The Arrowverse Wiki aims to keep a consistent voice across all of its pages and so utilizes a Manual of Style to encourage this. It directs how to style articles in such a way that every page is stylistically the same and readers are met with coherent and concise language coupled with an easy-to-read interface.
Layout
General
For most articles, the following format should be used, though there are more specific examples below:
- Infobox
- Quote (if applicable)
- Introduction
- Main sections
- Trivia
- Behind the scenes
- References
- External links
Character
|
Episode
|
Comic book chapter/Book
|
Television/Web series
|
Comic book series
|
Naming articles
Naming articles, we aim for accuracy, but also conciseness. This helps to maintain a reliable and efficient encyclopedia for the Arrowverse.
General
Deciding how to title a page comes down to basic grammar. If the title itself does not include any proper nouns, then the words should all be in lowercase (bar the first one, as this is a database requirement). Similarly, if any of the words are proper nouns (for example the name of an episode, a person, or even an in-universe product which has an uppercase title), they should be named as such in the title. Often it may be difficult to tell whether a page should have uppercase letters. If it is ambiguous, simply go with a lowercase. If this is erroneous and there is in fact a definite answer, another user will come along to fix the mistake.
Specific page types
Characters
Characters are to be named with their real names, if given. If not, any alter egos or alternate names should be used (the most common one taking precedence). In the event that a name is not given, their occupation or title might be used.
Parantheses after the name may help to differentiate an identically-titled page. In order of what should be used, this may include occupation, episode or actor.
Finally, appointed titles or ranks should not be included in page titles. For example, "Sergeant John Diggle" would simply be "John Diggle".
Media
Episodes should be titled exactly as they are officially released in press releases. While they might be given a shortened nickname, the full title should be used. In the event that another series shares the title, the two should be renamed to included parantheses after their titles with the respective show in each. On the rare occasion that a series shares multiple episodes with the same name, the series' title along with the season should be included in the parantheses.
The same for episodes applies for comic book chapters, with the series going in parantheses if multiple series share chapter names.
Earth-specific distinction
With multiple Earths in the shared multiverse, it is often necessary that we distinguish between multiple versions of a location or character.
- With characters, the majorly recurring or main version will take central precedence, with any other versions using the specific Earth in parantheses. If another version becomes central, then neither can take precedence and should both be followed by parantheses.
- Locations follow suit with characters.
- Species are perhaps one of the few types of pages which do not require separation into their own pages.
Perspective
In-universe
Pages that pertain to topics that are in-universe must be treated as such, as if one were actually within the Arrowverse. This will typically refer to characters, locations, objects, etc.
In-universe articles should be written without reference to behind the scenes. These sort of articles are written as if one were within the actual universe and detailing the events and surrounds of the world in an encyclopedic format. The few exceptions to this rule are the "Behind the scenes" section, as well as a few sections within any infoboxes used.
Out-of-universe
"Out-of-universe" refers to things that belong to the real world, rather than the Arrowverse. This generally refers to episodes, comics, cast and crew. They are written from our own perspective as viewers of the universe, acknowledging that the Arrowverse is fictional.
Spelling
While we understand that many users and readers of the Arrowverse Wiki may speak (and thus spell with) many different varieties of English, we prefer to use American English as a standard for spelling, grammar, punctuation and word usage. This is largely due to the fact that the Arrowverse is an American franchise, and its primary written sources make use of this form of English, as well as the fact that many of our users hail from the United States of America. While you won't be reprimanded for spelling something with other forms of English, it will be discouraged that you change already Americanized spellings to others.
In the event that a convention used in an alternate form of English is used in a piece of media or an outside quote, it must be preserved as such. While this in theory goes against the American standardization, it is preferable to use a direct quotation rather than one that has been corrected, for accuracy's sake.
Citation
While in many cases it is okay to not cite things, as they're second nature, smaller details are expected to be cited, be it from Arrowverse media or outside sources such as websites. To do this, the <ref></ref> tags are used. In order to repeat the citation on another piece of information, a name can be used within the first ref tag.
It is also important to note that future content should be cited. Things within the Arrowverse are not always the same as those in the comics multiverse, so it is important that we are certain of facts.
Format
- Episodes use the
{{Ep}}template, eg.{{Ep|Honor Thy Father}}
- For episode pages which have a series in parantheses, the
|page=value is used, eg.{{Ep|Pilot|page=Pilot (Arrow)}}
- For episode pages which have a series in parantheses, the
- Comics are cited within quotation marks, eg.
"[[Sins of the Father]]" - Books are cited using italics, eg.
''[[Arrow: Vengeance]]''