Wiki of Westeros:Editing guidelines

This page is a comprehensive list of policies and guidelines for editing on the Wiki of Westeros. All users are required to comply with these guidelines. If you have questions, feel free to contact an administrator.

General editing guidelines

Shortcuts: EG:GENEDIT, EG:EDITING, EG:EDIT

• Users are encouraged to learn and exclusively use the source editor instead of the visual editor. It is not disallowed to use the visual editing interface as a new user, but it is expected that you phase this out over time.
• Speculation and original research will not be tolerated. Conjecture based on information from the books is allowed when a subject is confirmed to exist but is missing basic, rudimentary information.
• When you create a page on a topic that has been recently introduced in an episode, do not hastily make a stub just to be the first contributor to that page. You are expected to finish the work you started and make sure the page is presentable and in compliance with these guidelines.
• When expanding existing pages, do not abruptly leave a section unfinished. If you don't have time to finish an edit, save it in a sandbox (User:YourName/Sandbox).
• Large edits (500+ added or deleted characters) must be clearly explained in the edit summary. Vague summaries like "Improved" or "Added info" are not sufficient.

Templates

Shortcuts: EG:TEMPLATE, EG:TEM, EG:TEMP

General template policy

Shortcuts: EG:GENTEM, EG:GENTEMP, EG:GTP

• Do not edit templates using the visual editor. This may mess with the formatting.
• Do not add the template {{Stub}} to all short pages. A stub is a page lacking a considerable amount of available information. If there is no more available information, the page is not a stub.

Infoboxes

Shortcuts: EG:INFOBOX, EG:BOX, EG:IB

General infobox policy

Shortcuts: EG:GENINFO, EG:GIP

• All infoboxes should be copied and pasted from the "Usage" section on their respective template page.

Inputs

Shortcut: EG:BOXINPUT

• If the title of the page does not have a disambiguation note [e.g. "Viserys Targaryen (son of Aerys II)"], the "Title" input should contain the template {{PAGENAME}}.
• Do not remove inputs from infoboxes as you would with other templates. When an input is inapplicable, just leave it with nothing but a space after the "=".

Characters

Shortcut: EG:INFOCHAR

• If a character is portrayed by multiple actors, it is acceptable to add a gallery in the "Image" input:

{{Character
| Title       = {{PAGENAME}}
| Type        = Thrones
| Image       =
<gallery>
Example1.jpg|Adult
Example2.jpg|Young
</gallery>

[If the character was recast rather than portrayed at different ages, it is preferred to place the actors' names in the captions.]

• The "Type" input determines the color of the infobox and reflects the character's affiliation. This must not be left empty. See Template:Character#Infobox colors for more information.
• The "Born" input should be structured as follows:

Birth name [if the character was born with a different name]
Year (age X) [for living characters] at Location

• The "Died" input should be structured as follows:

Year (aged X) at Location
Cause of death, and at whose hands [Keep this concise. If a character was shot by crossbows and then later stabbed, that character's cause of death was being stabbed.]

• The "Titles" input should be arranged in chronological order, not by prominence. Tywin Lannister, for example, is best known as the Lord of Casterly Rock, but "Ser" is placed at the top as he was knighted before his father died.
• In the "Predecessor" and "Successor" inputs, disambiguate by noting which offices the character was preceded/succeeded in. This is not necessary when the character has only one office.
• Only use the "Also known as" input for notable aliases, sobriquets, and epithets. "Little lord," for example, does not qualify.
• The "Culture" input should contain an adjective rather than a plural noun, e.g. "Andal" rather than "Andals," "Dornish" rather than "Dornishmen," or "Northern" rather than "Northmen."
  • The Culture input is not the character's race or ethnicity. For example, House Manderly may ethnically be Northmen, but they still hold to southron Andal culture. Therefore, Wyman Manderly's Culture input contains "Andal" rather than "Northern."
• The family member inputs should not contain step-relatives, e.g. Walda Frey is not listed in the "Mother" input for Ramsay Bolton.
• Unless the character appears in only one episode, the "Appearances" input should be structured as follows:

X episodes <small>([[#Appearances|see below]])</small>

• The "Last seen" input should only contain one episode: the episode in which the character last appeared. Don't add two episodes noting "(alive)" and "(corpse)".
• If the "Mentioned" input is particularly long, apply <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:100%"> </div> around the list of mentions.
• Don't list doubles in the "Actor" input.

