— Editing Conventions — As the Honoverse is full of complex and differentiated terminology, this page offers a number of conventions for creating and editing content. Please try to use these conventions when you create an article, or discuss proposed changes to them on the Talk Page. |
Tempus
Honorverse articles are generally written in past tense because there is no omnivalent present time in the Honorverse from the various readers' point of view. Exceptions are the Real World Articles, which include authors and the source material in the category "Honorverse material", and chronology articles like 20th Century PD, as those are written in present tense no matter when an event occured. Other than that, we write like historians in the future of the Honorverse writing about its past.
Article Naming
Characters
The title of a character article should only consist of the character's first name and last name(s), in that order. Titles, nicknames as well as additional given names should be listed in the header of the article.
Example:
- Honor Harrington >> Lady Dame Honor Stephanie Alexander-Harrington, Steadholder Harrington, Duchess Harrington ...
A character with only one grade, rating and position mentioned in the canon does not necessarily need a separate Service Record section.
Ship Classes
Ship class pages are named <Classname> class but in the text of articles, the class name is italicized with a hyphen between the name and the word "class".
Example:
- [[Agamemnon class|''Agamemnon''-class]] → Agamemnon-class (note that it's two apostrophe's, not a double quote)
When listing multiple class types, the word "class" may be moved to the end of the list, with each class retaining the "-" after it's class name.
Example:
- [[Star Knight class|''Star Knight''-]] and [[Warlord class|''Warlord''-]]class ships... → Star Knight- and Warlord-class ships...
Ship Names
Ships are always listed with their fleet prefix (if known). The most common are HMS (Royal Manticoran Navy), and RHNS or PNS (Republic of Haven Navy/People's Navy). See Ship Prefixes for a detailed list of fleet names. If more than one ship used the same name, include the fleet registry number in the article name, although in articles linking to that ship you may shorten the printed name to hide the registry: [[Prefix Name|Prefix ''Name'']]
Examples:
- [[HMS Unconquered|HMS ''Unconquered'']] → HMS Unconquered
- [[HMS Nike (BC-413)|HMS ''Nike'' (BC-413)]] → HMS Nike (BC-413)
- [[HMS Nike (BC-413)|HMS ''Nike'']] → HMS Nike
Nation nicknames
As our articles should show a certain formality, the nicknames for nationals of a certain star nation should not be used too much. If they are, the link should direct the reader right to the specific star nation: [[Full Star Nation Name|Nickname]]
Examples:
List Pages
When there are a number of related items, it is reasonable to put them all in a single page divided into subsections (for example, ship types). However, redirects should be created for each individual item that redirect to the list page, so that when an item's detail is fleshed out, the detail may replace the redirect page.
Example:
- [[Destroyer]] originally pointed to [[Ship Types#Destroyer]], until a more complete page for Destroyer was ready and replaced the redirect to Ship Types.
Order of battle
The Order of battle section of a Battle article should include a list of tactical units comprising larger unit or entity:
- fleet/task force/task group/squadron (in some cases flotilla, independent division or some unnamed screening element)
- important single ships, if they are not part of any tactical unit
- If there is no separate page for organization of a squadron, a list of ships can temporary be placed in the References.
- When the belligerent possessed only one tactical unit, a list of vessels as order of battle is allowed.
Tactial unit organization
The Organization section of a Fleet/Task Force/Squadron article should include a list of vessels belonging to the squadron as well as, if known, information concerning its divisions.
A Strength section should give simple numbers of vessels of each type in the above units.
Templates
- see: Honorverse:Templates
Redirects
Unlike other wikis such as Wikipedia, we try to avoid links to redirects in our articles, unless the redirect leads to a specific section of a list article. Many redirects result from different spellings of names being given in the canon, and the link should lead lead the reader to the page proper.
References
In order to make the information offered on our Wiki reliable for users, reference templates should be added at the end of a text. For this, we use a link including the title the information comes from, which is shortened into the reference abbreviation in the actual text, and put in parentheses.
Examples:
- ({{HH|1}}) → (HH1)
- ({{SI|1}}) → (SI1)
- ({{CS|1}}) → (CS1)
- ({{Story|A Grand Tour}}) → (HHA1.2: AGT)
- ({{UHH}}) → (UHH)
If all information in an article comes from a single source, it is enough to put the reference tag at the end of the text once. If different sources are used in a text, the tag may be used multiple times. The Honorversebox can help to find the proper abbreviation.
Additional details such as chapter or page numbers can be included to help users and editors look up information quickly.
- ({{HH|2|ch.3}}) → (HH2ch.3)
The <ref></ref>
tags are generally used on this wiki for endnotes with secondary commentary that would not fit in the main paragraph (much like [note]s on Wikipedia), rather than for references proper.