RationalWikiWiki:Manual of style
From RationalWikiWiki
This page was created by Phantom Hoover in response to major inconsistencies in style across the wiki. It was later rewritten by Rrose Selavy.
When writing for RationalWikiWiki, it may help to follow a few rules.
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Page titles
Page titles should have lowercase letters at the beginning of each word except the first, unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, as in Gang of Four. In that case, a redirect should be created with lowercase initial letters.
Article content
A RationalWikiWiki article should be factually correct and properly spelt (as far as can be ascertained), with diffs as references. The title should appear in bold somewhere in the first sentence, unless that makes for an awkwardly written sentence or spoils a good joke. In that case, put it in the second sentence. All users mentioned in the article should be linked once, the first time they are mentioned (users' own articles excepted, obviously). There is no need to repeat information that appears in the stalkbox, unless that information is expanded upon in some meaningful way.
Articles about users
All users with more than a handful of contributions are notable, but don't expect anyone to take an interest in your beautifully-composed article on some geezer who signed up, corrected a few typos and disappeared forever. Articles about users should be helpful and informative. Please resist the temptation to come to RationaWikiWiki just to write a hit-piece on whoever you've been arguing with on RationalWiki. PLEASE add dates (month and year will do) for any event you write about; there is far too much lately and recently etc. in articles that are now hideously out of date. Personal information about users should be germane to RationaWiki and its activities, rather than included for its own sake.
Writing about yourself
And of course there is our golden rule: NO EDITING YOUR OWN ARTICLE in any meaningful way. You may fix typos, but any content should be whinged about, pitifully, on the talk page. WIGOing yourself is just sad. Don't go there.
Socks
Socks are best just redirected to the main username, with a simple mention that X is Y's sock. If sockism is suspected, then such can also be stated where appropriate. A few long-lived or especially noteworthy socks may have their own articles. Toast is a good example of this.
Articles not about users
As above, really, but you should make an effort to put some jokes and snark in the article as many non-user articles can be pretty dry really.
References
When adding references, make sure that they come after any punctuation, like this.[1]
- ↑ See?
