Don't panic! These are just suggestions and you are under no obligation to follow them — but keep in mind that others may decide to change your pages' names, links, and content to match these guidelines. We are trying to create a flexible, creative environment, but also one without a whole lot of confusion. This guide should be taken with a grain of salt.

We never want guidelines to interfere with your ability or motivation for expressing yourself and getting your ideas out. Your ideas are the most important thing. This is a style guide, which means it's just the style we try to aim for to make sure we're all on the same page when it comes to conventions.

What should I name my page?

If you're making a page, picking a good name for it is important. If the place/idea has a proper name then you should try and make that the page name. For instance, Kerr Hall is often referred to as simply "Kerr" but you should make the page name "Kerr Hall" because this is the officially used name of the building. When you decide to link to Kerr, you can/should link to it with whatever name you want, be it Kerr, Kerr Hall, or the Mathematics building. When making a page for something without a universal name, just use the normal rules for capitalization in the English language.

Sometimes it's not clear what the real name of the place/thing/idea you're making a page for should be. In these cases of confusion, just make a decision as to what the page name should be, then make note of the alternative possibilities in the page itself. Referring to the other possible names allows people to do searches and find the page under any of the possible names. An example of this is the 24 Hour Reading Room, which is known as both the "Extended Hours Reading Room" and the "24 Hour Reading Room". It's not clear what the name of the page should be, so a simple reference to the other name (somewhere in the page, probably toward the beginning) fixes this and allows people to find it in a search (searching is very important for people who don't use the site regularly). Also, making redirects (by making the page contain only the line #redirect The name of the page) allows the other names to be used without problems — they will simply redirect to the one page, whatever it happens to be named.

General naming rules

• Street names should be fully spelled out. Eg Bold Street or Wood Street. If you'd like, you can make a redirect for the shortened version, eg Bold St.
• Unless it is part of the actual business name, the word "Liverpool" can be omitted from most page names. Because this is the Liverpool wiki, pages can be assumed to be Liverpool-centric. EG rather than "Liverpool Weather", just call the page Weather. On the other hand, business pages should always be the name of the business. Liverpool Auto Body for example, has the word "Liverpool" as the title and should be named as such.

A note on names for people

If you want to make a page about someone, say "John Lennon", you should probably name that page John Lennon (note the space). If on the other hand you are John Lennon (unlikely) you could create a page for yourself with the name "Users/JonLennon". The page that start with "Users/" is going to be the page associated with a particular wiki user. A link to this page is in their upper right hand corner all the time and is automatically linked when they make an edit or comment, so this page is tied to the wiki user in a special way.

Think of it this way: the username page (starts with "Users/") is the page for that person to use. The page without the "Users" in front is the page where historical information about the person might go.

Simple rule

Pages that start with "Users/" are pages for people on the wiki to use. Pages without the "Users" in front are just like normal wiki pages, etiquette-wise, which means they are pages from a more biographical standpoint. Generally, people put highly-personal or wiki-centric information on their own page. If they're a public figure, then other people are expected to control the content of the biographical page.

Renaming pages & Redirecting pages

Sometimes, for whatever reason, it's a good idea to change the title of a page. Using the "Rename" feature will cause the old page to redirect to the new page, and thus all old links do not need to be updated. This old page is said to be a "redirect" to the new page. Redirects can be made manually, by inserting #redirect Page Name into the first line of a page.

It's important to keep the wiki clean, and thus many useless pages are eventually deleted. Redirecting pages are sometimes seen as useless when no other pages within the wiki link to them. Here are some things to consider before deleting a redirecting page:

1. Does the redirecting page aid the user in finding the content by providing an alternative title for the material?

2. Do resources outside the wiki link to the redirecting page?

(1) is usually easy enough to figure out, but (2) is harder to know because even good search engines cannot index everything.

Search!

Searching is very important! Before you make a page you should do a search for it and similar items to make sure the page doesn't already exist. If the page already exists, add to it! If it exists but has (as you feel) the incorrect name, then feel free to Rename it (by going into Edit and pressing "Rename" down under the edit area) — be sure to state your reason. After renaming the page you should change the old links to the old name to the new name — again, by doing a search :) (search for the old page name) — note: you don't have to do this, as the old page name will automatically redirect to the new page name, but it's good style, and good style is sexy.

Be kind and courteous!

:)

Layout Stuff

Order of Lists

Generally, when listing a bunch of links or just making a list in an article, they should be organized alphabetically, unless there is a good reason to do otherwise.

Conversations and Comments

Often times the conversations or comments inside of a page contribute a lot to the page's worth. If possible, integrate and re-structure the page to reflect the important information contained in comments. If a comment is directed at you and it's hardly valuable to anyone else after you've read it, then removing it un-clutters the page. Leaving the subjective/experience-based portions of comments attributed to those who make them keeps (more) subjective knowledge around.

Simple conventions

• Avoid use of the words "I" or "me" unless you are attributing text to yourself.
• Want a fact checked? Write [[Include(FactCheck)]] next to something you want checked. Want a photo taken? Write [[Include(PhotoRequest)]] next to something you want a photo of. Doing this will allow for determined folks to easily search for the phrases please check and Photo Requests to find things to do.
• Names of books and movies are italicized rather than underlined. Underlining is reserved for writing things by hand or by typewriter when italics are impossible. Names of smaller, shorter works such as articles or songs within an album are surrounded by "double quotes." Also, punctuation marks always go inside the quotes unless you are posing a question which contains a quote. Ex: Did he really say "you're a floozy"?
• Avoid the use of "click here" or "go here" for link names. Descriptive and integrated names are best. Imagine that the page you're writing on is printed on a piece of paper. Would all the text still make sense?
• Capitalize in a standard English style on all pages which you expect to be useful. (Do as you like on your personal page.)
• When captioning a photo, be informative instead of interpretive. For example, it is better to say where the picture was taken or who the subject is instead of making a joke. Overall, be mild, explicit, and not flippant.
• I disagree with this. I will try and see if I can find this old photo guideline that was down at the california aggie.
• Numbers larger than ten should be represented by figures. Don't start a sentence with a figure.

Example: Bob has two bikes. Alice has 11 bikes.

See also: Wiki Ethics, Liverpool Wiki Guide and Good Style.