These guidelines apply to any articles created on the Lost Media Wiki, and should be followed as closely as possible, to ensure a consistent, professional database.
-Article Title: Your article title should use capitalisation where appropriate. It should also give a brief description of what the piece of media is, as well as the year (or time frame) in which it was produced [eg. Mickey Mouse in Vietnam (1968 Underground Anti-War Short)].
-Paragraphs: Please break your article up into paragraphs, especially when dealing with more content-heavy articles. Too big a build up of text can be hard on the eyes, and could even discourage some from reading said article.
-Subheadings: Subheadings should only be used in articles of significant length. Compare The Columbine Killers' 3 Unreleased "Basement Tapes" (Recorded in 1999) and Pinwheel "Clock Man" Short (1970s/1980s Stop-Motion Animation; Existence Unconfirmed) articles for an example of the appropriate article length to warrant a subheading (or, in rare cases, multiple subheadings).
-Spell Checking: It should go without saying, but PLEASE spell check your articles before publishing them.
-Bold, Italics and Quotation Marks: The only piece of text that should be bold in any article is the title of the piece of media, as mentioned in the article heading [eg. the only thing bold in the Mickey Mouse in Vietnam (1968 Underground Anti-War Short) article is Mickey Mouse in Vietnam. You'll notice that it is also italicised; this is because it is the title of a production, and as such, should be italicised. Band names should be left as regular text, while song titles should use quotation marks, and albums, like all other productions, should be italicised [eg. HORSE the Band's "The Phantom Zone" from Ghost EP]. Similar formatting applies to episodes of TV shows [eg. the Aqua Teen Hunger Force "Boston" episode].
-Referencing: References should be made using the ref tag, and should be placed in the appropriate position, ie. the end of the paragraph/sentence/phrase that the information was used in. For example, here is an excerpt of code from the Mickey Mouse in Vietnam article, (purposefully broken with full stops to allow it to display as code, and not actually be implemented):
- In a recent buzzfeed.com interview, co-creator Milton Glaser gave his thoughts on the short's rediscovery.<r.ef>[ht.tp://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/rare-1968-anti-war-short-mickey-mouse-in-vietnam-resurfaces June 20, 2013 buzzfeed.com article including an interview with Milton Glaser.] Retrieved 30 Jun '13.</r.ef>
Additionally, in order for the reference to display properly, <refe.rences/> (without the full stop) should be placed at the end of the article, preferably under a References heading.
Here's how it displays when properly implemented:
- In a recent buzzfeed.com interview, co-creator Milton Glaser gave his thoughts on the short's rediscovery.[1]
-Hyperlinking: The only time hyperlinks (ie. non-reference hyperlinks) should be used in an article is when linking to another Lost Media Wiki page.
Hopefully that has cleared up any confusion regarding article formatting. Thanks guys :)