It is important that readers of the wiki should be able to become familiar with wiki pages and feel comfortable using the wiki. A consistent page structure and content is helpful because readers will know what to expect and where. It is, however, recognised that the wiki contains a diversity of information and that each topic will require its own treatment and will be developed to a different breadth and depth. Authors should note that these are guidelines, not rules. Authors should endeavour to follow these guidelines but also feel free to vary if their subject deserves or requires it.
A Wiki article will contain some or all of the following content:
Title. The title should be focused on the topic, be informative and brief. The article title is the first thing most readers will see, and will strongly influence their decision whether to read the article. An informative title is more likely to contain words that readers search for.
Status. The status may be displayed as a short sentence or two. If the author regards the article as complete, no statement of status should be made. The status line may be used to highlight that the article is under development, or any features that are lacking. It can also be used to appeal for contributions. Examples:
This article is under active development. Please check back.
This article contains information that may be no longer current. Can you help to update it?
Keywords. A list of keywords that strongly reflect the subject matter of the article. The keywords may help readers to locate the article when doing a wiki search.
Summary. It is good practice to begin the article with one or two paragraphs summarising the topic. This does not have to be explicitly named as a summary (although it can be), it can simply follow after the title. A good summary gives the reader an understanding of the contents of the article and helps them decide whether to read it in full.
Content. The content is the body of the article, including images and any other media. See Writing a new article for guidelines of the wiki content.
See also / Other sources. Links to other pages of the wiki and other sources of information are strongly encouraged. Where possible they should be included in the text where it is natural to do so. Other sources that cannot be so referenced should be included as a separate section. This may include printed works. Sources may be:
Examples:
The library at the National Railway Museum contains a collection of works drawings of the BR 9F class.
Jack Simmons and Gordon Biddle. The Oxford Companion to British Railway History. Oxford University Press (1997).
Authors. The author(s) of the article and the date of publication should be included if possible. This information should be at the bottom of the article, separated from the article by a ruled line. Example:
The article was developed for the Gauge O Guild Manual by A. N. Expert in 1998. It was adapted for the GOGWiki by A. Humble Scribe in 2021.
Many elements of the text style are set by the wiki authoring software. Authors should not try to diverge from these. Authors should also note the following:
Headings. Headings should be sentence case, i.e. the first word should start with a capital, other words (except proper nouns) should be lower case. There is a hierarchy of headings available in the authoring software. Use them as dictated by the structure and content of the article. Use headings to break up long stretches of text into easily assimilated sections, but do not over-use headings because that will break up the flow. Rarely does each paragraph need its own heading. Do not number headings.
Figure captions. Appear in italic, below the figure.
Table captions. Appear in italic, above the table.
Numbering. Figures are numbered consecutively as they appear, from 1. Do not subdivide (2a, 2b, etc) unless the content makes this essential. Do not number drawings and photographs separately – they are all called figures. Tables are also numbered consecutively as they appear, from 1.
Links. When linking to a target, it is better to use the name rather than the URL of the target, and certainly not the URL alone. URLs in text are distractions. For example:
The answer to everything can be found in Wikipedia.
is better than
The answer is everything can be found in Wikipedia https://www.wikipedia.org
and both are improvements on
https://www.wikipedia.org contains the answer to everything.
Paragraphs. Break up long paragraphs as the content dictates. But do not follow the tabloid newspaper practice of making each sentence a paragraph.
Punctuation. Limit the use of semicolons, in most cases a comma or a full stop is better. Use a colon only to introduce a list. Do not use hyphens to break the text – like this example – unless the sense really requires it. Commas are almost always better. Use exclamation marks very sparingly! Use inverted commas (single and double) sparingly. If using a word in an unusual context, the context usually indicates this fact and you do not have to draw the reader’s attention to it with inverted commas.
Naming. Gauge O and O gauge use capital O, not 0 (zero). Gauge O Guild and the Guild use capitals (and capital O). Proper names always use capitals and are spelt literally, even if the spelling is odd.
Contractions. Words such as don’t, can’t, they’ve should not be used (except in the unlikely event of reporting dialogue).
Abbreviations do not require full stops, e.g. GWR, not G.W.R. Use abbreviations for units, e.g. mm not millimetres, in. not inches (note the full stop after in. to distinguish it from the word in). Unit symbols are both singular and plural, e.g. 4000 gal not 4000 gals. If making extenive use of abbreviations, particularly those that may not be familiar to readers, consider including a list of nomenclature.