Forum:CT:Manual of Style restructuring

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The result of the debate was Support proposal. 1358 (Talk) 07:59, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Following Forum:SH:Manual of Style restructuring, I am bringing this to a formal vote.

The Layout Guide (LG) and the Wookieepedia:Manual of Style (MoS) are easily the two most important article policies. However, the Manual of Style, which originates from the early Wookieepedia/Wikipedia era of 2005, has always been the type of policy where more stuff is added all the time and nothing is ever removed or restructured. While parts of the policy are well written, comprehensive, and updated, others are messy and outdated.

Therefore, I've attempted to restructure much of the LG, without really rewriting much at all.

  • Restructuring the Manual of Style into three (plus two) distinct sections: current rules are all over the place and it's a pain to find anything in the MoS unless you know exactly where to look.
    1. Perspective: this part is mostly unchanged from previous revisions. It contains the rules for writing IU vs OOU articles, basically.
    2. Grammar and spelling: this mammoth section contains rules related to, well, grammar and spelling, and is appropriately subsectioned.
    3. Formatting: all things formatting (except Quotes and Linking) has been moved under this section.
    4. Quotes: I feel like keeping all things related to quotes in one section is a good idea; the current section contains more than just formatting rules.
    5. Linking: linking is such a big subject that it deserves its own section, imo. As with Quotes, the linking rules are not only related to formatting.
  • New additions to codify de facto practice
    • Added a tiny NPOV section under Perspective
    • Added a new section on the period (full stop): i.e. image captions, references, quote attributions
    • HTML vs wikitext: prefer wikitext over HTML, except in some cases (dashes, ellipses)
    • Bolding in the intro: bold subject name and alternate names. Avoid bolding complete title when it comes to conjectural titles.
    • Linking: when to link, when not to link. All in one place.
  • Relocated some rules that seem to fit better in other policies
    • The format-for-FandomDesktop rule has been moved to the main LG, because it really is about adapting the layout for Fandomdesktop.
    • For whatever reason, the MoS contained a section titled "Layout Guide". Most of this was covered by the existing Layout Guides but I've relocated the rules concerning {{App}} to the OOULG.
    • Rules regarding article titles in British English have been moved to the Naming policy (although the policy already covered this, I've slightly amended it anyway).
  • The dash policy (WP:DASH) has been integrated into the main MoS: I don't think there's any compelling reason to have a separate page for dashes. However, if people feel strongly about this, it's not a hill I will die on.
  • What I haven't done
    • The Citations subsection of Formatting should be moved to Wookieepedia:Sourcing. However, as I plan on restructuring that policy as well, I feel like it can wait.

As with the LG restructuring, the MoS has been thoroughly revamped but there are no changes to existing practice, really.

Support

  1. 1358 (Talk) 14:11, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  2. Imperators II(Talk) 14:16, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  3. Lewisr (talk) 14:17, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  4. OOM 224 14:18, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  5. 01miki10 Open comlink 14:18, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  6. Manoof (he/him/his) (talk) 16:53, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  7. JediMasterMacaroni(Talk) 16:57, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  8. grunny@wookieepedia:~$ 17:03, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  9. Wok142 (talk) 17:06, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  10. Fan26 (Talk) 17:20, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  11. Absolutely. There's an incredibly dire need for this if we ever want newcomers to feel more comfortable understanding policy. MasterFredCommerce Guild(talk) (he/him) 18:15, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  12. LucaRoR Sigil of House Serenno (Talk) 18:45, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
  13. Rsand 30 (talk) 01:23, 3 May 2022 (UTC)
  14. Erebus Chronus (Talk) 01:34, 3 May 2022 (UTC)
  15. DarthRuiz30 (talk) 01:58, 3 May 2022 (UTC)
  16. Green Tentacle (Talk) 22:18, 3 May 2022 (UTC)
  17. Thanks for your work on this Ecks VergenceScatter (talk) 06:26, 5 May 2022 (UTC)
  18. Corellian PremierRogue SquadronMTFBWY 12:27, 8 May 2022 (UTC)
  19. --Vitus InfinitusTalk 14:04, 8 May 2022 (UTC)
  20. Commander Code-8 Hello There! 07:10, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Oppose

Discussion