Talk: Guidance for Scribes

Edits to Talk Page

Kept Bobbyroberts99's outline/framework for the page; identified Resolved on Page (the Guidance for Scribes page directly speaks to the issue), Resolved Not on Page (the issue has been resolved through resplies on the Talk page, but may not have made it to the Guidance for Scribes page) and Unresolved (not dealt with either in the wiki page or in the Talk page) Missyvecc (talk) 02:52, January 20, 2015 (UTC)

Also anything labeled Resolved is up for discussion, but new writers should know what the resolution to that issue has been for consistency. Missyvecc (talk) 02:53, January 20, 2015 (UTC)

Previous Version: http://habitrpg.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Guidance_for_Scribes?diff=53513&oldid=39717

To Dos

I populated this article with a rough framework just to get the conversation started. If anyone wants to take a first stab, we could then edit until we've got something everyone likes. Any thoughts?  Bobbyroberts99 (talk) 20:53, December 6, 2013 (UTC)

Mission - Resolved on Page

Open to edits and revisions; no longer unresolved. Missyvecc (talk) 01:22, January 20, 2015 (UTC)

Style

Tone - Resolved on page Resolution: Perhaps we can create two broad dichotomies of articles: 1) Information Based and 2) How-to. With the first, the article should be written in third person and with the second, it should be written in second person. I think this will help create professionalism and accuracy where it is needed the most, while leaving a more relaxed and enjoyable read for articles that concern self-improvement or the other how-to categories. Project21 (talk) 04:45, December 9, 2013 (UTC)

Article length - Resolved on Page

Glossary/Defintions - Unresolved?

I’m wondering about creating defintion templates/articles, length 1 sentence to use on multiple pages and glossary. see Talk:Glossary  —Wc8 (talk) 20:14, December 20, 2013 (UTC)

Screenshot Copyrights? - Resolved on Page

Is it possible to add something to the licensing drop-down in the upload section which says 'This is a screenshot from HabitRPG'? --Malkin (talk) 22:42, December 20, 2013 (UTC)

Resolved. Added the bit about the drop down Missyvecc (talk) 02:52, January 20, 2015 (UTC)

British English or American English? - Resolved on Page

Dates - Resolved not on Page I don't know if there's an American standardisation for these beyond "month before day".  The most common version I'm seeing is (for example) January 21, 2014 - with comma, but without ordinal indicator.  Any thoughts? Nutter (talk) 22:51, February 6, 2014 (UTC)

"January 21, 2014, blah blah" would be the best way to do it. If you're not refering to the specific day it would just be "January 2014, blah blah" You could also shorten the month - "Jan. 21, 2014," but that would probably end up with people breaking style between pages and get confusing. I say just stick with "January 21, 2014" style for everything for standardization between articles. Matravnos (talk) 14:38, February 7, 2014 (UTC)

Oxford Comma - resolved but not on page

What is the consensus on using Oxford commas? MekanikStik (talk) 18:50, February 5, 2014 (UTC)

I think we should go the wikipedia route -- unless you are doing substantial edits to an article, don't go in and do stylistic edits for the sake of stylistic edits. (Tone is not style. If it doesn't match the tone of HabitRPG's wiki, that's a different fish.) Don't add or delete Oxford commas from articles for the sake of edits. It's really unnecessary. actually Breadstrings (talk) 16:52, June 9, 2014 (UTC)

Formatting

Wiki admins can edit css here.

Table of Contents (TOC) - Resolved (in part) 

Location - UNRESOLVED?