Heraldry

Shortcut: EG:HERALDRY

• The heraldry template should only be placed above the infobox.
• Like infoboxes, the template code for heraldry should be vertical rather than horizontal:

{{Heraldry
| Image = 
| Link  = 
}}

as opposed to

{{Heraldry|Image = |Link = }}

• If several coats-of-arms are used, the coat-of-arms of a character's original house is placed on the left side (Leftimage = ). An additional house or organization is placed on the right side (Rightimage = ). If there are more than two, use "Image1 = ", "Image2 = ", "Image3 = ", etc.
• Do not apply a house's coat-of-arms to a character who is not a member of that house. For example, Locke is a soldier of House Bolton and thus has the "Bolton" infobox color, but he does not have the Bolton coat-of-arms in the heraldry template.
  • Nobles are members of their father's house, not their mother's. While Robb Stark's mother is a Tully, he is not legally a member of House Tully himself. Therefore he should only have the Stark heraldry, not also the Tully heraldry.
    • A rare exception to this rule is the children of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Laenor Velaryon, who are sons of the Princess of Dragonstone and are therefore princes themselves. This entitles them to display the arms of House Targaryen as well.
  • Bastards of nobility are not nobility themselves, which means that they are not entitled to display their father's arms.
• Personal sigils should always be placed on the far right.

Page layout and formatting

Shortcuts: EG:FORMATTING, EG:ALAF

General formatting policy

Shortcuts: EG:GENFORM, EG:GFP

• Leave no gaps between infobox, quote, and lead.
• Leave no spaces between heading inputs, i.e. "==Heading==" as opposed to "== Heading ==".
• The bottom of the page, past "==External links==", should be structured as follows:

==External links==
*[[Example]]
*[[Example]]

<!--Navboxes-->
{{Navbox1}}
{{Navbox2}}

<!--Categories-->
{{DEFAULTSORT:Surname, Given name}}
[[Category:Example1]]
[[Category:Example2]]

<!--Languages-->
[[de:Example]]
[[fr:Example]]

• Categories and interwiki links should be arranged in alphabetical order.
• Do not use the heading "= =". The largest heading allowed on pages is "== ==".
• The subject of the page should be bolded in the lead, and should reflect only the page's title. For example, "Lannister bannerman" should have the introductory sentence "A Lannister bannerman etc.", as opposed to "This unnamed man is a Lannister bannerman" (also avoid phrases like this).
  • Notable alternate names that redirect to the page may also be bolded.
  • Bolded text should not contain links.
• A page's lead should be concise and contain only rudimentary information.
• Applying references to the lead is unnecessary, as the lead should not contain any information that doesn't exist further down the page (and is thus referenced there). This does not apply to stub pages or certain types of pages that are structured in such a way that it is impossible to not have information exclusive to the lead.

Episode pages

Shortcut: EG:EPFORM

Pages on TV episodes should be structured as follows:

==Premise==

==Synopsis==
===At Location 1===

===At Location 2, etc.===

==Appearances==

===Firsts===

===Deaths===

==Quotes==

==Behind the scenes==

==In the books==

==Gallery==
===Videos===

===Images===

==References==

==External links==

Character pages

Shortcut: EG:CHARFORM

Pages on characters should be structured as follows:

==Biography==
===Background===

===''Series'': Season 1===

===''Series'': Season 2, etc.===

==Abilities== [not essential]

==Personality==

==Titles== [not essential]

==Quotes==

==Family==

==Behind the scenes==

==In the books==

==Appearances==

==References==

==External links==

Cast and crew pages

Shortcut: EG:CASTFORM

Pages on cast and crew members should be structured as follows:

==Biography==

==Credits==

==References==

==External links==

Quotes

Shortcut: EG:QUOTES

• When applicable, a quote template ({{Quote}}) should be placed between the infobox and lead. Quotes may also be placed at the top of relevant page sections, and in its own section reserved for other notable quotes. When a full dialogue is required for context, the template {{Dialogue a-b}} (extended by adding more a's and b's) may be used.
• Do not use italic text in quote templates. Quotes are italicized by default, so adding double apostrophes around words will only revert them back to straight text. Capitalizing entire words or adding multiple exclamation marks are not acceptable alternatives to this. To apply emphasis in a quote, you may underline (<u> </u>). Do not underline words outside of quote templates.
• Do not use links in quotation templates unless the links appear nowhere else in the page.
• Do not censor profanity in quotes.
• If in-universe written material has spelling/grammatical errors, mark them with "[sic]" rather than correcting them.

