Policy:Sections

From Gineipaedia, the Legend of Galactic Heroes wiki

Gineipaedia's sections policy determines the standard order and intended use of sections/headers within the body of articles on this Web site.

Since this wiki is still relatively new and has few contributors, many of these policies are not yet set in stone. If you find you disagree with anything, please bring it up on this article's Talk page.

Standard order

In order to provide a consistent and logical structure to Gineipaedia's articles, a standard order should be followed for many of the sections used. Typically these are 'generic' sections which always have the same name regardless of which article they are included in.

Below are several lists which provide guidance on the exact order and structure to place sections/headers in within various article types. Lines listed in italics are descriptions of sections only, and should not be placed literally within an article; lines appearing as normal text are literal section headings and should always be placed in the order they appear here.

Note however that these sections do not necessarily need to be included in every article — when they are not appropriate for the topic at hand, simply omit them. Information relating to particular sections can also be combined into other sections, where applicable; for instance, if there is less than a paragraph of information available about a character's education, it might simply be included in their 'Early life' section (instead of creating a separate 'Education' section for it).

Section purpose and format

Many of the sections listed above will be self-explanatory; however, there may be some question as to how to use or format some of them. Listed below are further explanations of several of these sections.

Appendices

The Appendices section is a container for all other sections which are not considered part of the 'main' body of the article. For character articles, the main body is their biography; for episode articles, the main body is the synopsis. Almost all other sections go below the Appendices container.

Appearances

The Appearances section provides a list of the appearances a specific person, place, or object has made within the various animated LOGH media. The list should be sorted by chronological order of release — for example, place Gaiden appearances after the main OVA appearances, even though the Gaiden episodes take place before the OVA ones according to the story line.

Below is a fictional example of the code one might use to cite a character who appears across several films and episodes:

===Appearances===
<div class="appear">
*{{mciss}} (first appearance)
*{{logh}}
**{{e|001}} (flashback)
**{{e|020}}
**{{e|055}}
**{{e|120}} (death)
*{{gw}}
*{{swv}}
**{{e|1|swv}}
*{{sl}}
**{{e|1|sl}}
**{{e|2|sl}} (final appearance)
</div>

Note the following about the above:

1. The content of the Appearances section must be wrapped in a div with the class 'appear'. This provides the collapsing functionality (see Erwin Josef II for an example of this feature).
2. As mentioned above, each film and episode is listed in chronological production order.
3. Notes are included for significant events and also to qualify certain appearance types. These notes are described further below.
4. Appearance notes ('first appearance', 'final appearance') are also in chronological production order. It is therefore entirely possible for a person's 'final appearance' to occur after their death in the series.
5. Episode citations are somewhat different from how they are used within article bodies. To cite an episode, enter the series code template with no number; then, below that, use the {{e}} template to list each individual episode. The series code is optional for OVA episodes, but required for Gaiden.

Appearance notes

The following appearance notes should be used, where applicable, in the manner illustrated above:

• first appearance — Indicates the subject's first appearance (by production order).
• final appearance — Indicates the subject's final appearance (by production order).
• only appearance — Indicates that the subject only appeared in this episode (use instead of first/final).
• birth — Indicates that the subject was born in this episode.
• death — Indicates that the subject died in this episode.
• corpse — Indicates that the subject only appeared as a corpse in this episode (very rare...).
• flashback — Indicates that the subject only appeared during a flashback in this episode.*
• memory — Indicates that the subject only appeared as a memory in this episode.*
• archival image — Indicates that the subject only appeared in an archival image or video (typically part of a video watched by a character) in this episode.**
• hologram — Indicates that the subject only appeared in a hologram in this episode.
• map — Indicates that the subject only appeared on a map in this episode.
• painting — Indicates that the subject only appeared in a painting in this episode.
• photograph — Indicates that the subject only appeared in a photograph in this episode.
• video — Indicates that the subject only appeared in a video in this episode.**

* Use 'flashback' when an entire event involving the subject is depicted; use 'memory' only when the subject's likeness (usually a face) appears to another character.

** Use 'video' only when it is not known that the character is deceased at the time the video was being shown. Use 'archival image' in other cases (generally historical figures).

