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Summary

The Manual of Style is the style manual for all R2DA Wikia articles. It describes the guidelines that should be followed when there is doubt or disagreement about which style to follow in articles. The style manual also gives useful information and advice on article formatting and templates.

Basic Principles

This style aims to provide consistency and standardisation across all articles across the R2DA Wikia. This style also aims to resolve editorial conflicts based on grammar, vocabulary and spelling. This is not the general style to be used on a casual basis (like commenting); this is only meant for the main articles of the R2DA Wikia (pages such as the M249, Coconut Split Stadium and Vitamins).

Style

All articles should be written in British English. This applies to the spelling of words (centre not center) and grammar of sentences (burnt not burned). The only exceptions to this rule are armor not armour and Deadvelopment Center. Vocabulary difference (such as fuel tank and gas tank) can be excused.

If you are confused to the wikitext that actually makes up an article on the wikia, see help regarding wikitext.

Punctuation

  • Avoid comma splices. That is, independent clauses should be separated by a semicolon, a full stop (period) or a colon, but not by a comma:
    Correct: Stevenson's romances are entertaining; they are full of exciting adventures.
    Incorrect: Stevenson's romances are entertaining, they are full of exciting adventures.
  • For simplicity reasons, the Oxford Comma is generally not used.
    Correct: France, England, Denmark and Spain.
    Incorrect: France, England, Denmark, and Spain.
  • Avoid using ampersand (&) within the main section of the article. Ampersand may be used within the infobox.
  • Only use straight apostrophes (') not curled ones (’).
    Familiarise yourself with using apostrophes. A good example of knowing when to use apostrophes is its and it's.
  • Brackets/parenthesis must require the correct terminal ending if they are at the end of a setence.
    Correct: (This is correct.)
    Correct: This is correct (maybe).
    Incorrect: (This is incorrect).
    Incorrect: This is incorrect (maybe.)
  • A suspenseful ending to a sentence may have an ellipses (...). An abrupt ending should use the em dash (—) but due to certain stylistic choices, the hyphen (-) can be used.
    • Do not use ellipses at the start of a sentence.
  • Whenever a dash is need to represent "to" in an infobox, a em dash (—) must be used (v0.0.1 — v0.0.2).
  • In normal writing, exclamation marks (!) and question marks (?) are typically not favoured as terminal endings.
    They should only be used in Background Story sections.
    They can sometimes be used rhetorically in the Summary section of the article.
  • Whenever a name with a terminal ending ends a sentence (like Frosty Jr.), do not repeat the terminal ending.
    Correct: This boss is Frosty Jr.
    Incorrect: This boss is Frosty Jr..

Numbers, Dates and Currencies

  • Within the main section of the article, all numbers up to ten must generally be written out in text format, not the number (for example: one, two, three, ..., nine, 10 not 1, 2, 3, ..., 9, 10).
  • All notation of currency comes after the number (for example: 3,000$, 400R$, 999T$).
    Robux can be shortened to R$ in infoboxes and Tickets can be shortened to T$ in the Updates section of the article.
  • In general, you should use the longhand date format (for example April 1(st) 2020 or April 1(st), 2020).
    Whenever shorthand date format is used (such as Twitter Redeem Codes), it must be in European Date Format (DD/MM/(YY)YY).
  • Numbers should be formatted with a comma as the thousands separator, for digit grouping, and a period as the decimal separator.
  • Except on the Version History, the updates section of Event pages and the R2DA 100th Version Celebration pages, versions of R2DA must be written as v[Number]. For example: v0.0.7, v0.6.9, v1.0.0.
    There must be periods separating the numbers and no period at the end of the number, except at the end of sentences.
  • Sometimes, when relevant, mathematical equations are written in LaTeX. An example of this can be found on the Ranks page.
  • 24-hour format is preferred over 12-hour format (16:00 not 4pm).
  • All units of length are in studs. All units of speed are in studs/second. All units of time are either in seconds or minutes (for example: Swing Rate is in seconds, RPM is in minutes). All health and damaged units are HP (though this is mostly stated throughout the article). All cash units are in $, R$ or Tickets (T$) but these are normally explicitly stated. Other units (such as EXP and Fame) are explicitly stated throughout the article.

