Trolls Trollpedia:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style lists the guidelines for the style and organization, and also serves as a reference to help maintain uniformity of all articles in Trolls Trollpedia.

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. Please keep in mind that this manual is constantly updated whenever necessary, so we recommend reading it constantly.

Note: Please do not do any reorganization and cleanup of wikitext on the wiki unless you are fixing things to follow this style guideline. Review what you wrote and try to make sure that there are no spelling errors, missing punctuation, or grammar mistakes.

Before editing, we've like to remind you to read the wiki's Rules, and general rules about articles can be seen in the wiki's Article Policy.

Page Creation Notes

Note that you do not always have to create an article for everything. We have lists such as List of Copyrights, List of Trademarks, Flora, Fauna, Holidays & Events, Food & Beverages, etc.

For characters, the standard page used to cite when the character can be written up is Wim's page, as Wim is considered having the least amount of information needed for a well-written page for a "official DreamWorks" canon character. All characters should have more than Wim's page as a result and if such a page is found with less, rather than deletion, it's advised the page have its information increased. If this is not possible, then please delete the page only then. Characters like Smarge, Rose or Romper will end up being only mentioned and described on the pages of their correspondent Tribes as a result of their lack of information. This restriction does not include tab pages.

For characters from TV series, be aware that many have only one-shot appearances or cameos, and since TV shows are often considered a "secondary canon" entity, they carry less weight than movies overall. For movie characters, it is generally accepted that they receive a page regardless of their role. See our canon policy for further information regarding this.

Article Structure and Titles

Article Structure

Articles must start with an introductory text, which appears above the rest of the article's content and should not have a heading. Infoboxes and templates noting a page's status (such as a stub) should be placed in code above the introductory text.

Elements of an article should be placed in this order:

1. Status-related templates
2. Infoboxes
3. Introductory text
4. Content
5. See also (a section including related articles)
6. References
7. External links
8. Navigation boxes (Navboxes)
9. Categories

Layout Guide

This Layout Guide, is on how all Trolls Trollpedia articles should appear. This is intended to make the wiki consistent, clear, and precise.

An article's content is also structured by itself in headings and subheadings. The content structure depends on what the article's topic is about:

Franchise installment

1. Synopsis
2. Plot
3. Cast
4. Episodes (in the case of TV series)
5. Production
6. Development
7. Music
8. Success and Critical Response
9. Awards and Accolades
10. Related Media & Merchandise
11. Trivia
12. Taglines
13. Videos
14. Franchise Installment Navigation

TV series season/episode guide

1. TV Series Season Infobox
2. Synopsis (seasons only)
3. Cast (characters who appear over the season as a whole)
4. Episodes (table of episodes, multiple tables in tabbers in the case of episode guides)
5. Songs (any songs heard on every episode throughout the season)
6. Home Video Releases (seasons only)
7. Trivia (seasons only)
8. Videos (official trailers and episode clips only)
9. TV Series Season/Episode Navigation

TV series episode

1. TV Series Episode Infobox
2. Synopsis
3. Plot
4. Cast (characters who appear in the episode)
5. Songs (songs sung by the characters, if applicable)
6. Trivia
7. Videos (episode clips only)
8. TV Series Episode Navigation

Character

1. Character Infobox
2. Appearance
   • In this heading, a tabber should be included if the character appeared in multiple installments. Each tab is correspondent to an installment (specifically movies, TV specials and TV series) the character has appeared in. The tabs are subdivided into sections describing the different major designs the character had in an installment (more minor designs should go to the character's "Costumes" subpage). An image (in gallery form) should be included for each design.
3. Official Biography (if applicable)
4. Personality
   • This talks about the way the character acts and feels, both good and bad.
   • If this section gets too big it will be split between "General" (which lists neutral and good aspects of the character), "Flaws and Issues" (which lists all the negative aspects of a character and their actions) and "Other" (which lists additional notes).
5. Relationships
   • Currently is divided between "Love Interests", "Family", "Friends" and "Pets".
6. Skills & Abilities
   • This lists all the strengths and weaknesses of a character and includes their hobbies and interests plus any details of how good they are at them.
7. History
   • This section also consists of a tabber, with each tab adressing different installment types ("3D animation", "2D animation", "Books", etc.). In each tab, each installment of such type that the character has appeared in should be included with the title written in "Subheading 1" font. The sections should give a general detailing of the events a character experienced in each installment. Additional timeline sections like "Early Life" or "Pre-(installment title)" can also be included in certain cases.
8. Songs (if applicable)
   • This section includes the songs a character has performed. The songs should be divided by installment, and further by season in the case of TV series.
9. Character Concept
   • This currently is included on the "History" tab.
10. Etymology
    • This section should be included if the character's name has a non-generic origin.
11. Merchandise
    • Included in this section is official biographies in use for merchandise purposes, as well as products based on the character. This currently has its own tab.
12. Trivia (if applicable)
13. Character Navigation
    • This includes all navigation tablets for episodes and movies that the character appeared in, as a way of changing to other characters from that same media.

