Acepedia:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is currently being written. Check back soon for more updates!

Acepedia's Manual of Style (MoS) acts as a style manual for all Acepedia articles. This creates guidelines that help keep a uniform look and feel across the wiki. Should you have any questions or comments about the Manual of Style, please feel free to contact an Administrator - we would be more than happy to help.

Keep in mind that this article, like the wiki, is constantly being changed. In addition, exceptions may apply to any of these formats - this Manual acts as a guideline, so certain situations may dictate an override. However, please do your best to adhere to the formats outlined below whenever possible.

Do not confuse the Manual of Style for the rules of Acepedia. The MoS is a loose document to assist in better editing; the rules are designed to protect users and content, and come with penalties if they are not followed.

Credit goes to the Undertale Wiki for the general format of Acepedia's Manual of Style.

Language

• Acepedia is hosted in English. To standardize spelling, American English is preferred over other types of English. ex: "color" not "colour"
  • Note that while the entirety of MoS does not apply outside of articles, this rule is specifically unnecessary to follow. Users in many countries who know many languages visit Acepedia, so English is not required on message walls, user profiles, article comments, or blog posts.
  • Grammar is not strictly based on American English, and includes nods to British English grammar as well. The entire MoS discusses different forms of grammar to use for different situations.
• Articles should use the active voice ("Mobius 1 destroyed the target") to outline and describe events. Aim to be as succinct and detailed as possible. The passive voice ("Target destroyed by Mobius 1") should be used sparingly. Also, avoid conjecture whenever possible; if something must be inferred, acknowledge it is.
• Dates follow the month-day-year convention. ex: "The Second Usean Continental War ended on September 19, 2005."
  • Do not use numbers in place of month names. ex: September, not 9.
  • Do not use suffixes (–st, –nd, –rd or –th) after dates in the month-day style. ex: "On July 10, ISAF liberated San Salvacion."
• Times follow military 24-hour conventions. There is no space between the numbers and "hrs" abbreviation. ex: "At 0000hrs, Operation Firefly commenced."
• Numbers less than or equal to ten should be spelled out; numbers over 11 should be displayed numerically. Suffixes can be used if the sentence requires one as long as the number is not part of a date (see above). ex: "Blockade is the fourth campaign mission."
  • This does not apply to the passage of time - always use numerals here. ex: "3 hours later", "7 minutes"
  • Do not use numerals for general numbers in the millions or billions; instead, use the hybrid "X million" format. ex: "Nearly 1 million Useans became refugees after Ulysses."
  • Many exceptions can apply to the above rule when exact numbers must be given; for example, aircraft prices. When using long numerals, commas (,) must be used for separation of the thousand-degrees, with periods (.) used to denote decimals if necessary. Example: 123,456,789.01
• In instances where the gender of a character is not certain (esp. a player character who is never shown or referred to by a pronoun), the singular "they" and "themself" should be used.
• When using possessive forms of singular and proper nouns ending with s, append 's at the end. Example: Mobius's.
• Past tense should be used when referring to historical events. Present tense should be used when referring to gameplay, within which third-person should be used to refer to the player (i.e. "the player must shoot down all targets", NOT "you must shoot down all targets").

• The serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma, should be used most of the time. However, in cases where it would cause ambiguity, try rephrasing the phrase.
  • Example: "Yellow 13, a flight mechanic, and Yellow 4" causes ambiguity for inexperienced players who may misunderstand Yellow 13 to be a flight mechanic. In this case, "Yellow 13, Yellow 4, and a flight mechanic" works better.

Content

MediaWiki Coding

• Italicized text is generated by surrounding text with two apostrophes: ''ITALICIZED TEXT''
• Bold text is generated by surrounding text with three apostrophes: '''BOLD TEXT'''
• Page breaks act as returns and are coded as follows: <br> or <br/> (neither is preferred over the other)
• Article links in the same wiki are coded with double square brackets: [[ARTICLE NAME]]
  • When italicizing a link, put the apostrophes outside of the brackets, not inside: ''[[ITALICIZED ARTICLE NAME]]''
  • Always link to an article's main page, NOT a redirect link. If you click a link and the page says at the top that you were redirected, the link you clicked was a redirect and should be corrected.
  • Links can be renamed to fit their context: [[ARTICLE NAME|NEW NAME]]
    ex: "The ISAF declared war on Erusea."
• Bullet-pointed lists (like the one you're reading right now) are created using *asterisks. Numbered lists are created using the #number sign. Simple indentations with no bullet or number are created using a :colon.
  • The more asterisks, number signs, or colons used, the farther the indentation. You can even mix these together!
  • If a list element is only a name or otherwise not a full sentence, no punctuation is necessary.

