Fallout Roleplaying Wiki:Content organization guideline

This page contains the Fallout Fanfiction and Roleplaying Wiki's content organization guideline. It describes in which way content should be divided into articles, i.e. what content should have own articles, when articles should be merged, when and how to disambiguate, how articles and categories should be named as well as how content should be categorized.

Guidelines describe desired etiquette and common practice in the creation, editing and organization of articles on this wiki. Any registered editor is free to edit their own pages only unless permission by the original poster on an administrator is given. If you would like to suggest content changes or propose a new policy or guideline, please use the wiki discussion forum. See the policies and guidelines page for an overview of this wiki's policies and guidelines.

On content organization

Much like article layouts, content organization is one of the most important parts of wiki editing. How content is organized and distributed across articles decides how easy it is for readers to find content. A wiki should aim to make access to its content as easy as possible - after all, there is not much use in creating content which nobody can find and read.

Categorization and overview pages help readers find content in case they do not know the exact name of what they are looking for. Although categorization helps and is necessary, it should not be relied upon too heavily for navigating the wiki. Generally, readers should be able to reach pages by following links in articles or navigational aids rather than having to search through categories. Of course, some people prefer the direct method of using categories; others are put off by having to use them. For this reason, it should always be possible to find a given article through both methods. Overview pages, i.e. pages which list and summarize groups of related articles, are a good way to provide easy access to pages as they offer the possibility for more structured listings than categories which only list the name of their members.

In addition, content organization helps improve the overall quality of a wiki. If the content is not properly organized, repetition and redundancy will occur. While that may not seem bad at first glance, it inevitably leads to conflicting and/or incomplete information found in the various articles instead of complete information in one place. In turn, this is detrimental to the wiki's world building and its reputation.

Redundancy and repetition

• Redundancy and repetition should be avoided. There should only be a single article (or section of an article) where a given topic is presented in full detail. Other pages should link to the page with the details instead of repeating them.
• Only information that is directly relevant to the subject of a given article should be included in that article.

Choosing a URL

Naming

• Article and category names (URLs) should be as precise and, at the same time, as short as possible.
  • For characters, titles, ranks and nicknames should not be included in the article title unless any part of their real name is not known. For example, if a character is named "Paladin Rahmani" in your fanon, the article should be named "Rahmani". Full names are preferred, if possible, so "Leila Rahmani" would be more appropriate than "Rahmani".
• Article names should not be overcapitalized. They should be "Fallout series" and "Fallout setting", not "Fallout Series" and "Fallout Setting". Proper names, such as "Pancor Jackhammer" should be capitalized, but common words, like "Combat shotgun", should not.
  • If it's not clear whether a name is a proper name or a common one, naming should be discussed and decided on a case by case basis.
  • Generally, we ask that you leave "the" out of article titles unless absolutely necessary.

Singular vs. Plural

• Single subject articles should generally be singular (i.e. "Mutant", not "Mutants")
• Subject overview article and category names should be plural (e.g. "Fallout 3 items").
  • Category names should generally be plural unless this is impossible or awkward to do.

Disambiguation

• If a given term can refer to multiple articles (i.e. if it is "ambiguous"), the articles should be moved to non-ambiguous (or "disambiguated") titles. A disambiguation page, i.e. a page which links to all possible articles this term may refer to, should then be placed at the ambiguous title.
• In absence of other possibilities to disambiguate the titles (like a surname for a common first name), a term in brackets should be appended to the end. The terms should be chosen from the following list; the first characteristic in which the subjects differ is to be used.
  • Priority 1: Type of subject (e.g. "Example (character)" or "Example (item)")
  • Priority 2: Title of the game in which the subject appears (e.g. "Example (Fallout 2)")
  • Priority 3: Location (e.g. "Example (Shady Sands)")
  • Priority 4: Any differentiating characteristic between the subjects

Categorization

• All content pages (articles and files) should belong to at least one category which is not a maintenance category. Disambiguation pages and redirects are not considered articles in the sense of this rule.
• A content page should be placed in all the categories to which it logically belongs.
• A content page should be placed in only the most specific category (or categories) out of a given branch of the category tree.
• An article should never be left with a non-existent (red link) category on it. Either the category should be created (most easily by clicking on the red link), or else the link should be removed or changed to a category that does exist.
• User pages should not be placed in content categories. They may be placed in certain categories that explicitly allow doing so, otherwise, they should remain uncategorized.