TERA Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is a style of editing in order in a correct way that is followed by the community of the TERA Wiki and many other Wikis of the Wikia community alike, and the biggest of all, Wikipedia. The big wall of text which explains every detail can be found in Wikipedia's Manual of Style, but this article will point out the most important aspects for the common editor.

When such speak of style, such will speak of a certain manner done and repeated, meaning that the editor will have to get used to the style of writing while on the TERA Wiki on every single page expect forums, comments, TERA_Wiki (Such as this) pages and userpages to ensure better quality.

If you see an edit that doesn't fulfill these following requirements, don't be scared to correct their edits, and make sure to point out what they've done wrong and how they could correct it by leaving a comment on their userpage in a nice manner.

Before editing
Before you do anything, you need to do something very simple. Please, register. It will give you a unique name, collect all your edits in a log that you can be proud of what you've helped on in the wiki, it will decrease the advertisements you see, AND it'll make the TERA Wiki be less suspicious of you (any random viewer can edit, but a registered one is more trusted). But most of all, it will make you part of us: someone we can be thankful of when you're done editing.

Practice editing
You may use the Sandboxto practice as much as you want! Edit, mess around and play with it like a dummy until you feel confident enough. Simply go to the page and click Edit at the top of the page. Once you move on from that step, you may start editing! But remember, always preview before you make your edits public to see if there's anything out of place.

New and general articles
When writing a new article about a certain topic, always make sure to use the regular style of writing while in a wiki. The beginning of the page will briefly explain who or what the topic is about in a short manner, and then continue on explaining, and include the name of the article at the beginning with bold text. When writing, make sure you speak to the general public as an entity of information. You are writing an encyclopedia, not a blog!

Correct example:

The Scions of Lok (sometimes refereed to as Scions and Lokians) are the followers of the forgotten evil Lok. During the storyline of the game, the Scions of Lok attempt to resurrect Lok into a state a mortal entity again.

False example:

The Lokians are an evil group of villans who will try to revive Lok no matter what! You will see them during the game and they will try to kill you if you are trying to interrupt their plan!! They are sorcerers, warriors, slayers, etc. I don't recommend you to mess with them.

Linking
Linking is a very simple form of redirecting the viewer to a different section of the wiki for more information the viewer might be interested in. If you think a small link is enough, then this will be it.

Elin

Result: Elin

If the section of the page has more information in another location, but in much bigger content, redirect the viewer right below the article header like so:

{details|Elin}

Result:

If the link is not part of the wiki, you'll need to link the viewer with a different link format. The first section is the URL followed by a space and the name that will show. Please use this with care as advertising is not allowed. Use this to link to Wikipedia or other relevant pages. Referencing might be a better idea.

TERA

Result: TERA

Gallery
To add pictures to a gallery, the easiest way is to browse down the page and click "Add picture to this gallery" and Wikia's ease of use interface will assist you. If it's not there, and you're willing to learn, simply make a section:

Gallery
And then add the Gallery section.

==Gallery==

Redirecting
Redirecting is another way of correcting mistypes and different naming of articles. The most simple example is a noun. You don't want to see two articles, one called Elin and another Elins. For that matter, go to the Elins page and create a redirect by replacing all the content with:
 * 1) REDIRECT The direction Link here

Pictures
When adding new pictures to the TERA Wiki, you need to ask yourself two things. 1. Is this picture necessary? 2. What is the licensing of it?

Answer one is a tough one. If a wiki page does not have any pictures, it might require a picture that gives a visual example of what the article is about. It would make a lot of sense to show a picture of a bow, a goblin or a class logo in relevant pages. If there's a page without an images, think deep inside what would be the best visual way to describe it. If you have found an answer, you need to find good quality of that. Simply putting a picture of a screen shot in game that contains everything along your name and menus is not quality! Crop out everything and make sure the only necessary things are in the picture.

