This page contains the accepted standards for all content on this wiki. Please visit the talk page to discuss further improvements or ask questions that you might have about how to use the standards.
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Standards
A standard is a widely accepted guideline for TibiaWiki usage, article creation, procedures, etc. These standards govern the desired appearance and structure of all articles on TibiaWiki.
If you are ever unsure about an edit you are about to make, you can do one of three things:
- Look for other existing articles and model your edit after them
- Ask an administrator or experienced contributor.
- Make the edit, and let an administrator or experienced contributor correct it. You do not need to be afraid of being blocked unless your edits are intentionally malicious.
See also: TibiaWiki:Policy
Locale-Specific Information
Dates
All dates should be written in an unambiguous Gregorian format. All years should be written as 4 digits, and the month and day should always be obviously distinguishable from each other.
GOOD Examples:
- 02 Apr 2005
- January 21, 1981
BAD Examples:
- 05/06/2000 (May 6? June 5?)
- 09/12/04 (Sept 12, 2004? Dec 4, 2009?)
Times
All times should (when appropriate) include a time-zone indicator or offset. Any times written without a time-zone indicator should be in UTC, or should be a relative time.
GOOD Examples:
- 12:30pm GMT (12:30 PM Greenwich Mean Time)
- +5:00 (an additional five hours)
Currency
All currency should be written in US Standard notation. Values should be unambiguous, and non-standard abbreviations should be avoided. All in-game values should be in units of "gp".
All ranges of currency values should have the same depth on each side of the range, and the unit indicator should be only on the end of the range.
When used in the content of an article, a text representation of the currency value is acceptable.
GOOD Examples:
- 100gp
- 1,000gp
- 1,000 - 5,000gp
- This item often sells for more than one million gp!
BAD Examples:
- $100
- 1.000gp
- 1,000gp - 5,000gp
- 1k - 5k
Floors
When referring to a certain floor, etage or storey there might be confusion because different countries use different systems (more information). On this wiki we follow the common European standard, the ground floor being floor 0 and the first floor being one floor above ground level. Tibia is restricted to 16 floors, mathematically denoted as -8 ≤ z ≤ 7, with z being the vertical axis in a (x,y,z) Cartesian coordinate system. This means the following:
z | floor name |
---|---|
7 | floor 7 |
6 | floor 6 |
5 | floor 5 |
4 | floor 4 |
3 | floor 3 |
2 | floor 2 |
1 | first floor |
0 | ground floor |
-1 | floor -1 |
-2 | floor -2 |
-3 | floor -3 |
-4 | floor -4 |
-5 | floor -5 |
-6 | floor -6 |
-7 | floor -7 |
-8 | floor -8 |
Articles
Nature of Article Content
This wiki contains information about the MMORPG Tibia. All articles should be directly related to the game Tibia, its content, community, documentation and supported fansites. Any articles NOT matching this criteria will be deleted in accordance with TibiaWiki:Policy. If necessary, articles may contain links to external resources on the world wide web.
Article Accuracy and Reliability
Information added to the wiki should always be true, accurate and complete. False or misleading information added to this wiki may be considered vandalism. Whenever it is possible, citations and references should be included.
Naming Articles
- Title
Page names should always be named similarly as the in-game content they describe, using TibiaWiki's case standards. The article preceding a name must not be present unless it:
- Is part of the name itself, as, A Ghostly Knight; or
- Is a definite article (the), as, The Avenger.
Examples of appropriate titling:
- Sword—omit the initial "A" or "An" (as in A Sword) for almost all page names as it is not part of the name.
- A Ghostly Knight—the article "A" is part of the name, so the article must be preserved.
- The Avenger—the definite article The indicates that this is a unique entity, so we must preserve it.
In cases where users may be confused by names or the TibiaWiki equivalent name, it is always a good idea to create a redirect under the confused page name. For example, one might create a redirect at Avenger to point to The Avenger.
- Case
Page names should always use title case. All words in the page name should have their initial letter capitalized unless they:
- Are an inner word - that is, they are not the first or last word of the name; and
- Are an article, preposition, conjunction or copulae (i.e. words like is, to be, and, for, of, if...); and
- Would not receive capitalization under standard English rules (e.g. Egg of The Many).
A few examples of proper casing is as follows:
- Mutated Rat
- Piece of Hellfire Armor—the preposition of should not be capitalized if it is inner (not the first or last word).
- What Dreams are Made Of (Book)—the first and last words (i.e. not inner) should always be capitalized, even prepositions.
- Egg of The Many—The Many is a unique entity, and receives capitalization under standard English rules.
Article Naming Conflicts
Sometimes multiple items in-game will have the exact same name, even though the items are different in appearance and/or function. In these cases, the article name should be followed by one or two clearly descriptive words in parenthesis. These words should also follow the case-standards of this wiki. For example, there are multiple items called "Voodoo Doll" in-game. This conflict has been resolved in this wiki by naming one of them Voodoo Doll, and the other one Voodoo Doll (King). If one item/object with the same name appears in more than one direction (e.g. one turned north, one east, one south, one west) the image of the one pointing south should be chosen and only one article should be made.
Renaming Articles
If an article is created with an incorrect name, DO NOT copy the content of the article and paste it into an article with the correct name. Instead, "move" the page. This will retain the edit history of the article, and will automatically create a redirect from the old name to the new, correctly named article.
Images and Other Files
Naming Images and Other Files
File names should always follow the same naming conventions as articles. The only exception is the file extension. The file extension should always be lower-case.
Example:
- Image:Warning Icon.png or File:Warning Icon.png -- correct
- Image:My Advancement.JPG or File:My Advancement.JPG -- wrong
Image Formats
Item and Creature Image Formats
Images of items and creatures should always be in GIF format. This allows for transparency and animation. If you are not able to produce an image in GIF format, upload the file (in png) and ask an administrator or experienced user to change it for you.
