User:Subtank/Update

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BIG RED BUTTON OF DOOM! ...

Layout

For the writing style guide, see Halopedia:Manual of Style.

This page is an official Halopedia policy Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

Template:Policies This Layout Guide is the wiki's official guide to laying out a typical basic article. Complicated articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure.

Objectives

This Layout Guide's objectives are as follows:

1. to promote consistency in articles.
2. to encourage users (editors and readers alike) to organise content in a cogent, concise and coherent manner.
3. to enhance the wiki's reputation not only as a reputable wiki, but also as a professional fan-based website.

General

Sections listed below are for any type of article. They are optional sections; if they are applicable to the topic of the article, include it in the article.

• If the article can be illustrated with images/pictures, find an appropriate place to position these images/pictures. Ensure that their width is no larger than 250px.

• Sections can feature subsections and are obviously not all used all the time.

• "Behind the scenes"/"Production notes" is reserved only for development information, such as design evolution, cut content, name change, etc. For more information, see General sections.

• The section "List of appearances" must only contain official Halo titles in release date order.

• Unless written as otherwise, the preferred spelling is American English.

• Unless presented as such, always use the Metric system over US customary units as the primary measurement. Make sure to present the US customary units in brackets after the metric system. For editor's ease of editing, it is recommended to use the Convert template.

Introduction

Like any article on any wiki (or any encyclopedia), the article must feature an introduction. The introduction must be kept simple, and as an overview of what the article is trying to present. The subject of the article (or the name of the article) should be mentioned in bold in the first sentence.

Note that if the subject of the article is a media title, that title should be italicised.

It is also suggested that an image/picture should be inserted in the introduction if it is available. The image/picture should be placed on the right side of the article, at a pixel size of 300px. The image/picture can be either a thumbnail (that is, it features a caption) or as a standalone image/picture (for example, the number "7" image in "List of references to "seven" in the Halo series".

In some cases, an Infobox may be inserted if there is enough information that warrants one. For further information on infobox usage, see Templates.

General sections

While certain articles may follow a particular layout, there are several general sections that can be inserted into an article. For example, an article covering an event may have a lengthy introduction. It would be better for such article to break down the introduction by moving the relevant parts into a Overview section, or a Background section.

If there is a substantial information in relation to the production or development information of the subject (such as behind-the-scenes information), users may find it fitting to include a Production notes or Behind the scenes section before the ending the article.

Article's end

Once all the essential content has been added to the wiki, users should consider concluding the article with the following sections (in such order):

• Trivia
• Gallery
• List of appearances
• Notes (applicable whenever reference notes are present: the wiki will highlight it for you)
• Sources (compulsory for citing sources/references)
• External links (applicable if there is a relevant external link)

It should be noted that each section should be its own section and not a sub-section. It should also be noted that the sections mentioned above are only necessary if they are applicable to the article.

Trivia section

The Trivia section is for noteworthy trivial information, such as little details that does not add much to the subject, could even be disregarded, but are fun to know. Pointless and irrelevant trivia will be removed however. It may have subsections such as a subsection on "Easter eggs", "Glitches", or even "References" to other media. It can even have a "Production notes" subsection if the information is noteworthy but not substantial enough as to having its own section. If there is only one trivia entry, no bullet point is needed.

While it may be a user habit to include an image alongside a trivia, it is recommended that users should avoid this as it may cause layout issues with the rest of the sections.

Gallery section

The Gallery section is the section for images/pictures. It is there to present images/pictures related to the subject, or having some relevance at the very least. The gallery section must accompanied by a gallery tag, expressed as such: <gallery></gallery>.

To use the gallery tag, begin by adding <gallery>, then add in your images/pictures in the subsequent line, and finally close the tag with </gallery>. The following is an example:

<gallery>
File:Wiki.png
File:Halopedia.png|This inserts a caption.
</gallery>

For more information about gallery and images, see Help:Images.

