Feminist SF Wiki:Manual of style

We are stylish in a geeky sort of way.

But we are also lazy and overcommitted, and so we currently link not to local styles but to information from Wikipedia about their styles. (See Wikipedia Manual of Style.) We will adopt & modify as we please, when we please.

SF, scifi, SF/F, science fiction and fantasy

Here on the FSFwiki we use the shorthand "SF" to stand for the very broad field encompassing science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, and a large number of related genres with nonrealistic elements (gothic, utopian, mythology, etc.). See SF for more details. The terms "science fiction", "fantasy", and so on, should be used when appropriate only in reference to their specific meaning. In other words, The Left Hand of Darkness is "science fiction" (part of SF), and The Tombs of Atuan is "fantasy" (also part of SF).

Capitalization

• Capitalization will generally follow Wikipedia rules:
  • Only first words of articles & catgories should be capitalized in the title of an article based on an ordinary phrase.
  • Exception: Unless the name is proper, in which case all words are capitalized except conjunctions (and, or); articles (The, A, An), and prepositions four letters or under (over; Above).
  • Exception: Words & phrases that have an official casing should follow that casing, whatever it is. Example: "bell hooks", which is properly all lowercase, should be written in all lowercase. (The Mediawiki software does not permit the first letter in the URL or title of the page to be lowercase, but the text should be correct.)
  • Exception: Follow proper capitalization for original languages. For instance, "La bohème", not "La Boheme".
  • In all cases where capitalization might be confusing to people set up #REDIRECT pages with variant capitalizations.

Tags

We've set up tags. They are typically short and sweet and in ALL CAPS. You can browse through the complete set of tags at Category:TAGS. We do control for synonyms, because unfortunately tags as applied to articles are visible. (In the future there may be a way around this.)

Redirects

Some redirect pages should have the same categories applied to them that the target page does, and some should not. In the future, we hope to have the CSS styling set so that redirects show up in indexes with italics (as they do in wikipedia).

Apply categories: Apply categories to redirect pages that are

• substantially different variant titles of works (e.g., translations), or names (e.g., pseudonyms, alternate names);
• synonyms for a concept;
• combined treatments of concepts, e.g., Parodies and Retellings currently both redirect to Parodies and retellings. Retellings should also include the categories. Parodies probably does not need to include the categories. Zines, Fanzines, and APAs all redirect to Zines, fanzines, and APAs.

The categories should be the same as on the target page. That way, when people are browsing through an index, the variant (redirected) term shows up in the index.

Do not apply categories: Do not apply categories to

• minor variant concepts, names, or titles, e.g., Left Hand of Darkness and The Left Hand of Darkness. Both should be sorted under "Left", and thus they would serve no additional function for the reader. Similarly, "gaslighting" and "gaslight" would both be sorted under "g".
• Redirects of a subject to "List of ..." or vice-versa. Again, in the relevant index, ideally they should be sorted he same anyway.

Translations

• The primary article for a work should use the work's original title in the original language. Redirects may be set up from translated titles to the primary article with the original language name. For example, El Laberinto del Fauno is the original; Pan's Labyrinth redirects to El Laberinto del Fauno.
• If multiple articles or notes are written about a work, the disambiguation page should use its original work, with lists for its translated titles.
• If entries are made that are particular to a particular translation, then the entry should reflect which translation is being used -- the translator's name, date of publication, and other edition information is critical; ISBN is desired where available. The title of the article can use the translated title but should indicate the translation in the title, e.g., "Sexist characterizations in The Barber of Seville (Eng. transl.)". The entry should include a link back to the disambiguation or basic bibliographic page for the original edition.

Categorization

• Category names should be wiki-style, with only proper names capitalized, and otherwise lower-case or First letter only capitalized. In other words, this should be Category:Style guide, not Category:Style Guide. But Category:Star Trek should get double-capped because it is a proper name.
• See FSFwiki:Categorization for details about what kinds of categories to make and maintain.

Pronouns and generic "he"

• Obviously we don't follow the generic "he" rule. Feel free to use "she" as generic, to alternate between he and she, to use s/he or he/she or she/he, or per, singular they, or whatever your preference is. If it's something that's unusual please link to a description of the naming format. (Create one if you have to.) If you are a follower of the generic-he rule, then please link to Generic he/him.
• If there is some nomenclature / pronoun format that is appropriate for that reference, please use that -- i.e., don't apply your own format, if the work or person in question specifically prefers a different style. If Pat Doe wants to be referred to as "per" then don't, please, apply your own favorite terminology of Pat Doe as a "he" or a "she" or a "s/he".

