Food Dye Studios Wiki:Style Guide

This document provides guidelines for the style and presentation of articles on the Food Dye Studios Wiki. Before you start writing an article read the article guidelines to make sure the page is relevant and allowed on this wiki. You are responsible for making sure your page meets the standards listed here and in the article guidelines. If there are major sections that are wrong or missing, or the page is incomprehensible then it will be deleted.

Article Sections and Headings
Headings should be used to separate information in the article. The guidelines for headings are as follows: The following are common headings used, and what should be included in these sections:
 * Use Miraheze's "heading" option in the editor. Use Miraheze's "sub-heading 1" (and so on) for headings within headings. Do not create headings in any other way.
 * Do bold, italicize, underline, or add additional formatting to headings in any way.
 * Do not add a "definition" heading at the top of the page. This is unnecessary.

History
History must answer the 4 w's. Don't put why as a question. Because, you get more opinions and less factual information.

Example of usage: Why are you wearing that? The answer with, "Because I like it." Instead of asking "Why are guys wearing dresses?" Answer with why they shouldn't do that.

Who is the dress for?: They are for women.

What are dresses?: Dresses are a piece of cloth that women wear.

When did dresses first exist?:

Where are the dresses located?: They are located at a clothing store.

Etymology
Etymology sections are optional. Only include this information if the etymology of the term is known and is interesting. Do not point out things that are exceptionally obvious. That Feminine means "Females" that's where Fem came from. Masculine means "Males" that's where Ma came from. Despite their names they are traits found in both.

Text Formatting

 * All articles must be written in formal American English.
 * The title of the article must be the first word in the article (or as close as possible). Any alternate terms/spellings, and abbreviations must be placed directly after it (eg: "[Title], also known as [alternate term], [definition].").
 * Bold text must only be used for the first mention of the term in the title of the article and the first mention of any alternate term/alternate spellings, abbreviations, and subsets.
 * Italics must only be used for words in languages other than English and titles of books, movies, games, and other media.
 * Do not: type any words in all caps or in non-standard type registers, replace letters in words with numbers, symbols, or slashes, or do any other things that would prevent a text to speech program from being able to read the text unless it is part of a term's name or in a direct quote.
 * Do not add unnecessarily large spaces between paragraphs - one press of the enter key is enough.

Links

 * Add links to the first instance of a different topic mentioned in the article.
 * If possible, avoid placing two links directly next to each other such that they look like one link.
 * You can include Fandom (minus Fanon and Ideas Wiki), Everybody Wiki Bios and This is Gendered. They are primarily factual, but can be edited.

Spelling and Grammar
Spelling and grammatical errors are highly undesirable.
 * American English spelling should be used, except for in direct quotes.
 * Remember that names of genders and sexualities are not proper nouns, and therefore should not be capitalized.
 * Do not use informal language/stylization (eg: exclamation points, slang words or casual shortenings of words); do not shorten the words masculine and feminine to "masc" and "fem"; do not use "&" in place of "and".
 * Double quotes ("...") are preferable in most cases. Single quotes ('...') should be used for inner quotes (quotes inside quotes).
 * The months in all dates should be spelled out. Do not use month abbreviations. Do not use numbers for months. Dates should always be stated as month, day, year (eg: November 26th, 2020). Do not use abbreviations.

Language Use

 * Do not use jargon/overly complex terminology unless doing so is necessary. Articles should be as comprehensible and concise as possible.
 * When mentioning someone's username do NOT include "@", "u/", or any other things that some websites use to specify users.
 * For numbers twelve and less, they should be spelled out (with the exception of dates). Numbers 13 or greater should be written with numerals.
 * The terms "individual"/"individuals", "person"/"people" and "folk"/"folks" are acceptable.
 * Do not say "transmen"/"transwomen" or "trans-men"/"trans-women" - say "trans men"/"trans women". The same applies when talking about cis men/women.
 * Use Latino or Latine rather than Latinx to refer generally to Latine individuals.
 * When talking about identities, especially genders, avoid using doubtful language such as "they believe they are...".
 * Always use biological sex pronouns unless it's stated otherwise.

Swear Words and Sensitive Content
No swear words on Food Dye Studios.

Categories
The following are the rules regarding categories:
 * Articles must have a reason to be in a category. If you are uncertain, read the category page in question - most have an explanation of what falls into that category. If you still are unsure ask a staff member about it.
 * Do not add multiple, redundant categories. Only add categories that exist, and only add categories that the article falls into.

Do Not Include
These are things that should never be put in an article:
 * Do not answer the question with why.
 * For genders, do not mention groups that the gender is "mainly (but not exclusively) used by [insert group]" or similar (eg: "the majority of people who identify as bigender are AFAB"). Do not mention anything similar to this unless the identity is explicitly intended for or is exclusive to a given group.
 * Do not talk about how a term is new or is not well known - this is unnecessary.
 * Do not address the reader in any way; articles should be written purely as an accumulation of knowledge with no intended reader. Similarly, do not talk to other users within an article or ask other users to do things within the article (do not say "idk how to add images can someone else do it" or "if someone else wants to make the flag please do that", etc).
 * Do not talk about how people can identify however they want. This does not have to be said. Do not beg the reader to do something (eg: do not say "please respect people's identities").