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Editing Guidelines

In order to provide a consistent structure, and layout throughout the Wiki, I would like to suggest the following naming conventions and editing guidelines:

Pagenames

  • Middle-earth related pagenames that contain of more than 2 words (e.g. "Kingdom under the Mountain", "Battle of Dagorlad", etc.) should be created with blank spaces between the words (by using the double underscore "__" or double curly brackets "{{" and "}}" for this). A preceding "The" should be omitted unless it is a book-title where the "The" is actually part of the title (or else we would find about 30% of the pages in the Index or the Folders under "T").
  • Pages with names of persons (e.g. Christopher Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins) should also be created with the blank spaces between the words, titles that go with names should not be included in the pagename (King Elessar rather than KingElessar).
  • All other pages should be created with WikiNames? (DimrillStair rather than Dimrill__Stair or Dimrill-Stair).
  • Hyphen-separated pagenames should only be used where Tolkien used it and in the same way (e.g. Middle-earth not Middle-Earth or MiddleEarth).
  • Apostrophs should be omitted: IsildursBane (rather than Isildur'sBane or Isildur__s__Bane).
  • Proper spelling of names (as JrrT or ChT used it in the books) should be used for the pagenames (e.g. Middle-earth not Middle-Earth or MiddleEarth, Númenor not Numenor, Nazgûl not Nazgul, etc.; please no all caps either).

Folders
Pages are categorized (placed into the appropriate folder) by adding the foldername(s), which the page belongs to, at the bottom of the page (beneath the last ruler). There should be at least one folder which represents the general Wiki section the page belongs to:

  • FolderCompendium
  • FolderBooks
  • FolderAuthors
  • FolderEssays
  • FolderFAQ
and in many cases one or more sub-sections, e.g. in FolderBooks:

  • FolderTolkienBooks (for books written by Tolkien)
or for entries the FolderCompendium:

  • FolderCharacters (and the sub-sub-sections FolderElves, FolderDúnedain, etc.)
  • FolderLocations (and the sub-sub-sections FolderMountains, FolderRivers, etc.)
so that a page is categorized into all matching folders.


Books
There exist 2 book-templates in the Templates page, one for TolkienBooks (Templates/TolkienBook) anotherone for all other books (Templates/Book). You just have to open the template (preferrably in a new browser-window, click "Edit", copy the contents, paste it into the new page and insert author, title, etc. and eventually add a brief description and comments. I suggest that we sign our personal comments (according to the system widely used on all kinds of Wikis) like this : -- Walter.


Redirections
For pages which are redirected AND supposed to appear in the FolderCompendium, it would be necessary to add the appropriate foldername at the bottom of the "alias-page".

Example: if you would like to create an "alias-page" for Olórin that redirects to Gandalf AND lists Olórin in the Compendium Folder you should add 4 lines (without the "linex:"):

  line1:#REDIRECT Gandalf
  line2:
  line3:----
  line4:FolderCompendium


Essays and Summaries
For the moment only one section is provided for Essays and Summaries, we might have to them into two sections lateron. I would suggest that in the Essays or Summaries we stick to the factual information given in the books and avoid a classification or separation into canonical/non-canonical works(even if that means some discrepancy or contradiction, especially since Tolkien's works are not free of those). If necessary a "Comments (and/or Discussion)" section can be provided at the bottom of a page.

Also quotations from the books should be kept to the necessary minimum, excessive quoting will make the pages harder to read and not necessarily enhance the quality of the essay/summary.


Conclusion

All the points above are - of course (according to the democratic nature of the Wiki) - subject to discussion and - if necessary - changes will be made as seen fit. -- Walter


Comments

Well it's been some months since I originally made this page and maybe some things could/should be reconsidered by now. Care to explain what you'd like to see changed, Lhun? -- Walter

I'll take advantage of this old question to sugegst we should already separate Essays from Sunnaries.I could have done it, but I forgot how to create a folder :-0

Also, not being sure whether this is the place for this, I would like to suggest that every essay, summary, lecture... any kind of longer entry should have identical construction of the page, following the example of Christopher Tolkien, namely:

xthe actual exposition (the essay, sumamry etc.), which can be subdivided (if the author wishes it) into subsections, according to the main parts of this exposition and accordingly arranged using the CdmlToc option;
x section "Notes" - where the author can give some additional brief explanations on certain facts in the writing;
x section "Comments" - where others may post their opinions on the material submitted, object, agree, ask questions etc.

Well? What do you say? --LR

I'm all for it! In fact I've been trying to maintain such a structure for the pages I edited in the past months... -- Walter


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(C) The Tolkien Wiki Community Page last changed: January 18, 2004