Citing sources

• See Citing sources

Languages

• Contributions are welcome in any language. However, if no reliable editor can read it to verify the content is relevant, and there is some reason to suspect it may be spam, vandalism, or irrelevant, then the content may be temporarily embargoed. If characters do not render correctly, please contact FSFwiki editors, or leave a note on this entry's talk page.
  • Les contributions sont les bienvenues dans n'importe quelle langue. Toutefois, si aucune éditrice fiable ne peut lire le contenu afin de vérifier sa pertinence, et qu'il y a raison de soupçonner que ce contenu soit du spam, du vandalisme, ou non pertinent, nous nous réservons le droit de placer ce contenu sous embargo. Si des caractères ne s'affichent pas correctement, veuillez contacter les éditrices de la FSFwiki, ou laisser une note sur la page de discussion de cet article.
  • Las contribuciones son bienvenidas en cualquier idioma. No obstante, si ningunas fiables editoras puede leer el contenido para verificar su relevance, y hay alguna razón para sospechar que puede ser spam, vandalismo, o irrelevante, entonces el contenido puede ser embargado temporalmente. Si los caracteres que hacen que no sea correcta, póngase en contacto con FSFwiki editoras, o dejar una nota en esta página de discusión.
  • Die Beiträge sind willkommen in jeder beliebigen Sprache. Wenn jedoch keine zuverlässigen Editorin lesen kann es zur Überprüfung der Inhalt relevant ist, und es gibt Grund zu der Annahme, es ist möglicherweise Spam, Vandalismus oder irrelevant, dann wird der Inhalt kann vorübergehend Embargo verhängt. Wenn das Zeichen nicht korrekt wiedergegeben, wenden Sie sich bitte an FSFwiki Redakteurin, oder hinterlassen Sie eine Notiz auf dieser Seite sprechen.
  • 任意の言語での貢献を歓迎します。しかし、信頼性のエディタを使っていない場合は読むことを確認して関連性の高いコンテンツは、容疑者にはいくつかの理由があるかもしれないマークは、破壊行為、または不適合と、 5月に一時的に入力し、禁輸のコンテンツです。文字を正しく表示されていない場合は、ご連絡fsfwikiエディターか、またはこの話をメモを残すページをご覧ください。

Coalition Allophone

Ceci dit, le prérequis étant que vous puissiez lire l'invitation ci-haut, il est entendu que cette Wiki est prédominément anglophone. Les usagères polyglottes sont invitées à élargir le champ (chant) de la Wiki FSF (SFF?) par l'apport d'autres cordes vocales. Il sera cependendant parfois nécessaire de traduire cet apport afin de rassurer les administratrices de la validité du contenu en des langues leur étant étrangères. À cette fin, une coalition de collaboratrices allophones serait utile. Sujet à poursuivre sur la page de discussion.

Tagging

Please tag any and all articles with the appropriate language tag. These tags will typically be ALL CAPS three-character renderings of a language, in that language. For example, Category:ENG for English-language articles; Category:DEU for German (Deutsch).

Unfortunately we do not yet have the system configured to permit non-Arabic characters for category names. Thus, Japanese would be rendered in Arabic characters, e.g., Category:NIH (Japanese, Nihongo).

• ご任意のタグとすべての記事を、該当する[ [ ：作成カテゴリ：言語タグ|言語タグ] ]です。これらのタグは典型的には3つの文字をすべて大文字には言語のレンダリングは、その言語にします。たとえば、 [ [ ：カテゴリ：英] ]の英語の言語の記事; [ [ ：カテゴリ： deu ] ]はドイツ語（ Deutsch ）です。残念ながら、まだ我々は、システム構成を許可するアラビア語以外の文字を作成カテゴリ名を表示します。したがって、日本のアラビア語の文字がレンダリングさ、例えば、 [[：カテゴリ：保健院] ] （日本語、日本語）です。

In-page translations

Where it is important within a page to include a translation of some text, and for whatever reason the entire page cannot yet be translated, please feel free to include translations below the original text, in whatever manner appears best. Here we have placed the text below in bullets.

Regional and dialect variations

Any regional or dialect variation of a language is acceptable. (See Wikipedia Manual of Style, National varieties of English.) So, grammar, spelling, and punctuation with regional variations are acceptable. Wikipedia's policy here seems good, with the sole exception that it is English-specific. To summarize:

• If there is a good reason for an article to adopt a particular regional variant -- for instance, Mary Shelley, who was basically an English citizen who spent most of her life in England and wrote, herself, with English variations -- should utilise English punctuation (e.g., if a partial quote that is not a sentence itself, occurs at the end of a sentence, then the period or comma is placed outside the quotes). Similarly for spelling and grammar variations.
• If there is no good reason to pick one version over another based on the substance of the article, or if several versions would work, then the first one used in the article should be applied consistently.
• Whatever regional variation is used should be applied consistently throughout the article.

Useful links

• Wikipedia Manual of Style