Acepedia Content

• All content on Acepedia's mainspace articles must pertain to the Ace Combat series. When discussing information on topics that also apply in the real world (real aircraft, real countries, etc.), only Ace Combat-related information should be presented.
• Location coordinates should never be presented in an article except in Template:Location. Always discuss a location's relative position to other known locations. ex: Belka is east of Osea.
• Operation names DO NOT have colons in them, unless otherwise specified. ex: "Operation Blackout" is correct; "Operation: Blackout" is incorrect.
• Titles and abbreviations of games should be italicized at ALL TIMES. ex: "Cipher is the hero of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War." OR "Cipher is the hero of ACZ."
  • When abbreviating game titles, only numbered titles, X, and Xi may be fully abbreviated; all other titles should simply drop the Ace Combat: prefix.

    ex: AC2, AC3, AC04 (note: 04, not 4), AC5, ACZ, AC6, AC7, ACX, ACXi

    ex: Air Combat, Joint Assault, Assault Horizon, Assault Horizon Legacy +, Infinity

• Shortening/abbreviated an organization's name must follow the convention provided by the latest game. ex: "Independent State Allied Forces" is shortened to "ISAF" as stated in AC04, NOT "Allies".
• Quotations use the following template: {{Quote|QUOTED TEXT|SPEAKER}}
  • NO italicizing or quotation marks are necessary—the template does it all for you.
  • NO punctuation is necessary after the speaker's name/identifier. However, a reference IS necessary after the speaker's name/identifier.
  • Quotations at the top of articles or sections always come after the infobox or image.
• In-text quotations should be italicized and surrounded by "quotation marks". Do NOT use the Ace Combat in-game << arrow quotes >>. ex: "Yo Buddy, you still alive?"
  • Punctuation marks following quotations should go outside of the quotation marks, except if the same puncutation will end the sentence or quotation.
    ex: Pixy said "Yo Buddy, you still alive?" to Cipher.
    ex: After Jean-Louis was shot down, a Megalith defender told Gene that he's "got to take over the command", but at that point the squadron became disorganized.
• Wikipedia links use the template: {{Wp|WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE TITLE|NEW NAME IF NECESSARY}}
• Main article links use the template: {{Main|MAIN ARTICLE}}
• Multiple main article links can be added in series using more vertical bars: {{Main|ART1|ART2|ART3}}

References

Acepedia:References redirects here.

Acepedia strives to be the most reliable source of Ace Combat information. In order to accomplish this, all information is encouraged to include references to sources of that information. Information that is not referenced may be subject to removal at any time. Read on for the guidelines of using references on Acepedia.

• Almost every article must have the following code at the end of the article: {{Reflist}}
  • The reference list automatically adds a section header and the necessary code to present all references used on that article. A section header is not required prior to the reflist code.
  • Few types of articles do not need a reflist. For example, disambiguation pages will never have references.
• Information that is blatantly obvious or easily accessible should not be referenced. For example, the date of Operation Umbrella - September 19, 2004 - does not need a reference because it is presented to the user before the mission starts.
• References use the following code: {{Ref|NAME|INFO}}
  • When referencing a mission:
    • NAME: AC##-M## (ex: AC04-M01), JA-M## (ex: JA-M01), AH-M##, INF-M##, etc. (use leading zeroes for all numbers less than 10)
    • INFO: [[MISSION NAME]], ''[[GAME NAME]]''.
  • When referencing a cutscene that you can view again through a "cutscene viewer" in the main menu:
    • NAME: AC##-Cut## (ex: AC5-Cut02), AC04-Int## (ex: AC04-Int01), JA-Cut##, etc.
    • INFO: Cutscene ##, ''[[GAME NAME]]''.
      (use Interlude instead of Cutscene ONLY for AC04)
  • When referencing a cutscene that you cannot view again:
    • NAME: AC##-M##-CutPrior/CutDuring/CutAfter
    • INFO: Cutscene prior to/during/after [[MISSION NAME]], ''[[GAME NAME]]''.
  • When referencing a non-Ace Combat website, non-Ace Combat news article, or tweet:
    • NAME: WebsiteName-ArticleShorthand (ex: Twitter-PA, Famitsu-12102015, etc.)
    • INFO: 2=[URL Description]. Published [DATE]. Retrieved [DATE].
      Note that Description is what will be shown instead of the URL itself. For articles and websites, use the title of the article or page. For Twitter, use "Twitter / USERNAME".
  • When referencing something that we have recorded on the wiki:
    • NAME: Create a shorthand descriptor based on what you're linking. For example, if INFO will be Usea Today: Asteroid on Collision Course With Earth!, then make this "UseaTodayAsteroid".
    • INFO: [[ARTICLE NAME]].
  • When referencing something in print, like Aces At War: A History:
    • NAME: Shorthand descriptor of the printed name, followed by the page numbers. ex: AAW-125
    • INFO: ''[[NAME]]'', page ###.  or  ''[[NAME]]'', pages ###-###.
• To use a reference more than once, use the above code for the first reference on the article, and then use the following code for all subsequent uses: {{Refcall|NAME}}
  • NAME is the same NAME from the first reference.