Silent Hill Wiki:Manual of Style

The purpose of the Manual of Style is to provide a series of guidelines for users when creating articles for the Silent Hill Wiki. These elements should be followed accordingly and with each article created. Doing so reduces any potential workload on other users. Any questions regarding this manual may be directed at the administrators.

If you are unfamiliar with Wiki-style editing, please review the Wikia Help page. If you are inexperienced with Wiki code, please play around with the Sandbox.

Concrete elements

The following sections of the Style Guide do not pertain to the on-going discussion regarding our style of writing.

Specific wiki notes

• This wiki is for the official Konami series, so anything Silent Hill that is published by Konami may have an article on this wiki. Fan art, fan fiction and anything fan-related should be kept to an absolute mimimum.

• If an article can not be categorized in a category that already exists, then it likely should not be made. Please consult an admin before creating a new category.

• Do not make articles for individual rooms, unless they're extremely important such as Room 302.

• Don't use nicknames (unless they're so well-used such as Harry Mason). For example, Joshua Shepherd and not "Josh".
• Use colons in titles. For example:
  • Silent Hill: Origins, not Silent Hill Origins
  • Silent Hill: Downpour, not Silent Hill Downpour
  • Silent Hill: Homecoming, not Silent Hill Homecoming

• The Order should be "the Order" and not "The Order". Keep "the" lowercase, unless it's the beginning of a sentence, of course.

• When linking, keep unnecessary words such as 'the' and 'a' out of the link itself ("the Order" is an exception when linking because it is the correct name, as well as other titles such as "The Family Butcher" and "A Winter Beacon"). For example:
  • James goes to the Lakeview Hotel (incorrect)
  • James goes to the Lakeview Hotel (correct)

• All monster names should be capitalized and article names should be singular. (For example, Night Flutter, not Night Flutters).

• This wiki is written in professional modern English. Cultural slang should be avoided. For example, instead of using 'chap' which is British slang, use a more universally acceptable word such as 'man'. Use "among", not "amongst". Never use "whilst" -- instead, use "while". Whilst is a word that is becoming increasingly archaic, similar to how "thee" "thou" "thine" "hast" "hath" are rarely used. Using "singular they" is also perfectly acceptable on this wiki. Use "color" and "honor", not "colour" and "honour", use "center" instead of "centre" and "theater" instead of "theatre" (which makes no sense phonetically). Be succinct with your words, for example, "uncertain" instead of "not certain", "exhaling" instead of "breathing out", etc.

• If you see "had been", feel free to change it to "was" or "were". For example, "He had been sleeping" to "He was sleeping". "Heather and Vincent had been kidnapped" to "Heather and Vincent were kidnapped".

• If you see any variant of "It should be noted..." or "It is notable that..." or "Of note,", remove it. It is unnecessary.

• If you see any variant of "It is interesting that..." or "Interestingly, ...", remove it. Saying that something is interesting is technically an opinion.

• (Try to avoid using parentheses! Parentheses are unnecessary, do your best to reword the sentence so they aren't needed.)

• Please DO NOT use the term "COMMIT suicide" because it's controversial, insensitive and offensive to some. Use "died by suicide" or "suicided" instead. Suicide is not a crime. Just because you're used to something, it doesn't make it "right" or "acceptable".

Trivia sections

The purpose of Trivia sections are to add interesting notes that cannot be placed anywhere else in the article. You would not put "The shotgun is an effective weapon for defeating the Insane Cancer" in a Trivia section because it would fit better in the main article.

Information in Trivia sections should still be notable enough, as well as pertain to the article's subjects.

Allusions outside the Silent Hill universe are allowed as long as there is enough substantial comparison and strong similarities (For example, Angela Orosco to Mayu from Elfen Lied, or the film version of Alessa Gillespie to Agatha Prenderghast from ParaNorman). The reason for this is because allusions and similarities can provide insight and value to knowledge of storytelling and characterization.

However, if the similarities are too weak (an example of this would be comparing James Sunderland to Lee Everett based solely on the facts that they're survival horror protagonists aiding a young girl), then it should be removed.

Allusions and Trivia should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Also try to keep trivia sections organized based on chronological order. For example, the Trivia of Eddie Dombrowski lists notes about the first encounter with him in the beginning, and progresses to the rest of the game.

