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This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles in the League of Legends wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden when circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to follow the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles.
This manual contains a summary of the most important guidelines for wiki contributions. A more extensive set of guidelines can be found in the Wikipedia website at Wikipedia Manual of Style.
Grammar and punctuation
Follow these rules of the English language:
- Don't use netspeak or any similar slang. We are compiling a professional resource for League of Legends fans.
- Keep your writing around a 6th Grade reading level. Don't fill it with big words to make it sound smarter, especially if you're not sure of how the word is used.
- Vary your words. Try to vary the words you use and the length of your sentences. It makes things sound more interesting.
- Capitalize words when appropriate (see below).
- Use correct punctuation. This includes commas, periods, quotation marks, and apostrophes.
- Avoid mixing up homophones: there, their, and they're; here and hear; it's and its; who's and whose.
Capitalization
- Capitalize the first word of every sentence (e.g., "Let us consider what we have heard and reflect on what we have seen").
- Capitalize proper nouns (e.g. Steve 'Pendragon' Mescon).
- Capitalize the first word in titles (e.g. "League of Legends", "Shaco the Demon Jester").
- Do not capitalize titles like "champion", "summoner" or similar except when used as a proper name. [1]
- Capitalize the names of spells, items, runes, and masteries (e.g., Alpha Strike, Flash, Cloth Armor, Lesser Mark of Desolation, Strength of Spirit).
- Don't capitalize champion statistics (e.g. armor, magic resistance, magic penetration, life steal, tenacity) Acronyms are still capitalized, of course (e.g., MR, AD).
Italics
Italics are used for large works like games, movies, comics and books. Example:League of Legends.
Italics can be applied in two ways:
- In the source editor place two single quote marks before and after the text:
''League of Legends''
- Note that these are single quotes ('), not double quotes (").
- Both in the source and the visual editors: Highlight the text you want to put in italics and click the italics button in the toolbar above the edit box (the italics button looks slightly different in the two editors).
Links to articles
You can create links to articles in several ways. In the visual editor, click the link button and fill out the form that appears.
In the source editor use the following syntax:
Link to | Syntax | Syntax example | Displays |
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Article in this wiki | Name of the article surrounded by double brackets: [[Article_name]]
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Ashe |
Section within an article in this wiki |
Name of the article followed by a pipe (vertical line character) and the name of the section:
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[[Summoner's Rift|The first map]]
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The first map |
External website |
Address of the website surrounded by simple brackets. It displays the address: If you add a description preceded by a space the description will be displayed instead: |
[http://na.leagueoflegends.com] [http://na.leagueoflegends.com The official LoL site] |
[2] |
Article in the English Wikipedia | {{w|Article_name|Description}}
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{{w|League of Legends|The Wikipedia entry for the game}}
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The Wikipedia entry for the game |
Article in other wikia site | {{wikia|name of the wikia|part of thcomes after /wiki/|Description}}
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{{wikia|dota|Heart_of_Tarrasque|Heart of Tarrasque}}
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Heart of Tarrasque |
Links to articles in this wiki which don't exist show up in dark red, like this: Non existent article.
In links to external sites use italics for books, movies and songs; and regular text for all other links.
Don't repeat links within the same article. If you want to add a link to a term that is used several times throughout the article, add the link only to the first appearance of that term. There are some exceptions to this rule, though. For instance, you can add a link to a term the first time it appears in the Story section of a Champion article even if that term appears before in the article and contains the link already.
Links to champions articles normally work both using just the champion's name and using the champion's name followed by its title. For example, the following links work the same:
[[Master Yi]]
: Master Yi.
[[Master Yi the Wuju Bladesman]]
: Master Yi the Wuju Bladesman.
