NetHackWiki:Style guide - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: /* Capitalization */ rephrase

2026-07-18T21:06:45Z

‎Capitalization: rephrase

Umbire the Phantom: /* Other sections */ word choice

2026-07-18T20:49:15Z

‎Other sections: word choice

Umbire the Phantom: /* Section names and contents */ word choice, detail variants section more

2026-07-18T20:48:03Z

‎Section names and contents: word choice, detail variants section more

Umbire the Phantom: /* Variants */ was reminded to mention

2026-07-18T20:43:41Z

‎Variants: was reminded to mention

Umbire the Phantom: add materials header

2026-07-16T19:57:49Z

add materials header

Ardub23: Fixed typo

2026-05-09T00:44:31Z

Fixed typo

Umbire the Phantom: style of guide updates to further clarify some parts and make additions to reflect recent developments

2026-05-09T00:34:19Z

style of guide updates to further clarify some parts and make additions to reflect recent developments

Show changes

Umbire the Phantom: /* Link markup */ clarify linking

2026-04-16T10:54:43Z

‎Link markup: clarify linking

Ais523: /* Article names */ explain how the case-sensitivity works

2026-02-05T15:54:16Z

‎Article names: explain how the case-sensitivity works

Umbire the Phantom: /* General principles */ word choice

2026-02-05T15:48:04Z

‎General principles: word choice

@@ Line 62: / Line 62: @@
 ==Capitalization==
-In general, if the game or the source code capitalizes something, it should be capitalized the same on this wiki, e.g. "Archon", "Book of the Dead", and "Moloch's Sanctum": "[[Archon]]" is an example that is not normally capitalized in a majority of instances, but should be capitalized when referring to the ''NetHack'' monster. Conversely, do not capitalize things that the game does not capitalize and treats like common nouns (most monsters and objects fall into this category), e.g. "[[luck]]", "[[potion of hallucination]]", "[[tiger]]", and "[[rust trap]]". "Luck" in particular refers to the in-game luck stat, rather than factors such as RNG falling in a player's favor or not, and does not need capitalization&mdash;for this case, it is best to use "chance", "fortune" or other synonyms when referring to the player's luck instead of the character's in-game luck.
+In general, if the game or the source code capitalizes something, it should be capitalized the same on this wiki, e.g. "Archon", "Book of the Dead", and "Moloch's Sanctum": "[[Archon]]" is an example that is not normally capitalized in a majority of instances, but should be capitalized when referring to the ''NetHack'' monster. Conversely, do not capitalize things that the game does not capitalize and treats like common nouns (most monsters and objects fall into this category), e.g. "[[luck]]", "[[potion of hallucination]]", "[[tiger]]", and "[[rust trap]]". "Luck" in particular can refer to the in-game luck stat ''and''than factors such as RNG falling in a player's favor or not, and does not need capitalization&mdash;as a result, it is best to use "chance", "fortune" or other synonyms for the latter cases when writing articles.
 ==Article organization==

@@ Line 107: / Line 107: @@
 ===Other sections===
-Strategy is a straightforward case of describing how a hero deals with this monster in combat, or in other situations that they may encounter one in&mdash;the monster's base AC, speed and [[Magic resistance (monster)|MR score]] are all placed here due to usually being the most relevant in such instances.
+Strategy is a straightforward case of describing how a hero deals with this monster in combat, or in other situations that they may encounter one in&mdash;the monster's base AC, speed and [[Magic resistance (monster)|MR score]] are usually all placed here due to being the most relevant in such instances.
 After this, the History, Origin, Messages, and Variants headers can be applied as necessary in that order, followed by the encyclopedia entry and other sub-headers as described above.