Always combine notes into one line — separated by a semicolon — when possible. For example, if a character only appears in one episode, and dies in that same episode, use the following:

*{{e|005}} (only appearance; death)

The first/final/only-appearance and birth/death notes should always appear on a line whenever they are applicable. If more than one of the other notes applies, choose only the top-most one listed above. For instance, if a character appears in one episode in both a flashback and a painting, list only the flashback. If a character appears in a flashback, painting, &c., but also appears 'for real' in the same episode, do not include a note — the 'real' appearance takes precedent.

Name variations

The Name variations section should be used to list all spellings of a subject's name that have been used in LOGH media, as well as fan spellings that are in common use. An example of the code one might use for name variations appear below:

===Name variations===
*'''Porewit Starzone''' (Translation of Japanese, derived from LD/DVD dialogue)
*'''Porevit Starzone''' (Derived from LD/DVD map)
*'''Polevit Starzone''' (Derived from [[Legend of Galactic Heroes (PlayStation game)]])
*'''ポレヴィト星域''' (Derived from LD/DVD dialogue — Japanese)
*'''Holbit System''' (CentralAnime subtitles)

Note the following about the above:

1. The names themselves should be listed in bold (except for initial articles like 'the' and 'das').
2. The source of the name should be listed in parentheses following the name.
3. The language of the name, if it is not English, should appear after the source.
4. The names should be placed in the following order: (1) English media names, (2) Japanese media names, (3) English fan names, (4) Japanese fan names. Additionally, if there is a difference between the names used in Blu-ray, DVD, and LaserDisc releases, they should be placed in order of newest to oldest.

Note also that in the final versions of articles like Porewit Starzone and Bremen, the BD/DVD/LD terms are given additional mark-up. Human editors may add this mark-up manually, if they like, but this is not necessary — if the text is added as indicated in the above example, a bot will eventually apply the appropriate formatting.

Memorable quotes

The Memorable quotes section may be used to list a small selection of quotes involving a character or episode from the animated LOGH media. (Do not list quotes from novels, manga, &c.) These quotes should be as concise as possible, and should be limited to significant or memorable quotes only. If the quote appears on a character page, include a citation following the normal in-body citation format. Do not include images to illustrate quotes.

Music

The Music section should be used to list occurrences of incidental music within LOGH films and episodes. Each list item for classical music should be formatted as below:

*<composer name> – <full composition title> (<time code>)

The dash between the composer name and the composition title should be an en dash, not a hyphen. (The en dash is the second dash in the 'copy and paste' section at the bottom of each edit page; it can be entered on the Mac by pressing Option+hyphen.)

The time code should list the time — in ##:##:## format — where the song first begins to play in the episode/film, and should be derived from the un-edited (opening-theme-including) DVD rips.

When an official sound track exists for a film, as with My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars, the format is slightly different:

<OST track name> (<time code>)
*<composer name> – <full composition title>

Background information

The Background information section may be used to provide interesting facts about the creative origins, name etymology, and so on, of a subject. If applicable, this section may be broken up into sub-sections, but often it will include only a paragraph or a few bullet points. The Background information section can also be used to discuss pertinent information from secondary and non-canon sources.

Apocrypha

The Apocrypha section is a container for information derived from secondary and non-canon sources, as well as from primary but lower-priority sources (primarily when an OVA appearance is contradicted by Overture to a New War). This section should contain information on the differences in depiction of a subject between the main animated sources and the novels, manga, &c. Apocrypha is also where information derived from licensed material should be placed (see, for example, Leonidas).

Currently Gineipaedia contains very little information that could be considered apocrypha; most of our focus at this time is on the animated series. As more and more secondary sources are incorporated into the site, though, it is likely that more strict guide lines regarding these matters will need to be devised.

See also

The See also section should contain a brief list of articles related to the subject. For instance, Gineipaedia policy pages such as this one all contain 'See also' links to other policy pages.

Please limit use of See also to interesting and relevant articles that the user might not otherwise find. It is not necessary to include 'See also' links for every conceivable topic that is related to the subject; for example, there is no need to add a 'See also' for Kircheis to Reinhard's page — the relationship between the two is discussed thoroughly in the article and is well known to anyone who has seen the series.

External links

The External links section should contain a brief list of links to relevant information located on external Web sites. Most of the articles this section will be used on are 'real-life' articles — episode pages, series pages, merchandise pages, and so on. An example of an appropriate use for this section can be seen on My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars.

Although this section is not prohibited in other articles, its use should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

See also

• Manual of Style
• Canon
• Perspective
• Images