Character species

1. Character Species Infobox
2. Appearance
   • Like articles about specific characters, this section should consist of a tabber if the species was seen in multiple installments.
3. Biology
4. Culture
5. Abilities
6. History
7. Influences
   • This section serves as an equivalent to "Concept" sections in specific character articles.
8. Trivia
9. Species Navigation

Location

1. About
   • This section gives out a general description of the location.
2. Locations
   • This section includes named "sublocations" within the location itself. Each "sublocation" should have its own subsection.
3. Location Navigation

Song

1. About
   • This is an optional section that may be included to describe the song's context and the moment it plays in an installment, as well as certain notes on its composition.
2. Lyrics
3. Trivia
4. Song Navigation

Soundtrack album

1. Featured Songs (track listing)
2. Cut Songs
   • This section includes deleted songs from the specific installment the soundtrack album is based on.

Merchandise

1. About
   • This is an optional section that gives out some general notes on the merchandise brand.
2. Sections about general information on products can be organized in different ways, such as by installment and product type. They should include galleries with images for each addressed product.
3. Trivia

People

1. Biography
2. Roles
3. Trivia

Other articles (e.g. item)

1. About
2. Concept
3. Trivia

Additional sections can also be included for any topic in certain cases.

Editing Articles

• If possible, both the Tab template and the Navigation template should be included.
• The first mention of a character/staff member's name should include both their first and last name (with some exceptions to characters with no last name). Subsequent mentions should only use first names (for characters) or either the first or last name (for staff members).
• Please include citations if a piece of information is not common knowledge. Use the Cite web template in this case.
  • Also, please include an archived link for each online citation as webpages can change at any time. Some examples are the Wayback Machine and Ghostarchive, with the Wayback Machine being recommended for Tweets and Ghostarchive being recommended for Instagram posts and YouTube videos. (However, Ghostarchive may not archive a webpage or video if the page is too big; in this case, use the Wayback Machine instead.)

Character Pages

Character articles should have an infobox with all known information (first appearance, voice actor, gender, species, occupation, etc.). They should also have a character Biography and Trivia sections if possible. In addition, every character article must be categorized in the "Characters" category, as well as any subcategories that can be applied to them.

Gallery and Quote Pages

In gallery and quote pages, which are often used as subpages of character articles, the included image galleries/quotes should be organized into one section for each installment. Gallery pages should also include sections for merchandise and concept art, as well as subsections for promotional material, trailers and screenshots in each installment.

Gallery pages are also used as subpages of installment articles. In such case, they should be organized into promotional material, trailers and screenshots, the latter of which are in turn subdivided by major plot parts. In the case of TV series episodes, they should be organized by segments and major parts.

If an image category exists for a certain source, a link to it should be used in place of a gallery in gallery pages, except if the page is on a movie, TV special or short.

Section Style

The wiki has a number of templates for section headings aside from the general ones that the Fandom editor provides. These are some guidelines you should follow on their use:

• For the main sections, use the general heading style in combination with the "Header2" template.
• For any subsections that are not as major as ones with general subheading styles, use the "Heading-3" template or ";(section title)" instead.

