VsWiki:Manual of Style

General

This page should proof as a guide for anyone editing the wiki.

There are no fixed rules though, especially, if something can be done better/easier/more efficient. See the [[Talk:VsWiki:Manual_of_Style|talk]] section for discussions on this guide.

In general you can get a preview of what we want to do in the Wikipedia style and how-to category.

Quick overview on editing

You can get a quick overview of how to edit this wiki here: WikiPedia:How to edit a page.

Please try out how to edit the wiki in the SandBox before doing any page-editing on 'living' pages.

Head to the Village Pump and make any discussions you wish about better organizing the wiki, or adding major new additions to the wiki.

See the Article Requests for Needed/wanted pages.

See for a list of pages that are in need of attention..

Vega Strike name

JackS has stated that the correct name for our project is "Vega Strike". Please only refer to the game as such (with two words), unless it is necessary to write it without spaces (such as in URLs or file names).

• Wiki discussion: Talk:Vegastrike#Vegastrike_.28name.29_discussion

Header and title style

General

If you add headers to a page or make a new page (title), please try to avoid extremely long sentences.

Up to ~4 words should be able to sum up the page. If it's longer you may have to split the content anyway ;)

The name header/title should be formed like a correct sentence. (e.g capital letters = First one of sentence + 1st of names + a lot of abbreviations)

Database entry names

• Categories (the ones starting with [Category:xxx])
  should always be in plural (as in "Upgrades", "Weapons", "Cargo" etc...). e.g [Category:Upgrades:Repair Systems].
• Summary pages (e.g the Weapons page or 'sub'-summary pages like Upgrades:Afterburners)
  should be in plural as well.
  Upgrades:Afterburners is perfect. For 'sub'-summary pages all the terms are written in plural ([Upgrades:Afterburners]) .
• Single entries (like the 'wrong' [Upgrades:mult_afterburner01])
  should use singular e.g Upgrade:Multiplier afterburner (Level 1)
• Speaking/meaningful names
  Do not use 'mult_afterburner01', but instead formulate a full description as a name.
  For auto-linking we can easily create redirects. e.g [Upgrade:mult_afterburner01] redirects to [Upgrade:Multiplier afterburner (Level 1)]
• Templates
  Use the templates for database items. It makes it easier to maintain the look and feel of the database.

• Finally a tip if you are moving/renaming pages. You can use the [Move] button on the top to move and redirect pages to new locations. Even the talk pages are moved and redirected. Linking/redirecting from a misspelled page to the correct one is the way to go. Even if the page's name is completely wrong. Pontiac

See also

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings)
• Wikipedia:Headings
• Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles -> Headings

Templates

When appropriate, please use the templates provided. These are useful for several reasons;

• Provides a consistent appearance for each item, for example the News Button .
• Provides a single point of change, so any changes in appearance will be repeated throughout the wiki.
• Someone else has done all the hard work of creating images, formatting etc. for you!

See VsWiki:Templates for all the available templates and how to use them.

Content

Classify the content in categories

See Special:Categories for all available (and used :S ) categories, use them wisely.

See the manual and database pages for examples or browse the categories to figure out what categories are used for what content.

Links (Crosslinks)

Please do add crosslinks into the page you are creating/editing, but don't push it.

For example there is no need to re-link a word again and again. In most cases one single link on the first occurrence of the word/term is enough. Of course if there is a long paragraph then a re-link is the better way to go.

See also

• Wikipedia:Make only links relevant to the context
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links)

Images

General images

Most of the images currently used in the Wiki (especially in the Manual) are located in the wiki-manual gallery or the new Coppermine gallery (in the "Documentation Images" album).

To copy the image location (and not the display location) from the Coppermine gallery to the wiki, you have to :

1. Browse the galleries to find the picture of your dreams.
2. Click on this wonderful picture.
3. If you are on Firefox, right-click on the central picture of the new screen and choose "copy the link address". In this way, you will have the link to the full-size picture. Otherwise, you will link to the display location, which is a shrunk version of the true picture, suited to display in Coppermine galleries.

The correct link looks like this : http://forums.vega-strike.org/cpg/albums/wiki_manual/concourse_oceanic_screen_001.ext (replacing ".ext" by ".png" or ".jpg").

FIXME Old gallery. Still valid? Due to gallery v2's built-in "security measures", you'll have to locate the image here if you want to link to it: http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/albums/wiki_manual/

Some images may already be available as template as well under VsWiki:Templates

Thumbnails

To use thumbnails, you have to create them in the Coppermine gallery, along with their main pictures. Then, you have to copy the image location (not the display location), followed by the thumbnail image location. The whole surrounded by brackets. It gives for example : [picture_location.png picture_thumb_location.png]

FIXME The paragraph above is outdated. The "&ext=.png" ending doesn't work with the actuel Coppermine gallery (greendreamer, 2013)

Thumbnails are a special case. If you want to use one of the thumbnails automatically created by the gallery, then observe the following procedure:

1. Locate the thumbnail that you want to use.
2. Copy image location, not the link location (In Internet Explorer, right click on the image thumbnail and go to "Properties" and copy the image address from there).
3. Paste the image location into the Wiki and add "&ext=.png" to the end. This will allow MediaWiki to detect that it is a PNG image.
4. When you are done, you should get a link that looks like this: http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5842&g2_serialNumber=2&ext=.png (Note the &ext=.png at the end)

See the Wiki and Gallery images forums thread for more information.

Keyboard images

Please see Manual:Keyboard layout for more info on how to easily include keys in you text (via Templates).

Unfinished stuff

If you are writing content for the manual (or general the wiki) and you do not know anything about some part of it, just put the FIXME tags in your text.

You page will then be listed in the where every editor should look into from time to time ;)

Translations

For information on translation style, consult VsWiki:Translation