Sly Cooper Wiki:Style guide

The style guide is used for formatting articles on the Sly Cooper Wiki. Please read through the policy below to familiarize yourself with common practices and rules.

Article layout
In some cases, not all of these sections will be fit or apply to the subject of the article, which is fine.

Character articles

 * Lead section - This is not a named section. It is at the top of the page and should always contain infoboxes, tophats (such as stub or imageneed) and a brief description of the character, including hair and eye color, as well as any major affiliations and voice actor.
 * Biography - The biography of the character. It should be separated into smaller headings by game, events, etc.
 * Characteristics - Has no content except for the following subsections. To better remember the order of them, memorize the acronym "PaPA."
 * Physical appearance - Clothes, hair/fur color, eye color, accessories and other things that define the character.
 * Personality - How the character acts in most situations, as well as odd quirks, like a fear of something or a love for something.
 * Abilities - What the character can do that defines them, such as hacking, driving or being acrobatic.
 * Relationships - Has subsections for each character that there is a major relationship.
 * Gallery - If the gallery becomes too large, a sub-page may need to be created, after which see is used.
 * Trivia - No "the sky is blue" trivia. If the trivia can be incorporated into the article, it should be done.
 * Appearances - A list of games and other media where the character appears. In chronological order, not necessarily order of release.
 * References - Contains References if there are references within the article. If there are notes, call this section "Notes and references" and divide the section into two subsections; "Notes" and "References." Notes will contain
 * Navbox - Contains, with   replaced with the abbreviation of whatever game they appear in: Navbox SC1, Navbox SC2, Navbox SC3, Navbox SCTT. Include all games that the character appears in.

Character articles
Tophats are the templates that go at the top of an article. Character articles may or may not require any. If they do, put them above the infobox. If For is used, it goes at the very top of the article, above all other tophats.
 * Tophats

All characters' articles require an infobox, regardless of how much information is known about a character. The infobox needed to be used is Infobox Character. The infobox should be placed below any page management templates, but above the quote (if any), and should at least contain the name and image of the character, as well as the game the character first appeared in.
 * Infoboxes

A quote may be included at the top of a character article. If so, place it directly below the infobox without any additional line breaks. One additional line break can be included after the quote to make it easier to read in source mode.
 * Quotes

All trivia of the characters should not be rumors, e.g., "This character might make an appearance in the Sly Cooper movie." All trivia should be true, and related to the character and their facts. Glitches relating to characters on the page are a result of game development/game mechanic faults and should not be noted despite their factual existence, as it does not pertain to the character itself whatsoever.
 * Trivia

All characters must be categorized according to what they appear in. Do not categorize characters as Category:Characters. Instead, categorize them as Category:Characters in Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Category:Characters in Sly 2: Band of Thieves, etc. They should also be categorized according to their status; Alive, Deceased, Jailed, etc. They should then be categorized according to their alignment; Heroes, Villains, Interpol, etc.
 * Categories

Power-up articles
All power-up articles require an infobox, regardless of how much information is known about the power-up. The infobox needed to be used is Infobox power-up. The infobox should be placed at the very top of the article, and should at least contain the name and image of the power-up, as well as the game the power-up first appeared in.
 * Infoboxes

All power-up articles must be categorized according to the power-up user; e.g., Category:Sly Cooper's power-ups, Category:Bentley's power-ups.
 * Categories

Treasure articles
All treasure articles require an infobox, regardless of how much information is known about the treasure. The infobox needed to be used is Infobox treasure. The infobox should be placed at the very top of the article, and should at least contain the name and image of the treasure, as well as the game the treasure appeared in.
 * Infoboxes

All treasure articles need to have a description. Describe the treasure as accurately as possible.
 * Description

All treasure articles must have a location. Describe where the treasure can be found in the world as accurately as possible.
 * Location

All treasures must be categorized in the treasure category that coincides with the game it appears in (ex. Category:Treasures in Sly 2: Band of Thieves). Any other appropriate categories must be added to the article.
 * Categories

Video game articles
All video game articles require an infobox, regardless of how much information is known about that game. The infobox needed to be used is Infobox Game. The infobox should be placed at the very top of the article, and should at least contain the name and box cover image of the game.
 * Infoboxes

All games must be categorized in Category:Games. Any other appropriate categories must be added to the article.
 * Categories