Links

Shortcuts: EG:LINKS, EG:LINKING

• Do not overlink. The maximum accepted amount of links to a certain page is one link per section. This also applies to infoboxes (infoboxes usually have sections within them. If two mentions of the same subject appear under one heading in the infobox, only the first mention should link to its page. If two mentions of the same subject appear in the infobox but in different sections, it is acceptable to link twice).
• When linking to a pluralized version of a singular page name, avoid using piped links. "[[Dragon]]s" is preferred over "[[Dragon|dragons]]".
• Do not use piped links for possessives. "[[Aggo]]'s" is preferred over "[[Aggo|Aggo's]]".
• Avoid easter egg links, i.e. "Tywin's [[Jaime Lannister|son]]". This would be better worded as "Tywin's son, [[Jaime Lannister|Jaime]]". A more extreme but often-encountered example is "[[Drogon|Daenerys's]] [[Rhaegal|three]] [[Viserion|dragons]]".
• When linking to Wikipedia pages, use the template {{WPS}} instead of "[[wikipedia:]]."
• Use piped links instead of redirecting links, e.g. "[[House Stark|Starks]]" instead of "[[Starks]]."

Dates

Shortcut: EG:DATE

• When calculating dates, it is preferable to keep it simple: if a character is said to be 30 years old but may actually be 30-turning-31 because it hasn't been stated otherwise, just assume that the character was born 30 years ago. Unlike the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the TV series adaptation does not have entire history companion books like The World of Ice & Fire and Fire & Blood that specify exact dates for every birth, death, and event, so almost every date would have to be written out as for example "280-281 AC" instead of just "281 AC" if we were overly concerned with the specifics of time.

Writing, grammar, and spelling

Shortcuts: EG:WRITING, EG:WGS

General writing policy

Shortcuts: EG:GENWRITE, EG:GWP

• Standard American English is mandatory on pages.
  • There are certain exceptions due to in-universe spellings, such as "Grey" rather than "Gray."
• Use serial commas, e.g. "This, this, and that" as opposed to "This, this and that".
• Singular nouns ending in "s" should be made possessive by adding an apostrophe followed by another "s," e.g. "Daenerys's." Plural nouns ending in "s" should be made possessive with only an apostrophe.
• Capitalization of certain words and terms should adhere to the official English captions of the episode on HBO, or other official sources that can be referenced.
  • If a word is inconsistently capitalized, a consensus may be established on which version to use.
• Use straight quotation marks (" ").
  • Quotes within quotes should use apostrophes (' ') instead of quotation marks (" ").
• Non-English words used in an English sentence should be italicized, e.g. "Drogo leads a mighty khalasar."
• In lists, curly brackets { } are used around the names of deceased characters and extinct houses.
• All prose must be written in your own wording. Word-for-word plagiarism from other pages or external sources will not be tolerated.

Encyclopedic tone

Shortcuts: EG:ENTONE, EG:NPOV

All prose is to be written in a formal encyclopedic tone, with a neutral and unbiased point-of-view. Pages are not to be written as blog posts, rants, or novels. Avoid:

• Adverbs like "obviously," "actually," "sadly," "fortunately," etc.
• Contractions ("won't," "he'd," "can't," "they've," "would've," etc.)
• First- and second-person pronouns (I/me/my, we/us/our, you/your)
• Attempts at humor, cleverness, or sarcasm
• Trivia sections and other inappropriate lists
• Question marks and exclamation points
• Excessively dramatic wording
• Inappropriate italic or bold text
• Ellipses (…)
• Scare quotes (quotation marks placed around a word to signal it as ironic or referential)

