Equestripedia:Manual of style

The manual of style is the style guide used by Equestripedia to maintain consistent page structure when editing. If you have any questions regarding the editing techniques on the wiki that aren't gone over in the style, or that you feel aren't explained well, please feel free t contact User:Amelia about it instead.

There are individual guides for specific topics, such as characters, objects, places, etc.

Use of English
For consistency sake, American English is preferred, but a preference is not enforced. My Little Pony as a franchise is very strange in that it's an American property that was huge in Britain and now largely developed in Canada, so we don't really care which dialect you use. Unlike most wikis, we're okay with less-formal English and allow for jokey or sarcastic writing as long as it:
 * Doesn't obscure the facts
 * Contain profane, lewd or bigoted language.

This policy is a bit relaxed on articles for real people since the real-world isn't as G-rated as the show, for better or worse. Some people are far more known for their work on very adult works, such as Jose Gonzalez or Carla Speed McNeil, and some people have done horrible things that greatly affected their careers like Chris Savino, which is information worth noting though not covering extensively.

Perspectives
Articles on Equestripedia can be broken up into three categories, in-universe articles, real-world articles, and topical articles. The differences are the following
 * In-universe (within reason) articles are written for fictional subjects as if they were real things. However, as the show 'breaks the fourth wall', so to will our articles if referencing real-world subject matter improves the quality of writing.
 * Real-world articles are written for real-world subject matter, such as episodes, people, real-world events, etc.
 * Topical articles are a bit more complex. They're written from a real-world perspective about fictional occurrences in the franchise to better illustrate a theme or narrative device in the series. For example, Racism in My Little Pony, recounts racist or bighted themes throughout the franchise, both as attempts by the writers to teach kids of these ideas, and potentially unintentional racism as well.

General naming
Categories can generally be made as long as three pages fit within that category. Please avoid category names that are vague and interpretive.

Category names should be gender-neutral if possible. Gendered titles are of course allowed to have categories, but for others, typically occupational categories, follow this guideline. For example
 * A "Businessmen" category is wrong
 * A "Businesspeople" category is right
 * A "Waitress" category is wrong
 * A 'Waitstaff" category is right

The exception to this rule is the categories for "actors", as the term "actor" has mostly been used as gender neutral in recent years. Some performers do take umbridge with this and we do apologize for any discomfort this may cause but there's not really a unified neutral term for this.

When creating a brand-new category, it should generally be as broad as possible without losing focus of the scope. For example, Category:Caretakers was created to cover babysitters, pet caretakers, daycare workers, orphanage etc. These are three occupations with similar work, but are individually not quite big enough to warrant their own categories. Subcategories can be made when at least three subjects fit that category over the original, sound as Category:Lakes over Category:Bodies of water.

Specific naming
There are specific naming conventions for a variety of categories aside from the ones above, they are:
 * Staff: Actors, writers, animators, musicians, etc,
 * Actors: would receive the "work name"+ "actors"/"voice actors"/"foreign dub voice actors" depending on their type of role. Examples are:
 * Tara Strong, voice actor, receives Category:Friendship is Magic voice actors
 * Vivienne Smith, stage actor, receives Category:Musical actors
 * Crew members: have the same treatment, but with their role in the production, such as "writer", "editor", "director", etc.


 * Places should have location categories. For example, Golden Oak Library has a category denoting its in Ponyville and Ponyville has a category denoting its in Equestria

Images

 * We try to use images from My Little Pony works if possible. That is to say, for in-universe subjects, NO fanart. Artwork produced by staff members but never officially used can also be used, but only under specific circumstances. Fan made vectors can be used for 'Physical appearance' sections if they allow for it.
 * Preferred main images include:
 * For characters: Head/mugshots in neutral lighting. Textless comic covers or officially released art can be considered as well, such as with, Megatron, etc.
 * For places: Establishing shots if possible are preferred. Ones that show off all, or most, of the place. For big places like countries, maps usually work.
 * For staff: We typically prioritize images that have the staff in a context related to My Little Pony media (see: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Ken Jeong for reference). This is not a requirement but it's nice. Generally any image is fine as long as its not covered up or explicit.
 * ALWAYS REMEMBER TO LIST PROPER COPYRIGHT INFO IN YOUR UPLOADS. (Note: Copyright templates are work in progress - should be done by the end of October, 2022)