CAWiki:Standards

Before contributing to the wiki, it is highly recommended you read these guidelines to make work simpler for any of the wiki editors.

Articles should always be compliant with Nexon's Terms of Service
For a wikia that is based on Nexons FPS, Combat arms, all editors should know that although pages that show what glitches and hackers in action can do, edits should never include videos or methods of how to perform the said infraction of the TOS. For example, if there is an article on a glitch in "X" map, pictures of the infraction can be shown, but never videos or a step-by-step method of how to achieve said violation. Never contribute anything that supports the violation of Nexon's ToS. Doing so may result in an infraction.

Never contribute articles in first person POV, always third person POV
Any wiki should be written in third person. This means that one should never be using words like "I, "Us", and "We". Articles and content are to be written from a neutral standpoint, with as little to no bias as possible. A good thing to do when comparing for example, is to state pros and cons, and to never take a side. Any editor should be careful to not to use the word "You", and to instead use the word "one". This point does not apply to this page, as this page is strictly a guideline page for you to use before you start your editing.

No Bias, No personal Opinions
Although briefly discussed in the above point, Wikis should be written from a standpoint that shows absolutely no opinion and preference to something, but instead weighing pros and cons. One should make edits seem as the readers will have absolutely no pressure in making decisions. For a weapons page, content should be neutral enough that there is absolutely no bias or " I highly reccomend you to purchase X, because of Y". Statements. The page should be all factual non-biased info, so that any readers have full control over their opinions.

Always use the Summary box
When editing pages, always try to 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 127.0.0.1" 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.

Use the Minor Edit button
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" button 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 it is attempted, the link will simply turn into bold text.

Link once
A given page should only contain one link to any other page. If a page links to Deckland in one place, then that should be the only link to Deckland on that page. Typically this link should be the first instance of the term in the article.

Don't use conversational 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 or use the Firefox web browser which has spell-checking built in.
 * 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 or the forum.
 * Never abbreviate the names of characters, places, or anything. Wherever possible, use the full name of a character the first time they are mentioned. After the first mention, you may refer to "Maplestory" as "Maple" or "Snow Valley Underground Tunnel" as "the Tunnel" and so forth.

Stubs
If you don't know enough information on a topic, or you know there's more, add a stub to it. To do so, try this: And people will know that it's a stub by looking at the stub category.

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. When you contribute to a wiki, you give info knowing that it is for everyone. 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.

Use the Preview Button
The preview button is right next to the save edit button, and is there for a reason. It's your own personal spell checker, link checker, whatever-else checker. Use it. Users that purposefully do not preview edits as to inflate their edit count are not well regarded amongst Cawikians, and you may find yourself in trouble with an administrator.

Reference Your Information
Any material challenged or likely to be challenged, and all quotations, must be attributed to a reliable source, using an inline citation. For help with Citations, see Wikipedia:Verifiability.

Keep Trivia Sections to a Reasonable Size
That part of the article is meant to fit tidbits of facts that just don't fit in the main body. It also looks unprofessional to have the trivia much longer than the actual body.

Please Try To Use Proper Terminology
While some of us don't know better, there is a wrong and right answer with the names of certain items in game and weapon parts. The biggest example is how some people use magazine and clip interchangeably. Unless the gun you are describing is a Mosin Nagant or an SMLE, the odds are it uses a magazine. They do not mean the same thing. As of now, no gun in Combat Arms uses clips to load ammunition, and there likely never will be any sort of weapon that does. That being said, unless you are talking about a sniper rifle or a weapon that features a scope (like the M417 SB or the REC Rangers), use the term 'sights' for something like an iTech or an ACOG. Another notable example is the G36E. The way to tell the difference is if the viewing apparatus at the top of the gun looks extremely similar to that of a sniper rifle or not. If it looks like something on a sniper rifle, then it can be called a scope, otherwise, it is a sight. (The major exclusion is the Swarovski Scope on the AUGs and XK8s).