Rofflehaus:Manual of Style
From Rofflehaus
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This is Rofflehaus' Manual of Style. See wikipedia's MOS for more detailed info.
Contents |
[edit] Categories
- Keep content in articles and out of categories but please link to the article from the category. See Category:Ames for an example.
- Add a sorting string to the Category tag when you add something to a category if the article is named after a person or begins with a,an, or the. Examples:
- Matt Newcomb [[Category:Students|Newcomb, Matt]]
- The Gyro Man [[Category:Welch Avenue|Gyro Man, The]]
[edit] Categories and Ames
Categories of things within Ames or relating to Ames should not have "Ames" tacked on the front.
- Bad: "Ames bike trails"
- Good: "Bike trails"
Conversely, things outside of Ames should be labelled as such. Des Moines asian restaurants, for example. Be sure to add these articles to all applicable categories. Our example should be in both the Category:Asian restaurants and Category:Des Moines businesses.
[edit] Cities
If it's an Iowa town then the article name should be just the city name (e.g., Ames, Des Moines, Nevada).
[edit] Dates
Do not use abbreviations; link the "month day" and year. For example: March 3, 1905.
[edit] External links
For news articles, see #News articles.
[edit] List of Links (See also)
At the end of an article it's tempting to add a list of links so the user can learn more on the topic. If possible, mention the link in the article text itself in addition to listing it at the bottom (not everyone reads the article in its entirety and no one wants to be forced to read an article to find a related link). Also, list the links in the following order:
- See also: links to RH articles, then WP articles (see Template:WP and Template:Wikipedia for wikipedia links)
- News articles: external links to reputable news sources
- References: sources for reliable material you use in the article (the more of these, the better and more solid the info in the article can be trusted...duh?). Ideally these sources are not RH articles, WP articles, news articles, or biased websites.
- External links: external links to websites that don't fit any category above.
This keeps readers in RH as long as possible, and also lists the links (generally) in order of decreasing relevance and importance.
[edit] Multiple categories, nested categories
Add an article to all applicable categories, unless the categories themselves are nested. Maple Hall is within Category:RCA, and Category:RCA is within Category:ISU places, so we do not add Maple Hall to ISU Places.
[edit] Naming conventions
Use sentence caps for section headings and article titles unless it's a proper name. Use title caps for proper names:
- "Naming conventions" instead of "Naming Conventions"
- "Ames restaurants" instead of "Ames Restaurants"
- Exclude "an", "a", "the" from article titles
- Except if it's a proper name
[edit] Departments and Colleges
Articles about a department/college should be titled the exact full name of the college. That is, it's not the Design college. It's College of Design. It's not the Computer Science department. It's the Department of Computer Science.
When linking from another article, you can use the "... college" or "... department" variant if you wish, but please link to the properly-named article. Example: "... Design college ...".
[edit] News articles
Please use the Template:NewISUD for linking to Iowa State Daily articles and put them under the "In The Daily" heading, not "External links" or "News Articles." Click on "What Links Here" for usage examples.
[edit] Sentences
Use complete sentences. Rofflehaus is not a newspaper. Rofflehaus is not limited to a certain amount of column-inches. You are not a reporter for the Daily Bugle. Please use complete sentences!
(In an article on Joe Blow)
- YES: "Joe Blow won the 2005 world kegstand derby. He was very drunk."
- NO: "Won the 2005 world kegstand derby. Was very drunk."
[edit] Talk pages
Sign your comments on talk pages with four tildes (~~~~) which inserts your username and timestamp.
