Memory Beta:Style

This page is meant to be specific to the style of the Memory Beta. Wikipedia:Style should also serve as a guideline, but it is not required reading before contributing to this wiki. It is also a good idea to consult similar existing pages for typical layouts headings and templates.

Citing sources
Please use the following format: (Abreviation format: Title) ex: (TNG novel: A Time to Be Born) (TNG novel: A Time to Be Born)

ex: (TOS short story: "A Test of Character") (TOS short story: "A Test of Character")

ex: (DS9 episode: "Tears of the Prophets") (DS9 episode: "Tears of the Prophets")

ex: (CoE eBook: Turn the Page). (CoE eBook: Turn the Page).

Using canon information
Though the emphasis is of course on non-canon material, it is encouraged to include canon information where approprate. For example, "USS Bozeman" includes a brief synopsis of the TNG episode Cause and Effect to explain the Bozeman's history, but the purpose of making the article was to note that she later appeared in The Return.

Linking to other sites
While researching using other sites is encouraged for completeness, plagiarism is forbidden. If another site, such as Memory Alpha, has a more complete article, link to it at the bottom of the article.

Do not link to a page about another topic within the main text of an article. Instead, make a wikilink to that topic, even if it doesn't exist yet. When

Stories
In an attempt to standardize articles on the episodes, novels, and other sources, the following format should be used.

Sidebar
Novels (including eBooks) should always include the the templates Template:Novel. The text above generates the box at right. When creating an article for a novel, use this example as a guide. Here are some tips:
 * Tags (such as "title" and "author") are case-sensitive
 * Separate tags with |
 * For simplicity, only list the first publication here. Additional publications such as Audiobooks can be listed in the main body of the article.
 * Include "ISBN" in the ISBN number.

Making article for short stories is much like those for novels. Template:short story is similar to Template:Novel.

There are a number of other templates which can be found here. Many templates include instructions on their use on the template page so that you mgiht make full use of the flexablity of the optional fields many templates include.

Introduction
A description of the story including a brief summary Please no spoilers here. This will typically be the blurb for novels.

Summary
A longer summary

Characters
A listing of characters, under appropriate subheadings if necessary.

Information
This section should be a bulleted list (add * to every line) of facts not included in the summary. Each bullet should have a link to at least one article with more information. For topic covered extensively, simply provide a brief description.

For example, "Captain John Lewinski commands the USS Monitor" is a short description of a character. There are links to Captain Lewinski himself as well as his ship and rank. Some of the links are (as of writing) "broken." These broken links are counted (Special:Wantedpages) which encourages contributors to add an article.

This is also the place to note that a book has continuity problems. Explain the conflict more fully in another article.

Related Stories
This section should list related stories, for instance if the novel was a sequel to an episode or the only other appearance of certain species.

The relations can be linked either by individual stories, for example on the Unity page:
 * Conspiracy (TNG episode)
 * The parasitic aliens of Unity made their first and only TV appearance in Conspiracy, which established their appearance and many of their abilities and practices.

Or alternatively if there are a lot of linked relations under the linked theme, for example on the Probe page:
 * George and Gracie
 * The lives of the humpback whales bought to the 24th century in The Voyage Home and briefly seen in Probe are depicted in the Strange New Worlds short stories "The Hero of My Own Life" and "Scotty's Song".

Images
For episodes, comics and games there might well be images on the wiki, these can be displayed in a gallery on the page. For instance from The Fires of Pharos this generates the gallery below: Note, appropiate images should be placed within the body of the summary with the Images section giving a place for any additional images.

Reviews
This section should be a level 2 headline. Each reviewer should add a level 3 headline of their name. Please do not edit another person's review, though you may comment after the review by adding a colon to the beginning of each paragraph.

To add a level 2 Headline type  ==Reviews== . Similarly,  ===Chops===  adds a level 3 headline.

Reviewers: Please write in standard English, not netspeak.

Connections
A bulleted list of links with brief descriptions. Some suggested sites for linking to are:
 * Memory Alpha, the wiki of Star Trek canon.
 * Psi Phi, a reference site for the Pocket Books novels. (with covers!)
 * The Complete Starfleet Library, a complete list of all Star Trek-related books. Note that many of these are not licensed, and so should not be included in this wiki until further notice.

The timeline box should also go here. See Template:timeline for instructions on it's use.

Category
Add article to any categories it falls under. A complete list of categories can be found at Special:Categories. Most categories are also listed by theme in the wiki's supercategories; Culture, Characters, Geography, Politics, Science, Star Trek and Technology

To add an article to a catgory, type  .