Comic Vine Wiki Style Guide

@pikahyper: Okay, thanks :)

Also, while I think about it, Superman has Birthright in the Major Story Arcs which is an origin story. Is it okay there or should I move it to the Origin section with a subheading? Until now I assumed it was okay to leave it but I thought it best to check :)

@guttridgeb: well if I remember that mini correctly it has a tweaked/updated origin so I'd say leave it in major story arcs, doesn't hurt anything there.

@guttridgeb: Don't put sub headings in the Origin section please.

@RazzaTazz: @pikahyper: Okay, I thought that was the case but it seemed worth checking while I was on the thread anyway :)

@guttridgeb: I meant that as a general rule, it has never been written down explicitly not to do that, but I don't see a reason why it would ever be necessary except perhaps to differentiate between different ages or versions of the character.

@renchamp: we'll get there, people are already exploiting it so it will be soon

I remember there being talk about this many months ago, but will there be a revised version of the style guide going up? Perhaps I am in the minority, but I think this is a tad outdated. Could use a bit of additions.

@jedixman: eventually

@pikahyper:

Question:

We always used Header 4 when used as a sub-category under Header 2 (Powers and Abilities, etc.). Considering Header 4 is barely noticeable now, should we be using Header 3 instead of Header 4?

@jedixman: stick with the current header scheme, I already put in a bug report to hopefully get some changes on the sizing/emphasis especially for the h4.

All right.

Because I'm not sure where I should ask, I'll try it here...

When I read through some Wiki pages, I noticed some little mistakes like, misspelled words, wrong names (e.g. Barbara Morris instead of Barbara Morse), dead links (when you hover over the link you just get http:// ) and one page was flooded with links. (like EVERY time a character appeared, he got a link, even if a link to that character was already there)

I was itching to edit those pages, but I read somewhere that we should only edit big things and I don't want to appear as a point hoarder >__< It just irritates me if I read a page and see some wrong words and now I don't know what I should do. .___.°

Oh well, can you remember where you read you should only be editing big things? Was it from an official guide or anything? I have read the opposite from several mods. We want the database to be the best, which means spelling, grammar, links, originality, quality of content and information should be top notch, which may then involve lots of pesky minor edits, corrections, fixes and changes.

If your being sincere and trying to make a page look good, you should just go ahead in my opinion, and don't worry about appearing as a points hoarder. Absolutely fix up little errors you see. Then again I am not a moderator or staff member so I take no responsibility for anything bad that might happen to you. 0_0

@emh_bruce: Absolutely, fix everything that you see is wrong.

@razzatazz: Okay, I will =)

If a character has a pet, and that pet really doesn't have enough info for their own page, can I add it to that characters page under their own heading?

So I am a big fan of the wiki aspect of CV having consistency, and I am not sure if this has been addressed before, but we have a lot of real life people who appear in comics where the typical style guide doesn't really apply. I was wondering if we could establish some sort of simple and official format that can cover people like Bruce Lee, Bill Clinton, Albert Einstein, Jimi Hendrix, Neil deGrasse Tyson and the like. Think of the children erm I meant consistency, since a lot of these pages are either stubs or too detailed with no style at all just a wall of text, or include a biography that lacks coherency. Its a bit of a mess really, not that one needs a consistent format to fix those pages up, but I think it would be a good idea to implement.

Maybe as a suggestion something just as simple as

Biography

Give small real life account of person, overview, much like origin except most real life people are birthed rather than having origin stories. Also talking here real life only, no fictional adventures or aspects. They were born, lived as a and died.

Cultural Impact

So if above doesn't make it apparent why they might be noteworthy, like if they just appear as some scientist or martial artists, this part would explain with a bit of knowledge on the person why Albert Einstein and Bruce Lee may not be just your average scientist or martial artist. This person is popularized and known for, appears in this movie or this song or so on. Was Times person of the year or what have you.

Appearances in Comics

The most important part, just reference what comics they may be in, and also include stories where the character deviates from real life and goes on some fantastical adventure only possible through comics. Marvels The Shield for example has many real life historic figures doing fantastical things, and so mentioning that Leonardo da Vinci and Bruce Lee teamed up with Batman to beat Galactus would be explained here. Can cite issue numbers, story arcs, from different companies and so on. Many comic books have been cited as being heavily influenced by many of these people as well so could mention that here too, many comic creators talk about such people's influence as well, could include that too.

Accomplishments

Optional, but basically a short list of any awards, achievements, interesting facts or statistics in a more direct format than possible in Cultural Impact section. Sort of like a real life Powers and Abilities section but only if they warrant it (Nikola Tesla perhaps as opposed to Paris Hilton if I let my bias shine through)

Yey? Nay? Feedback? Opposition? Forget it? Is my dream to remain a dream too crazy for this grounded planet?

@sc: It looks ok, though the headings work well enough under the standard fields for character pages. Have a look at Cleopatra and Marilyn Monroe and let me know what you think.

@pikahyper: I was wondering if you would recommend not linking major character items in the current events tab since that often changes? Like say Mjolnir on Thor's page, if you link it then another person comes along and changes the current events, the item might not get linked again on the page. That's just a minor example but hopefully it made sense. Obviously, arcs, teams, and volumes would always be linked. :]

@xanni15: sounds about right but that is hard to enforce, best we can do really is stick to the "one link instance per object per page" policy.