If you want to add images to a Trivia section, please try to keep all images aligned to the right.

Italic titles

Games or titles should be written in italic for easier understanding of what it means. For example:

• Silent Hill 2 (video game)
• Silent Hill: Revelation (film)
• Silent Hill: The Arcade

When referring to the actual town of Silent Hill itself, do NOT write it in italics.

Capitals in headings

Taken from Wikipedia's Manual of Style:

Use sentence-style capitalization, not title-style capitalization: Capitalize the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns in headings, but leave the rest lower case. Thus "Rules and regulations", not "Rules and Regulations".

For example:

• See also, not See Also
• External links, not External Links
• Silent Hill 2 (correct)
• James Sunderland and Grabbing Filthy Wallets from Filthy Toilets (incorrect)
• Who killed Thomas Orosco? (correct)
• Claudia Wolf and Her Mysterious Lack of Eyebrows (incorrect)
• Silent Hill 4: The Room's reception and gameplay (correct)

Using 'you'

It is preferred that editors do not 'you' when referring to the main character or the player as it sounds less professional, as well as 'we'.

• For example, instead of "You will eventually find Cynthia trapped in a subway car.", use "Henry" (the player character) or "The player" (the one playing the game) instead so that it becomes either "The player will eventually find Cynthia trapped in a subway car." or "Henry eventually finds Cynthia trapped in a subway car."

• Another example is instead of "You can find the spade in the alleyway.", use "The player can find the spade in the alleyway." or "Henry can find the spade in the alleyway."

• The only exception when using 'You' are Puzzle articles as they are written as guides that explain the puzzle to the reader.

Additionally, always avoid writing in the first-person when writing articles, especially in character or monster pages.

• For example, "Two Pyramid Heads appears at the end of Silent Hill 2 as a boss, but I found him easy to beat", or "I think that Harry is a real swell guy". Personal techniques for boss fighting and experiences in the game are best avoided at all times, as this is where it tends to be easiest to slip into first person.

Article organization

Article organization should be in this order, from top to bottom:

• Era icons
• Infoboxes
• Disambiguation (should be indented once, and in italics)
• Main quote
• Introduction paragraph
• The bulk of the article, under headings

...and near the end of the article:

• Creator's comment (if there is one.)
• Quotes (Please use notable or interesting quotes only. A character saying, "It's a chair" isn't really notable. Quotes should be in point form and chronological order, with italics outside quotation marks. Try to keep it a limit of 50 or so. In addition, please make them accurate. A character saying, "Why did she not take me with the others?" may accidentally be misinterpreted as, "Why didn't she take me? Like the others?")
• Trivia
• References
• External links
• See also
• Gallery, formatted like:

<gallery widths="120" captionalign="center" position="center" orientation="square" spacing="small">

• Content Templates (Click here to see an example)

Referencing other characters

Whenever a character is first introduced into an article, they should always be referenced by their full name, unless such information is unavailable. Subsequent mentions of a character by name may use their first name or another name they are commonly referred by.

Sources

In most circumstances, a source for a given article will be officially released media (be it a game, film, or comic). For general information that the average user could easily obtain on their own, such as a game ending, no source needs to be cited. For another example, there doesn't need to be a source for "Maria is killed by Pyramid Head in Brookhaven Hospital's basement" because this always occurs during a complete playthrough of Silent Hill 2.

If a "Citation needed" template is in an article, it means that information still needs to be verified. It resembles a question mark and clicking it will link here.

In other instances, some information may come from an official source, but isn't readily available to the general public (a prime example of this is the Book of Lost Memories or a developer interview). In such instances, a source of this kind should be cited or linked to.

Please do not post anything citing other fan sites or general media entertainment sites, as their sources may be based on interpretations and not facts. Likewise, do not call out other sites or otherwise fingerpoint.

Spoiler policy

A general spoiler warning exists on the main page of the Silent Hill Wiki. This essentially negates the need for subsequent spoiler tags. However, it is preferred that all game, film, or comic namespaces include a spoiler tag as a precaution. If a character page is encountered bearing a spoiler tag, feel free to remove it.

The exception for this rule is in concern to any article detailing newly released media. Each article should be tagged with a spoiler, and should remain tagged as such for 30 days.

