Help talk:Style guide

Naming: series suffixes

I really completely disagree with labelling a character with his series even if there's no other character with the name. If other character gets the name, it's not all that difficult to move the page. Why make it look ugly when it doesn't have to? Singularity 06:47, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

I really completely disagree with you coming in and arbitrarily declaring a new naming system despite the fact that there was already a perfectly good one implemented across numerous pages already existing, myself. There's no reason to have to clean up behind people who can't spell "generations" and "timelines" without typoing when an abbreviated line description will do. And when another character gets named Hound, suddenly every single link to "Hound" has to be changed to "Hound_(G1)". Why is that a better idea than planning ahead to begin with?

Speaking for myself. LV

• I completely agree with LV. It's better to plan ahead than have to go back and fix a billion goddamn links, ESPECIALLY since there's, you know a MOVIE COMING OUT NEXT YEAR WITH A BRAND NEW CONTINUITY and all. Hooper X 06:56, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

"Making it look ugly when it doesn't have to" sounds just like the new super-long unabbreviated tags you gave everyone, Singularity. Thanks a lot. --User:ItsWalky

So are we using (UT) or (Unicron Trilogy)? Also, what do we do about Blurr - both in Armada and Cybertron (arguably) as different characters? --User:Alexamar

Blurr's an interesting case. He actually has TWO bios. One that suggests he's a different character, and a separate one that only appears on the website which states outright he's the Armada guy. Both contradict his appearances on the television series. I would suggest merely noting this at the end of Blurr (UT)'s page. However, there ARE several names reused in the same continuity, like Silverbolt (BW), Barrage (G1), and Thunderblast (UT). When we stumble upon cases like these, an additional modifier should suffice, such as Silverbolt (BW) (Fuzor) or Thunderblast (UT) (Mini-Con). --User:ItsWalky

An encyclopedia is supposed to accommodate readers, not editors. A reader shouldn't be expected to know what the Hell "UT" means without looking it up, nor not snicker at "BM". If you were that enamored with the naming system, then perhaps you should've established it in a style guide to indicate some actual consensus; it doesn't really serve as a deterrent after the fact. Now there's some evidence of actual consensus, I'll back off on the naming issue. I'll suggest Silverbolt (BW Fuzor) and Thunderblast (UT Mini-Con), though. Singularity 19:47, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm going to say that Thunderblast should have (UT) and (Mini-Con) instead of (UT Mini-Con) - as Thunderblast is both a Mini-Con and part of the UT, instead of an isolated group of (UT Mini-Cons). Same for Silverbolt - (BW) (Fuzor) instead of (BW Fuzor). BW Fuzor excludes all of BW and the other Fuzors... dig? User:Alexamar

The following Cybertron names will need some way to be differentiated from other toys in the UT: Jolt, Armorhide, Brakedown Clocker and Override (aborted Magnus Mini-Cons), Spiral Backtrack and Oval (Street Speed Team, Cybertron and Armada), Downshift and Dirt Boss (UT and UT Mini-Con), Mirage (Armada & Energon), Wing Saber (Energon & Cybertron), Thundercracker (Armada & Cybertron), Swindle (Armada & Cybertron), Ransack (Armada & Cybertron), Buzzsaw, Thunderblast, Sideways, Crumplezone, Steamhammer, Payload, Thrust, Ramjet and Sunstorm.

Should we include things like Aaron Archer's nicknames for PX toys? Durge, Sprigger, Galaxy Shuttle, etc? User:Alexamar

Spiral/Backtrack/Oval and Wing Saber are the same characters across the series, there is absolutely no need to differentiate. Thundercracker may or may not be the same character, same with Sideways. Also, no, Aaron's nicknames for the toys are unofficial and therefore have no place in the wiki. User: M Sipher

Series Identifiers

Well, first off, we come up with an "official" Continuity Naming Schema (which will be pretty easy, let's do it now!), then we apply it as needed, with subsets as needed. (Silverbolt (BW) (Fuzor) vs. Silverbolt (BW) (Magnaboss)), etc. I wouldn't be opposed to mentioning Aaron's unofficial names in-passing as part of the overall article, as since they're Aaron's fan-canon, they're a noteworthy little footnote to the official product. Hooper X 06:56, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

I think "T" is probably not a good choice for Timelines. One-letter abbreviations are too unclear. I would say either TL or TFT (similar to TFU).