Left or right? Does this vary based on appearance? Missyvecc (talk) 01:22, January 20, 2015 (UTC)

Formatting - Resolved on page

Isn't the TOC formatted automatically? Missyvecc (talk) 01:22, January 20, 2015 (UTC)

Spacing

Margins and Padding - Resolved on Page Capitalization What should be capitalized? MOTSLY Resolved on Page

see below for additional talk on Capitalization

Images - Mostly Resolved on Page 

Should we decide on a uniform way to display gear? Half the classes have the whole avatar dude with the item, and the other half just display the item not worn. (I kind of prefer having an avatar person there for... scale? So you see how it fits better than the item floating in space, but... that's just me. Sonoris (talk) 12:14, January 7, 2014 (UTC)

Format - Resolved on Page

All images should be uploaded as PNG.

Size - Unresolved on page

Captions - Resolved on page

Replacing v. Deleting - Resolved on page

Videos- Resolved on page

Lists - Unresolved

There appears to be no standard list format.  The one currently on the Damage page is quite elegant:

• starts with a colon;

• list items start with lower case, end with semi-colon;

• list finishes with full stop.

Categories - Resolved on page

see below for additional Talk on Categories

Anything else?

For non-style related how-tos, the HabitRPG Wiki:Community Portal has lots of suggestions.

Translating the Wiki - Resolved

Never thought of translating the Wiki also in other languages? <.<

93.34.167.215 09:14, July 18, 2014 (UTC) Chihiro

Of course we have. There's information about it in [Guidance for Linguists](http://habitrpg.wikia.com/wiki/Guidance_for_Linguists) and if you use the wiki search to search for "translations" you'll find a bit of other information. LadyAlys (talk) 02:50, July 19, 2014 (UTC)

Further Discussion: Guidance on Deletion?

I know there is a way to request deletion of pages, but can we get some clarification on the stance on deletion? For instance, I can sit there with the All Pages and the WhatLinksHere and make sure that redirect pages aren't linked anywhere, or can fix if they are linked, and then request redirect page deletion. What I would like to know is if this falls under a good reason to request deletion, and if not, what does? A little clarification on the page would be good. Thank you in advance! Darks Lanfear (talk) 23:16, August 4, 2014 (UTC)

As a general rule, redirect pages are never deleted (discussion here). For any other deletion reasons, I think it's really a case by case basis, although other wiki admins might have other ideas. Unless you hear otherwise, then: If you think you have a good reason for deleting a page, add the deletion code; it can always be removed later if needed.

Would you be willing to add a brief summary of this to the "Deleting" section in Guidance for Scribes? I think it would be helpful to wiki editors. LadyAlys (talk) 03:39, August 5, 2014 (UTC)

Ah LadyAlys, I have a feeling I will be annoying you often with questions like these. ^_^ Thank you for the clarification and the discussion link. Once I am done reading through the discussion fully, I would be more than happy to add in a summary under the "Deleting" section for that clarification. Both sides make sense, and I see the theory behind leaving pages, so it is clear now. Thank you again, and I'm sure I will bother you later. You have been warned :P Darks Lanfear (talk) 03:48, August 5, 2014 (UTC)

Further Discussion: Capitalization 

Some things about capitalization seem to be unclear. More than anything else, I've noticed that the words gems, gold, silver, market, inventory, collection quest, boss quest, experience points, health points, and a bunch of other ones are capitalized in some cases, and uncapitalized in others. Some articles even have the word "gems" uncapitalized in a sentence, and then the next sentence has "Gems", capitalized. I think we need to make things more clear about capitalization. Blazing chaoss (talk) 13:39, August 21, 2014 (UTC)

Further Discussion: Default Pronoun

Edited this out a couple of times: can we agree (and add to the guidelines) that "he" shouldn't be used as a default pronoun? Instead, a pronoun should be avoided, or a gender neutral pronoun, such as they? Deilann (talk) 16:37, January 16, 2014 (UTC)

I actually like "They" as a singular pronoun. It takes getting used to for a moment but it works really pretty well after that. I am hunting down an MLA style guide to see if it has anything to say, but I think we should be good with "they". I found this link  as well which backs up to your suggestion. 00:36, January 18, 2014 (UTC)Sleepykit (talk)