Is an article a stub, or is it incomplete?

While it is a tenement of Wikia and the Wiki format that all articles can be improved, any article that is encountered and thought to be unfinished should be tagged as such. We have three templates to fulfill such a purpose.

• Cleanup Template - This template should be used on articles that are generally complete, but suffer from severe grammatical issues or poor Wiki coding.

• Stub Template - Please insert this template into an article that consists of only a few sentences, but concerns itself with a large body of content, such as a game or main character article. Most item articles aren't considered stubs.

• Incomplete Article Template - This template should be placed into articles that present some substantial information, but lack a majority of available information.

If an article looks as though it could be tagged with more than one of the above templates, please address the issue on the article's talk page.

Voice-acting credits

In regards to determining how to properly credit a voice actor for a role, it can often times be difficult to find a source of reliable information. All primary official sources should be searched first for the information in question, such as manuals and game credits. If no suitable information can be found, secondary official sources, such as any suspected actor's available website, should be searched.

If information cannot be obtained from an official source, it would be best to simply list the information as Unknown.

Any information obtained from sources such a IMDb should be cited as such. Please note that such information runs the risk of being reverted.

Main articles

To set up a main article link, use this template where X is the name of the main article.

{{Main|X}}

For example, to make a main article link to Lisa Garland, it should be:

{{Main|Lisa Garland}}

which becomes:

Main article: Lisa Garland

Era icons

Era Icons have been implemented as a means to quickly present article content in a consistent manner. The icons are programmed to appear in the upper-right of each article.

When making a new article, please do your best to append the appropriate icons.

• The Era Template - {{Era|X}} - should be entered into the first line of an article's edit box to ensure proper placement of the Era icons.

If you are unsure of all material referenced in a given article, append the era tags matching the content you are sure of, and leave a note in your edit summary indicating that further icons may be needed.

For a reference list of icons and corresponding code, please see Template:Era

Setting up era icons

When appending Era Icons to an article, they should be coded into a specific order.

• Games should always be placed first when coding in Era Icons.
  • Games should be placed in chronological order. For example, if an article involves Silent Hill: Origins, 1 and 3, Icons should be coded as follows; {{Era|Sho|Sh1|Sh3}}.

• The "Films" icon should always follow the "Game" icons, with the "Comics" icon following both the film and games.
  • The following example is the Era Icon coding used in the Pyramid Head article. As that article pertains to game, film, and comic media, it is coded as follows: {{Era|Sh2|Shhc|Films|Comics|Monsters}}'''
• Category Icons should always follow media icons. Please see the above example.

If you feel you require assistance with Era Icons, please contact either an administrator or User:Faded-Myth, who was instrumental in the implementation of our Era Icon system.

Writing style

In-Universe vs. Out-Of-Universe

The wiki is currently written, mostly, in an Out-of-Universe style, done by opening articles with an introduction to the subject-in-question and generally what game or games it can be found in.

An Out-of-Universe style comes across as much more formal, with information being key and informing the reader in a clear, concise manner being the goal. An example of this may be found in the opening paragraph of the Pyramid Head article, which is written as follows;

Pyramid Head is the name James Sunderland uses in reference to a seemingly invincible monster who appears numerous times throughout Silent Hill 2.

Officially, albeit less popularly, he is known as the Red Pyramid Thing. His incarnation in Silent Hill: Homecoming is known as The Bogeyman. Across the series, he is usually portrayed as, at his most basic, a violent monster. A deeper meaning given to him, however, sees him as a kind of punisher or executioner. He's typically manifested by those who feel an extreme amount of guilt or have an overwhelming desire for punishment. His acts of violence are not aimed solely at humans, as he has also wrought harm against the other creatures that inhabit Silent Hill.

The Out-of-Universe style is firm and offers little leeway for embellishment, relying instead on pure information as a means to get its point across. Below, the In-Universe style is more flexible in its content, yet still adheres to the premise of informing the reader about the topic. Rather than break down the fourth wall by clearly stating what media the subject has appeared in, the article attempts to seamlessly integrate it all together, without relying on the existence of the real-world to get its point across.

Pyramid Head was the recurring, monstrous entity who hindered James Sunderland's journey into the town of Silent Hill as he sought answers to a mysterious letter he had recieved.

