Music:Manual of Style

This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles in Music Wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, these are guidelines that should be observed when editing content pages. Please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles.

These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for the Music Wiki, but a more expansive set of guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Article titles

The articles constitute the most important part of the wiki and should be written in a way anyone interested can understand and easily find the information of interest.

Note that Fandom handles capitalized words differently than lowercase words. Entering them into search will bring up two different articles.

Article names should be in singular form, not plural.
Unless the name of the article contains (or is) a proper noun, none of the words should be capitalized.

Albums, songs & artists

There are a few simple rules to follow when naming an album, a song, or an artist article.

Article titles for any type of article should include the original name. Titles should not use abbreviations; abbreviations should be left to redirects.
The titles of any article regarding music should be the name by which it is officially known.
If more than one song or album shares a name similar to other artists, please include the song or album name first, followed by naming the specific topic in parentheses under the format of "(<artist> <album type/song>)", e.g., (Don't Fear) The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult song).
You may want to create disambiguation pages for commonly named articles. The title must contain only that commonly named term, without the "disambig" or "disambiguation" in parentheses. Please include {{disambig}} at the top of the article.

Administrators may move articles without consultation if they do not conform to the naming article policy.

Article content

How to edit and create articles? Take a look at several contributions made by some of our experienced users, Saviour's edits for example, and learn how to build a good article. It might be hard at the beginning, but after some time, you will get used to it. Every change, including new pages, will be monitored by the sysops, so be careful with every single contribution you've made.

A gentle reminder that you should be ready with content before creating articles and cannot leave the first version of a page blank. If you're not ready yet, you may create your own sandbox or drafts rather than edit on the spot. First things first, don't copy everything from Wikipedia. We all know that Wikipedia has brief content about almost everything, but please encourage original content, not copied from Wikipedia.

Structure

Most articles, no matter if about an artist, band, song, or album, will have infobox information and must start with that. These infoboxes give a brief summary of the article. A good article should start with an introduction and then some background info and must be in paragraphs. Advanced features, like tables and lists, should only be used if necessary. As a whole, try to avoid using point forms for an entire page and elaborate as much as you can. If you're unsure about particular content, try conducting research online and cite sources if possible.

For the article structure of particular topics, like albums, songs, artists, etc., you may take a look at these sub-pages below:

Language

In the Music Wiki, we only accept content in English, with the exception of interlanguage wikis. In terms of article content, English must be applied at all times, with native languages included only if necessary. Please avoid article content entirely in foreign languages, as such articles will be speedily deleted without prior notice.

In terms of article titles, they must use the Latin or Roman alphabet. Names originally in a non-Latin alphabet, such as Chinese, Japanese, or Russian, must be Romanized. If there is a common English form of the name, use it.

Grammar and punctuation

When writing articles, it is important to follow these rules of the English language:

Please refrain from using netspeak or any similar slang. We are compiling a professional and encyclopedic resource for Music-related fans.
Keep your writing around a 6th-grade reading level. You don't need to fill it with complex words or phrases just to make it sound smarter, especially if you're not certain how the word should be used.
Vary your words. When writing, try to vary the words you use and the length of your sentences. It makes things sound more interesting.
Capitalize words when appropriate. (see below)
Use correct punctuation. This includes commas, periods, question marks, and apostrophes. (see below)
Know the difference between homophones: there, their, and they're; here and hear; it's and its; who's and whose.

Capitalization

Capitalize the first word of every sentence. (e.g., Albums are published by developers of a record label.)
Capitalize proper nouns. (e.g., Scott Joplin, Iron Maiden)
Capitalize the first and important words in a title. (e.g., "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings")

For a full list, visit Capital Community College's Guide to Grammar and Writing.

Punctuation

In addition to basic punctuation, it is important to know how to punctuate titles. Titles are always either in italics or inside quotation marks.

Italics

Italics can be used for large works like albums and EPs.

Examples:

Black & White
Hound Dog

To use italics on Fandom, place two single quote marks before and after the title:

''Music is an art of organizing sound waves that calms the soul''

These are single quotes ('), not double quotes ("). Alternatively, highlight the title you want to put in italics with your mouse and click the "I" button in the toolbar above the edit box (in between the B for bolding and AB for the internal link).

Categorizing manner

All articles, including images, must be categorized into relevant but necessary categories. Please avoid overcategorizing, such as adding categories like Music, Artists, Singles, and Albums all at once. Some categories in this wiki may be outdated or corrupted. Our staff are working to improve them, so to avoid confusion, let the sysops handle categorization if you're unsure.

Citing and external links

Citing is optional but encouraged. No matter how true the content, if it's not cited, it cannot be verified and might be reverted. Citing acts as a safety net to prove the accuracy of your information, reducing the risk of removal.

All citations and external links should be included at the bottom of the article. External links should contain several relevant links that cannot be cited directly. For streaming services and social networks (only applied to artists), use the infobox artist template, as it already includes parameters for these.

Organization

While editing a page, you can include some HTML tags, such as "i" for italics, "p" for paragraphs, "a" for hyperlinks, etc., as well as simple styles or CSS codes to enhance quality. However, this is not recommended, as Fandom already provides standardized styles and simplified code. Adding complex tags may confuse viewers and increase load times.