"They" was used by Jane Austen, so it's hard to make an argument against it on historical or stylistic grounds...  Nutter (talk) 20:56, March 26, 2014 (UTC)

Although he/she is not avoidable in all situations (this is where we'd use "they"), I have had great success by using "you" or "the user" to to avoid gender pronouns. Chum Bucket (talk) 11:30, August 11, 2015 (UTC)

Just a note to anyone who might be reading this: "he/she" is always avoidable. We don't use it at all on the wiki's content pages because it excludes people who don't identify as male or female. I believe Habitica has a larger than average proportion of such people, which I like to think might be partially because we do try to avoid language that excludes them. As Chum Bucket says, there are good alternatives (they, you, the user). LadyAlys (talk) 08:11, August 12, 2015 (UTC)

Categories  

Do we discuss this? Bobbyroberts99 (talk) 19:20, December 12, 2013 (UTC)

As a newbie, I would absolutely love a clarification of what categories are appropriate where. Please? Sleepykit (talk) 20:11, December 12, 2013 (UTC)

Do we want images categorising? I'm entirely happy to do monotonous things like stuff all the Pets images into a category, if folks think that's a good idea. Kitbeard (talk) 18:02, December 18, 2013 (UTC)

Maybe one way to proceed would be to create a google spreadsheet with all the categories and the questions they answer/purpose they serve so we can surface types of categories and any dupes. I'm not sure how much categories are getting used by readers though. Wikia says readers generally don't like being directed to a category page so none (or maybe one) of the menus link to categories. Where I do think they are useful is identifying pages that are stubs, needs changes, are under contruction or a part of the WikiLiveChallenge (although I think we might be duping a bit at this point). There are several places on the wiki that link to those categories so that scribes can easily find the articles that need work.

At this point, everyone is just sort of creating and assigning categories as they see fit. I don't see any real harm in this. Maybe answering the question, "What question does assigning to this category answer?" is a way to help sort it out.

@Kitbeard, who do you envision asking "Show me all the pet images?" If someone will ask that question, maybe a Pet images category makes sense, but I'm not sure how often it will get asked and if it's worth the time.

Hope that makes some sense.

Bobbyroberts99 (talk) 18:21, December 18, 2013 (UTC)

It's possible that someone might want to see 'all the images on this wiki' for copyright reasons, or to check if what they're going to upload is unique or a duplicate. --Malkin (talk) 01:09, December 21, 2013 (UTC)

IMO, categories are just good practice in organizing a wiki. I don't know where HabitRPG is going to be going in the future, but if we assume that there will be more and more features and history to record, the wiki will eventually become too large to navigate by going to Special:AllPages.  Plus, Wikia's interface doesn't, as far as I can tell, provide any easy way to group or navigate non-article pages, like files and whatnot. I propose starting a list of categories in wiki-namespace here: HabitRPG wiki:List of categories where we can organize a category system in a central location. Pages, space, edits, and categories are free; I don't think we gain much by restricting ourselves in categorization.  Nepenthe88 (talk) 21:36, December 22, 2013 (UTC)

I would ask for all the pet images. Personally, it's nice to have complete clarification on everything, including what pets look like and what sort are available. Rowan Law (talk) 20:47, January 16, 2014 (UTC)

Image confusing/misleading?

In the section "Images", the http://habitrpg.wikia.com/wiki/File:Caption.png caption image does not have a transparent background, which I find confusing, since the text right next to it is the part that says that all images should have a transparent background. I don't have the tools for editing the picture-could we do something to this?irishfeet123 : An Asian Irish dancer :) Call me Rin. (talk) 14:28, May 5, 2015 (UTC)

Good point about the inconsistency, although in this case I think the background is helpful because it's a screenshot from the wiki and the image background is close to the colour of the wiki. I think the slight difference and the border helps to show that the first caption is actually part of the image being referred to by the second caption. But I won't argue if anyone wants to change it.

