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- If you have any questions about the Manual of Style, please make a discussion at My Singing Monsters Wiki talk:Manual of Style or discuss with your local admins.
In general all articles, links, styles and templates should remain fairly consistent with each other. However, there are some exceptions to some of these rules of consistency. Currently, the manual of style is pretty flexible, but this flexibility may change over time.
Below is a list of Manuals of Style that should be followed.
Styles relating to articles
Please see My Singing Monsters Wiki:Sample Monster Article for a sample My Singing Monsters Monster article.
Articles
Articles on most monsters
All articles about monsters are to have their description describing the subject monster. No leading section is to be put in, unless the monster is unreleased to the general public.
Articles on DoF Monsters
Articles on returning DoF Monsters
(insert info)
Articles on exclusive DoF Monsters
(insert info)
Articles on Wublins
Wublin articles are to have (insert more info)
Articles on Islands, Continent and Outer Islands
(insert info)
All other articles
All other articles may have any type of writing style just as long as they are to the point and are easy to understand.
General Writing Style
General-General Writing Style
The writing style should be able to show every single detail of the subject without going into unnecessary detail. All very minor details are to go to the "Notes" section.
Speculation
The main wiki pages are supposed to be strictly factual. They shouldn't include anything that's a personal opinion, or a guess. Any sentence that has a phrase like "this is probably because" or "people think that" probably doesn't belong in the main wiki. The same goes for any comparison about which things are "better" than other things, for example. It's okay to have such things in forums, blogs, and other "unofficial" parts of the wiki.
Type of English
This wiki is not very picky on the type of English used, but a recommended English spelling to use in this wiki is American English, as most readers of the wiki come from the US. However, avoid using ambiguous words that are exclusive to one country, such as using "kiwi" to mean "kiwifruit", as some countries may disagree upon using a certain word to mean another thing when some countries may actually mean another thing.
Links
By default links should link to their appropriate respective articles. If there is an article with an MSM and DoF version, then link to whichever version is appropriate as according to the content the article is using. If it is talking about Mammotts in Dawn of Fire, link to Mammott/DoF; otherwise link to Mammott for My Singing Monsters.
Any links should clearly indicate what they are linking to. This is a matter of basic computer security. It's very dangerous to follow "mystery" links, because they can do things like infecting your device, or displaying something very offensive. We don't allow "mystery" links anywhere in this wiki, including the "unofficial" areas.
Pronouns
Monsters are gender-neutral, so should use gender-neutral pronouns (such as "it", "its").
Monster gender description
Monsters may be indirectly shown about masculine or feminine features (such as stating about the Dandidoo singing in a way that is similar to an adult female's voice), but they must not be directly shown about masculine or feminine features that make the monster have a "gender". What is "directly" shown as a certain "gender" is stating that the monster is male/female because of certain features of it.
- "The Dandidoo sings in a way that is similar to an adult female human's voice."
- "The Dandidoo sings with an adult female's voice."
Trivia sections
Trivia sections should be marked as "Notes" section, not "Trivia". As well as this, the trivia must be important enough to be included in there; anything absolutely not important for a player's understanding may possibly not be able to go into the "Notes" section.
Official content
The main wiki articles should contain only official material: information and images that come directly from BBB or the game, or other sources that can be verified. Fan-created pictures and videos shouldn't go in the articles, though they can go into people's blogs, the Discussions, and so on. The same rules apply to links to these kinds of things. That is, links to BBB's videos are okay in the main wiki space, but links to fans' videos are not.
The difference is sometimes described as "canon" vs. "fanon". "Canon" is stuff that is officially part of a set of beliefs. "Fanon" is a pun on that, using the word "fan".
Quotes
The whole quote may be written unless much of the quote has unrelated info, where it may be cut down using "[...]". For example with cutting down unnecessary info...
| “ | Complete the order of a Monster with a blue music note above its head to receive 1.5x XP and Coins! [...] | ” |
| — Quote from [this Facebook post] |
Templates
Infoicons
Infoicons are little icons that can be placed within the article text. They are usually the same size as the font itself, with some exceptions. Some may represent currency, some may represent XP points, some may represent monster elements.
(insert a lot more info on this)
Infoboxes
Some articles, such as monsters, require infoboxes. However, some articles, such as articles on non-Islands, non-Monsters and non-Decorations, do not require one, though it is recommended to do so.
(insert more info)
Infobars
These templates are notices that are placed at the top of an article or section to show a message within an article. Infobars designed to be put on userpages should be marked with "Template:Userbar XXX", rather than "Template:Infobar XXX".
(insert lots more info on this)
Files
Naming scheme
Official pictures of monsters are to be named the same as the article's own name. That name is to be reserved for the most quality of images. For example, the most quality image of the real Rare Humbug is to be named as "Rare Humbug.png"; other images of Rare Humbugs whether it be fanon or not should be named differently to this name.
Sound samples
Sound samples of monsters are to be less than 5 seconds (or somewhere around this boundary +-1 seconds). This should demonstrate how the monster sounds with the balance of shortness and quality of representation of the monster's music.
(insert more info on other sections too)