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This is a manual of style and a guide for the general layout of articles in the Club Penguin Wiki.

Grammar rules

This is a list of grammatical rules for the English language. They must be followed:

  • Do not capitalize words in mid-sentence, unless they are proper nouns. Proper nouns are usually names (in Club Penguin's case, characters), places or species. Nouns however, must not be capitalized. Capitalizing every single word in a sentence can be irritating for other uses, so please refrain from it.
  • This applies to article titles. "Pin" should always be corrected to "pin" even in an article title. Words that are proper nouns should always be capitalized.
  • Please leave a space after any punctuation used in sentences - however, spaces cannot be placed after opening quotation marks and opening apostrophes.
  • Punctuation must be placed before any quotation marks.
  • All game titles, products, organizations and companies must be italicized. If for example typing in "Club Penguin" and you are referring to the game, you must always italicize it! This is because Club Penguin can refer to many things, such as: the island or the makers of the game. Click here for an alternative tutorial for italicization.
  • Article titles that apply to this rule must also be italicized. The page title itself should not be italicized, but there is a way into making the article title italicized. Type in {{Page title|custom article name here}} and replace the parameter with the article title italicized in wikicode.
  • Apostrophes should only be used if indicating possession or filling in missing letters.
  • Remember always that when making a word a plural, do not add an apostrophe before the s.
  • There are many TVs in this room. 18px-Yes check.svg
  • There are many TV's in this room. 18px-X mark.svg
  • It's and its are different!
  • It's should only be used to abbreviate it is. Its indicates possession. This is confusing because an apostrophe would usually indicate possession, but that is false in this case. Here's an example.
  • It's a penguin.18px-Yes check.svg
  • Its a penguin.18px-X mark.svg
  • Another example intended to be possession.
  • Its colour is grey.18px-Yes check.svg
  • It's colour is grey.18px-X mark.svg

Wiki editing tips

This is a list of different tips that can help you use wikicode efficiently in articles. Wikicode uses the MediaWiki language, and it can be used to format the page. It can be from simply bolding a word to creating a table. Wikia's built in text editor also has these functions, and how to use them will be explained here:

  • If you want to make text italic (that means slanted), place two apostrophes on each side of the text:
  • ''Italic'' will result in: italic, when published.
  • If you want to make text bolded, place three apostrophes on each side of the text:
  • '''Bold''' will result in: bold, when published.
  • You can combine these two text styles together to make them both italic and bold. The first two buttons on your text editor's toolbar are bold and italic buttons. Click on them, and type up the text in between the apostrophes, that are highlighted.
  • If you want to make an inter-wiki link (that means a link to another article in the wiki), you have to place two square brackets around the name of the article:
  • [[Article]] will result in: Article, when published.
  • If you want to link to an article, but you don't want the article's name to appear as the link, and instead want something else you will have to place two square brackets, then the article's name, followed by a vertical line, and then the text you want instead.
  • [[Club Penguin Wiki:Policy|policy]] will result in: policy, when published.
  • If you want to insert an external link (a link to a different website), you have to place one square bracket around the link's name:
  • [http://clubpenguin.com] will result in: [1], when published. Note the "[1]". You can prevent this from happening by using the method for internal links above. To change the link text's name but keep the same link, you have to put a space in between the URL and the link's text. Remember that you need to include the "http://" prefix before the website name, and that you must use underscores (_) instead of spaces in URLs.
  • If you want to add a category to a page, there are two ways to do it - manual and automatic:
  • The automatic way is to click on the "add category" button in the bottom of every article. There, just type in a valid category name.
  • The other way is to place two square brackets around the category name (like a link) on each side. Remember to include the "Category:" prefix!
  • [[Category:Items]] will add a category to the article.
  • On the category page will be a list of articles categorized under that category. The names of the articles are in alphabetical order. If you would like the article to have a different name in the category page, use the link method of placing a vertical line after the category name. This doesn't change the link in the article, but it will change the link to the article in the category page.
  • Headings structure an article. This section has a heading as well. You can tell if a page has a heading or not, if there large text above a vertical line. You have probably heard of this before. There are 2 main types of headings. Level 2 headings and Level 3 headings. These all change the size of the heading itself, and a higher level heading will be placed underneath a lower level heading. Level 3 headings are often called "sub-headings". You can also get "sub-headings" under "sub-headings", by created a Level 4 heading and so on.
  • To make a Level 2 heading, you must place two equal signs (=) around the text you want to become the heading's name.
  • To make a Level 3 heading, you must place three equal signs around the text. Remember, the more equal signs - the smaller the heading.
  • You can also make lists in mainspace articles.
  • To make a list of bullet points, place an asterisk (*) to the left of the text that you would like to be part of the bullet point. You can make numerous bullet points underneath each other to make a list.
  • To make an indent (pushes the text further to the center), you have to place a colon to the left of the text that you would like to be indented. Multiple indents push the text further to the right. You can combine indents with bullet points to make indented bullet points. When doing this, remember to place the colon before the asterisk.
  • To make a numbered list, place a hash key (#) to the left of the text that you would like to be numbered. Places numerous hash keys underneath each other will create a numbered list, but it can be broken if there is something in between two hash keys.

