armor piece from that one mod.
 * Informal text should be avoided.
 * Long paragraphs and sentences should be shortened or split for clarity when appropriate.
 * Remain in a neutral point of view.
 * Use American English, such as armor rather than armour. Use British English by translating it.
 * In-game text or item names should always be spelled exactly as they appear in-game, even if they are incorrectly spelled or use non-American English.
 * {} are braces, [] are brackets, and are parentheses.

Common examples of tone
These are by no means strict rules, but they may provide some solutions in case you find yourself stuck fixing your tone.
 * You can do X thing with this block
 * Instead, write The player can X with this block.
 * This is one of the first machines you will make in the mod
 * Instead, write This is a low-tier machine, that is typically available early in the mod's progression.
 * This sentence would be fine in a guide, but not a standard article.
 * Note that the machine can do this, but only under these circumstances
 * The machine is able to do this, but only under these circumstances

If there are more examples needed, please request it on the |talk page.

Vocabulary
Never correct grammar, spelling, or capitalization of in-game text. In-game text or item names should always be written exactly as they appear in-game. This is stated several times in this manual. Instead of correcting grammar, use Sic, and consider letting the author of the content know that they have some misspellings, incorrect grammar, or capitalization issues.
 * Use modpack instead of mod pack or mod-pack.
 * Use multiblock instead of multi-block or multi block
 * Use addon instead of add-on.
 * Use GitHub instead of Github.
 * Use vanilla Minecraft instead of Vanilla Minecraft.

Wikilinks

 * Please create links when they are relevant to the content and helpful in context.
 * Avoid making multiple links to the same page within a single article section. Linking to the same page in multiple separate sections is appropriate.
 * Avoid linking to disambiguation pages. Check the titles before linking to them.

External linking

 * Please avoid using shortened URLs unless necessary, as they can be used to cloak URLs that point to malicious websites and possibly lead users to sites they aren't expecting to enter. If shortened links are needed, please tag their use with Shortened.
 * As this is a Gamepedia wiki, it is preferred to link to other Gamepedia wikis rather than external wikis for gaming references, unless the quality is much better elsewhere. Some Gamepedia wikis have interwikis established for them; a list of these can be found here.
 * Do not link to mod repost websites.

Category links

 * Category links should be placed at the end of a page, but before the required final line,.
 * Please do not create new categories. If you cannot find an appropriate existing category, please post a request for a new category on the article's talk page or the community discussion board. Redundant categories may be deleted without notice.

Disambiguation pages

 * Use unordered lists to list different definitions.
 * Use bold text on a new line to categorize different types of definitions.
 * Do not link directly to disambiguation pages. Instead, link to the appropriate article.
 * Articles with disambiguation pages should however use about to link to their own disambiguation pages.

Images
Images should be used to complement the article's content; such images should be right aligned. Images showcasing a build related to the article should be put at the end of the page as a gallery. Step-by-step images may be included on guide articles and on articles showcasing machine builds. Images mentioned above should contain captions to describe them. If a caption is a sentence fragment, it should start with a capital letter and end without punctuation.

For screenshots, please follow these guidelines when appropriate:
 * Texture packs should not be used when obtaining screenshots. Violating images will be tagged with Screenshot uses resource pack.
 * HUDs should be disabled (default key is F1). Violating images will be tagged with Screenshot includes HUD.
 * If the player or the player's skin is being displayed, it should be set to either the default Steve or Alex skin. Violating images will be tagged with Screenshot doesn't use default skin.

Images of item icons and crafting recipes should not be uploaded to the wiki. To add a crafting recipe to an article, use a crafting grid template. For more information on using crafting grid templates, see the Crafting Grid Guide. Item icons are generated via the Tilesheet Extension. To add an item icon to the wiki tilesheets make a request on tilesheet requests page, and if an appropriate crafting grid template is not available make a request on the community discussion board.

Image file names
Image file names should be descriptive; files with misleading titles will be deleted or moved.

There are no naming conventions for images that exist on pages, however there are certain conventions for interface images.

Existing naming conventions:
 * Items in <> is required.
 * Items in [] is optional.