List of appearances section

This wiki uses dedicated appearance lists to list the appearances of fictional subjects in real-world works. There are a number of standards to follow when utilizing these lists:

The definition of "appearance" as used here varies depending on the type of media. As a general rule, in visual media (games, comics, films, etc.), everything the viewer can see constitutes as an appearance. In literature, the subject must be specifically mentioned by name, or described in enough detail to discern what it is, in order to qualify as an appearance.

Deriving appearances of individual constituents from an appearance of a larger whole should be applied with discretion. Although there are exceptions, it is generally advised that the appearance or mention of an entity alone does not constitute as an appearance of all of its constituents. For example, in Halo: The Fall of Reach, there are instances in which all of the SPARTAN-IIs are gathered in the same space; however, only the Spartans who are explicitly named or described in the narrative are considered to "appear" in the novel. Similarly, while the quantum mirror is a component of MJOLNIR Mark VI armor and is thus fictionally present in all media in which the armor appears, it is only mentioned or seen in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx which is thus listed as its only appearance.

There are several templates which can be used to further detail specific types of appearances:

• 1st - used to identify a subject's first appearance in any work; if the subject is only mentioned for the first time, but does not appear as described above, use the "First mentioned" tag instead.
• Mo - used if the subject is mentioned in the source, but is not physically present in the narrative; in visual media, this means that the viewer cannot see the mentioned entity.
• First mentioned - when a previously-unseen or unmentioned subject is mentioned for the first time, use this in the place of "First appearance" and "Mentioned only".
• Indirect mention - applies to instances in which the subject is not directly mentioned by name, but is being alluded to in an unambiguous manner.
• C - can be used to provide more specific, although brief, information on appearances that do not fit any of the aforementioned categories; this may include notes such as "Cameo appearance" or "Possible appearance" (used in very rare cases in which the possibility is highly likely or strongly implied, though uncertain).

"List of appearances" in in-universe articles

Articles written from an in-universe perspective feature a list of appearances to detail the works in which the article subject has appeared. All works the subject appears in should be listed in chronological order of release date, regardless of the type of media. Appearance lists must only contain official and canonical Halo titles. A list of official media in chronological release date order can be found here.

"Appearances" in articles for real-world media

Pages for real-world media (e.g. games) have lists for the in-universe entities that appear within that work. In these lists, the appearances are grouped into categories (characters, technology, etc.) and listed in alphabetical order within their respective categories. In order to prevent these lists from becoming too extensive, less significant appearances or mentioned-only subjects may not be included.

Templates

In addition to editing the articles according to this layout guide, it is a recommendation for users to consider adding templates to articles. The role of templates is to improve the presentation of an article (in terms of functionality, and not for "rule of cool"), providing readers ease of accessing other articles related to the subject within a few clicks rather than having to type in the search box.

The best of practice for adding templates is only to do so when it is necessary. Please note that while templates are intended to provide useful features and simplify the editing process, an excess usage of templates can lead to a cluttered and uncomfortable presentation. For more information on this, please see Wikipedia's entry on "template creep".

Specific layout

This page only the general standards for layout. The following are specific layouts for specific articles covering specific group of subjects.

• /Vehicle - Layout for articles focusing on vehicles
• /Weapon - Layout for articles focusing on weapons
• /Character - Layout for articles focusing on characters
• /Campaign - Layout for articles focusing on the campaign mode
• /Multiplayer - Layout for articles focusing on the multiplayer mode
• /Ship - Layout for articles focusing on ships
• /Music - Layout for articles focusing on music
• /Media - Layout for articles focusing on media (i.e. games, books)
• /Military - Layout for articles focusing on military-related subject
• /Faction - Layout for articles focusing on factions
• /Walkthrough - Layout for sub-articles on walkthroughs

See also

• Wikipedia on layout

Media File Policy

This page sets out the policies on media files. As an introduction, Halopedia provides registered users the ability to upload media files in so far that the uploaded media file is to be used for a particular page in the wiki.

Uploading media files can be done at the Upload file page. Do note that the media files are subject to immediate deletion if they are determined to serve no purpose, are offensive or inappropriate, or are against the wiki's productive spirit.

