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Style guidelines

Xensyria March 12, 2011 User blog:Xensyria

I've been thinking about the format or style that we use (some of the points are raised on the Main Talk page), especially those unique to our wiki, but also those that apply to all fan wikis.

As a result, I've come up with a few ideas that I'm thinking of making into a style guide: please reply with anything else you'd like to see or would like changed/removed! The following are a few style guidelines for articles here in the Matrix Wiki, and should be followed unless there is good reason to ignore them.

These aren't set in stone however, and while this page is protected against vandalism, use the talk page to discuss any point you would like to see added, removed or changed.

DraftEdit

The following are a few style guidelines for articles here in the Matrix Wiki, and should be followed unless there is good reason to ignore them.

These aren't set in stone however, and while this page is protected against vandalism, use the talk page to discuss any point you would like to see added, removed or changed.

In general we try to follow the style of other similar wikis and Wikipedia, but there are some specific points that need clarifying:

RealityEdit

"What is Real? How do you define Real?"
Morpheus [src]

In-universe articles (that is, all articles other than those tagged in Category:Real-world articles) should be written from the point of view of the Matrix universe as if it is real, and not alluding to real-life things like actors or the films that characters are in.

Specific sections are an exception (e.g. Trivia and Appearances, including those in infoboxes), which are the only places such things are to be kept; the rest of the article should be written without reference to our world.

HistoryEdit

Articles should be written as if we are documenting the history of the Matrix universe, like most other fan wikis do for theirs. This means that everything is written in the past tense. For example, instead of writing "Character X is a Zion operative", write "Character X was a Zion operative", and continue to write their history in the past tense.

The exception to this is for plot summaries, which should be written in the present tense, following the action of the story. These sections are only relevant in the real-world articles on the films, Animatrix, comics and games.

It does also apply, however, to works (such as the films) in the real-world Matrix series, whose history we are also recording.

"The" capitalsEdit

"Man, what a bunch of egomaniacs"
―Bluepill [src]

As many things in the Matrix series have names prefixed by the word "The", a standard is needed for whether or not to include this word when referring to them, and when relevant, whether to capitalise the spelling or not.

When unique characters have it in their name (such as The Oracle, The Architect etc.) should have "The" with an initial capital, as it is part of their name, not simply a "definite article" before their job description.

Places, however, should be lower case (unless it starts a sentence of course), following "the Matrix" which is used to help distinguish it from the first film: "The Matrix".

Italics vs. quotation marksEdit

Titles of works in the Matrix series should either be in italics or have "quotation marks" surrounding them. The difference is whether it constitutes a major or minor work, and as there are are only a few works in the series, the guideline is as follows:

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