Any further wiki editing tips can be found in the official Help Center

Editing style

This is a list of editing tips that can aid to complete coherent and well-written, informative articles. An article that doesn't follow these guidelines should be changed to do so, or should be left with a cleanup template:

  • Always title a page by its actual name in Club Penguin. This also includes the use of capitalization in titles. For example, Gary should not be titled G. It is also means that regional spellings do not apply in titles. If a page about color was made, then it would be spelled color, not color/colour or colour, because it is spelled color in Club Penguin.
  • Words must always be correctly capitalized. Words cannot be capitalized in mid-sentence, unless they are proper nouns (such as names of people, places or species).
  • Either British English (BrE) or American English (AmE) can be used in articles. The Club Penguin Wiki allows both spellings, and has no preference over one another. However, regional names cannot be used for nouns, only the original word shall be used. For example: Football or association football should be used instead of soccer, unless it is spelled soccer in Club Penguin. Please note that Club Penguin spell in Canadian and American English.
  • If a user types up something in British English, then the "first come, first serve" policy will come in hand. An allowed spelling that is either British English or American English cannot be changed further.
  • Please refrain from using all-capital letters or (CAPS) in mainspace articles. It will be considered as spam, and may put off the reader. It is also not maintaining a neutral point of view for the article.
  • Please refrain from using text-affecting wikicode in mainspace articles. Such examples would be like highlighters or "big" text. This is informal and also creates a biased point of view for the article. Please keep this to non-mainspace.
  • We also have voting and discussions on forums. Below is a guideline for voting, that is general for most forums. This guideline was taken straight from the requests for adminship page, so rules may vary.

Admins Notice: When nominating someone, you should make a Level 2 Section with their name. This shows you what you need to type in. Please fill in the gaps correctly.

==<Nominee name> (0)==
Nominated by <your name> and confirmed by <administrator name>
===For (0)==
===Against (0)===
===Comments===

Nominee Notice: After being nominated, you can enter reasons on why you should be nominated next to the "nomination sentence". Your request automatically closes after 2 weeks. To be successful, you must have a vote difference of +7. A vote difference is calculated by the amount of "for" votes subtracted by the amount of "against" votes. Furthermore, 2 sysops must have voted for if the nomination is successful.

Voters Notice: Please read the voting policy thoroughly before you vote.

You must vote in either "For" or "Against". If you vote in for, you have to sign underneath the "For" heading. To do this you have to type this in:
#~~~~

You may also leave a comment no longer than a sentence when you sign. Any longer and you have to leave it in the "Comments" section.

After you have signed it, you must change the number in the brackets up by 1. (e.g. if it was at 3, it means 3 people have already signed it. Change it to 4 when you sign it.) This is also the same with the number by their name. If you vote for, you must also increase the number beside his name by 1.