Writing and Formatting

  • Profanity (including light profanity) may not be allowed in articles. Exception to light profanity includes quotes and offsite links (such as to YouTube).
    Profanity that break the rules will be punished accordingly.
    The use of light profanity (shit, hell, damn etc.) in articles is not punishable in the rules.
  • Contractions are generally avoided (for example, cannot instead of can't).
  • Write ROBLOX instead of Roblox.
  • Use italics for brand names/games outside of R2DA, excluding ROBLOX. For example: Call of Duty, Tower Defense Simulator and CS:GO.
    Formal or previous names for an item must be written within in italics unless they are in the Updates section. For example, in the case of the Panama Beach, its previous name was Tropical Trouble.
  • Except in the case of certain people, articles should be written in a gender-neutral way (they, their, it).
    In the cases of mobs with a clear gender, gender pronouns can be used. For example: King Crab and King Cherrycake can be referred to in the male pronoun while Ducky and Sam can be referred to in the female pronoun.
  • Every time the name of the article is repeated, the name must be Bolded.
  • If a hyperlink to a page on this wikia or another site is available, then it can generally be repeated for every instance.
  • All pages require __NOTOC__ at the bottom of the page. This removes the Table of Contents.
    This is mostly used a space in articles (for example, between the Trivia, Underarching Notices and NavBox).
  • If the developer of an item is mentioned, it should be their most current name. If a different name is credited (for example, in the map infobox), their current name must be stated first followed by: as Italic Credited Name.

Grammar

  • Updates should be referred with the preposition in or at, not on.
  • On is generally favoured over off of.
    Correct: This weapon is based on a real-life counterpart.
    Incorrect: This weapon is based off of a real-life counterpart.
  • Proper Nouns should always be capitalised. This may refer to anything in R2DA, such as Items, Weapons, Maps, etc.
  • When using et cetera, it is mostly fine to shorten it to etc. Do not repeat the terminal ending if etc. ends a sentence. For lists, etc. counts as its own item, so must be preceded with a comma.
    Correct: United States, Canada, Mexico, etc.
    Incorrect: United States, Canada, Mexico etc.
    Incorrect: United States, Canada, Mexico and etc.

Article structure and titles

This section describes how articles should be structured and section titles formatted.

Article Structure

If an article has an overarching notice, this is placed at the top of the page. Normally comes the infobox, then the main structure of the page. If there is a Navigation Box associated with the page, then this is placed at the bottom of the page.

Elements of an article should almost always be ordered in this manner:

  1. Tabs (for Maps only)
  2. Overarching Notices
  3. Infoboxes
  4. Quotes (only applies to Weapons, Items, Armors, Attachments, Maps and Mobs)
  5. Walther's Notes (only for Playable Mobs)
  6. Summary
  7. Background Story (only applies to Weapons, Items, Armors, Attachments, Maps and Mobs)
  8. Controls (mostly for playable Mobs)
  9. Design (Maps only)
  10. Pros and Cons (non-removed Weapons and Armors only)
    • They must only be ones found in InfiniteBread's Pros and Cons Guide.
  11. Tips
  12. Trivia
  13. Underarching Notices
    • A collapsible Updates section can be added, so long there are relevant updates to the original version of the item in question (this only applies to Weapons, Items, Armors and Attachments).
  14. Navigation Box

Titles

Titles (and infobox titles) are normally written in title case (Return of the Yeti), not sentence case (Return of the yeti) or proper case (Return Of The Yeti). Only the first letter of a major word should be capitalised, unless specifically spelt otherwise in-game (such as the UTAH-23).

All header titles must be Bolded.

Tabs

This only applies to Maps pages. If the page is a map page, then the tabs is used to link the main article and the map gallery. The template must link to the corresponding gallery.

Map Tabs:

Gallery Tabs:

Overarching Notices

These are important notices that are displayed on the top of the page. They are mostly templates that use the noticebox. The mains ones are:

Infoboxes

This is where the main bulk of the summary information is. If necessary, shortened words are used. If you plan on editing an infobox, familiarise yourself with the keyvalues on the infobox. There are a wide variety of templates. Make sure you are using the correct template for the correct page.

An infobox should contain a <tabber> section for an overview image, 3D image (where applicable), an in-game image etc. If there is only one accompanying image, then <tabber> should not be used. An example can be seen below.

{{RangedWeapon
|image1=<tabber>
|-|2D view = [[File:Filename.png|300px]]
|-|3D view = [[File:Filename.gif|300px]]
|-|In-Game = [[File:Filename.png|300px]]
</tabber>
}}
{{QuoteBox|Text|Name}}

The Added In section should have the version number in which the item was added. If it says Obtainable During (or equivalent) then it should list the starting version number in which it was made obtainable and the version number when it was made unobtainable. This must not be listed under Removed In as this implies that anyone with item no longer has it. If the item is still able to be gotten then Present is used. For certain items, (normally items that come out from Gifts) Obtainable During may predate Added In.

The picture used for the overview picture should include the relevant template from the Templates. Maps, Gamemodes, Vehicles and Skins follow a different style of overview picture.

