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Basic guidelines? What to do and what not to do?

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TopAce:
I noticed that we do not have a 'General rules' section or anything along these lines. The Star Wars wiki has such and based on it, I would propose some basics:

[*]Articles in past tense
[*]Ship names in italic.
[*]Article name first time mentioned in article in bold
For example: The Neo-Terra Front was a rebellion against the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance.
[*]In case of long articles, the article should be started with a general introduction, then the table of contents and the article body
[*]Mention no opinions, only facts. (nothing like: the Ulysses is my favourite fighter)
[*]Avoid the use of 1st and 2nd singular or plural forms (I, you, we)
[*]Avoid the definite article at the start of the article names (The 14-Year War 14-Year War)
[*]Every initials in article names capitalized, except for articles(a, an, the), conjuctions (and, or), prepositions (at, on, about)
[*]No contraction (Don't Do not)
[*]No slang or informal words(stuff, give some-one the slip)[/list]
[*]Ships are always 'she'

What we should also decide is which variant of English we should use. I would tally my vote on British English, since it is still the standard.

StratComm:
In principle, I agree that there should be some sort of guidelines for the Wiki, but I personally don't think they should be spelled out explicitly.  Most of the things listed there are common sense for writing a public document anyway, and IMHO having them spelled out is a bit redundant.  If you come across a page that violates any of those gramatical rules in a flagrant fashion, then change and make a comment on its discussion page.  However, this Wiki doesn't serve the same purpose as the Star Wars wiki, and so there are a lot of places where some of those rules do not apply (my Max exporter walkthrough would be very hard to write in the past tense).  Plus, because the amount of traffic (and uneducated fanboys) who are likely to edit the Wiki here are much more managable in number, post-editing is a minor burden to bear for people not being discouraged from adding content.

Black Wolf:
Agreed - making rules and then defining all the neccesary exceptions is probably equal to the amount of work just neatening things up, plus most people are going to follow their own rules no matter what is posted.

TopAce:
Technical pages of course could be in the present tense. Plot, ship, weapon articles must be in the past tense though.

WMCoolmon:
General writing practice when talking about a fictional plot is to place it in the present tense, although maybe use the story's past tense.

Story present, story past:

--- Quote ---"After the destruction of the Colossus, the Bastion enters the Vega node and detonates, severing the jump node. The Bastion was one of the principal GTA ships in the first Great War."
--- End quote ---

Story present:

--- Quote ---"After the destruction of the Colossus, the Bastion enters the Vega node and detonates, severing the jump node. The Bastion is one of the principal GTA ships in the first Great War."
--- End quote ---

All past:

--- Quote ---"After the destruction of the Colossus, the Bastion entered the Vega node and detonated, severing the jump node. The Bastion was one of the principal GTA ships in the first Great War."
--- End quote ---


The first and second emphasize that FS is a fictional story (the second moreso IMHO). The last makes it sound more like a historical document. The first provides the most information, because we have a frame of reference of when the Great War is. (ie before 'now', when the Colossus died and the Bastion blew up) You could throw in a 'had been', but most people these days are lazy and just use 'was'. (Like me! :D)

Edit: Just for fun...
The Terrans and Vasudans had been at war for 14 years.
The Galatea was destroyed.
The Hades is a cheap rip-off of the Lucifer
If Capella goes supernova, at least some of the populace will have evacuated.
Capella will go supernova.

Edit 2:
populae terrae et populae vasudae fuerint in bellum quarti decimi anni.
Galatea delevit.
Hades erat vilis exemplar Luciferi.
si Capella displodit, nonnullus populi deduxerit.
Capella displodiet.

Of course you could add another.

Hercules amabatur Terra cum pugnarent contra Shivas.

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