@@ Line 72: / Line 72: @@
 * Generation: This should explain where and how the monster, object or level can be found or created.
 * Map(s): For level articles, this should display the layout of the level and its contents, repeated as necessary for each floor.
-* Description: For lengthier non-monster articles covering a subject, this is where the bulk of text detailing how it behaves and functions ''should be''.
+* Description: For lengthier non-monster articles covering a subject, this ''should be'' where the bulk of text that details how it behaves and functions goes.
 * Strategy: This should cover relevant strategic applications for the article's subject&mdash;as examples, strategy for levels may consist of navigation aids, while strategy for monsters may consist of ways to deal with hostile ones or what to do if you end up with one as a pet.
 * History: This is primarily used for elements of the game that are most current, and should explain how it has changed over different versions of the game, including when it was introduced and relevant bug fixes&mdash;''NetHack'' is a long-lived game, so some history sections will be longer than others. Articles about historical subjects (such as deferred, defunct or removed game elements) may have a different format entirely.
 * Origin: If the subject is based on something else, cover that information here&mdash;this includes that subject's history outside the context of ''NetHack''.
 * Messages: Any relevant messages to the subject should go here.
-* Variants: See below.
+* Variants: {{sa|Variants|See below.}}
-* Encyclopedia entry: See below.
+* Encyclopedia entry: {{sa|Encyclopedia entry|See below.}}
-* See also: Articles for related subjects, though in most cases those subjects should already be linked within the article itself.
+* See also: This section should link articles for related subjects, though in most cases those subjects should already be linked within the article itself.
 * References: All source code references and citations should be listed here. This is usually handled automatically by placing the <nowiki><references/></nowiki> tag within the section&mdash;they will appear at the bottom of the article by default otherwise, and should be listed using this tag.
 * External links: Links to other sites related to the subject, e.g. strategy guides and spoilers.
 ====Variants====
-For articles whose subjects normally appear in vanilla ''NetHack'', the [[Variants]] section can cover any and all relevant differences between the subject in that variant and in vanilla ''NetHack''&mdash;subjects that are massively different between ''NetHack'' and a particular variant may warrant their own dedicated article, e.g. the [[nurse]] of ''NetHack'' and [[Nurse (dNetHack)|the nurse]] of dNetHack are very different monsters. Even if no such differences are listed&ndash;which is an occupational hazard, given that this wiki is constantly evolving and updating&ndash;readers and editors alike should not take it for granted that all qualities regarding an element of ''NetHack'' will be entirely unchanged across variants.
+For articles whose subjects normally appear in vanilla ''NetHack'', the [[Variants]] section can cover any and all relevant differences between the subject in that variant and in vanilla ''NetHack''&mdash;each variant is generally listed in roughly the order in which they were released, rather than alphabetical order.
-Each variant is generally listed in roughly the order in which they were released, rather than alphabetical order.
+Subjects that are massively different between ''NetHack'' and a particular variant may warrant their own dedicated article, e.g. the [[nurse]] of ''NetHack'' and [[Nurse (dNetHack)|the nurse]] of dNetHack are very different monsters. Even if no such differences are currently listed, readers and editors alike should not take it for granted that all qualities regarding an element of ''NetHack'' will be entirely unchanged across variants&mdash;this is a frequent occupational hazard given that the wiki is constantly evolving alongside ''NetHack'' itself, especially as more variants of the game are created and/or updated.
-====Encyclopedia====
+====Encyclopedia entry====
 The "Encyclopedia entry" section should give the text of the subject's entry in the [[NetHack encyclopedia]], enclosed in an [[Template:encyclopedia|<nowiki>{{encyclopedia}}</nowiki> template]]. The template displays whitespace characters literally (like the HTML &lt;pre&gt; tag), so remove unwanted hard line breaks and whitespace at the beginning of lines&mdash;browser window widths vary widely! The encyclopedia entries are hard-coded in the game, and so should have the same exact text otherwise as they would in-game.

@@ Line 84: / Line 84: @@
 ====Variants====
-For articles whose subjects normally appear in vanilla ''NetHack'', the Variants section can cover any and all relevant differences between the subject in that variant and in vanilla ''NetHack''&mdash;subjects that are massively different between ''NetHack'' and a particular variant may warrant their own dedicated article, e.g. the [[nurse]] of ''NetHack'' and [[Nurse (dNetHack)|the nurse]] of dNetHack are very different monsters. Even if no such differences are listed &ndash;which is an occupational hazard, given that this wiki is constantly evolving and updating&ndash;readers and editors alike should not take it for granted that all qualities regarding an element of ''NetHack'' will be entirely unchanged across variants.
+For articles whose subjects normally appear in vanilla ''NetHack'', the [[Variants]] section can cover any and all relevant differences between the subject in that variant and in vanilla ''NetHack''&mdash;subjects that are massively different between ''NetHack'' and a particular variant may warrant their own dedicated article, e.g. the [[nurse]] of ''NetHack'' and [[Nurse (dNetHack)|the nurse]] of dNetHack are very different monsters. Even if no such differences are listed&ndash;which is an occupational hazard, given that this wiki is constantly evolving and updating&ndash;readers and editors alike should not take it for granted that all qualities regarding an element of ''NetHack'' will be entirely unchanged across variants.
 ====Encyclopedia====

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:57, 16 July 2026
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	After this, the History, Origin, Messages, and Variants headers can be applied as necessary in that order, followed by the encyclopedia entry and other sub-headers as described above.		After this, the History, Origin, Messages, and Variants headers can be applied as necessary in that order, followed by the encyclopedia entry and other sub-headers as described above.
		+
		+	==Materials==
		+	Articles about [[material]]s describe what the various items, objects and dungeon features of ''NetHack'' are made of. When creating or editing wiki articles about materials, they should at minimum answer the following questions:
		+
		+	* What qualities does the material have? (e.g. "can it be eaten?", "is it [[fragile]]?", "is it rigid?")
		+	* Does the material behave as one would expect it to?
		+	* Can this material be eroded in any way?
		+	* If erosion is possible, does it take the form of rust, corrosion, burning, rotting, or something else?
		+	* What items are made from that material?
		+	* What is good and bad about this material, strategically?
		+
		+	If the material is only available in ''NetHack'' variants, or if the material is available as a result of an implemented [[object materials]] system (usually in addition to the former), then make sure that the construction of the article reflects this. Be sure to distinguish the functions of the material by each variant that it appears in if necessary.