Certain HTML tags, such as "br" for line breaks, "pre" for pre-defined codes, and "small" for small-sized text, are still allowed and useful for organizing content.

Further considerations

Lyrics

At this time, lyrics are prohibited for legal reasons. This wiki is meant to provide information, not lyrics. The now-defunct LyricWiki hosted lyrics but was shut down due to TOS violations. Discussions about reinstating lyrics are ongoing, but it is unlikely due to limited staff. Articles containing lyrics will be speedily deleted without notice.

External Links

We have a dedicated template for the external links section. For more information, visit this page. This template is in a testing phase and will become mandatory in the future. Applying this template ensures better verification of links.

Article templates

If you see unused or outdated article templates in categories, this is likely due to outdated elements, poor design, or missing parameters. We are working to finalize a fixed article structure and will implement it soon.

Media

Media can be an effective way to grab attention for an article. Though optional, editors are encouraged to upload at least one image or video relevant to the content. If no image is available, add {{Image needed}} at the top of the page.

Images

Please see Help:Images for more information.

Images are preferred to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned, except when left alignment improves the layout.
Avoid using too many images in a single article. If there are too many, consider creating a gallery with a level-two heading at the bottom of the article.
Use captions to explain the relevance of each image.
Resize large images to a smaller, appropriate size that does not overshadow the text but is still visually appealing.
Captions that are complete sentences should end with a period. If the caption is not a complete sentence, omit the period. Do not italicize captions.
Name your files descriptively to avoid confusion. For example, avoid names like "0239235jgjgkdgdf.jpg." Files with unclear names may be deleted or renamed by an administrator.
Do not upload images we already have. Check the Music Wiki for duplicates before uploading.
Avoid uploading national flags, especially for federal states.
Use .jpg or .png file formats to improve page load times.

All uploaded files must be assigned to at least one page. Files displayed with the "File:" prefix are exceptions for infoboxes, which do not require the prefix.

Unused files will be categorized into Candidates for deletion. Files in this category are monitored for approximately seven days. If not assigned to a page during that time, the file will be deleted as "unused." Some files may be deleted earlier without notice.

Files should not include watermarks from image providers like Getty Images or from YouTube videos. Watermarked files will be speedily deleted, even if marked as fair use. All uploaded images and videos must be categorized into specific categories. Avoid overcategorizing, such as using both "Images" and "Videos."

Images of artists

Images of musical artists are always copyrighted. Avoid using photos from Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, or similar platforms, as this violates copyright law. Search Wikimedia Commons for artist photos to use instead. Music Wiki supports Wikimedia Commons, so you don't need to re-upload images—just use the file name in the article. For infoboxes, omit the "File:" prefix.

Cover artworks

Covers of musical releases are copyrighted and not free to use. All must be marked as fair use. Use the following syntax for uploads:

==Summary==
{{Information
| description = Cover artwork of ''[release name]'' by [artist name]<br>The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the record label or the graphic artist(s).
| source      = 
| date        = 
| author      = unknown
| permission  = 
| other_versions = 
| additional_information = 
}}

==Licensing==
{{Fairuse}}

Source: This field is mandatory. Provide a link to the source, such as a music database (e.g., Discogs) or a streaming service. Do not use Wikipedia or its affiliates as your source. Files without sources may be categorized as Files with no machine-readable source and risk deletion.
Date: Enter the release year or the exact date in the format YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2003-03-03 for March 3, 2003).
Author: Include the cover artwork creator's name if credited in the release.
Licensing: Always use {{Fairuse}}. This is preconfigured in the syntax above.

Categorize covers appropriately. For example, use [[Category:Album covers]] for a studio album or [[Category:Single covers]] for a single.

Protected images

Edits or uploads to the following images require administrator approval:

Videos

As of September 2023, uploading videos found on YouTube is prohibited. Violating this rule may result in penalties. Instead, mention official music videos in the external links section or include them in the infobox.

Music

Uploading music files is prohibited, whether in full or as snippets.

Links

To link to another article inside Music Wiki, enclose the title in [[]]. For links to other wikis, use [[w:c:NAMEOFTHEWIKI|]]. If an article does not exist, the link will appear dark red. External links appear blue.

You only need to link to a page once per article, typically the first time it is mentioned.

Examples:

[[Elvis Presley]]
[[w:c:music:Music|the Wiki about all genres of music.]]

If an article contains red links, add {{Redlinks}} at the top of the page to signal contributors to create those pages.

Perspective

Writing in articles generally falls into two categories: in universe and out of universe. In universe writing treats the subject as if it exists within its fictional context. Out of universe is written from an external, real-world perspective. Use the out of universe perspective unless otherwise specified. Write in third person and use standard encyclopedia tenses. Exceptions may apply for album or song reviews.

Deletion

Reasons for deletion include, but are not limited to:

Copyright violations or material violating non-free content criteria.
Vandalism, including inflammatory redirects, patent nonsense, or gibberish.
Advertising or spam without relevant content (but not articles about advertising-related subjects).
Articles lacking verifiable sources despite thorough research.
Redundant or outdated templates.
Categories representing overcategorization.
Unused or obsolete files.
Content unsuitable for an encyclopedia.