This policy is about editing articles on the Pokémon Wiki.
General
- Content of the article must have accurate, correct information. Unofficial (fanon) content is prohibited.
- In case of questionable information, a reference tag with a link to an official source has to be provided.
- Standards of correct grammar must be followed: full, clear sentences have to be written out. The writing style should follow American English.
- Every article must have an introduction, where the article's name should be mentioned and bolded.
- A clear, precise definition or description of the topic should be given.
- Content - images and text - must not directly be copied from other wikis that feature Pokémon content.
- The text of the article must be written in alphanumeric Latin characters. Excluded are occurrences when foreign titles need to be mentioned, like Japanese or Korean names, or using the "é" letter.
- Other characters, like dashes (—), ellipsis (…) or any other characters that cannot be typed from a standard keyboard, should be avoided.
- Links should point to the correct topic, and the displayed text of the link should be written so it implies to which article it links to. Whenever possible, redirects and disambiguation pages should not be linked to, but rather to the articles they redirect or refer to.
- The link can point at a non-existing page if it will be created. Otherwise, the redlink should be removed. This policy is enabled on all pages on all namespaces.
- Whenever possible, use short links (with double brackets) instead of using full-address HTTPS links in articles.
- There should be exactly one link for each article on a page. Each link should be placed at the first occurrence of the mention of the topic in the page.
- Infoboxes, lists, tables, references and other sections, where it is expected to have each item linked, are excluded from this rule.
- If an article requires an infobox, that infobox must use the modern portable infobox code.
- Images placed on the article should be placed on left or the right side of the article, so they do not interrupt the reading flow.
- This does not apply to custom galleries that present information to the reader, like using the Variant template.
- HTML tags with inline CSS to modify the look of the text (colors, spacing etc.) should be kept at a minimum.
- Instead, CSS ID-s and classes should be used to style content.
Neutral point of view
All articles are to be written without bias and with fair views. The purpose of this is to deal with conflicting viewpoints by taking a stand in not leaning to one view or another, but by remaining neutral. When bias is included into an article, it must be removed or written differently.
Articles that contain subjects of debate should not be sympathetic or in objection to any side of the argument. Instead the article should present both sides, should they be a key factor to the article itself, without engaging in the argument.
When discussing the material, background should be provided on who believes what and why, and which view is more involved in popular consensus. Writers must think of it as being purely analytical, describing the sides of the debate without stating which is better.
Using certain terms in description of something must also be closely watched. Using negative statements such as "this character sucks" in an article is by no means allowed. In addition using other non-negative terms to describe something may also be unacceptable. Describing things with phrases such as "the best" or with words like "beautiful", should not be used when writing. These are matters of personal opinion and not of a neutral point of view. Should it be necessary to state something like the previous, talk pages should be used instead of articles.
In addition, the article has to be written in third-person perspective. This bars usage of "you", to make the article sound more objective than subjective. Using the word "player" should be substituted with "player character".
Naming articles
General
Articles and redirects should be named by their official terms in the games, anime, manga and other media (books, music etc.).
If the title of the content already exists in other media, then such titles have to be updated to include tags, to display to which content it refers to. Thus, content on anime would have "(anime)", while content on Adventures manga would have "(Adventures)". This rule applies to character articles (human and Pokémon), but does not apply to:
- Location and item articles, which should cover anime and manga content on their own pages.
- Lists, where content can be grouped together. Separate entries can be created as redirects to that article.
Episode/chapter names
Episode and chapter names should be written in a pattern with a code name, episode/chapter number, a colon and the full episode/chapter name ("TB001: Pokémon - I Choose You!" is one such example). Furthermore, these codes are used to name images for the galleries.
If the arc or series titles do not have distinct titles, the codes can be differentiated by having manga codes contain the ampersand sign (&) between the first two letters.
Subpages
Subpages should be made when a piece of content is too large to be put in a single page, and should be stored in a separate page. This must be used as an exception, if there are no other suitable ways to present information on an article.
Redirects
Redirects ought to be titled in relation to the page content, like "Ash's Starly', or using an official designation, such as "Meloetta (Pirouette Form)". In cases where a Pokémon's form lacks an official title, the redirect should lead with the Pokémon's name, followed by the form name in parentheses.
Capitalization
In naming an article, the first letter must always be capitalized due to technical restrictions. If the name of the article is a name, such as Nintendo Co., Ltd. or John Smith, all letters which begin a new word should be capitalized. If the article has another word that is not the name of a person or specific name of a place, company, organization, or creature, but still uses a name, format it like John Smith's apples, not capitalizing "apples". Exceptions to this rule are in-game terms, such as: Abilities, Trainers.
