Amaranth Legacy:Page Guidelines

This page lists the guidelines for pages and their content for subjects such as standardization or accessibility.

You may also be looking for:

• the community rules
• the New Editor's Guide

Before you continue

This is important. Do not proceed without reading this section.

Make sure you have read and understand the rules. If you fail to follow the community rules, your content may be removed and you may be blocked from this website.

Namespace usage

Scope

Pages in the Scope namespace provide a general overview of a scope. They normally include:

• a brief paragraph as an introduction,
• a list of genres that apply to the scope,
• the rules and guidelines for collaboration,
• the required and recommended reading, and
• interaction with other scopes (if any).

Remember to put {{ScopeLanding}} at the top of the page!

A good example would be Scope:Cosmoria.

Lexica

Pages in the Lexica namespace provide information on terminology used in a scope. They normally include:

• a list of definitions and descriptions of invented or recontextualized terminology,
• brief descriptions of timekeeping, regions, and other required definitions, and
• links to pages that explain the items above in further detail.

A good example would be Lexica:Cosmoria.

Index

Pages in the Index namespace list all the content within a scope. They generally include:

• a list of content within a scope,
• context to understand relations between the items, and
• a brief description of the items.

A good example would be Index:Silky Way.

Timeline

Pages in the Timeline namespace provide a chronological list of important events in a scope. They generally include:

• a definition / explanation of the date and time systems within the scope and
• a chronological list of important events.

A good example would be Timeline:Chromagaia.

Additional notes

If your scope name is long or has an abbreviation / shortening, use the full form in page titles, category titles, and template titles. In the page content, you are free to refer to your scope however you see fit.

Page naming

You can name your page anything as long as it does not conflict with another existing page.

If there is a page title collision, you must:

• add your scope name (and any other specifiers, like the setting name or the region) in parentheses to the title and
• add your page to the list on the primary page (the one without any parentheses)

If a disambiguation page does not exist

Create the primary page with something like this:

{{Disambiguation|*(page in scope A)
*(page in scope B)
*…}}

If a disambiguation page does exist

Add a link to your page on the existing primary page.

For example, Earth is present in several scopes and therefore requires the colliding pages to have their scope in parentheses.

In addition, if your page uses a pre-established title (the name of a mythological, historical, or real-world concept), it is good practice to disambiguate beforehand. This makes others' use of the name without conflict much easier.

Examples include:

• Ares (Encyclopedia Via Lactea) for a mythological figure
• United States of America (Borealis Universe) for a historical nation
• Haven (Imagindarium) for a real-world inspired concept

While this is not a hard rule, it is greatly appreciated and may be done on your behalf by the staff at their discretion.

If you wish for the parentheses to not appear in your page title when reading, it can be done by the staff.

Avoid "the"

Avoid the use of "the" at the start of page titles (like "The United States" becomes "United States").

Special characters

If your page has special characters (in this case, defined to be any character that is not in ASCII), you may use it in the page name. However, for searchability, it is recommended to create a redirect without the special characters.

Page hatnotes

Hatnotes are the notices at the top of a page.

If you are writing for an already existing scope, see the scope's page on which template to use; it will usually list the specific one.

If you are writing for a new scope, please see the documentation on the hatnote template page.

Generally, it will look like the following:

---

(text on the first line)

(text on the second line)

---

To use a hatnote, create a template page named like "Template:(scope name)" or "Template:(scope name)Hatnote", such as Template:Ambrosia.

General format for creating a new hatnote template

{{#invoke:Scope hatnote|main
|for=ScopeName
|rawcss_ref=scopename
|categories=[[Category:Scope: ScopeName]]
<!-- template parameters -->
|specifier=ScopeName
|file=Scope_Logo_Filename.png
|color=#HEXCOLOR
|primary=Tagline
|secondary=This content is a part of [[Scope:ScopeName|ScopeName]].
}}

If you do not know or understand how to do this or are confused, please see the section below on where to ask questions. We are happy to help you and can do it for you if you're still confused.

Infoboxes

If you want to add an infobox (the box on the right of a page that gives a quick overview) to your page, there are premade templates for you to use. Search for "Template:Infobox (name of thing)" (like Template:Infobox Nation) and add your content.

