Wiki tips, tricks, guidelines and precedents

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Wiki tips, tricks, guidelines and precedents

Postby jamescfm » Sun Jul 08, 2018 2:28 pm

Below is some advice I have composed based on my experience as a bureaucrat and administrator on the Particracy Wiki. It should be considered more in terms of a thinkpiece rather than as set of rules to be followed and enforced. I may expand upon or edit this document, as I think of other important or helpful information, and if you have any queries or challenges, I'd be happy to hear them.

Style and formatting

When considering matters of formatting, the easiest way to make a decision is to follow the rules of Wikipedia. My overall vision of the Particracy Wiki, which I assume others share, is that it should be an in-game version of Wikipedia. By following the Wikipedia guidlines on matters such as title capitalisation, objectivity, gender neutral language, internal consistency and punctuation, you will be improving the standard of the Wiki immensely. Only in a select few areas should the Wikipedia manual of style be contradicted, notably on the BC/AD system for dates. In Particracy, these terms should not be used and should be replaced with the Christ-free BCE/CE because of the differences in naming and translation.

Articles should always be written in English, the only exceptions are when providing a translation for context, when using a word/phrase which has no suitable translation (e.g. Schadenfreude) or when using a foreign word/phrase which is commonly used in English (e.g. faux pas).
Articles written in non-English languages will be removed or translated (where possible). The national/regional dialect of English is not important, as long as it is consistent within a single article.

WikiProjects

Though a relatively untouched aspect of the Wiki, WikiProjects have the potential to utilise and focus the talents of multiple experienced and talented Wiki contributors. A WikiProject can be seen as a centre of operations for improving and developing articles related to a particular topic (e.g. Kalistan, Music, Politics). At the most basic level, this can simply be a list of pages which have been identified as falling within the project's brief and posting a template on their talk pages. In time, they may serve as a place for people to discuss important topics such as direction and layout of pages.

Writing style

Particracy Wiki requires a particular style of writing. While it is not necessary to provide direct external sources, it is better to base writing on established in-game and forum events whenever possible. All articles should be written in a third-person, objective tone. Opinions should only be expressed when they are being explicitly espoused by in-game characters. Linked to this is an important point on biographical articles, they aren't biographies and shouldn't be written in an overly dramatised, narrative style.

An important concept within Particracy and on the Particracy Wiki is what I have termed "mutual legitimacy". With this, I'm referring to the idea that the legitimacy of any particular piece of role-play is dependent upon it being accepted by other members of the community. On the Wiki, this is especially important since it is often beneficial to add significant detail to in-game or role-play concepts so that a more rounded and realistic view is developed. As a contributors, it's necessary to ensure that you develop or create content in a way that is balanced and fair, not in an attempt to one-up other players or which could be perceived as power-playing. Writing articles in a partisan or biased manner undermines your legitimacy and the legitimacy of the Wiki as a whole.

Out of character writing

Please avoid writing sections of pages which are out-of-character or which "break the fourth wall". If you need to communicate an out-of-character message to other contributors, use the "<!--- *message here* --->" formatting so that it is hidden to viewers of the page. Included in this is putting disclaimers like "WORK IN PROGRESS" or "PLACEHOLDER" on pages. The constantly changing nature of the game means that all pages are works in progress and if you do not have sufficient content to populate a page, don't create it in the first place.

Categories

Categories are one of the Particracy Wiki's weakest areas. There are many superfluous categories (e.g. "Politics of X" and "Government and politics of X") and categories are frequently used inconsistently. The vast number which exist makes it difficult to address the issue properly because each situation. Generally, though, not every article which relates to a country needs to be in the category of that country (i.e. every king of Vanuku doesn't need to be in the Vanuku category). Especially niche or specific categories aren't necessary and the best approach contributors can take is fixing the matter on a page-by-page or category-by-category basis.
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Re: Wiki tips, tricks, guidelines and precedents

Postby Auditorii » Sun Jul 08, 2018 3:36 pm

I should note some of the following as a former bureaucrat and administrator of the wiki, categories are a massive undertaking. It should noted that categories should be integral to the success of organizing the wiki. For instance, it's commonplace to use [[Category:Government and politics of Zardugal]] for all government and political related topics related to the country. My advice to James and what I had started quite sometime ago would be to set specific categories such as the following:

History of XYZ
Government and politics of XYZ
Economy of XYZ
Sessions of the XYZ national legislature
Military of XYZ
Buildings and locations in XYZ
Education and culture in XYZ

Categories are a web and the primary category is: https://particracy.wikia.com/wiki/Categ ... Categories which should be the central focus of all categories and such always tie back into that. The ideal and concept that I had wanted to develop was that all ministries in-game became a central category. For instance Internal Affairs, Defense, etc. Ideally the Main Category should look like this (an example of a web that I made):

Main Category
-- Countries and nations
- History
-- Wars, civil wars and conflicts
- Government and politics
-- Political parties and organizations
-- Political ideologies
- Military and security
-- Intelligence organizations
-- Armed forces
-- Paramilitary organizations
- Economics and finance
- International affairs
-- International organizations
-- Continental and regional organizations
-- Supranational political parties
- Education and Culture
- Science and technology
- Cities
-- Capital districts, cities and territories
Image Dorvik | Image Zardugal | Image Ostland (FBC)
Moderator
-- Particracy Game Rules
-- Moderation Requests
-- Game Information
-- Particracy Discord
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Re: Wiki tips, tricks, guidelines and precedents

Postby jamescfm » Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:46 pm

Flag files

Flags are an aspect of Particracy which change frequently and they can be difficult to manage on the Particracy Wiki as a consequence. Having spoken to some of the other admins and moderators, I am attempting to resolve one of the long-standing issue with flags on the Wiki. Pages such as "Majatrans" among others utilise small flags next to the names of countries as a stylistic feature. The flag featured is intended to be the most up-to-date flag of the nation in question however this means that the image has to change whenever the national flag changes.

As a proposed solution, I am recommending that players use a uniform file naming system when they intend to reference the current flag of a nation, specifically "Flag of Badara.png" in the example of Badara. The impact of this is that a new version of the file can be uploaded when the national flag is changed and there is no need to individually change the file referenced on a vast number of pages. Players wishing to use specific flags, such as in history articles, can simply use files with titles such as "4386 Flag of Badara.png". If anybody has queries about this proposal, please feel free to bring them forward.
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Re: Wiki tips, tricks, guidelines and precedents

Postby jamescfm » Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:13 pm

At least one player has indicated to me that they are confused about the naming of flags. The system described in my previous post has been employed by the Wiki Administration team for several years.

When you are referencing the current flag of a country (e.g. on the page "List of countries"), you should use the file name "Flag of Country.png". When you are referencing the flag of a country during a specific period (e.g. on the page about a historic conflict), you should use a different file name, such as "Flag of the Third Republic of Country.png". Please contact a member of the Wiki Administration team (Auditorii, jamescfm or Polites) if you need any further help with this.
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