For Attachments, the price of the attachment must be stated. If the attachment is removed, that also must be stated unless the associated item is also removed.

When skins are displayed in the infobox, they must be stated in the following order:

Any audio in the infobox must be in .ogg file format as this is the only music file that the wiki recognises.

Quotes

Next, a quotebox is applied to the page, if it is relevant. The template for this is Template:Quotebox. If a quotebox is present on the page, then it must not be edited.

Note: quotes do not need to follow stylistic rules laid out here. Additionally, makes sure there is not gap between the infobox and the quotebox. For example:

{{RangedWeapon
|image1=
}}
{{QuoteBox|Text|Name}}

Not:

{{RangedWeapon
|image1=
}}

{{QuoteBox|Text|Name}}

Walther's Notes

This section is only applied to playable zombies such as the Normal Zombie and Brute. This section must not be edited and can only be created by those with the storyteller tag.

Summary

This is where the summation of the main article takes place. It does not need to be excessively long. Almost all articles need to have a sufficient summary.

Background Story

If a background story is present on a page that should have a background story, then it should be left unedited, except for any errors.

A background story should be a fictional anecdote about the article in question. It should not represent ROBLOX users unless absolutely necessary (for example PlaceRebuilder should not be mentioned in any story, except for that of the FATAL6). Weapon Manufacturers are often mentioned in stories. Any background story should have no continuity errors with other background stories.

Background stories can be written in third person or a first person account. Most of the time, third person accounts are written.

Controls

This section is normally used for playable mobs such as the Normal Zombie. It can appear on other pages such as the Hammer.

Normally this section is in the format of a table. Controls are presented in an image format for PC, Gamepad and Tablet.

Design

For Maps, this part goes in depth about the build of a map. It should be factual and be clear in direction (for example, moving from left to right). Cardinal directions (North, South, East, West) can be used in describing a map, though the standard must be stated (for example, the ship's bow is facing in the North direction. Hence to the South...). Sometimes, a Developer Note may be included, which must ONLY be written by the Developer of the map.

Pros and Cons

Only applies to non-removed Weapons and Armors. This section must be in two separated sections. They must also be colour co-ordinated, Green for Pros, Red for Cons.

Pros and Cons MUST be from the following lists:

Neutral points can be ignored. Any point not on these lists must be disregarded. Proper capitalisation, listing and spacing must be used when adding Pros and Cons. If there is no Pros or Cons None must be stated.

Tips

In most pages, this section is where you recommend points to the reader. They must be serious notes, no sarcastic points. All points should be properly worded and should be written in second person (You not I or They). If another point is similar to another point, indentation can be used. Points must not be repeated. Factual statistics can also be included here, unless they are trivial points.

Trivia

This is the section where factual points go, if they don't fit elsewhere. This must be written in third person. In this section, real-life trivial points should be limited to bare facts (for example only a few real-life trivial points for the HK416 should be included, not the entire English Wikipedia page). Additionally, do not add any non-unique points past a certain number (for example, stating that the MP5 was the first weapon added is fine but stating that the DB Shotgun was the fifth weapon added is not necessary).

Updates

This is where updates to the original version of the item in question are placed (only applies to Weapons, Items, Armors and Attachments). This must be collapsible and in chronological order. Negative points (nerfs) should be in Red, positive points (buffs) should be in Green and neutral points should be in Orange.

This section should not include bug fixes. That should be included in the main trivia section.

Underarching Notices

This mainly includes articles with the same name or appearance to the item in question. A __NOTOC__ should separate this from the trivia section. For example:

*Last Trivia Point

__NOTOC__

{{Notice}}

Navigation Box

This is the last item included in an article. It must be relevant to the page. If there are multiple NavBoxes (such as for the Parasol) the most relevant one should be displayed. A __NOTOC__ should separate this from the trivia section or notice. For example:

*Last Trivia Point

__NOTOC__

{{Notice}}

__NOTOC__

{{NavBox}}

or

*Last Trivia Point

__NOTOC__

{{NavBox}}

Other

  • Articles should not be created unless with permission from a wikia moderator.
  • Categorisation pages and certain other pages (such as Skins and Skincrate) follow different rules in terms of article structure. You must follow the structure already set out by the page in question.
  • Skins pages may have a gallery (in terms of a table) at the bottom of their pages if there are multiple weapons available for that skin. No other pages should have a gallery within their article.
  • Use redirects as sparingly as possible. An example of a necessary redirect is Pills.
    Redirects should only be created if there are a sufficient amount of people searching for an article that is the same as another article.
  • All pages must have at least one relevant category. Avoid creating categories with a few items in them or irrelevant categories.
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