Titles

Article titles and section titles should always be written in non-sentence case, that is, with most of the words (except certain ones like "the" or "of") capitalized. If it refers to the title of a work, it should be written in the same way that the original title was written in regards to capitalization. If the article title is a generic word, use {{DISPLAYTITLE:(in-page title)}} to show it without capitalization. The same code should also be used for standards listed in the "Names" section below.

Unless referring to the franchise itself, there is no need to include "DreamWorks" in the title of Trolls-related sources. For example, while The Art of DreamWorks Trolls includes "DreamWorks", this is because the source relates to the franchise and its development. However, the movie itself is written on the wiki as just "Trolls" to distinguish it from the franchise itself, "DreamWorks Trolls".

Leaving Links

• Links for characters should be written like [[Queen Poppy|Poppy's]], not [[Queen Poppy|Poppy]]'s.
• Links like [[Strings|Strings]] and [[Strings|strings]] are pointless. [[Strings]] is the correct way to leave this link.
• Franchise installment links (such as movies, TV specials, TV series, etc.) should be written as ''[[Trolls: TrollsTopia]]'', not [[Trolls: TrollsTopia]].
• Episode links should be written like "[[Kick-Off Party]]", not [[Kick-Off Party]]. The same goes for the song links.
• If there is something that needs to be linked in Wikipedia, it needs to use the link: [[Wikipedia:<insert Wikipedia page here>|<insert desired title here>]]. Use of the {{W|<insert Wikipedia page here>}} template is discouraged due to it causing rendering issues on mobile web browsers.
• If there is something that needs to be linked in another wiki, it needs to use the link: [[w:c:<insert wiki name here>:<insert wiki page here>|<insert desired title here>]].

Redirects

The following is an adapted excerpt from Wikipedia:Do not "fix" links to redirects that are not broken on Wikipedia:

There is usually nothing wrong with linking to redirects to articles. Some editors are tempted, upon finding a link to a redirect page, to bypass the redirect and point the link directly at the target page. However, changing to a piped link is beneficial only in a few cases. Piping links solely to avoid redirects is generally a time-wasting exercise that can actually be detrimental. It is almost never helpful to replace [[redirect]] with [[target|redirect]].

That is, editors should not change, for instance, [[Poppy]] to [[Queen Poppy]] or [[Queen Poppy|Poppy]] just to "fix a redirect". However, it is perfectly acceptable to change it to [[Queen Poppy]] if for some reason it is preferred that "Queen Poppy" actually appear in the visible text. Editors should also not change redirects with possibilities like [[Celine Starburst]] to [[Pop Trolls#Known Members|Celine Starburst]], so that readers arrive at the more pertinent article in the eventuality that it is created.

Reasons not to bypass redirects include:

• Redirects can indicate possible future articles.
• Introducing unnecessary invisible text makes the article more difficult to read in page source form.
• Non-piped links make better use of the "what links here" tool, making it easier to track how articles are linked and helping with large-scale changes to links.
• If editors persistently use a redirect instead of an article title, it may be that the article needs to be moved rather than the redirect changed. As such the systematic "fixing of redirects" may eradicate useful information which can be used to help decide on the "best" article title.

Good reasons to bypass redirects include:

• It is usually preferable not to use redirected links in navigational templates, such as those found at the bottom of many articles (e.g., {{TrollsCharacters}} at the end of Queen Poppy). When the template is placed on an article and contains a direct link to the same article (rather than a redirect), the direct link will display in bold (and not as a link), making it easier to navigate through a series of articles using the template. There are exceptions to this exception: where a redirect represents a distinct sub-topic within a larger article and is not merely a variant name, it is preferable to leave the redirect in the template.
• It may be appropriate to make this kind of change if the hint that appears when a user hovers over the link is misleading.
• Spelling errors and other mistakes should be corrected. Don't link to a misspelled redirect. This does not necessarily mean that the misspelled redirect should be deleted.
• Links on disambiguation pages.
• In other namespaces, particularly the template namespace in which subpages are common, any link or transclusion to a former page title that has become a redirect following a page move or merge should be updated to the new title for naming consistency.

