Meta:Style guide

This page describes the Geek Feminism's preferred style for writing and wiki markup.

See Meta:Editorial guidelines for more general guidelines about what this wiki is for, what belongs on it, and so forth.

Language/dialect

The Geek Feminism Wiki respects all dialects of English. In new content, you may choose which dialect to use. In an existing article, do not edit solely to change the dialect of English (for example, changing "centre" to "center").

When possible, use gender-neutral pronouns when you are referring to a hypothetical person whose gender is irrelevant. A good way to do this is to use singular "they". For example: write "A person with impostor syndrome applies an unfairly high standard to themself" rather than "A person with impostor syndrome applies an unfairly high standard to herself or himself". The primary reason for using gender-neutral language is to include people whose pronouns are un-gendered.
- Do not edit existing articles to make gender-neutral language gender-specific unless the meaning of the existing article is incorrect.

In general, we favor accessibility of language over formality on this wiki. Articles do not need to be written in an encyclopedic or formal tone. In practice, articles will vary in their level of formality, and that's okay. The primary implication of this guideline is that edits that serve only to formalize language without improving readability are likely to be reverted.

We have a strong preference for linking to a page on this wiki using simple wiki links [[Like this]], even if it doesn't yet exist (eg. is a "redlink"). If you want to refer to something that has, or might have, a page on this wiki, please link to it in that way. This makes it show up on Special:WantedPages and helps us build the wiki.
Use your judgement as to what pages we might want on this wiki. Not everything needs to be a page here, but if something is a notable concept, person, event, or organisation in the field of geeky feminism then it probably ought to be here!
Here are some example ways to include external links alongside wiki links:

   [[Like this]]<ref>http://example.com</ref>

The above will include a link in a references section at the bottom of the page.

   [[Like this]] ([http://example.com website])

The above will make the link more visible inline (this is especially good on pages that are mostly lists of things).

Use an initial capital, but no capitals within the name unless it's a proper noun (eg. "Anime fandom", not "Anime Fandom"). This makes it easier to link in lower case form, eg. if you're talking about anime fandom in the middle of a sentence.
Use the singular rather than plural form, eg."Computer game" rather than "Computer games". This makes it easy to talk about either one computer game or multiple computer games in wiki markup.
Do not move or rename any article (except for minor style issues) without prior discussion. If you think an article should be renamed, discuss it on the talk page. Unilaterally moving a page is grounds for a ban.

Use the names that people prefer to use for themselves.
- Note that use of a person's "dead name" is against the Geek Feminism code of conduct.
When referring to a person in article text, we don't have strict standard (eg. "Ms Alice Smith" on first mention, "Smith" on subsequent mentions), but be aware of the tendency for people to call women by their given names ("Alice") and men by their surnames, and try to resist it.

The following list of sections are commonly included on pages on this wiki:

Incidents: a list of related Category:Incidents applying to the page
Responses: commentary on an issue or incident, often in the form of a list of blog posts
Legacy and impact: sometimes used to link to other pages inspired by the subject of the first page, see eg. Octavia Butler
See also: links to related resources on this wiki
External links: links to websites outside this wiki, especially official sites, wikipedia pages, etc