PikminFanon:General content guidelines

The following guidelines apply to all articles generally. More specific guidelines can be found here. For general content policies, see here.

General

 * Most articles begin with a section involving infobox info. They are articles covering the following: enemies, vegetation, Pikmin, canonical characters and ships, items, objects, hazards, obstacles, and gameplay mechanics.
 * In the article's opening and each fanon media subsection, the name of the article's subject should be in bold.
 * The definitive article "the" is not preferred in an article title unless it is in the title of a fanon game. Regardless, it is ignored in most cases when organizing fanon media subsections.
 * Articles should ideally have at least one image. Although not encouraged, an article may go without images if its subject can not easily be shown.
 * Use formal US English. That said, just because the wording should be formal doesn't mean it has to use advanced words.
 * When referring to the player, use the gender-neutral pronoun "they" or their variants.
 * Dates should be presented with the date template.
 * Both the spoiler and endspoiler templates are used to add flavor to articles, but their use is not required.
 * The word "gray" should always be spelled as that instead of "grey" when in article titles, and a version of the article's title using "grey" should be made into a redirect to the one that uses "gray". In the article itself, however, the spelling of "grey" can be used.
 * Reference tags shouldn't have spaces before them.
 * Instead of the  tag, use the refs template.
 * Colors, such as in color and linkcolor, should always be defined using three-digit hexadecimal codes rather than six if color names aren't used. Additionally, colored text should always be readable.
 * All subpages that are not related to user pages should have the first letter in their title capitalized.

Italicizing
All titled media should be italicized in articles. This is mainly video games but also covers series, music, books, and films. italic title can be used to make article titles appear italicized. Scientific names should also always be italicized.

"Pikmin 1"
The first Pikmin game, , should always be referred to as "Pikmin 1". It can be easily linked to using p1.

Capitalization
Some subjects in the Pikmin series have ambiguous official capitalization, commonly because subjects whose names aren't in title case are forced to be so because of the way they're presented. This, combined with different games being inconsistent about the capitalization of some names has led to the following community-created guidelines:

Title case. Proper nouns are to always be presented in title case. This includes, but is not limited to: areas, caves, characters, ships, ship parts, treasures, and fruits.
 * Proper nouns:

Title case. This applies to Pikmin type and enemy and plant names. In notes, however, they can be presented in lowercase.
 * Species:

Lowercase. The names of families should be presented in lowercase.
 * Families:

Lowercase. For objects that are common throughout a game and do not have a major impact on gameplay, their names should be in lowercase. This includes, but is not limited to: hazards, obstacles, sprays, eggs, nectar, rubble, bomb rocks, pellets, and geysers.
 * Common objects:

Lowercase. For words that do not deserve or need any specific capitalization, they should be presented in lowercase like any normal text, even if they're important mechanics. This means that words like leader, area, cave, sublevel, sunset, and so on.
 * Simple words:


 * Special cases:
 * "Onion", as well as the Onion's type, must always be presented in title case, except in notes.
 * The President's name should be presented as "the President", for consistency's sake.
 * Scientific names are italicized and use a capital first letter for the genus and a lowercase for the rest. An example is "Oculus kageyamii russus".

For the purpose of clarity, "title case" refers to names in which the first letter of each non-minor word is capitalized, and "lowercase" means that the words all start with a lowercase letter. Naturally, the names of subjects at the start of sentences, headers, and so on always start with an uppercase letter, with very few exceptions.

Frames and galleries
All images with frames and images on galleries should have a caption on them, even when the caption is the same as that of the previous image. Captions should be treated like an article's body, with links and italicizations, ending in periods, and so on.

When creating a gallery for an article, organize the images so that the most in-game related content is placed first. For example, suppose there is a gameplay screenshot, a texture ripped from the game, a concept art picture, a strategy guide picture, and a photo of a relevant real-world item. They should be presented in that order.

Prerelease
When referring to a prototypical version of media, avoid using the terms "alpha" and "beta". Those terms can mean different points in development for different developers, so unless the developers specifically brand a point in time or version as being "alpha", "beta", or "release candidate", do not use those terms. Instead, use "prototype", "prerelease", or "early".