References

Shortcuts: EG:REF, EG:REFERENCES

• It is more practical to use only "<ref name=" "> </ref>" instead of "<ref> </ref>" even if the reference occurs only once, as this makes it less cumbersome to add a repetition of that reference in the future.
  • When using "<ref name=" "> </ref>," the name must pertain to the reference, e.g. "<ref name="The Winds of Winter">"[[The Winds of Winter]]"</ref>.
  • When "<ref name=" "> <ref>" has been used, there is no need to write out the same reference again for a repetition. Just write, for example, "<ref name="The Winds of Winter" />".
• If you use references to write footnotes, use "<ref group="N"> </ref>." When writing both groups and names, use "<ref group="N" name=" "> </ref>," repeated by "<ref group="N" name=" " />."
• In a page's "References" section, use the template {{Reflist}} instead of <references />. If there is a subsection titled "Notes," use the template {{Notelist}} instead of <references group="N" />.
• References should be placed after punctuation, not before.
• Use the template {{Ref}} to cite episodes. These are the recognized parameters:
  • Game of Thrones: {{Ref|gotXYZ}} (replace XYZ with an episode number, such as 101 for Winter Is Coming or 110 for Fire and Blood)
  • House of the Dragon: {{Ref|hotdXYZ}}
  • Histories & Lore: {{Ref|h&lXYZ}}
  • Conquest & Rebellion: {{Ref|c&rXY}}
  • A Day in the Life: {{Ref|aditl}}
  • The Last Watch: {{Ref|tlw}}
  • The House That Dragons Built: {{Ref|thtdbXY}}

Page titles

Shortcut: EG:TITLES

• The title of a page should be the most commonly used name. For example, although Lorren's given name isn't "Black," his page is still titled by the sobriquet "Black Lorren" as that is the name he is most commonly known by.
  • Pages on nobility are exempt from this policy. Aegon I Targaryen is better known as "Aegon the Conqueror," and Aerys II Targaryen is better known as the "Mad King," but their pages still retain the name "Targaryen." However, in the event that future content names House Martell as "House Nymeros Martell" as in the books, that page is still to retain the title "House Martell" and pages on Martell characters won't have "Nymeros" added to their titles.
• If two subjects share a name, it is required to disambiguate in the title, e.g. "Aemon Targaryen (son of Viserys II)". When this is applied, it is also required to add the template {{DISPLAYTITLE}} at the top of the page, to make the disambiguation note smaller by writing, for example, "{{DISPLAYTITLE:Aemon Targaryen <small>(son of Viserys II)</small>}}."
  • If a subject is vastly more prominent than another sharing the same name, a disambiguation note is not required for the more prominent one. For example, the younger sister of Aegon I has the title "Rhaenys Targaryen (sister of Aegon I)," whereas the House of the Dragon character is simply titled "Rhaenys Targaryen." In this case, it is required to instead place a "{{SameName}}" or "{{OtherUses}}" template at the top of the more prominent page.
• Do not open with grammatical articles like "the" in titles, e.g. "North" as opposed to "The North."
  • Titles of episodes, series, books, and songs starting with grammatical articles are exempt.

Talk pages

Shortcut: EG:TALK

• A talk page is a subpage of a page used to discuss changes to said page. It is not for discussion on the page's subject. Any talk page contributions that do not discuss the page itself will be removed.
• Do not edit a talk page simply to point out a typo or grammatical error somewhere in the page. If you see one, fix it yourself.
  • This does not apply to pages protected for editing by administrators only. This is a rare occurrence for mainspace pages, however.
• Do not edit a talk page to inform everyone that you've made an edit. This is what the edit summary is for.
• All contributions to a talk page must be signed with "~~~~"
• It is strictly prohibited to edit a talk page beyond adding your own contribution. This will be treated as vandalism.
  • Maintenance edits, such as removing redlinks, will not be treated as vandalism.

Customized signatures

Shortcut: EG:SIGNATURES

Customized signatures are allowed, but must comply with the following policies:

• Your username must be clearly visible.
• It must include a link to your user page.
• Don't make it excessively large or small.
• If your signature contains an image, it must not be a .gif file.

User page

Shortcut: EG:USERPAGE

• The Wiki of Westeros is not a free webpage provider, and your user page is not your main contribution to the wiki. Users who exclusively edit their own user page for extended periods of time will be barred from continuing to do so by having the page locked indefinitely. An appeal to unlock your user page may be issued to an administrator if you can prove that you have been actively making helpful contributions to the wiki, and agree to follow this policy in the future. If your only aim is to create a blog and you are uninterested in wiki editing, this is the wrong website to use.
  • What is allowed: information about yourself; information that pertains to your work on the wiki; lists and other means to help you organize your work on the wiki.
  • What is not allowed: fanon and fanfiction; excessive amounts of user images (images uploaded by yourself solely for use on your own page, with no potential use on pages).
• Your user page, like any other page on the wiki, must adhere to global Fandom policy.
• Editing someone else's user page is seen in the same way as editing talk pages (see above).
  • Like with talk pages, maintenance edits are allowed.