User:BadCatMan/Manual of Style 2

The Manual of Style is a style guide giving guidelines for writing, formatting, and organizing articles on the Forgotten Realms Wiki (FRW). It encourages a consistent, high-quality article style that suits wiki policies. These are based on the standard wiki style used at Wikipedia and other wikis and on practices developed by FRW editors to suit the Forgotten Realms setting and the wiki's policies and goals.

Purpose
While a style guide may sound pretentious or nitpicky and the guidelines unimportant, all good wikis have them. A wiki without a consistent style will be messy and inconsistent, making it hard to read and find information, while a wiki with a consistent style appears neat and professional, raising its profile. A well-styled, properly formatted article will look nicer and be more inviting to read.

This is less a strict checklist and more a set of strong suggestions to improve an article. Certain pages may vary and editors may have different approaches and habits, each with their pros and cons, and putting different styles in use is the best way to determine which is better. If you have an idea for a new style, feel free to try it out, as long as it doesn't break our policies or conflict with the overall style of the wiki, and another editor may change it or pick it up. Feel free to discuss it with other editors or in the Forum.

Page Name
For the page name (presented in large font at the top of the page, used for links, searches, and categories), there are a few things to consider to ensure a page is more easily recognized, linked to, and searched for:
 * Most recent name: If the subject was renamed at some point, use the latest known name. For example, Heliogabalus was renamed Helgabal, so it is detailed on the Helgabal page. Make sure there are any necessary redirects, such as Heliogabalus.
 * Most common name: If the subject has another name or a full name, but is much more commonly known by a different name, then use the more common name. For example, Elminster, not Elminster Aumar, and mind flayer, not illithid. Again, redirects may be needed under the full name, such as illithid.
 * Common nouns in lower case: The names of creatures, things, and most classes, spells, and magic items should be written in lower case, just as they would appear in a sentence in D&D sourcebooks, which favour lower-case names for classes, spells, and magic items. Proper nouns are capitalized as normal. For example, human, moon elf, longsword, enlarge or reduce person and ioun stone, but Wong Fei's ioun stone and Congenio Ioun. Note that only the first letter is case-insensitive, so Human goes to the same page, but Enlarge or Reduce Person does not.
 * Skip "the": Avoid the definite article "The" at the start of the page name, unless it is specifically part of the name. For example, the Scarlet Sheath tavern and the House of Good Spirits guildhall, but The Fish House and The Mysterious Harpers. However, if "the" is an essential part of the name and is needed make a page name sensible, then it may be retained, for example, the Vast and the Hand.
 * Unknown name: If no proper name is known, then you may create one. Make this simple, descriptive, and in lower case, as it would appear in a sentence, so that it's not mistaken for a proper name. It can be based on descriptions or nicknames in the source. For example, the second battle of Shadowdale, unnamed bandit leader, kittenlord, and one who waits. If a name is unknown and constructed, it should be discussed in the article's appendix.