The policy

Before you upload a media file, make sure that the image falls in one of the four categories listed under the Copyright and licensing section. In addition to copyright, do note that the following file formats are permitted:

• JPEG format is recommended for general use.
• PNG format is only necessary for images with transparent background.
• GIF format are only desirable in the rare case of an animated GIF picture. We are not a blog site, like Tumblr.

In addition to the above, the filename for the media files should be descriptive. For example, compare "masterchief935.png" with "Halo 3 - John in Sierra 117.png". The first filename is not descriptive as to what the file is, whereas the second filename tells us that the file is an image of John-117 in the Halo 3 campaign level, Sierra 117.

Once you've uploaded the media file, add in a summary using Information template. The Information template has the following field parameters:

• Description - describe the media file briefly.
• Source - where did you obtain this media file.
• Author - who is the original author of the media file. For concept art, locate the artist. For in-game screenshots, it would normally be 343i or Bungie.
• Licensing - See Copyright

Requirements

Personal use

Here at Halopedia, we encourage users to personalize their user pages so that all of us in the community may get to know each other. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and so users are permitted to upload a prescribed number of images to the server for no use other than to decorate their user pages, subject to the following standards:

• Each user is allowed four personal images. A personal image is defined as one not in specific use by the project. (Generally, this means that the image is only in the User namespace.)
• Additionally, a user may also have one small image to use in signatures. The image must not be taller than 35 pixels when scaled to fit the signature, and it should be roughly square. It should not be distracting (e.g., animated).
• If a user wants to have more than one personal image in a signature, or if he or she wants to give out a custom award, then that's fine, but it counts as one of the large images.
• All personal images must be used within one day (24 hours) of being uploaded. Otherwise, they will be subject to deletion as unused images.

We regret having to be legalistic about this (the wiki is supposed to be lighthearted and fun, after all), but we have grown to the point that having a standard is necessary, and simply giving free rein in this area is counter to the goals of the knowledge base.

Copyright

Main article: Halopedia:Copyright

It should be noted that most of the materials held within Halopedia are copyrighted by Microsoft, Bungie, and third parties that have a direct proximity of relationship with the Halo franchise, unless provided otherwise.

• Own work: You own all rights to the image, usually meaning that you created it entirely yourself.
• Freely licensed: You can prove that the copyright holder has released the image under an acceptable free license.
• Public domain: You can prove that the image is in the public domain, i.e. free of all copyrights.
• Fair use: You believe that the image meets the special conditions for non-free content, which exceptionally allow the use of unlicensed material, and you can provide an explicit non-free use rationale explaining why and how you intend to use it.

In a nutshell, be very careful when uploading copyrighted images, fully describe images' origins and copyright details on their description pages, and try to make images as useful and reusable as possible.

Grounds for deletion

A media file can be deleted if it falls under any of the following grounds for deletion:

• Obscene - While Halopedia is not a censored website, and the target audience for the Halo franchise is 17 years and above, media files containing obscenities such as pornography, graphic real-world violence, or sexual acts are not permissible on the site, or on userpages. Repeatedly uploading such images can be grounds for blocking for vandalism as part of Halopedia's blocking policy.
• Unused - Halopedia is not a repository for images that are unrelated to Halo franchise and unusable on article pages. Images that are uploaded by users for individual userpages will be added to their userpage and organized into an Image Category for proper use. If an image is not related to the Halo franchise whatsoever, is then uploaded and not used, it will be deleted.
• Duplicate - Halopedia's image categories were created and organized so that users could find desired images relatively quickly and so that duplicate images are not uploaded. Though Halopedia has vast space for images and articles, duplicate images create confusion and make organization difficult. Duplicate images that are uploaded will be deleted and redirected to the original image.
• Copyright violations- Material copied from sources that are not public domain or compatibly licensed without the permission of the copyright holder (unless brief quotation used in accordance with non-free content policy and guideline) is likely to be a copyright violation. Leaked content falls under this ground.