 * Crafting grid template backgrounds: GUI [mod name] &lt;machine>.png
 * Crafting grid tank overlays: GUI tank [width] &lt;height>.png
 * Crafting grid tank liquid: Liquid &lt;all lowercase liquid name>.png
 * Mod logo/icon images in infoboxes: Modicon &lt;mod name>.png
 * Tilesheets: Tilesheet &lt;mod abbreviation> &lt;tile size>.png
 * For a list of mod abbreviations, see here.

Copyrighted material
Please upload copyrighted material only if you are sure your use falls under fair use. Copyrighted content must be attributed on the file page unless the file is released to the public domain.

Videos
Linking to videos is heavily discouraged, and mostly not allowed. There are a few reasons why this isn't allowed:
 * Tone. Most YouTubers' videos are unencyclopedic, biased, and don't fit the tone of the wiki.
 * Creator bias. Choosing what video to be displayed on an articles requires bias and being unfair to video creators that aren't featured, since we certainly can't feature all videos on certain topics. This could be avoided if the created its own videos, but we already have too many things uncovered in text form, and there's way too many things to cover.
 * Language bias. YouTube videos are mainly made in English, so translated articles with a video would need to find an equivalent video in the language of the translated article, which is often unlikely. This becomes even more of a problem when combined with being up-to-date since it's hard for English-speaking editors to tell what is and what isn't.
 * Competition. YouTubers are competitive; we wouldn't want a bunch of new users to join the wiki with the goal of promoting their channels/videos by adding them to our pages. We also wouldn't want users to make Stub-class articles just to add a video to it.
 * Being up-to-date. Over time, documentation gets outdated. With a wiki, updating documentation is very simple. However, updating videos usually requires shooting a new video, which cannot be easily done. This is especially true if made by a third party; we can't expect YouTubers, especially those unaffiliated with the wiki, to remake their videos to cover one small change. Sometimes, videos may become unavailable without warning, and information may be lost.
 * Purpose. Many users flock to wikis with the purpose of avoiding videos, for the reasons above among many others.
 * Performance. Loading videos takes significantly longer than loading text and images. This is especially important because many users may be in-game while reading the wiki, using most of the resources of a computer.

Linking to a video/playlist can be done if it is official documentation made by the mod author, just like linking to another wiki.

Lists

 * Avoid listing features of items as lists; present them with plain paragraphs when possible.
 * Do not leave a blank line between list items as the wiki will interpret them as separate lists.
 * Please add a space between the list item marker and the actual text item.
 * Prefer an ordered list over an unordered list if the sequence is critical.
 * Style and format should be consistent in a list.
 * Incorrect:

*Item A *Item B *Item C
 * Correct:

* Item A * Item B * Item C
 * List items inside infobox parameters are separated by, not by using the format above.

Wiki markup styling
The wiki markup is commonly referred as wikitext. A source of an article should be clear and easy to read.
 * Use HTML markup sparingly.
 * Prefer the use of Unicode characters over HTML entities. However sometimes HTML entities are better than Unicode characters.
 * Avoid using excessive spacing.
 * An empty space between different sections may help editors identify a section break.
 * Avoid changing the font, style and color of text.
 * If a section of wiki markup syntax looks strange, leave a comment on the article's talk page.

Tables
Tables have a specific style and format to be followed:
 * HTML attributes are wrapped in exactly one space.
 * Each row takes up exactly one line. Individual cells are not given their own line.
 * Cell contents are wrapped in exactly one space.

An example of a correctly formatted table is as follows:

This is the format that also happens to be provided by the advanced editor toolbar's table menu, so if you prefer to use tools to generate your tables, you're in luck.

Translation

 * Please leave out any translation tags or elements on English pages.
 * Note that the langbar is not considered a translation tag.
 * If you are a translator, please only translate pages that are marked for translation. If no pages are available for translation, please request a page for translation on the Project:Translators' noticeboard.
 * Language links (L) should only be used on articles marked for translation.

Links
Links in translatable templates should be changed to use the L language link template in order for it to link correctly on translated articles.

Documentation

 * Every template should have a documentation page (/doc) unless there exists a template that does similar things (in this case you could transclude the documentation for that template).
 * Categorization of templates should be done on the documentation page using the TC. Only if that template has no documentation page can the template be categorized on the template page.

Navigation boxes

 * Most content articles should contain a Navigation box (Navbox).
 * Navbox items (NI) should be separated by a bold middot: ,.
 * Navigation boxes do not replace the "See Also" section.