Tom the Cat Wiki:Manual of Style

The manual of style serves as a reference to help maintain uniformity of all articles in the Tom the Cat Wiki. Please keep in mind that these serve as guidelines and not rules. Though these guidelines are enforced across the wiki, certain exceptions to these can apply when necessary. The manual of style is ultimately dictated by the community, and as such, this manual is subject to change at any time.

Before editing, please make sure to read The Wiki Constitution!

Language
For the purpose of maintaining consistency, and because the subject of this wiki originates from the United States, words on this wiki should conform to the spelling used in American English. This applies only to main namespace pages, not talk or user pages. Although no user should be harassed or punished for using other regional spellings of words, editors are encouraged to conform text in articles to U.S. spelling. If you come across a word spelled the way it is in another country (for example if you see "color" spelled as "colour" or "airplane" spelled as "aeroplane"), just change it to the U.S. English spelling and be done with it.

Articles
Avoid making articles with conjectural titles. Please make sure the article name for a subject is its official name. Similarly, please do not use nicknames or alternate names for an article's title. (e.g. "Tom" instead of "Main Character.")

Article names must also be written in the singular form rather than the plural. (e.g. "Dog" instead of "Dogs.") Certain exceptions may apply, such as if an article is a list. (e.g. "List of dogs.") Additionally, the definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles except when they are part of an official title.

Episode pages cannot be created without an official title. Otherwise, they will be deleted by a moderator.

POV
Situations must be discussed in a disinterested tone, giving no bias or preferences and avoiding giving unimportant issues undue weight. Avoid the use of imperative form and second person (you) when writing articles.

Formatting
Capitalization of article titles and section headers should include the first letter of the first word being a capital letter, but it should otherwise follow the normal English rules of capitalization. For example, a section title should be "External links" instead of "External Links". An exception is the capitalization of article titles for characters.

Tthe first instance of the article's name should be bolded. In instances where alternate names or nicknames for the article's title are added, the first instances of them should also be bolded. Here is an example of this:

A bag (also known regionally as a sack) is a common tool in the form of a non-rigid container. The use of bags predates recorded history, with the earliest bags being no more than lengths of animal skin, cotton, or woven plant fibers, folded up at the edges and secured in that shape with strings of the same material.

Linking
Linking is usually limited to the first occurrence of the word or phrase in each article, not counting links inside infoboxes. This is because spamming too many wiki links makes articles difficult to read. Adding multiple links for the same term might be acceptable in very long articles, where linked instances of the term are very far apart. Another exception to this is if multiple links lead to different sections on the same page.

Delete
Place this template at the top of an article without removing any content from the page so staff can remove it.

Incomplete
Use this template when no information is found on a article or section.

Missing Info
Use this template when an article or section is seen with information or not enough.

Cleanup
Use this template if a template needs grammatical change or better word choices.

Upcoming
Use this template for a page which contains content that has not been released yet and a moderator will later lock the page.