--Steve-o 23:49, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Japenese Names

Why the hate? X-Bob58

We'll stop hating them when you start spelling them right. "Japanese," you. --User:ItsWalky

Not to mention the fact that this is a English encyclopedia. Of course, in that case, the corrupted air should be killing you right now. Flee, X-Bob! Flee!Singularity 19:47, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Animation Proofs

Should these be standard? http://www.toyarchive.com/Transformers/Cels/ACels1.html

• If you can get permission from the Bickmores to use their stuff (good luck!), I don't see why not. I wouldn't use it as the ONLY reference for characters, though, but combined with box art and comic scans (where applicable), I think it'll look nice. Send an email out and see what happens. Hooper X 06:54, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Naming: article types

There is a relatviely small number of "article types" that will encompass the majority of articles on this wiki. Currently, there is redundancy and a lack of naming cohesion. At some level, the actual article name isn't very important because people aren't going to be simply typing URLs into their browser to find an article -- they'll do a search. Still, I'd like the naming scheme to be simple and consistent. Following are some of these very common article types, and examples of my suggestions for their naming, if I have one:

• Franchise - "Armada". No qualifier after the name.
• Toyline - "Armada (toyline)". Toyline is one word.
• Character - "Hot Shot (UT)". Put the character's continuity in parantheses. If more than one character with that name exists in its continuity, clarify as briefly as possible. It's not critical that these exceptions have a strict, consistent naming scheme.
• Toy - ?? I think a parenthetical "toy" is non-ideal. I'm not sure why it bothers me, but part if is is the lack of extensibility. I almost think that the toys for a particular character should be subpages of the character page, especially since some characters have multiple toys. On the other hand, that could lead to confusion in cases where it's not clear whether a toy "is" a particular character or not. (T-Wrecks toy as a subpage of Grimlock? Tripedacus Agent toy as a subpage of the Ravage (G1) character page?)
  • I think that toy pages should be one of our lowest priorities when there are resources like http://www.tfu.info out there. There is no point in duplicating TFU.info's work when there is so much else for us to do here. Simply linking to the relevant toys on TFU.info at the end of each character article we write is plenty, I think, for the forseeable future.
• Comic series - "Armada (comic)". If more than one comic with the name exists, and one is significantly more well known the more well known one should get the (comic) entry. So, "Armada (comic)" is the Dreamwave comic and the Panini series would get a name something like "Armada (Panini)" or "Armada (Panini comic)".
• Comic issue - "Warrior School". Name of the issue. No qualifiers needed unless the name conflicts with other article names.
• Cartoon series - "Armada (cartoon)". Singularity moved a bunch of (cartoon) articles to (television series). I disagree with this for two reasons: First, "cartoon" is more brief. Second, "cartoon" can encompass things like an OVA or an animated movie that are not television series. This doesn't come up often, admittedly, but it allows things like the Robot Masters special and the Zone OVA to have acticle names that are parallel with the others.
• Cartoon episode - "Fire on the Mountain". Name of the episode. No qualifiers needed unless the name conflicts with other article names.

If anybody has thoughts on any of this, please say so.

--Steve-o 23:49, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Templates for "In such and such continuity..."

Many, many articles on this Wiki refer to characters or events that belong to a particular continuity or continuity family. Those articles really need to say what continuty they are relevant for. However, inserting language to this effect can be awkward. For consistency's sake, I feel as if the use of templates would be best here. Any article that refers to a specific continuity can simply call the appropriate template, something like: "This article refers to a character, event, or idea from the 'G1 comic' continuity. It may or may not be accurate for other continuities." At some level the qualifiers in the article name can do this job, but many articles won't have such a qualifier -- lead sulfide crystals for example.

Probably this would be best achieved with multiple templates, one per continuity, rather than a single template that accepts an argument. They could even be customized with toyline logos or somesuch. Meta-continuities or more generic continuity families would also need templates.

The drawback to this idea is that we will end up with a lot of templates. However, I think that is preferable to having scores of pages that begin with "In the Dreamwave Armada comic continuity..." or, worse yet, don't specify at all the range of their applicability.

--Steve-o 23:49, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Spoilers

I think we need to add some kind of a "Spoiler" template for articles about the current comic and television series.--G.B. Blackrock 16:52, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

"Cybertronic/Cybertron/Cybertronian

Cybertronic is an adjective, meaning "from Cybertron", generally used to describe a "futuristic" vehicle mode that is not a "real" Earth vehicle (or reasonable fascimile). Cybertron is a noun, meaning "an individual from the planet Cybertron", and Cybertronian is a noun and adjective, signifying a follower of the Liege Maximo. " I've never heard anything about this before, where did they originate?