Book articles
All book articles require an infobox, regardless of how much information is known about the book. The infobox needed to be used is Infobox Book. The infobox should be placed at the very top of the article, and should at least contain the name and cover image of the book.
 * Infoboxes

All books must be categorized in Category:Books. Any other appropriate categories must be added to the article.
 * Categories

Comic articles
All comic articles require an infobox, regardless of how much information is known about the comic. The infobox needed to be used is Infobox Book. The infobox should be placed at the very top of the article, and should at least contain the name and cover image of the comic.
 * Infoboxes

All comics must be categorized in Category:Comics. Any other appropriate categories must be added to the article.
 * Categories

Film articles
All film articles require an infobox, regardless of how much information is known about the film. The infobox needed to be used is Infobox Film. The infobox should be placed at the very top of the article, and should at least contain the name and cover image of the film, or if that does not exist, then the logo should be used.
 * Infoboxes

All films must be categorized in Category:Films. Any other appropriate categories must be added to the article.
 * Categories

Article titles

 * Titles are generally nouns or noun phrases ( Cooper Clan, not About the Cooper Clan ).
 * Titles should not begin with "the," "a" or "an" unless the article is part of a proper noun. ( Cooper Vault is preferable to The Cooper Vault . However, "The Fire Down Below" is appropriate, as "The" is part of that job's name.)
 * Article titles should be singular; category titles should be plural. For example, the article Gold Ring (singular) belongs to the category Power-ups (plural). If an article is about a plural subject, prefer calling it a list. ( List of minor characters rather than Minor characters .)
 * The first letter in an article's title should be capitalized. The rest of the title should then be lowercase unless it is part of a proper noun.
 * The titles of articles about individual characters should be the name by which the character was most commonly known, with later names preferred to earlier names, and full names preferred to partial names or nicknames. Titles, such as military ranks or titles of nobility, should be omitted. ( Neyla instead of Constable Neyla .) Exceptions may be made to this rule when a character is most commonly referred to using that title; for example, Sir Galleth Cooper.

Section headings

 * Only the first word of a section heading should be capitalized, unless it is a proper noun. ( How to complete instead of How to Complete )
 * Section names should not explicitly refer to the subject of the article, or to higher-level headings, unless doing so is shorter or clearer. For example, Early life is preferable to His early life when His means the subject of the article; headings can be assumed to be about the subject unless otherwise indicated.
 * Headings provide an overview in the article's table of contents and should be nested appropriately. The article title is automatically H1; all other headings should be nested inside of it. (, followed by ,   and so on.)

Language

 * Though the readers and editors of the Sly Cooper Wiki may speak many varieties of English, standard American English spelling, punctuation and word usage are preferred.
 * Slang and profanity are inappropriate unless they are part of a quote. Even then, it should be carefully gauged whether such a quote is notable and necessary.

Abbreviations and acronyms

 * When using acronyms, write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence. (One could write Sly 2: Band of Thieves the first time that subject was used in an article, and then use Sly 2 in subsequent references.)
 * Avoid abbreviations when they would be confusing to the reader, interrupt the flow or appear informal or lazy.

Formatting

 * Titles of video games and comics are italicized. ( Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, The Adventures of Sly Cooper )
 * Titles of jobs are enclosed in double-quotes. ( "A Rocky Start" )
 * Strong emphasis that is not adequately conveyed by an article's wording may be italicized.
 * Bold or capitalized text should not be used to convey emphasis.
 * Headings should use the aforementioned header tags, as opposed to bold text.
 * Bold text is used when the subject of an article is introduced. ( Sly Cooper, the thief, is the eponymous protagonist of the Sly Cooper series. ) If other alternate titles are also used to introduce the subject, they should be bold as well. (Power-ups, also known as Gadgets...)
 * Blank lines should be used primarily to separate sections and paragraphs, and should not be used to align elements in an article. In the rare event that such alignment is necessary, it can be achieved with the clear template. No further formatting is necessary to convey line breaks. Users are urged only to maintain one blank line in between each section and paragraph. It is strongly recommended that users refrain from adding line breaks throughout an article, as they are likely to be reverted and removed to maintain consistency and proper formatting.

Verb tense

 * In-universe articles should be written in past tense.
 * Out-of-universe articles should be written in present tense.