Template creation

If you want to create a new template, consider the following before you create it:

• Is there any template which already serves the same purpose? If so, you do not need to create a new template.
• Is the new template similar in purpose to another template? If so, ask the original creator or current maintainer if the templates should be combined.
• Is the new template a simple modification (stylistic or minor change) of an existing template? If so, ask the original creator or current maintainer to update it. This allows for other people to use it and benefit from the changes.

If none of these apply, you can create your template. In addition, notify the community managers with a description of what it can be used for so it can become a standard.

Use of DISPLAYTITLE

When using DISPLAYTITLE, you are only allowed to

• make typographic changes (like making it italic),
• make stylistic changes (like changing its color or font),
• make capitalization changes (like displaying EBay as eBay), and
• remove disambiguation parentheses (like displaying Earth (Borealis Universe) as Earth).

You are not allowed to hide the namespace a page is in. This defeats the purpose of putting it in a namespace, and it makes it harder for readers to understand at a glance what type of page they are reading.

Category naming

Content categories

(An example would be a category for every species or planet.)

Before making a content category, there must be at least a significant amount of pages (around 10) that fall under the category.

For content categories, you must use title case.

Scope categories

(An example would be a category for the species or planets in a scope.)

The general format for naming scope categories is the following:

If you have seperate settings

Scope: (scope name)

These categories are broad; they contain all the content in a scope.

Scope: (scope name) - (scope setting)

These categories are more narrower; they contain all the content in one specific setting.

Setting: (scope setting) - (subcategory)

These categories are the most narrow; they contain only specific content (example: plants) in a specific setting.

Setting: (scope setting) - (subcategory) - (...)

You may choose to break those categories down even further.

If you have no seperate settings

Scope: (scope name)

These categories are broad; they contain all the content in a scope.

Scope: (scope name) - (subcategory)

These categories are the most narrow; they contain only specific content (example: plants) in a scope.

Scope: (scope name) - (subcategory) - (...)

You may choose to break those categories down even further.

For subcategories, there are no restrictions or requirements for creating them.

Content categorization

If you create a page, upload a file, or create a template, it is recommended to add an author category. Don't worry about this too much; if you do not, it will be fixed for you.

The general naming of author categories is the following:

Pages

Author: (author name)

Files

Files: (uploader name)

Templates

Templates: (author name)

Accessibility

A good starting point for learning about MediaWiki and accessibility would be the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style.

Page backgrounds

Background image

The background image for a scope should not distract from the content. This means it should not be excessively bright or excessively detailed. Some examples of good backgrounds are:

• 
  Amarleg-main.png
• 
  Vela-Background.png
• 
  Chromagaia.png
• 
  NebulaAddition4.png

Background color

If you're modifying the page background color or transparency, keep in mind your background image's brightness and detail and adjust accordingly. For example, the default background (Amarleg-main.png) uses blur(16px). A minimum of blur(4px) is required.

In addition, make sure it supports light mode, dark mode, and pure black dark mode. The following selectors can be used:

:root {
	/* light mode settings */
}

:root.skin-theme-clientpref-day {
	/* light mode settings */
}

@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
	:root.skin-theme-clientpref-os {
		/* light mode settings */
	}
}

:root.skin-theme-clientpref-night {
	/* dark mode settings */
}

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
	:root.skin-theme-clientpref-os {
		/* dark mode settings */
	}
}

:root.citizen-feature-pure-black-clientpref-1 {
	/* pure black dark mode settings */
}

Text

Text contrast

The text on a page should be readable in both light and dark mode. This can be accomplished by making sure your text color contrasts enough with the background. You should aim for an AAA rating, but an AA rating is acceptable. See the links below for more information.

• Color contrast reference from MDN
• Contrast checker
• Firefox's Accessibility Inspector
• Chrome's accessibility features

Images

Alt text

Make sure that your images have alt text (text which describes the image for screen readers). For more information, please see the Alternative Text article from WebAIM.

Diagrams

Diagrams should be black by default. In addition, you should add class=skin-invert-image when you use the image.

A good example would be Bloch sphere.png.

[[File:Bloch sphere.png|center|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|alt=]]