The second answer is easier than you might think. Every screen shot inside TERA is copyrighted by Bluehole Studios, En Masse and Frogster. But then comes the question, then why do we get to distribute them? The answer is simple, CC-BY-SA! CC-BY-SA is a license that allows you to share content that's already available to you by forms of media which you've no sort meaning of making profit out of it. TERA Wiki and Wikia itself run under CC-BY-SA and everything you do in it is fully free for a better web of TERA information. When you upload a picture that's related by TERA and made by Bluehole Studios, En Masse or Frogster to the wiki, just select the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. If the picture is made fully by yourself (Editing does not count) then pick the license that you're the owner of the picture.

Like said before, ensure quality when it comes to pictures. Official media is always superior to fan media as it's more accurate and gives a better visual preview of the sort. Meaning such you shouldn't upload a fanart about a Castanic and post it on the Castanic page, this is not the place.

To add a picture to a page, edit a page and find the location you desire and add the following.



This is very user friendly. The first one is the image that's location on the wiki, if it's not on the wiki, you'll get an option to add it by clicking the red text. The second one is the size, it's not necessary (Remove it by erasing it, and the |) but when a picture is too big, you'll need it. Thumb makes a thumb box out of it, giving it a more professional feeling to blocky pictures. Right is a way to change the position of the image, you can either use right, left or center. Comment is just as thought, it's a comment that will show underneath the picture, it will only work if thumb is on.

Videos
Videos are a complicated part, especially when it comes to Wikis related to MMORPGs due to gameplay commentaries. There is nothing wrong with them, but they do not bring the necessary facts. Do not post a video on the TERA Wiki related to regular commentary on YouTube. Even if it's a person playing a Mystic doesn't mean it should be there. That's what YouTube is for, we're not here to link the person there, YouTube is supposed to be the service for itself.

However, that doesn't make all videos irrelevant! Creating a short video of 5~30 seconds with interface off displaying the skill Arise in use the page Arise is the way to go. It's quality, it's relevant specifically to the page, and professional. Posting a 10 minute video of a random Priest playing around is not quality. Another way to link a video is displaying official media. If there's a video related to a certain topic that's on the TERA Wiki, it might be relevant. An example would be the TERA race video series that En Masse has created, you can find them in all the race pages.

To link a video, go to the edit page of a certain page and click add video on the right side.

Trivia
Trivia is a fun topic that keeps people browsing a Wiki for more relevant and interesting information. You may add trivia in almost every page of the TERA Wiki, but you need to ask yourself if it's really necessary. Is it really trivia? If it this, then you probably should. Is it interesting? If it's not, why bother. Does the majority of the community know about this? If they do, it's not trivia. Try your best to give a good reference to prove the viewer about your trivia, the Wiki is famous for not being a place for rumors and speculations, but facts!

To add trivia to a page, simply add a section and a star before your line.

Trivia

 * Elleon's last name is revealed in the Story Trailer of TERA, Kubel. Although may seem incorrect translation as the video was created before the game's release, it is officially revealed by Korean media that his full name is Elleon Kubel.

Writing
Writing style on the TERA Wiki is not a joke. You must write with your best given English skills to ensure better reading by the viewer. However, do not be discouraged — the Wiki is a community! If you've made a mistake, a member of the Wiki will gladly assist you and correct you! You should do so too if you notice an error in a page.

Editing
Once you finish your editing, take your time and fill your editing summary describing what you're edited. If you found it unnecessary, leave it be. Check the minor edit button if you've done a small edit that include grammar fix, line correct or anything that's not big. If it's big, such as rewriting a line or removing content, uncheck it. In that case, you must include information of your edit. Searching for big edits in the history log is more difficult when there's no log.

If you'd like to watch the Wiki even more, visit the Recent Pages for more information about the very last edits done in the wiki. Depending on day and time, you will see an edit popping out every few minutes to hours. Simply click diff (short for difference) to see the full information of the edit. If you've found abuse, no problem! However, if you do notice any, head to the history page and undo it.