Known by other monikers such as Red Pyramid Thing and The Bogeyman, the entity has also appeared as a manifestation to Alex Shepherd, when the young man fought his way through the streets of Silent Hill and Shepherd's Glen to uncover the cause of a series of strange events plaguing himself and the place he once called home. Pyramid Head has demonstrated on numerous occasions that he is, at his most basic, a violent creature. However, as he often manifests before those who feel extreme senses of guilt or desire for punishment, he may be thought of as punisher or executioner. Pyramid Head, as he appeared before James, was not only violent towards him, but lashed out against other creatures unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Each style has its strengths and weaknesses, like all things in life.

An Out-of-Universe style is, simply, easier to write, and requires only the most basic intimacy with the topic at hand. It also presents its information in an uncomplicated way, offering links to the different mediums the subject of the article has appeared in, which eases the learning process. It also makes it easier for those with little or no knowledge on the subject to become familiar with it.

An In-Universe style is harder to write and design an article for, typically requiring familiar knowledge with the topic at hand. It also requires the contributor to think and write in a way that makes it possible to pull all possible information together, while ignoring the fact that the content comes from a fictional work and is rooted only in the media that it appears in. An In-Universe style is also more relaxed in its content and more natural in its presentation.

The community has decided to use an out-of-universe style.

Past tense vs. present tense

A minor point of contention, completely independent of the style debate, is whether or not to write our articles in the past or present tense. It really doesn't matter which is used, but should be made uniform throughout the wiki. Most, if not all, of our articles seem to use present tense, so this almost seems to be a non-issue.

Multiple links

Please make attempts to avoid making multiple links to the same article. For example, if you already have a link to the page Chapel in an article, please don't add another link to the same page later in the article.

Speculation

Speculation and theories are allowed on this wiki as long as:

• They are marked as such, using a speculation template like this:

• They use language such as "possible", "may", "might", "could", "imply", "suggest', etc, and aren't claimed to be absolute fact.

However, the probability of theories being true and plausible is debateable, so there is a chance it may be removed by another editor. If there is a speculation debate, then use an article's talk page, or talk to the editor on their message wall so that a consensus is reached.

Pictures

• This is NOT a general image hosting site like Imgur or Photobucket. Do not upload pictures and do nothing with them. Photos MUST have purpose on the wiki.

• Please give pictures sensible titles. Uploading a picture with the title "214354098532947uqw8ei.jpg" doesn't help. Try to add the name of any character in the image into the title, or any significant locations.

• When uploading new pictures, please put them in their correct category and label them. If you don't, Alessa will cry.

• Do not upload duplicate photos. To search for duplicate photos, check for articles and galleries related to the subjects in the photos.

• .PNG files are favored over .GIF and .JPEG. Please convert all .JPEG files to .PNG before uploading. Don't upload extremely small pictures, unless a higher resolution can't be obtained. Aim for high definition.

• If you are uploading transparent .PNG renders, you can trim it in Photoshop using Image > Trim.

• You can usually find bigger and higher-quality images by using Google Reverse Image Search.

• Keep images 250px and under in the article itself. If an image is a portrait style, it can be lower than 250px.

• Item and weapon images must be at least 150px or they may not appear in the category exhibition.

• Try to upload photos without watermarks, such as IGN.com for example.

• Please ensure all pictures are cropped nicely, especially if they're letterboxed with black bars on the top and bottom. Also, try to crop any thin borders around the edges.

• Organize and group photos with logical sense, such as chronological order of events. Group similar photos together, for example, concept art, screenshots, wallpapers, etc.

• Animated .GIFs are allowed, as long as they are of high quality, decent framerate, and no watermarks.

Videos

• Follow the image policy, but for videos. For example, don't upload duplicate videos, don't upload videos if you aren't going to use them on the wiki, etc.

• HD YouTube videos with high-quality video and sound are preferable.

• Sometimes YouTube videos are deleted. If a deleted YouTube video is hosted on the wiki, please alert an admin so that it can be fully deleted from the wiki, or replaced.

• This wiki is NOT a place to advertise your Let's Plays or advertise your YouTube channel. Do NOT upload videos of your Let's Plays to this wiki.