Screenshot Image Format
Screenshots of game action should always be in JPEG format, and should never be larger than 750 pixels wide. This allows for greater detail with a smaller file size. The width restriction allows the image to be clearly viewable on all computers with 800x600 resolution or better.
Renaming/Moving Images and Other Files
Some time ago there was no built-in facility to "move" an image or other file as can be done with articles. Instead, to rename an incorrectly named image, you had to save the existing image to your computer, and then re-upload it with the correct name. Since the introduction of Mediawiki 1.14.0 it is possible to move images/files and their page like article pages, simply click the move button.
Linking
In every article, there should be links to other TibiaWiki articles that are relevant or related. These links should always give preference to internal TibiaWiki articles, but it may be appropriate to link to an external website at times.
See also: Wikipedia:Help:Link
Linking to Other TibiaWiki Articles
Whenever possible, links should be directed to an existing TibiaWiki article.
Linking to Wikipedia
At times it is appropriate to add a link to an external resource on the web. This wiki has built-in an easy way to link to an article in the on-line encyclopedia "Wikipedia". Simply enter it as a normal internal link, and add "Wikipedia:" before the article name.
Example:
[[Wikipedia:Spear]] will produce this link: Wikipedia:Spear.
Linking to External Web Sites
Before linking to an external website, you should think very hard about it. Any links to inappropriate websites may be considered vandalism.
Link Text
The letter-case of all links in TibiaWiki should always match the context they are in. If the link is in a sentence, then it should be written in sentence-case, if it is part of a title, it should be in title-case, if it is in a bulleted list, it should be title-case, if the link is a proper noun, it should be title-case, etc. Here are a few examples of correct linking:
Example 1:
The Orc Spearmen seem to be a good source for collecting spears.
Example 2:
Standards for Specific Types of Content
Most of the articles on TibiaWiki contain information about a specific item, creature, etc. For usability in other parts of the wiki, and simplified input and editing, these articles use templates that control the structure and appearance of these pages. The following types of articles should always contain only the specified templates. If other information is needed on these articles, it should always be added between <noinclude></noinclude> tags so that it does not inadvertently affect other pages.
Quest Spoiler Standards
Quest spoiling information is allowed on this wiki, but it should always be added in a way that a user will never "accidentally" read it when browsing through articles. This is accomplished in two ways: (1) creating a separate article for the quest -- see the section Quest Article Standards below -- and (2) adding the information to a normal article inside {{JSpoiler}} tags.
Any quest spoiling information that is not marked using one of these two methods will be moved or removed, and may be considered vandalism.
Also note the Transcripts (conversation with NPCs) of the quest should be at the bottom of the spoiler page. The following style is required:
- player name italic and capitalized
- player keyword bold
- NPC name linked once (before the conversation)
Example:
Kevin
Player: hi
Kevin: Greetings Player, what brings you here?
Player: mission
Kevin: You are not a member of our guild yet! <...>
Player: yes
Kevin: Hm, I might consider your proposal, <...>
Quest Article Standards
The Infobox_Quest template must be in all quest pages. Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
Item Article Standards
The Infobox_Item template must be in nearly all items pages. Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
The only exceptions to this are for keys and book texts. Each key and book should have its own generic page (see e.g. Copper Key and Black Book) and then each version of those items should have their own article using a specialized template. For instance, Key 3012 should exist and should use Template:Infobox Key, and Porgol's Strange Behaviour (Book) should exist and use Template:Infobox Book. For those two exceptions, see the corresponding sections below.
Key Article Standards
The Infobox_Key template must be used for all key pages except the generic key page. For example:
- Copper Key - uses Template:Infobox Item
- Key 3012 - uses Template:Infobox Key
Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
Book text Article Standards
The Infobox_Book template must be used for all book text pages. Please visit the template page for usage and explanation. "Book text" refers to books that have text in them. Regular books should use Template:Infobox Item.
Creature Article Standards
The Infobox Creature template must be in all creature pages. Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
Spell Article Standards
The Infobox Spell template must be in all instant spells pages. Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
NPC Article Standards
The Infobox_NPC template must be in all NPCs pages. Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
Building Standards
The Infobox Building template must be used for all in-game buildings (i.e houses, guildhalls etc). Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
Screenshots of houses/guildhalls are preferred with no items on the ground.
Game World Standards
The Infobox World template must be used for all gameworlds. Please visit the template page for usage and explanation.
Deprecated Content
All deprecated content should be categorized as such. The categories Category:Deprecated and Category:Deprecated from Test Server should always be used on pages that are no longer relevant to the game.
Existing items whose obtain method is now deprecated should not be classed as deprecated themselves. For example, Painting of a Muse was only obtainable during Tibia's 15th Anniversary, but they still exist in-game - they are not deprecated. A note, however, should clearly state that they are unobtainable at the present time.
Event items should NOT be categorized as deprecated. Although they may not be in-game right now, they are still scheduled to return and the client files may still contain their data, so they still exist in the game.
There are templates to categorize these automatically, and display a notice to the viewer. Use these templates on the top of all page content so that viewers will read this before the content.
- {{Deprecated-ts}} should be used if they were clearly seen on a test server only. Items which have existed in the live version of the game should not use this.
- {{Deprecated}} should be used in all other cases.
Blocking Users
These standards only apply for administrators or higher. Whenever you block someone try to follow the following guidelines:
Reason: | Duration: |
Inserting nonsense/gibberish into pages | 1 month |
Inserting false information | 3 months |
Vandalism/crude behavior | 6 months |
Vandalism-only account | infinite |
Spamming links to external sites | infinite |