User:Spookywilloww/Workbench2

The succeeding points are some general guidelines that are to be upheld when creating, writing, or merely editing articles in Project Characters. =Articles=

General style

 * Articles shall be written in English language, with U.S. spelling.
 * Articles shall be encyclopedic in content, and shall written in present tense with a non-bias tone, mentioning all aspects of the topic while keeping opinions out of the article.
 * Citations are required in order to be highly graded in several areas. They will be listed below where necessary.
 * References shall be listed with the page number from any English printing of the books.
 * If using a digital novella that has not been released in non-digital format, using the chapter number suffices, as these do not have page numbers. These should be changed once the paperback collection is released, to stay as accurate as possible.
 * Categories are to go with the character's name in which they achieved that category. (i.e. "Into the Wild characters" category would go with the name Firepaw while "The Darkest Hour characters" category would go with the name Firestar.)
 * Create links for any article names that appear in the article.
 * Take caution to prevent double links in one article body.
 * Names should be held with appropriate capitalization as they appear in the first U.S. edition. (i.e. Gathering, as opposed to gathering)
 * Use cat terms. (i.e. Sunhigh, as opposed to noon. Leaf-bare, as opposed to winter.)
 * On the talk page of every character article, place the Project-char template with the appropriate grade.

Article layout
All character articles must follow a specific formula, as listed below.

See here for preliminary documentation on how to format pages with multiple tabs.

Featured articles
If an article is currently featured, or was previously featured, the templates FA or FA/p will be used, respectively.

Content warning tags
Content warning tags such as OfficialFamilyTree and TSWarning should be added above Startspoiler.

Startspoiler
Place the Startspoiler template in between the Featured Article template and Main quote. Alternatively if neither of these appear just put it above the charcat/charother.

Main Quote
This is optional, as not all character articles have quotes. However, if one or more are found, pick the best one and use the. Please note that quotes with multiple speakers cannot be used.

Charcat or Charother
Depending on the species of the character, either the Charcat or Charother template will be used. If the character is a cat, the former will be used. If the character is not a cat, whether they be a badger or a dog, the latter will be used. These templates contain the affiliations, post-death affiliation, the education, immediate kin, and book appearances. The educations and post-death affiliation must be cited. Please note that Charother is only to be used for specific non-cat characters, such as Pip or Rat leader.

The charart of the character's current rank should be used. If it has not been made yet, please use File:Noimage.png until it is approved.

Description
All character articles need a verified, spoiler-free description describing their looks and gender. Every piece of the description must be spoil-free and cited. If the author makes a mistake on the cat's appearance, use first appearance unless otherwise discussed.

History
This makes up the bulk of every character article.

Under a level two heading titled "History", document, in present tense, the character's history. The series must go in this order:


 * In the Dawn of the Clans arc
 * In The Prophecies Begin arc
 * In The New Prophecy arc
 * In the Power of Three arc
 * In the Omen of the Stars arc
 * In the A Vision of Shadows arc
 * In the The Broken Code arc
 * In the Super Editions
 * The order of these books should be: Moth Flight's Vision, Tallstar's Revenge, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, Bluestar's Prophecy, Firestar's Quest, SkyClan's Destiny, Bramblestar's Storm, Hawkwing's Journey, and Tigerheart's Shadow.
 * In the Stand-Alone Manga
 * In the Tigerstar and Sasha arc
 * In the Ravenpaw's Path arc
 * In the Graystripe's Adventure arc
 * In the SkyClan and the Stranger arc
 * In the Field Guides
 * The order of these books should be: Secrets of the Clans, Cats of the Clans, Code of the Clans, Battles of the Clans, and The Ultimate Guide.
 * In the Short stories and plays
 * The short stories should be in alphabetical order.
 * In the Novellas
 * The order of these books should be: Thunderstar's Echo, Cloudstar's Journey, Mapleshade's Vengeance, Pinestar's Choice, Goosefeather's Curse, Spottedleaf's Heart, Tigerclaw's Fury, Leafpool's Wish, Ravenpaw's Farewell, Hollyleaf's Story, Mistystar's Omen, and Dovewing's Silence
 * In the Warriors App

Place these exact phrases in level three headings in this order. Then, place the books under their respective headings in order of release except the Super Edition Series. The book headings should be italicized and be linked to their articles. Write the character's history under each book title. When writing the history, do not include any bias opinions of the character. Keep a formal tone and make sure the history flows clearly and every appearance is included. Do not include quotes in the history. There is a separate section for quotes. Be careful not to write so much that focus is taken off of the subject of the article. Each paragraph should be indented with a colon and there should be one empty line in between each paragraph. If a character does not appear at all in a book except the allegiances, use the Alleg template.