Links with icons
This wiki offers templates that enhance the appearance and functionality of some links. These templates add an illustrative icon to a link. When the user hovers their mouse on the link they get additional information about the article linked. Currently these templates are available for links to articles and sections about champions, abilities and items. The icon is displayed before the text part of the link. The syntax of these templates is as follows:
- Template for champion links. Syntax:
{{ci|<champion name>}}
. Example:{{ci|Miss Fortune}}
displays: . - Template for item links. Syntax:
{{ii|<name>}}
. Example:{{ii|Blade of the Ruined King}}
displays . - Templates for champion ability links. Links to the section about a specific ability in a champion's page. There are two templates of this type:
- Champion link followed by ability link. Syntax:
{{cai|<name of the ability>|<name of the champion>}}
. Example:{{cai|Starcall|Soraka}}
displays . - Just the ability link. Syntax:
{{ai|<name of the ability>}}
. Example:{{ai|Miasma}}
displays .
- Champion link followed by ability link. Syntax:
These templates admit an additional parameter that contains a description of the link. Descriptions are displayed as the text of the link. Example: {{ci|Miss Fortune|Miss Fortune the Bounty Hunter}}
displays .
Articles
Articles names
The names of articles follow these rules:
- They are in singular form.
- The initial letter of the name is capitalized. Apart from this, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence.
- The first word is not a, an, or the unless by convention one of those words is an inseparable part of the name.
- The last character is not a punctuation mark.
- Articles about champions, items, summoner spells and runes are named as their counterparts in the game.
It may be appropriate to create redirects from one or two common misspellings or mis-capitalizations of titles to make searches easier.
Section headings
The guidelines for article names apply also to section headings. Apart from those, the names of section and subsection headings follow these conventions:
- They are unique within a page.
- They are descriptive and follow a consistent order.
- They don't contain links.
- They don't refer explicitly to the subject of the article or of higher level headings unless doing so is shorter or clearer.
Headings and subheadings follow a nested hierarchy, which is reflected visually by the font they use. Top level headings use the font "Heading". Their immediate subsections use the font "Sub-heading 1". The immediate subsections of these use the font "Sub-heading 2", and so on until they reach the font "Sub-heading 4" at the bottom of the hierarchy. When you create headings and sub headings make sure you follow this hierarchy in order and you don't skip levels.
The table of contents of an article lists its headings, providing an overview of its content and allowing readers to navigate the articles easily.
The source editor uses the following syntax for headings and sub headings:
==First level heading==
===Second level heading===
====Third level heading====
=====Fourth level heading=====
======Fifth level heading======
This syntax follows these rules:
- Spaces between the == and the heading text are optional (==H2== is equivalent to == H2 ==). These extra spaces don't affect the way the heading is displayed.
- Include one blank line above the heading for readability in the edit window.
Examples of headings use and misuse:
Correct
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Random/chaotic
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Skipping levels
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Formatting guidelines
This wiki offers guidelines and templates which aim to help editors to create some specific kinds of articles (articles about champions, items, minions, etc.). These guidelines and templates are useful when you start writing an article or need guidelines on presenting information.
- Main article: Manual of Style: Characters
- This page contains information regarding how individual character pages are structured.
- Main article: Manual of Style: Patch Notes
- This page contains information regarding how to appropriately format the changes that happen with each patch cycle.
Miscellaneous guidelines
This is the current consensus of the community on how to present some very specific data:
- Champion abilities that gain bonus damage from attack damage: Write the conversion factor as a percentage. Example: : Attack damage scaling modified to 100% of bonus attack damage from 50% of total attack damage.
- Champion abilities that gain bonus damage from ability power: Write the conversion factor as a decimal fraction. Example: : Ability power ratio reduced to 0.7 from 0.8.
Categories
Pages in this wiki are organized into categories. Categories are groups of wiki pages organized in a hierarchical way. Each wiki page is assigned to the most specific category available. Most new articles fit into existing categories. When you create a new article or add a new file to the wiki, assign it to a category. If you are not sure about what category to use, look for similar articles or files. Chances are you'll find one of them belongs to the category you're looking for.