Please remember to use "#" instead of the usual "*", because it numbers the votes making it easier to count them.

You can also remove your vote. If in any case you change your mind, do not remove your vote completely, just strike it out and move it to the back of the list. Remember to use an asterisk when moving it to the back of list, as it would not show up as a numbered point.


Article layout guide

The sub-headings below are the typical sections that should be used in an article, to maximize its quality. The sub-headings are in order, so please place infoboxes above templates, and so on. Please make sure the majority of these are used, otherwise they may be considered as stub articles:

Infoboxes

Infoboxes should be used where possible, as they provide easy navigation for users, and can recreate a whole article in a nutshell. Furniture, Igloo, Party, Clothing and similar articles should be marked as "stub" if they don't contain an infobox.
Always put the infoboxes above any other text or template in the page, for layout reasons, but if the page also contain Ambox-based (article box) templates (like {{Stub}}), those templates should be placed above the Infobox. If you are unable to find an image for the infobox, please use: "File:No Image.png", as a placeholder image in the infobox. Please attempt to fill in all of the fields in the infobox. If you are unable to, just leave the field out, as it automatically fills it in as "?". If they are inapplicable to the article, put "N/A".

Templates

Templates such as cleanup should be placed at the top of the page, because they are relevant to the whole of the article. If another article box (sometimes abbreviated to ambox) is in the article, but only relevant to one section of the article, they should be moved to the top of their corresponding section.

Article text

  • An article without the article text should be tagged as a stub.

The article text is usually one paragraph that is the first piece of text information in the article. Within the paragraph is the article's name, its function and description. Usually other aspects such as its location are placed here. Firstly, the name of the article is included (the article name is always bolded, an example being at the top of this page). To make a page more structured and easier to read through, try keeping the article text to one paragraph, and other information in their corresponding sections.

Description

Try to describe the article's subject in more detail in this section. Appearance is also an alternative section name. Try to go beyond describing its appearance though.

History

If you're making an article about a room or an item, please make sure to create a history section. Not only does it make the article become professional, it also provides a lot more information. In History sections, you can make Level 3 sections to underpin different events and parts of an item's or room's history.

Biography

The Biography section is essentially a character's equivalent of the History section. Sub-headings and Level 3 sections are also welcome for the biography section.

Other information

Other information that is relevant to the article is always needed. Please make a separate section for each different piece of information. For a character this could be sightings and for a room it could special events and parties.

Trivia

The Trivia section is where information that doesn't fit in the infobox or the article's intro text can be places. Please try to refrain from making this the largest section in the article however, and please refrain from placing information that isn't considered trivia. Info that isn't trivia can go in any of the above articles.

See Also

In the see also section, you can list related articles. Please put an asterisk (* ) before each article, and make sure to put each article on a separate line.

External links

In this section, you can list external links that link to other websites. Please use the coding instructions explained above.

Category

  • Every article should have at least one category. If it doesn't, leave a CatNeeded template at the top of the page. Note that some categories are automatically added when adding certain templates (like {{ItemInfobox}}).
  • Use our wikicode tips to help you with adding categories.
  • Category pages themselves act like mainspace articles. You can categorize categories! This is helpful, an example would be that the category "Head Items" would be categorized under "Items".

Sourcing

It is essential to cite and source information when needed, all the time. To learn how to source, click here. To learn why we do this, click here.

Stub Notice

Note that even an article doesn't fulfill the criteria in the upper sections, an article may not be marked as "stub" if all the available information about it has been added to the articles. This is especially relevant to articles about unreleased items and events.

Emails from Club Penguin

Do not add emails from/to Club Penguin to pages, as they are not reliable, may be made up, and Club Penguin may not give a good answer. Any emails posted onto the page will be removed and you will be informed about it. Ignoring notices about this may result in a block.

Manual of Style for News

As you may know, the Club Penguin Wiki has authors who are dedicated to making blog posts that inform readers of the latest news in Club Penguin. There is also a manual of style for news blogs as well, and can be viewed here.

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