Bonus Stage:Standards
From Bonus Stage
This page describes the standards currently accepted for page formatting and composition by the wiki community. Please try to follow these standards when creating and editing pages.
Contents |
General
Always use the summary box
When editing pages, always fill in the "summary" box above the save/preview buttons before saving, and make sure that you fill it in with something useful describing the edit you made and, if it's not obvious, why. For example, "fixed spelling error" or "added fun fact" or "reverted from troll" are all acceptable. Saying "made some changes" or just filling in the name of the page is not helpful, because it's information that we already have. Making your summaries accurate and useful makes it vastly easier for the rest of us to keep track of Recent Changes and keeps everybody happy.
Check the minor edit box
As a corollary to the above, if you're making a minor edit (e.g. fixing a spelling error or tweaking formatting), check the "This is a minor edit" box below the summary box before saving the page. Again, this will make things easier for the rest of us.
Don't link to the current page
In other words, a page should not link to itself. If you're bored, check out the Maintenance page for a list of pages which link to themselves and delete some self links. (Note that most of the pages listed there are actually just stubs with a link to edit the current page. This variety of self-link is OK but feel free to expand upon these articles and remove the stub tag.)
Link once
A given page should only contain one link to any other page. If a page links to Phil in one place, then that should be the only link to Phil on that page. Typically this link should be the first instance of the term in the article.
Don't use controversial style
This is an information site. It should read like Wikipedia, not like your diary.
- Check your spelling and grammar. Don't use internet slang (ex. "How r u?" or "c u 2nite"). If you're not 100% sure about the way a word is spelled, type it into Google or Dictionary.com. If you know that you're not the strongest speller, compose your edits in a word processor like Microsoft Word that has spell-checking built in.
- Easter Eggs and Fun Facts should be written as statements, not questions. If you're not sure about a fun fact, use language like "may" or "could be" to indicate ambiguity; don't phrase your fun fact as a question.
- Don't use "smileys" or "emoticons".
- Don't "reply" to content others have posted. If you think a particular point warrants discussion, post on the article's discussion page. If you're 100% sure that something should be changed and don't think a discussion is necessary, just change it. Dialogue goes only on articles' discussion pages.
- Don't leave notes or instructions to future editors like "Add more information here if you find it". Again, use the article's discussion page if you want to communicate with other editors.
Don't sign your edits
All contributions are appreciated, but if every user left their mark on every contribution they made, the wiki would be nothing but signatures. If you've made an edit that you're particularly proud of (such as a transcript or screenshot), the correct place to take credit is on your own user page. If you do not have a user account, we respect your anonymity, but your edits will remain anonymous, too.
Do sign your talk posts
If you make a post on a discussion page, please sign it. If you have a user account, this is as easy as typing ~~~~ at the end of your post. If you don't have a user account, just sign it with your name or nickname so everybody can tell who's who when reading long conversations. Even better, create an account anyway and use the signature method described. There really is no reason not to if you're going to stick around.
Episodes
The basic format for episode pages looks like this:
[[Image:<name of episode>_screenshot.png|thumb|Caption for image.]]
'''Bonus Stage Episode #44'''
A short summary of the Episode's premise followed by the cast
listing.
'''Cast (in order of appearance):''' [[Phil]],
[[Joel]]
'''Places:''' [[Phil's Living Room]], [[Charismaville]]
'''Page title:''' What appears in the browser's titlebar
'''Running time:''' The length of the episode.
'''Date:''' The date in which the episode was released.
== Transcript ==
''{A brief description of the scene.}''
'''CHARACTER A:''' What Character A said.
'''CHARACTER B:''' ''{singing}'' What Character B sang.
''{Cut to some other scene.}''
== Easter Eggs ==
*A bulleted list
*Of all of the episode's easter eggs
== Fun Facts ==
*A bulleted list
*Of fun facts about the episode
=== Episode Description ===
Episode description from the episode guide at bonusstages.com
*Note from episode guide
*Note from episode guide
== External Links ==
*[http://www.bonusstages.com/filename.html Watch "<Name
of Episode>"]
*[http://www.bonusstages.com/filename.swf View the flash
file for "<Name of Episode>"]
Screenshot
In most cases this shoud be a JPG image uploaded to the wiki via the Upload file page. It should be optimized for the web. Its dimensions should be approximately the same size as on the official site. When uploading the file, be sure to give it a meaningful name which describes its content and more importantly, its use on the wiki, as in the example above. "phil_with_a_hat.png" is not meaningful. "episode_24_screenshot.png" is more meaningful.
Summary
The summary section generally contains at most three things: a short synopsis, a list of the cast, and, if applicable, the page title.
The synopsis should be a brief description of the premise of the episode. It is not necessary to describe the entire plot of the episode or give away the ending, and the synopsis should only be a couple sentences long.
The cast list should take the following form:
'''Cast (in order of appearance):''' [[Character A]], [[Character B]], and [[Character C]] (easter egg)
Note that everything between (and including) "Cast" and the colon (:) is between the bold markers, and each character's name is separated by a comma and a space, with the word "and" before the last character's name. A comma is not necessary if there are only two characters. The characters should be listed in the order in which they appear in the episode. If a character appears only in an easter egg, then denote this as above, with the words "easter egg" (lower case) in parentheses.
