Project:Style Guide

Introduction
For ease of access, Pluralpedia promotes some standard formatting, crediting, and other conventions. Because this is a public-access project, nothing will be perfect, but adherence to this guide is greatly appreciated!

Note that while we do have a standard style, it's still better to have a page with some info than to have nothing. Don't let formatting or writing style stop you from adding a page - you or someone else can always go back and edit it. There's also no notability requirements on this wiki, so it's okay to add obscure, historical, personal, or new terms.

If anything feels missing from this guide, or you have questions about anything, feel free to ask in the Discord server!

Templates
Here are some very handy pre-made pages to use when adding new terms.

For Terms
See this template for entering new terminology into the wiki.

For Categories
See TEMPLATE LINK for creating new categories.

Consent
Not all systems want their labels, flags, or terminology in these sorts of projects. Please respect this! Many experiences are personal, and adding such closed terms into the public consciousness is violating a system's consent. When in doubt, do not add a term.

Word Choice
Another part of consistency is language. Beyond using proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling, here are some guidelines.

Pronouns
Personal pronouns (you, I, we, us, my) are not recommended outside of the Project, Talk and User namespaces. This is an objective, abstract collection of terminology. While these are sometimes unavoidable, we should still try to avoid them as much as possible otherwise.

Referring to System Members
To keep this wiki inclusive, the term "alter" and "part" are not to be used when describing a member of a system when not on specific pages. "Headmate" is the preferred way to refer to them.

Medical vs. Community Terminology
This project is meant to encompass all plurality-related definitions and descriptors. As such, both medical (alter and specific diagnoses) and community-created (mesosian, for example) labels will be listed and supported.

Punctuation
Avoid the use of quotes for things that aren't actual quotations, as this could be interpreted as scare quotes. Scare quotes give many readers a sort of textual analog to holding something at arm's length and pinching one's nose.

To avoid this, prefer to write phrases like “Some systems prefer the term frob” or “Some systems prefer using frob instead”, rather than “Some systems prefer 'frob'”.

More Resources
Wikipedia's own Manual of Style is a good reference for writing in general wiki style. However, our own style is not a carbon copy of Wikipedia's, and our own guide should take priority.

Descriptivism
The aim of this wiki is to be a dictionary that describes the terms as they exist in practice. Definitions should help anyone in the greater plural community become more familiar with the vocabulary of their communities. We're not here to police how people talk. If there's disagreement over what term is the right one, we should document both, perhaps with a note explaining the disagreement. Exceptions are possible, such as terms that are actively harmful, a slur, or widely considered offensive.

Tone
All good-faith identifiers must be treated with respect. Even if an individual disagrees with the term, editors here are simply messengers, not judges. Please do not put personal influence into definitions.

Credits
This is arguably the most important of this project: proper citations. Always keep links handy!

For Terms
If one can be found, links to coining posts on Tumblr, Amino, or other sites must be included. Earlier projects similar to this one struggled with proper accreditation. Sometimes, older terms can be harder to track down. That's fine! Citing sites like did-research.org or traumadissociation for medical terminology is acceptable.

For Flags
When uploading flags, Mediawiki (this program) lets users change the file name when uploading. In the new file name, please add the creator's system name or other identifying label to it. In the description of the file, please add the link there, as well as in the thumbnail or gallery description.

For Oneself
Personal credits (for writing or editing pages, for example) are not permitted on this wiki. This is not for anyone's personal gain. It is also for keeping things completely impersonal.

Image Formatting: 1 Image
Use the format  for adding a singular image to a page, like one flag.

Image Formatting: 2+ Images
A gallery is recommended if a term has two flags, for example. This is formatted differently:

Thank you for reading! This keeps this project cohesive. Any suggestions to a page like this (including rules or DELETION GUIDE should be directed to the Discord server for discussing crucial pages, which can be found here.