Guidelines for categorizing articles:
- Place each article in all of the most specific categories to which it belongs.
- Categorize articles by characteristics of the topic, not characteristics of the article.
- If none of the categories available suit your article, create a new one. Don't assign articles to categories that haven't been created.
For more information about categories, see Wikipedia:Categorization.
Images
Guidelines for the use of images:
- Align images to the right.
- In general, avoid using too many images in an article. Still, if you think that there's a good reason to use many images, consider created a gallery section under a level two heading at the end of the article.
- Use captions to explain the relevance of images. If a caption contains complete sentences, write a period at the end of each sentence. If the caption is not a complete sentence, don't write a period at the end. Don't italicize captions.
- Use thumbnails to present large images.
Uploading images
- Give descriptive names to image files. The administrators reserve the right of deleting or moving images with non descriptive names, like "0239235jgjgkdgdf.jpg". Check the naming guidelines for images here.
- Do not upload images that are already in the wiki. Before uploading an image, check if someone else has uploaded it already.
- Image formats:
- Images of abilities, items, skins, champion squares and similar: use JPG, GIF or PNG. This helps pages load faster.
- Other images (renders, in-game screenshots, etc.): all formats are allowed.
- Image sizes:
- Ability images: 64x64px.
- Squares (Infobox Portraits): 120x120px.
- You can upload personal images, i.e., images not meant to be used in articles. Prefix those with your username and put them in the "Personal files" category. Failing to do so will result in the image being deleted without prior notice. Although there is no limit to the number of personal images you can upload, use common sense when using this feature, a wiki is not a personal upload repository.
You can use one of these recommended programs to convert an image to one of the required formats:
Point of view
Articles in this wiki are written from a game universe point of view, as if the person, object, or event actually existed or occurred. Use verb tenses in the same way a standard encyclopedia would.
Real world point of view
The real world point of view applies to articles about companies, Riot Games employees, events, or other game information which is not part of the League of Legends universe. Write these real world articles like a standard encyclopedia would. These articles are marked with a {{realworld}} tag.
If you include real world information inside articles about the game universe, put it at the beginning of the article in a section called "Background Information". If that doesn't work well, indent and italicize the real world information to distinguish it from the rest.
Sources
If you use external sources, list them in a section called "References" at the end of the article. Section syntax: {{Reflist}}
Use reference tags to cite your sources (an interview or something similar). Example of syntax:
- "I can unequivocally state that not only is League of Legends easy to pick up and play..., but it's insanely fun as well"<ref>[http://worthplaying.com/article/2009/3/31/previews/60362/ "From PC Preview - League of Legends.]</ref>
User can be creative in their user pages (talk, profile, sandboxes, etc.). The only restrictions are:
- Follow the personal image naming guidelines outlined above.
- Absolutely no inappropriate content is allowed. If you need to ask someone if the content is appropriate, get rid of it.
Deletion
Reasons to delete content from the wiki include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Copyright violations and other material violating the non-free content criteria.
- Vandalism, including inflammatory redirects, pages that exist only to disparage their subject, patent nonsense, or gibberish.
- Advertising or other spam without relevant content (but not an article about an advertising-related subject).
- Articles that present information for which reliable sources couldn't be found in spite of thorough attempts in that direction.
- Redundant or otherwise useless templates.
- Unneeded categories.
- Unused or obsolete files.
- Any other use of the article, template, project, or user namespace that is contrary to the established separate policy for that namespace.
- Any other content not suitable for an encyclopedia.
These rules are subject to the premise that improvement or deletion of an offending section, if practical, is preferable to deletion of an entire page.
Only administrators can delete pages, but regular users can mark pages for deletion by using the {{delete}} template.
If you are working/developing a page, but at the moment it appears incomplete and you think it might be considered for deletion, please use the {{WIP}} tag in it, which indicates that it is a Work In Progress.
Article tags are typically placed at the top of the page content so they can be easily noticed.