Often it is preferable to link to the characters in the cast list but not in the synopsis, so as to keep the cast list consistent and so as to follow the link once rule.
Finally, if the page on which the episode appears has an interesting title, denote it after the cast list like so:
'''Page Title:''' A Funny Page Title
The page title is found in the titlebar at the very top of your web browser window, usually next to the name of the browser, e.g. "A Funny Page Title - Mozilla Firefox" or "A Funny Page Title - Microsoft Internet Explorer".
Transcript
A transcript is a detailed account of an episode's dialogue and action. Its basic format is this:
''{A brief description of the scene.}''
'''CHARACTER A:''' Something witty.
'''CHARACTER B:''' ''{singing}'' Something melodious.
''{Cut to some other scene.}''
As you can see, a line of dialogue begins with the character's name in upper case followed by a colon, all of which is bold. This is followed by a space and then what the character said. When different characters are speaking their dialogue should be separated by a blank line.
If a character does something while speaking a line of dialogue, or if more description is needed for their manner of speaking or inflection (e.g. if they're singing or whispering) the action (if it is not too long to describe in a few words) can be enclosed in curly braces -- { } -- and made italic, like this: {goes to the refrigerator}. Note that the curly braces themselves are also italic. Short actions like these do not need to be proper sentences.
If there is a scene change or major action (which takes more than a few words to describe), it should be separated from the dialogue by a blank line above and below, and in this case complete sentences and proper capitalization and punctuation are desirable.
Links in transcripts should be limited. There should never be links in dialogue sections. Links in annotations between curly braces are not prohibited, but should also be kept to a minimum.
Easter Eggs
An easter egg (or just "egg" for short) is a secret part of an episode that can only be accessed by performing a particular action (e.g. clicking on a particular word or object) during an episode or by waiting for awhile after the episode has "ended".
Easter eggs should be listed in chronological order (that is, the order in which they are accessible in the episode).
Fun Facts
A fun fact is anything about an episode that is unique or out of the ordinary. Some examples include:
- Something which makes reference to a previous episode or feature on the site.
- Something which makes reference to something in popular culture, e.g. a band, a television show, or word history.
- It is difficult to define everything that a fun fact could be. A fun fact might appear in the form of a bit of dialogue, an object in the background of an episode, a graphic or a musical riff.
What fun facts are not is obvious. If something is obvious to 95% of the audience (including first-time viewers), then it is not a fun fact. If a Fun Fact is questionably fun, or questionably factual, please see BSWiki:STUFF for instructions.
When posting fun facts, please refer to the General rules above, particularly the prohibition on conversational style, and place all fun facts at the bottom of the list, please.
For episodes with many fun facts, the fun facts may (and should) be split into the following categories:
Trivia
Facts in this category include trivia about the episode, such as the first time an event happens or verified details about the production of an episode. These are generally more "nitty-gritty" than the facts in the Remarks section.
Remarks
Can be viewed as the "miscellaneous" subcategory. This includes facts that are not direct references, not explanations, not mistakes, and don't really belong in Trivia, but are still notable enough to be added. These include non-obvious "did you notice?" plot details (that are not noted in the transcript) and general comments about the characters and locations in the episode. Some facts can fit under both Trivia and Remarks; it is up to the writer's preference where the fact is more appropriate. (But no fact should appear more than once.)
Explanations
If a plot element or joke is very obscure, an explanation might be necessary. This should not explain every single joke, should not explain anything even remotely obvious, and should not include direct references (which have their own subcategories).
Goofs
The creators of Bonus Stage are not perfect. Sometimes, they make mistakes. If there is a plot or continuity error, or if things mysteriously vanish or appear (and it's not obviously intentional or due to a glitch), then it can go into the Goofs section.
Glitches
Similar to Goofs, but limited to mistakes in the Flash software. NOTE: Flash Byproducts are NOT allowed, unless noted humorus or something extra. A Flash byproduct is something odd or strange in an .swf version of an episode. This can include missing parts of characters, different things "outside the wall", etc.
Inside References
An Inside Reference is when an episode makes a clear reference to a previous Bonus Stage episode. A repeated line of dialogue or the return of a non-regular character count as Inside References.
Real-World References
This is when an episode makes a clear reference to something outside the Bonus Stage universe that took place before the creation of the episode in question. Celebrities, commercial products, famous quotes, and so forth can be Real-World References.
Fast Forward
Also known as "Forward Referencing", a fact in the Fast Forward category is something of significance in the episode that is re-used later on, either in a later Bonus Stage episode or in the real world.
Episode Description
The episode description is required on every episode page. It contains the description that bonusstages.com gave the episodes along with the bulleted information.
External Links
External links are links that point to sites other than the Wiki. The links should be in the form of a bulleted list. Most episodes have two links, one which links directly to the episode (usually ending in .html) and one which links directly to the Flash file (.swf). If there is currently a discussion taking place in the Forum concerning an episode you may create a third external link pointing to the forum thread. External links typically look like this:
*[http://www.bonusstages.com/filename.html Watch "<Name of Episode>"] *[http://www.bonusstages.com/filename.swf View the flash file for "<Name of Episode>"]
Note that links to episodes always read "Watch <Name of Episode>", and links to Flash files always say "View the flash file for <Name of Episode>".