I made some modifications to the instructions about backgrounds to indicate that non-transparent is okay if there is a need for it (e.g., many of our settings screenshots shouldn't be transparent because the background is white on the HabitRPG site).

Rin, tell us if you still think it's wrong or needs more changes!

LadyAlys (talk) 01:13, May 6, 2015 (UTC)

Talk-page format/guidelines - Resolved

July 11, 2015 Removed my resolved inquiry.

Old page: http://habitrpg.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Guidance_for_Scribes?oldid=68301

Chum Bucket (talk) 20:12, July 11, 2015 (UTC)

Color Scheme

I was wondering if this page (or the advanced page) would be appropiate to post the new color scheme. I just copied and pasted from the Wizards of the Wiki guild: purple: #4a4178 (Background main) - blue: #309bbf (Page links) - orange: #d94e2b (Page buttons) - beige: #f7f4f0 (Page main) - light blue: #8acde4 (box headers on Start page). Maybe this is superfluous information, but if someone wanted to changed a translated page or make some artwork to go with the theme, it might be relevant. Chum Bucket (talk) 11:17, August 11, 2015 (UTC)

Mm.  The intent of this page (imho) is the general Wiki author population, most of whom won't have access to the color settings above.  You do make a good point for the colors for artwork, though, and I think it might be worth making a separate page "Habitica Color Scheme" for them, with a table 'Color | Hex Code | Used In'  perhaps.

Taldin (talk) 16:21, August 11, 2015 (UTC)

Taldin, I've lost track of where the colours are defined in the wiki settings. Are they in a location that is readable to all wiki users? If so, we should not describe the colours in our documentation, but instead should link to the page where the colours are configured. This would ensure that the documentation never becomes outdated. LadyAlys (talk) 08:14, August 12, 2015 (UTC)

General Tips for new Scribes

I had some general tips for people who are new, and couldn't decide if they would fit under this article or not. I was considering adding a sub-subheading under "Other Wiki Account Tips" titled "General Tips". Would this fit with the overall tone of the article, or is there a more appropriate article to put tips like that? I skimmed the advanced article, and I think these tips would be too basic for that page! Chum Bucket (talk) 11:34, August 11, 2015 (UTC)

If your first instinct is 'it's too basic for this page', you're probably right.  :D  But can you give us some examples of what you're thinking (maybe make a sandbox page with them, or a blog post?)  

Taldin (talk) 16:23, August 11, 2015 (UTC)

Formatting text in instructions

Hello! I want to suggest adding a section to the Guidance for Scribes page: Formatting text in instructions

I'm interested in helping with the Wiki so naturally I've gravitated to what I know: technical writing. I've noticed that we're inconsistent with how we refer to elements of the UI. On this very page we refer to it as both the Edit button and the "Edit" button. Is there a consensus somewhere as to the proper way to format references to the UI?

Here's an example from the Microsoft Manual of Style .

Thanks for humoring this nerdy technical writer

gwenasaurus (talk) 18:18, December 13, 2018 (UTC)

PS: I've separated the guide into more of a "getting started" and "style guide". The current guide feels a little unwieldy, and some bits are great for beginners and others are good as a reference on style. Check on my work in my sandbox: Guidance for Scribes and Style guide.

gwenasaurus (talk) 15:35, December 14, 2018 (UTC)

Fellow technical writer here.  Well met!  :)    I've been going with Edit button where I spot it, but I'm a lot lenient when people are at least consistent on the page, since this isn't one of my manuals.  

Taldin (talk) 19:42, December 14, 2018 (UTC)

I have moved discussion to the Guild so all users can discuss. (And keep the talk in one place).

Thanks

CTheDragons (talk) 13:47, December 16, 2018 (UTC)

Hmm. I think I need to dig up the Quick Reference card I did so long ago and update it....

Taldin (talk) 17:26, December 16, 2018 (UTC)