ShopWiki Style Guide
ShopWiki uses a similar style to most wiki Web sites, including the most popular Wikipedia. Below are some basic guidelines for all users to follow to keep the buying guides somewhat consistent. '''The most important thing to remember when composing the wiki guides is to keep the NPOV (No Point Of View) tone. '''The ShopWiki community will not benefit from blatant marketing pushes on the site. Please note that marketing and PR pushes added to existing guides or created in new guides will be promptly removed or reworked by the community.
If you need more help figuring out how to edit or start a new guide, check out the Wiki 101 page.
Titles
* Article titles should always be capitalized and usually pluralized. That is, "Electric Kettles" not "electric kettle."
* Keep articles succinct to leave room for growth.
* The title of the article should be the first thing on the page, in H2. Exceptions should only be made when the article title is not quite what you want it to be, i.e., :Womens Ballroom Shoes should have a title "Women's Ballroom Shoes" in the article text.
* Keep in mind that apostrophes (as demonstrated above) and other special characters are not valid for naming articles.
* The title should be the only text written in Heading 2.
Content
* Remember to take the NPOV tone in all buying guides.
* Details are good, but be brief when writing them.
* Make sure to explain complex points. If you don't understand something, link to a site that does.
* Use bullet points more than numbered lists. Numbers should be used sparingly.
* Outline format is always a good bet understand.
* Full sentences should be grammatically correct, but fragments are acceptable within the context of bulleted outlines.
* Even when you are using sentence fragments in your bullet points, capitalize at the beginning and put a period at the end. This will keep the format uniform throughout, especially if you are mixing fragments and sentences in one list.
* The exception to this is if your list is composed of items that are only one or two words, such as a list of major manufacturers. Don't use periods here.
* Do not include anything that can be construed as offensive. If you have to ask, "will someone be offended by this?" chances are someone will.
* Spell check. The rich text editor has a spell check button below the editor that can be used to check your article for spelling errors. The plain text editor in Internet Explorer also has this option. Feel free to add new words that you know are correct to the dictionary so other users will gain from your vast vocabulary that extends beyond our dictionary. Not sure if a word is correct? Ask Webster at :Computers and Monitors)
* If you want to write a detailed list about several types of things, use the vertical template Makers'>:Popcorn Makers)
* The default image size of 150 is very large. It's easy enough to reduce images. Useful sizes are: 70 (for "related items" templates), 100 and 120.
* All the images in a given template should be the same size.
Headings
* Avoid using a colon at the end of a heading.
* Make headings as succinct and clear as possible.
* Only use Heading 2 for the main heading of the guide.
Formatting
* '''Use boldface judiciously''' generally for the first word or the main idea of a list.
* Titles of articles should always be set to H2 and separated from the body of the article by one line. Do not link the buying guide titles.
* Default size images are fairly large usually setting the size to 75 or 100 will give you better results that don't take up too much space. You don't want the first 10 lines of your article to be an enormous image.
* On the other hand, having a small or medium picture of the object you are writing about right at the beginning of the article is a good way to introduce it, especially if it is not a familiar item.
* Search links can be formatted as just plain text. Don't put them inside heading tags or bold them. Simple bulleted lists of searches are fine.
Links
* Link to searches for stuff, other wiki articles and stories on an external site.
* Don't be afraid to have a link in the middle of a sentence. That is good.
* Add links to good articles on the subject elsewhere on the Internet under the footer "External Links."
* Links should be written either as a capitalized short form of the URL, i.e., CreatineMonohydrate.net, or as the title of the page to which you are linking, i.e., Google. (If www. isn't part of the site address, you can say http://www.shopwiki.com instead.
* If the URL you are linking to is very long, your best bet is brevity just use the title of the article or the page as the text of the link. Follow the title with a 5 to 10 word description of where the link leads. See the links at the bottom of :PDAs for an example of this type of link. This is probably a good bet in the situation described above for www.shopwiki.com.
Tables
* There are several templates available if you want to use premade tables.
* See the Table Guide for more information.
Footers
* The agreed order for footers henceforth will be:
## Top Products/Major Manufacturers (one or the other)
## Related Buying Guides/Related Product searches (in that order, if both are applicable)
## External Links
* This doesn't mean you need to use all of these; it just means that, however many you choose to use, this is the order in which they should appear.
* This is also the agreed '''text''' for the footers. For example, use "External Links" at all times; no "Outside Links" or "Useful Articles."
Technical Tips
* This is a tip rather than a stylistic point get to know the plain text editor first. It will serve you well. It is often easier to fix things in plain text, especially concerning bulleted lists, links and bold/italics/header fonts.
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