This page contains The Vault's editing guideline. It describes in which style articles at this wiki should be written and how the various formatting options should be applied..
Guidelines describe desired etiquette and common practice in the creation, editing and organization of articles on this wiki.
Any registered editor is free to edit this page to improve its readability as long as the essence of the article remains unchanged.
If you would like to suggest content changes or propose a new policy or guideline, please use the wiki discussion forum.
In general, content should be written in a style appropriate for an encyclopedia. Descriptions should be clear and precise; speculations or uncertain facts should be avoided.
Do not be overly specific when writing, only as specific as necessary.
Use full sentences where possible.
Language
American English is preferred at this wiki as it is the spelling most Fallout games use.
Colloquialisms, slang, l33t speak and other informal styles are not acceptable.
Game-specific words should always use the ingame spelling, even in cases when it is incorrect. This does not include capitalization which should always follow the rules in the relevant section below.
Perspective
Contributions should use second-person ("you") or third-person ("the player"; not "this editor").
Keep first-person sentences out of articles. Talking about your own experiences in a familiar way should be kept to the discussion pages.
Tense
Articles should generally be written in present tense.
The only exception are articles relating to events which took place before any of the Fallout games, i.e. before 2161; these may be written in past tense.
Capitalizing
Article page names and links should not be overcapitalized, regardless of whether they relate to in-game subjects or not, and regardless of in-game spelling.
Incorrect: Fallout 2 is part of the Fallout Series of games.
Incorrect: The Fallout World exists in an alternate timeline.
Correct: Fallout 2 is part of the Fallout series of games.
Correct: The Fallout world exists in an alternate timeline.
Incorrect: A Stimpak is a type of hand-held medication used for healing the body.
Incorrect: The Gannon Family Tesla Armor is a piece of armor in Fallout: New Vegas.
Correct: The RobCo Stealth Boy 3001 is a personal stealth device worn on one's wrist.
Correct: The Gannon family Tesla armor is a piece of armor in Fallout: New Vegas.
Generic character names should not be capitalized.
Incorrect: A Raider killed a Super Mutant with an Assault Rifle.
Correct: A raider killed a super mutant with an assault rifle.
Species names should not be capitalized. In the same way as cat or dog would not be capitalized, deathclaw and ghoul are also not capitalized.
Incorrect: The Deathclaws were originally created before the Great War.
Incorrect: As with normal Ghouls, Feral Ghouls are extremely resistant to radiation.
Correct: The deathclaws were originally created before the Great War.
Correct: As with normal ghouls, feral ghouls are extremely resistant to radiation.
Names of statistics, perks, traits, skills etc. (e.g. Charisma, Medicine, Fast Shot) should be capitalized when referring specifically to game mechanics. The same words, however, should not be capitalized in other uses.
Incorrect: Joe is an Intelligent or Charismatic character.
Correct: The player will need high Intelligence or Charisma to convince Joe.
If it's not clear whether a name is a proper name or a common one, naming should be discussed and decided on a case by case basis.
Linking
Do not overlink. Generally, a page should be linked from a given article only once, on its first occurrence. Links may be repeated if the first link is far up the page or if the manner the word is used in makes it necessary (e.g. in summary lists).
Attribution
Do not add any attributions (like "written by XYZ") or dates ("written on 14/02/09") to articles. An accurate record of all contributions to an article is available via its "History" page.
Formatting
General
If you are new to wikis, you may want to read the help pages.
Referencing is an important tool to prove information that is otherwise not obvious or well known. References should be concise enough as to not clutter pages, yet sufficient enough to prove whatever needs to be proven. References come in a variety of sources such as, but not limited to, non-player character dialogue, computer terminal entries and in-game notes. Detailed information on how to reference certain sources is found in the main article, linked above.
