Guide:How to TSPedia

This is a meta article dedicated to publishing good practices and standards for writing roleplay content on TSPedia.

This article contains some basic information related to implementing wikitext formatting, but is not intended to be a detailed guide for it; more detailed knowledge is best obtained by asking active wiki writers or by looking at the formatting implementations of preexisting pages.

Formatting

Several formatting rules and recommendations for TSPedia pages exist to help increase readability and standardization.

Canon tags

All roleplay-related TSPedia page titles have a suffix that denotes their canon; these are “abc (Pacifica)”, “def (A1-0)”, “ghi (Aurora)”, and rarely “jkl (Extra-canon)”. This suffix must always be present. Additionally, only the first word and proper nouns should be capitalized in page titles; for example, a page should be titled “List of major cities in Nation” and not “List Of Major Cities In Nation”.

Section headers

Page header/subheader structures have no clearly defined standard; if you are confused about what an appropriate header arrangement for a page would be, consider looking at TSPedia or Wikipedia pages with similar content. Headers should not be made into links; instead, the “Main” and “See also” templates should be used.

Text

Major style guidelines governing text are:

The article title and any mentioned alternate names and languages should be bolded or italicized like as follows when stated in the first paragraph of a page: “The Abc (other language: Абв, Abv), also known as the Def or the Ghi, is text text text…”
Outside of the above case, text should not be bolded. Italics should also be avoided except to denote book and film titles, ship names, and other cases as are similar to other style guides.

Templates

Most types of roleplay content pages would benefit from at least one template. This is typically an infobox template, which are named according to the convention “template:infobox (type here)”; searching for templates requires the inclusion of the “template:” prefix. Many template copies on TSPedia lack documentation for their proper implementation; in instances where this is the case, usage information can often be found by visiting the corresponding template page on Wikipedia or (especially in the case of templates unique to TSPedia) by finding a TSPedia page that implements it.

Country data templates

Many pages on TSPedia contain a specific template called a flag template or a country data template, which can automatically add links and flags like these:

The easiest way to add a country data template for your nation is to create a page named “template:country data ((nation name here))”, copying the text from another country data template, and editing parameters such as the name and flag picture links as necessary.

Infoboxes

Most common page types benefit greatly from being anchored by a specific type of sidebar template called an infobox. These templates are boxes that function like the abstract of a paper: they provide an easy way for writers to quickly communicate a summary of key statistics and other information to readers, which becomes increasingly important with larger, more detailed pages. A variety of infoboxes tailored to different page subjects can be found on TSPedia by searching for them, and more are occasionally added on a by-request basis.

Connectivity

If a roleplayer writes a wiki page and nobody finds it to read it, does the page really exist? Making sure that your page can be found is an important part of making it useful; for this purpose, connectivity aids like links, categories, and drop-down boxes exist.

Links

There are two maintenance pages on TSPedia which list pages that either are not linked to or do not link to anything; these are called orphaned pages and dead-end pages, respectively, and can be found by visiting the “special pages” section linked on the left-hand sidebar of TSPedia. Do not, under any circumstances whatsoever, add entries to this list; every page in TSPedia should link to and be linked to by other pages. Being linked to is especially critical for the visibility of highly specialized pages, such as “Orders, medals, and decorations of xyz”, which are unlikely to be specifically searched for by name.
Links in roleplay pages typically go to TSPedia, like this, or to Wikipedia, like this. Links are case-sensitive aside from the first letter, in a similar manner to the search box; links like Pacifica (Pacifica) will function, as will pacifica (Pacifica), but Pacifica (pacifica) will not. Adding a hashtag/pound sign to a link will cause it to point towards a specific header of a TSPedia or Wikipedia page as applicable, such as in the case of Pacifica (Pacifica)#Atmosphere.
Links that lead to nonexistent pages are red; clicking a red link will prompt you to create the page. Red links are very common throughout TSPedia as a way to indicate that a particular page needs to be made, or that it is planned to be created in the future.

Drop-down boxes

Drop-down boxes are a specialized type of template and a powerful tool to organize particularly large systems of wiki pages centered around a common subject; the ability to create subsections within them makes it easy to organize large blocks of page links, and readers can more easily navigate such arranged repositories as well. They should generally be reserved for page systems numbering roughly 10 to 15 or more entries, and should be placed at the bottom of a page.

Sidebar boxes

The sidebar box is a convenient way to add a link block to the top of a page in an aesthetically pleasing manner. They are placed inside the article instead of at the bottom like a drop-down box; this increases their visibility in comparison to drop-down boxes, but can also act to visually clutter a page if the sidebar box is particularly large and/or placed in combination with a large infobox.

Canon-specific considerations

Quote boxes

The Sector A1-0 and Aurora canons, respectively TSPRP’s sci-fi and fantasy themed roleplays, both make extensive use of the quote box template as a header for their wiki pages due to the specific page writing style of retired roleplayer Maverick. Such use of a quote box in A1-0 and Aurora pages (particularly those pertaining to nations, species/races, and characters) is not mandatory, but can be considered to be a prevailing style norm.