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| Manual of Style | Blocking Policy | Image Policy | Spoiler Policy | Chat Policy | User Page Policy | Talk Page Policy | Blog Policy |
This is the Manual of Style for the Attack on Titan Wiki that explains the aspects that must be taken into account at the time of writing articles. Following these guidelines will result in articles of high quality, pleasant to read, correct and organized.
We hope this guide will help you make valuable edits in the easiest way possible. If you have doubts, do not hesitate to contact one of our Administrators.
Writing
Perspective
Articles describing fictional events, characters and other stuff taking place into the universe of Attack on Titan should be written using an in-universe wording; i.e., as taking place in true life. This means that phrases like "in Episode 7" or "in the Female Titan arc" should be left out of sentences.
Occasionally, it may be necessary to mention the manga or anime though. This will be allowed, but only on a case-by-case basis.
Articles about stuff outside that fictional universe are excluded from this rule, as well as the sections Introduction, Other Media, Anime and Manga Differences, Trivia, and Gallery, and the use of the template {{see}} when needed.
Neutrality
Use a neutral point of view when writing. Any opinion or bias should be expressed on the forum or in the respective Talk Page, not in the article itself.
English (UK) or English (US)
Both are fine, just use one consistently within an article. If one was already chosen, do not change it.
Level of detail
Quantity does not mean quality, and not every detail is important. Articles should be written focused on the topic in question, extracting the relevant facts and avoiding unnecessary and unrelated information.
- Articles about media (chapters, episodes, movies, etc) should cover all main events but in a summarized way, not literally descriptive. Not "he opens the door, he enters the room, he finds a person, first person says this, second person says this...", but "he finds some person and they talk about something".
- In general for any page, transcribing literal conversations in the style of "this character says, that character responds" should be avoided, since just mentioning the topic is relevant in most cases. Only when it is really important to mention the words of a character or it can not be found a way to write the summary without using this style, this could be allowed; but this should be done as little as possible.
- Articles about characters should focus on the actions of that character. Actions of third characters should be mentioned only when they directly involve the one of the topic and are relevant to the subject; but preferably should be told just quickly.
Presentation
Paragraphs should be short and to the point, preferably no more than 10 lines and ideally with at least a reference at the end and an illustrative image every few paragraphs (see Images and References below).
Wikitext
- Use only simple wikitext in articles, avoid complex and unnecessary stuff like <span style="color: #F0F0F0; font-weight: bold; line-height: 3em;">Erwin Smith is the commander of the Survey Corps.</span>
That is only allowed for templates (other tags like <br/> are allowed to avoid squeezing in articles and only if they are strictly necessary). - Headers should be in the form == Header ==, not the form ==Header==. Also, lists and indentations should be in the form:
- * Item
- # Item
- : item
- And not in the form:
- *Item
- #Item
- :item
- Links like [[Eren Yeager|Eren]] and [[Annie Leonhart|Female Titan]] are preferred over links with redirects like [[Eren]] and [[Female Titan]].
- For links that are possessive, include the "'s" in the link. For example, use [[Ymir|Ymir's]] instead of [[Ymir]]'s.
- All templates should always be put in new lines, unless they are specifically intended to be in the same line (like {{ref}} or {{dot}}). Also, the end tags ( }} ) of multiline templates like infoboxes should always be put in new lines as well. For instance, use:
- {{Incomplete}}
- {{Infobox
- | option 1 = Something
- | option 2 = Something
- }}
- And not:
- {{Incomplete}}{{Infobox
- | option 1 = Something
- | option 2 = Something}}
Naming
Sources of names
All names are taken from the highest source available. The hierarchy of sources is as follows:
- Original Japanese manga by Kodansha Ltd. (only if they provide an English spelling)
- Official manga volumes by Kodansha USA
- Individual manga chapters by Kodansha USA
- Crunchyroll translation of the manga
- Official subtitled version of the anime by FUNimation
- Scanlations
Names taken from a secondary source will be replaced if a higher source becomes available later.
If no official name has been released, the page in question can still be made, but the name used must be as accurate as possible and the {{Unofficial Name}} template must be added.
Use of names
- Characters are referred by a single primary name, aliases are not used unless relevant to the context of the paragraph (ie: use "Eren", not "Suicidal Bastard").
- All the versions of a name (English, Kanji, Romaji) and aliases should be listed in the infobox; and all of those, as well as some misspellings or shortened names, should be redirected to the page.
- Titles of works like Attack on Titan, Before the Fall, Chibi Theatre, etc, should always be written in italics.
Canon
The canon material is the content accepted as part of the same continuity of the original series, the manga.
Basically, only content made by series creator Hajime Isayama is accepted as canon, while derivative material from other authors is intended to take place in alternate continuities and therefore is considered non-canon; unless it is specifically adopted by Isayama into the main continuity.