Examples of proper naming
- John Paul's computers
- Nintendo of America
- Nintendo of America's Nintendo GameCube video game console
- Items used in Pokémon Red organized by rarity
Examples of improper naming
- John paul's computers - Since Paul is part of the specific name, it should be capitalized
- John pauls computers - An apostrophe to show ownership should be used (except in the case of its)
- Nintendo of america - Not only is America the name of a specific country/continent, in this case, it is also part of the company's name
- Nintendo Of America - Of should not be capitalized.
Use of accented e (é)
Names of things which should contain an é, should use the é rather than an e; For example, it should be Pokémon, not Pokemon. Please note that a redirect from the non-accented e should also be created (see also: #Redirects).
Examples of proper naming
- Pokémon
- Pokédex
- Poké Ball
Examples of improper naming
- Pokemon
- Pokedex
- Poke Ball (or Pokeball, Pokéball, PokéBall - a space should always be between Poké and Ball, the proper use is Poké Ball)
Pronouns
It is commonly accepted that gender-exclusive Pokémon may be referred to using pronouns associated with their gender. However, the appropriate practice is to use "it/its" for referring to an entire Pokémon species, as well as individual Pokémon whose gender is not confirmed. For example, Ash's Pikachu is referred to as "he/him", as his gender has been confirmed, whereas Goh's Cinderace is referred to as "it/its", as its gender has yet to been confirmed.
Trivia
Trivia sections on articles on the Pokémon Wiki are not an area to input any random fact one obtains about the article's subject. The guidelines are as follows:
- Trivia must always pertain to the subject of the article.
- Trivia should only contain trivial yet interesting facts, not facts that belong in another section or trivial, uninteresting facts.
- Images are permitted in the trivia section if they better illustrate a trivia fact, but do so infrequently.
- Trivia should only contain canon facts, or facts that have been stated in the Pokémon anime, manga, or games. It can also refer to outside media, as references to other series, books, music or other.
- Facts about a piece of content should be written throughout its respective article, rather than to be put in the trivia section.
- Trivia that compares a piece of content to something else in the Pokémon universe should be kept to a minimum.
Galleries
Galleries contain images to present information to the reader. They are not meant to be "storage" for all images of a certain article, but just to show info that cannot be easily described in words. As such, there must not be too many images in a gallery: alternatives, like placing images across the entire article in a consistent manner, are welcome.
- An ordinary episode (that lasts around 22 minutes) can have up to 30 images in the gallery.
- Chapter pages don't generally have a limit, due to chapters having a variable length. However, placing all images of a single chapter is not allowed.
- Pokémon articles don't generally have a limit, for usually they contain artwork. However, images of specific character's Pokémon should be usually be placed on other articles.
Transcripts
- The Dialogue template is currently faulty, and may result in a few unintended errors when the script is fully uploaded.
- Links to characters, key items, locations, and other elements featured in the transcript should be added if possible, but only on the first instance.
- The Character's full name should be used if using a template to write scripts.
- For Character Pokémon, type "Trainer's Pokémon" if the Pokémon belongs to a trainer. If it is a wild Pokémon, just the name of the Pokémon itself is fine.
- Dialogue that have been removed in certain versions of the episode must be underlined. A notice must also be written at the top of the page on the second paragraph.
- Otherwise, all other Manual of Style rules apply where applicable.
Stubs
Stubs are articles that have insufficient information and are less than 300 bytes. Stubs are generally small articles that can be greatly expanded.
A stub's goal is to become a full, informative article. However, some articles may not require much information, though they still must cover as much as possible. Creating a small article or finding a small article needs to be tagged with {{Stub}}
template.
Redirects
Redirects are essentially alternative titles for an article, allowing any synonymous names the article may have to serve as pathways to it. Articles should be linked using their full names rather than redirects. Redirects should only be created if they meet specific criteria:
- Earlier stages of a character Pokémon
- Alternative names of content
- Code names for episodes or chapters
Redirects to templates, files, or other pages are generally discouraged. The standard format for a redirect is:
#REDIRECT [[name]]
For redirects to a Pokémon's earlier stage, the format is:
#REDIRECT [[name#(earlier stage)]]
In these formats, "name" represents the actual title of the article. Should the title of an article change, all associated redirects must be updated to point to the new title.
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