@pikahyper: All right, thank you. Maybe it could work better on pages nobody really edits or those I can keep an eye on. :]

@xanni15: lot of stuff tends to end up like that on CV

@pikahyper: I do my best to fix it up. ;)

Hope this in the right forum...

How do we change or set the sequence of issues in a story arc in the new ComicVine 3.0? Before, you could just assign sequence numbers to each issue and they would end up sorted and/or in the reading/publishing order. Now it seems there's no way to do that anymore (other than possibly removing each issue and adding them back in manually in the correct order, which would be a nightmare).

@nosoop4u: the order is set automatically by the site based on release cover date

Question:

How often should a character be linked to in an article? Should it only be the first time that character is mentioned, or should it be once every "section" (every H2, H2)?

@jedixman: first time only

@jedixman: oh and if the page is an issue page then things shouldn't be linked in the description as the associations section is preferred.

That I know. I was referring to character / location / team pages and the like.

@jedixman: just thought I'd mention it, better safe then sorry.

While we're in this thread, thought I'd ask:

Any word on an updated style guide?

@jedixman: one isn't really necessary, almost everything is still valid, it just needs a few tweaks I guess for new or removed features.

I've got a question to which I think I know the answer, but I wanted to check.

There is a Grendel novel called Past Prime, written by Greg Rucka. It is heavily illustrated by Matt Wagner, the creator of the Grendel comics--over 80 illustrations in a 200-page novel.

While the illustrations are drawn in a classic Wagner visual style, they are not what I would call comic book pages--they do not have multiple panels, and they illustrate what is happening in the text--they do not tell the story themselves or add information that is not in the text.

However, the novel was published directly by Dark Horse comics, and the story is canon within the rest of the Grendel comic history.

So the question is, would it be OK to add characters to the CV wiki that exist only in this novel?

My assumption is that it is not OK, but I thought I'd ask. There are parts of the story I would add to existing comic characters under an "In Other Media" heading, but I figured the novel shouldn't be added as a comic, and thus the characters that only appear in the novel shouldn't be added either. Is that correct?

Sorry if this is not technically a "style" question, I wasn't sure which thread to use.

@owie: this is the right place for it and you are correct in your assumptions, the book can't be added and neither can the characters unless they have a comic appearance, if any info in that book applies to characters that do have comic appearances then you can add book info to their pages in the Other Media section if you wish.

OK, glad to have that confirmed, thanks.

@owie: np

I apologise if this is the incorrect thread to ask this but I noticed a lot of spelling errors and grammatically incorrect wording in quite a few of the wiki pages I've frequented. I am hoping to contribute to the wiki on this site but I have yet to accumulate any points. From what I understand, I require 1000 wiki points which are given to me (approved?) by the moderators before I can edit any pages without restriction. Would it be okay if I can tackle some of these small mistakes now or is that only allowed for established wiki editors?

Thanks for your time.

@hislolita:

Anyone can edit the wiki pages as long as you follow the rules.

@hislolita: go ahead and fix anything you see wrong, your edits will be moderated and if anything is wrong with them you will receive feedback.

@pikahyper: @takashichea:

Thank you both. It has been driving me crazy so I appreciate the quick responses.

@hislolita: np, happy editing.

Does a character appearing on the cover but not in the issue itself count as an appearance?

<- For example, this issue of Aliens features a Xenomorph Warrior on the cover, but only shows the Xenomorph Bodybuster in the story. So would the cover still count as an appearance for the Warrior?

This cover of Scary Tales on the other hand has a vignette of Countess Von Bludd in the upper left corner, and while her character acted as a narrator in most of Scary Tales, she has no appearance in the issue itself. Does it still count as an issue appearance for her? -->

Shouldn't diseases be listed as Objects instead of Concepts? Things like the Legacy Virus, Hypertaxis, Validus Plague, etc. are listed as concepts, but they are more things than something as broad or abstract as a concept. Should I begin converting things like these listed as concepts into objects/things?

Do characters that appear in a Dream Sequence count as making an appearance in the issue itself?

@deadknight: stick to concepts for diseases and dream sequences shouldn't count unless its like an astral projection kinda thing or the dream sequence is recounting an event.

@pikahyper: Question:

(I haven't read the whole OP cause that was not what I was looking for) How does wiki points work? Does it work so you get one wiki point for each word, or one wiki point for each letter?

@captain_batman_ftw: I forget the ratio but like 1 point per 4 words is the base amount I think but it increases for pages with no or little content.

I was going to try and edit the entries for the Red Panda characters to fit the guidelines, but I had a question. The comics share continuity with the radio series and novels, so much of their info would come from those sources. The comics are set early in the continuity, so a lot of Character Evolution, Major Arcs and such happen after the events of the comics. For example, Harry Kelly, still around 10-11 years old in the comics, went off to war at 17, was given super powers by Canada's Meta Project, and has returned from WWII to become the super hero called the Black Eagle. I wasn't sure if I should base entries off of the entirety of the continuity, or only what has appeared in the comics. Suggestions?