Trivia
Under a level two heading titled "Trivia", list all interesting facts of the character. This includes Clan heritage, author mistakes regarding gender or appearance, information revealed in an author chat, or any other unique facts about the cat. These should be marked by bullet points. Do not add trivia unless a reliable reference can be added.

Character pixels
A gallery of the character's pixels. This should not be edited by anyone other than a PCA lead unless there is a problem with the coding.

Official art
A gallery of the character's official art. All images added should be in the official images category.

Killed victims
A cat's killed victims would be listed here.

Kin
This section lists all known relatives of the character, both immediate and distant. A level two section titled "Kin" should be added first.
 * Kin should be listed by closeness in relativity. The member(s)'s relationship to the character should be listed in bold and followed by a colon. Under the relationship, the character(s) should be listed and indented by a colon. Immediately after the colon, a reference of this relationship must be placed. After the reference, one of the following must be placed:
 * Name of Relation
 * Deceased, Verified StarClan/Place of No Stars member
 * Deceased, Suspected StarClan/Place of No Stars member
 * Status Unknown
 * If a character's status is known and has known kin, a template titled "Status|CHARACTERNAME" will be created. All this information should be placed under a level three heading titled "Members".
 * After the members, a tree should be placed under a level three heading titled "tree". Place the tree of the closet relative if the character doesn't have a tree of their own. Here is a list of family trees. Please note that trees are only created for families with three or more verified members.

Ceremonies
Using the Ceremony, quote every rank/name-changing ceremony that is specifically quoted in the books. If a ceremony is performed outside of a novel, it cannot be quoted, and therefore, cannot be placed in an article.

Quotes
After the kin section comes the quotes. They are used to describe the character's personality, or to quote significant events, monologues, speeches, etc. There are two templates that can be used for quotes; Quote and Dialogue a-b. The first is to be used for quotes with one speaker, and the latter for quotes with multiple speakers. The most quotes that are necessary are usually 5-6, but always aim for quality over quantity.

Endspoiler
Place the Endspoiler right before the References and Citations section.

Notes and references
Under this section, place the Reflist, and nothing else. This will automatically create a list of references and citations that were placed throughout the article.

=Project Operations=

Housekeeping
The following tasks are to be carried out regularly throughout the project.

Concerns list
Any user who feels that an article has issues that should be publicized should add it to the concerns list located on the main project page. The characters on this list are sorted by affiliation.

Moving and creating pages
When a new book is released, it is almost guaranteed that new characters will be introduced and/or characters will go or have gone through name changes.

When a whole new character is introduced, create a new page for the character, including the appropriate sections. When a character experiences a name change, the article should be moved to the appropriate title.

Creating disambiguation pages
When multiple characters are known by the same name at any point in their lives or the novels, disambiguation pages must created to specify which characters are which. For example, four different Robinwings are introduced in the series.

First, move or create pages as necessary so that each character has a different article name. (i.e. Robinwing (RC) vs. Robinwing (SkC)). Use abbreviations such as (SC) for ShadowClan, or (TPB) for The Prophecies Begin to distiguish the characters from each other. If the page that falls into this disambiguation is a former name of a character, (i.e. Whitepaw) create a redirect using the abbreviation.

Next, create a list containing every page that falls under this disambiguation. Include Disambig, and a brief, distinguishing description of each, character, like so: Robinwing.

Creating redirects
For the most part, redirects are created automatically when a page is moved, but there are times when redirects need to be created manually.

Create the page, and paste the following coding on the page:


 * 1) REDIRECT ARTICLENAME

Add the appropriate categories (i.e. Redirects, Apprentice redirects, Apprentices, Cats of the Clans characters) accordingly.

Adding and removing members
When a request for a roster change is placed on the talk page, the leader, deputy, or a senior warrior should carry it out accordingly.

Archiving the talk page
Certain sections of the talk page should be archived by a lead of the project.
 * Nominations with a vote started.
 * Join requests older than two days.
 * Any other outdated, cluttering sections of the talk page.
 * Discussions being closed.

Article nominations
To nominate an article, create a new section on the talk page called "Character name ~ Silver/Gold Nomination". People will comment on it saying what could be improved, and as nominator, you should check back regularly and try to fix any issues pointed out,

There are several rules for nominating an article:


 * A nomination may only consist of one article.
 * An article can be downgraded and lose it's status through a forum vote.
 * Only silver and gold ranks receive nominations.