	==Categories==		==Categories==

@@ Line 65: / Line 65: @@
 ==Article organization==
-Each article should begin with a brief introduction before going into specifics. This introduction (also known as the "lede" in Wikipedia jargon) should be followed by the table of contents where possible, which is usually handled automatically for articles with multiple sub-headers: a table of contents can be force or omitted as well. The highest header level that should be used is ideally level 2 (i.e. <nowiki>==This==</nowiki>), with the highest-level headers (i.e. <nowiki>=These=</nowiki>) going unused since the article's main title should server this purpose, though some exceptions may occur.
+Each article should begin with a brief introduction before going into specifics. This introduction (also known as the "lede" in Wikipedia jargon) should be followed by the table of contents where possible, which is usually handled automatically for articles with multiple sub-headers: a table of contents can be force or omitted as well. The highest header level that should be used is ideally level 2 (i.e. <nowiki>==This==</nowiki>), with the highest-level headers (i.e. <nowiki>=These=</nowiki>) going unused since the article's main title should serve this purpose, though some exceptions may occur.
 ===Section names and contents===

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 Articles on the wiki are linked to using <nowiki>[[double brackets]]</nowiki>, e.g. writing <nowiki>"[[grid bug]]"</nowiki> produces [[grid bug]]. Links to articles can also be displayed using any desired text by separating the target article and the text via pipe, e.g. <nowiki>"[[Stormbringer|Stormy]]"</nowiki> becomes [[Stormbringer|Stormy]]. Text appended immediately to the end of a wiki link becomes part of the link, e.g. <nowiki>"[[Rodney]]bane"</nowiki> becomes [[Rodney]]bane&mdash;note that placing text outside the bracket this way serves no purpose if you are customizing the link to display particular text as in the second example, since that text can simply be placed inside the double brackets; e.g., <nowiki>"[[Wizard of Yendor|Rodney]]bane"</nowiki> is unnecessary where <nowiki>"[[Rodney]]bane"</nowiki> or even <nowiki>"[[Wizard of Yendor|Rodneybane]]"</nowiki> will suffice, and the latter examples are more presentable when editing while giving the same output as the former.
-An article's text should link to a subject the first time it is mentioned in a page's text; further links are not prohibited, but are usually unnecessary, though the contents of templates are usually not counted towards this. When linking to multiple subjects in a row, do not split the article links between every word or couple of words: doing so makes the article harder to follow and annoying to edit. Even a simple parenthetical list is more ideal, e.g. "non-undead giants ([[fire giant]]s, [[frost giant]]s, [[storm giant]]s, etc.)" is better than "[[Fire giant|non-]][[Frost giant|undead]] [[Storm giant|giants]]".
+An article's text should link to a subject the first time it is mentioned in a page's text: further links are not prohibited, but are usually unnecessary, though exceptions are sometimes made for sufficiently-long articles&mdash;the contents of templates are usually not counted towards this in any case. When linking to multiple subjects in a row, do not split the article links between every word or couple of words: doing so makes the article harder to follow and annoying to edit. Even a simple parenthetical list is more ideal, e.g. "non-undead giants ([[fire giant]]s, [[frost giant]]s, [[storm giant]]s, etc.)" is better than "[[Fire giant|non-]][[Frost giant|undead]] [[Storm giant|giants]]".
 ==Article names==

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 Try to be consistent when naming new and existing articles:
-* Name most pages with lowercase letters, like [[scroll of identify]], but use uppercase for proper nouns, like [[Amulet of Yendor]]. By default, MediaWiki forces the first letter of a page name to be uppercase.
+* Name most pages with lowercase letters, like [[scroll of identify]], but use uppercase for proper nouns, like [[Amulet of Yendor]]. Article names are case-sensitive apart from the first letter, which is case-insensitive (so that links work both within sentences and at the start of sentences) and usually displayed in uppercase by MediaWiki.
 * Prefer singular to plural for article names, e.g. [[unicorn]] instead of [[unicorns]].
 * Try to avoid conflating disparate-but-related subjects where possible. As an example, [[identification]], [[scroll of identify]], and [[spellbook of identify]] all deal with identifying items, but are very clearly distinct: the first concerns how identification in general functions, the second concerns a specific item that fully identifies objects, and the third concerns both the spell used to identify objects and the spellbook that teaches that spell.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 * As stated below the editing window: Please note that all contributions to NetHackWiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. '''If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.''' You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see [[NetHackWiki:Copyrights]] for details). '''Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!'''
-For ideas of what constitutes sensible editing practices and principles that are not listed here or in the below sections, consider consulting [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Manual of Style|Wikipedia's Manual of Style]]: while NetHackWiki is '''not''' Wikipedia and as such should not be held to the same ''exact'' standards, the Manual of Style is nonetheless a solid resource for wiki editors of all skill levels.
+For ideas of what constitutes sensible editing practices and principles that are not listed here or in the below sections, consider consulting [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Manual of Style|Wikipedia's Manual of Style]]: while NetHackWiki is '''not''' Wikipedia and as such should not be held to the same ''exact'' standards, their Manual of Style is nonetheless a solid resource for wiki editors of all skill levels.
 ==Tone==