Canon and Non-canon material
Canon
- Original Attack on Titan manga (according to the same hierarchy as the Naming Policy).
- Guidebooks Inside Kou, Outside Osamu, and their official English version INSIDE & OUTSIDE
- Attack on Titan: No Regrets manga (confirmed as canon as of chapter 76 of the main manga)
- Statements by Isayama in other media (his blog, interviews, etc)
Non-canon
- The rest of the media (including anime, OVAs, spin-offs, parodies, movies, novels, video games, etc).
Treatment of the types of material
Since canon and non-canon works are understood as taking place in different continuities, they are treated separately, and are not included in articles outside their own universe.
If a canon element (character, object, organization...) appears also in a non-canon work, the corresponding information should not be mixed with the main continuity, but included in an "Other Media" section (usually put in a separate tab, unless the quantity of information does not warrant it).
Exceptions of this rule are:
- Pictures from the anime can be used in pages about certain elements in common to the manga: characters, objects, locations and organizations; as long as they are equivalents of scenes found in canon material, have better quality than them and do not contradict them.
- Events that happen both in manga and non-canon sources can be referenced in the main article, but only next to the corresponding manga reference (see References).
- Minor differences between manga and anime can be pointed out at the end of episodes pages, in a special section called "Anime and Manga Differences".
- For purposes of writing quality, Hange Zoë's gender is always interpreted as female (see below).
Hange's gender
Hange Zoë is a character whose gender is depicted inconsistently within the universe of Attack on Titan. In the canon material, the character's gender is left up to the reader, while all other derivative works including the anime, parodies, movies, etc, have continuously depicted the character as female.
While the purpose of the Attack on Titan Wiki is to serve as a neutral source of official information, in order to fully accomplish this goal and do not interfere with the reader's interpretation of Hange's gender, it would be necessary to remove all images and videos from the derivative works where that character appears (except from articles specifically related to those works), and to use always neutral pronouns to refer to such character, resulting in confusing text and deprivation of useful material.
For these reasons, Hange's gender is always interpreted as female within the wiki, being an exception of the Canon Policy exclusive to this character.
Images
- Main article: Project:Image Policy
Usage in articles
- Articles must only contain images from official sources; i.e. the manga, anime or any other official material coming from the author himself or the related companies.
- Images should be of highest quality possible, without any heavy alteration of the size, colors and overall quality from the original source material. Every image that is of low quality should be reuploaded with a higher quality version or deleted in case of multiple image policy violations.
- Images should be generally put to 200px size, unless they look too small or the space in the article or other circumstances not allow it.
- The side of placement should alternate from left to right (or right to left, depends on the article organization).
- The description of the image (in the thumbnail) should not be ended with a full stop.
Other aspects
- Images from manga should be generally single frames and they should get rid of the borders unless doing this interferes with the content. Multiple frames or entire pages should be avoided unless a single frame is not enough to illustrate the intended action.
- Screenshots from video sources (anime, movies, etc) must not include subtitles, while manga panels should be gotten rid of any text (from speech bubbles and from the image itself only if this does not damage the drawing).
- Chapter covers should only be gotten rid of text within speech bubbles and leave the rest of the text intact.
- Images should be added to every character's image category that appears in it. Example, if Eren and Sasha appear in an image, said image must be added to Images of Eren Yeager and Images of Sasha Blouse.
- The image should also be added to the corresponding characters' image galleries unless there is another better version of the same image or from the same scene in there.
- Manga images should be of Japanese RAW manga chapters unless the RAW version is of lower quality. Any other manga images should be tagged with the Needs Replacement by RAW category and reuploaded as such when possible.
References
- References must be done using the {{ref}} template.
- Do not put any space between the text and the reference.
- Put the reference after any punctuation mark except a dash (—). For example: The Ackermans were acknowledged as a bloodline of warriors close to the crown,{{ref|65|p = 3}} and acted as the monarchy's right hand entrusted with humanity's survival{{ref|65|p = 5}}—before they turned their backs to the First King.{{ref|65|p=3-9}}
Refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for further information on this rule. - References should be from the manga, unless it is something that happened only in third sources (anime, movies, etc). If the same event happens in several sources, multiple references are allowed.
- Every fact must be referenced in every section of the article. The only exception is the Appearance section when is just describing the general appearance; but if it is citing a point in time, then it must be referenced too. For example, if it states Nifa has dark hair, there is no need for reference; but if it says Nifa did wear a simple shirt with a vest at one point, then it needs to be referenced.
- For written sources, do not just put the chapter/title of the source for a reference, specify the page or range of pages as well.
- In case the source is taken from an scanlation, do not consider the pages added by the uploaders and not present in the original material (for example, fanarts).
- An example of an article correctly referenced can be found here.