Language Style & Spelling

Since the Trolls Trollpedia serves as an encyclopedia, standard English should be used in articles. In any case, American English (the English variant that the DreamWorks Trolls franchise itself uses) should always be used on main namespace pages. An exception to this is in media titles, song lyrics, character quotes and alternative character names, in addition to 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 American English spelling. If you come across a word spelled the way it is in another country (for example, "color" spelled as "colour") in an article, just change it to the American English spelling and be done with it.

If users do not comply with American spelling, please leave this situation to staff members to handle, often the issue is simply a result of the editor's country of origin. If anyone is harassing a user over this, please report this to a member of the staff. Note that this is considered overall a minor issue and unless the editor in question is being abusive or disrespectful, this is usually not a ban worthy offence.

Point of View

• Situations must be discussed in a disinterested tone, giving no bias or preferences and avoiding to include unimportant issues undue weight. Avoid using the imperative form and second person (you) when writing articles, except when it comes to quotes or extracts of promotional text and taglines.
  • As such, avoid using subjective adjectives (such as famous, iconic, good, bad, etc.) unless they are part of a quotation or when used from a specific perspective.

Names

Most names should be written only in capitals. Names in the introductory text referring to the article's topic should be in bold. Names referring to installment titles should be written in italics.

Dates, Numbers and Currencies

Dates and Time

Dates should always be formatted as "November 4, 2016". No other date format is permitted in articles.

Time can be formatted in either 12-hour clock time (2:30 pm) or 24-hour clock time (14:30). 24-hour clock times with an hour under 10 should have a leading zero.

Numbers

Numbers should be formatted with a comma as the thousands separator and a period as the decimal separator, though an abreviated number with only the latter would be preferred whenever it is larger than ten thousand (10,000).

Numbers smaller than 5 (five) should usually be written as words instead of digits in text, unless they refer to certain measure systems, or notably large entities that may have their own subentities.

Currencies

Whenever a source with currency is cited, it should always include a number based on the United States dollar (written as "$"). The only exception to this is when it refers to a currency that is fictional or is from a non-American source of reference.

Gallery Style

Galleries should always be centrally positioned (position="center") and have a determined image width number (widths="(number)") ranging from 100 to 200, depending on the number of images and the topic that they address. A small spacing between images (spacing="small") should usually be included too, unless there is a single image in a gallery. If an image in the gallery has captions, the captions should be centered (captionalign="center").

Trivia

This is an often disputed part of writing articles, with some FANDOM wikis and external wiki websites refusing to accept trivia (such as Wikipedia, which argues against it on the basis of it going against an encyclopedic style of writing) and others indifferent on the matter. Trivia can be difficult to write, as it varies from article to article what the nature of the trivia should be, and trivia sections can be short or long. For example, an episode has a different style of trivia section to a character page; an episode's trivia includes things such as pop culture references and explaining details, while a character's trivia may note things reported on the official Twitter accounts dedicated to the franchise like star signs. Some characters who play a minor role will end up with very little (if any) trivia, while others like Poppy or Branch will end up with a lot. The general rule for writing trivia on the wiki is to firstly consider, "Is the fact notable? Would a reader share that fact with others?" In general, consider common sense and logic to make trivia clear and straight to the point.

Do not add facts without any use to trivia sections. Trivia sections are for notes and information that do not fit within the rest of the page, and are often not obvious to the reader or little known. They are not for things like "She is the first female Rock Troll to appear.", "He is the only named Classical Troll in the movie." or "He is the only named Bergen without his own page on the wiki."

Often, information held in trivia sections is considered as being as though it is in a long-term holding storage, as the wiki is a long-term development project. Therefore, a trivia section may be retired and the information moved elsewhere at a much later date. Please note that it is not essential to have these sections at all - do not add trivia sections to pages just for the sake of having them.

Article Stubs

If you don't know enough information on a topic, or you know there's more, add a stub to it. To do this, use the Stub template by adding {{Stub}} to the top of the article, before or after any infobox template instead of adding Category:Article Stubs directly to an article. Articles should only be marked as a stub if the article is incomplete and is missing some basic information, so that people will know that it's a stub by looking at the article stub category. For example, even though the article about the [[Strings]] does not have many sections, it should not be marked a stub because there is nothing else worthwhile to say about it.