The Manual of Style — also known as the Editing Guide — is a page dedicated to covering the basics of the process of Wiki Editing, featuring guides and tutorials on how to create, write, structure, organize and detail articles which apply across the entire Gorillaz Wiki, in a comprehensive and easy-to-understand manner.
The Manual of Style may be updated periodically with new changes being made to how we structure pages on the Gorillaz Wiki.
Language and Spelling
Gorillaz is an English band, therefore the Gorillaz Wiki accordingly uses British English spellings, grammar rules, and terminology.
The Wiki also uses the standard 'school paper' academic norm by not using contractions (don't, isn't, etc.), exclamation points (!), or the word 'you' in articles. Instead, please use 'does not', 'is not', and the like, and simply end sentences with a period. This does not apply to quotations, where the actual phrasing should be used.
Date Formats
The usage of British English norms also applies to date formats. Dates on the Gorillaz Wiki must be written in the DD/MM/YYYY or Day-Month-Year format. The only exception to this rule is when an article is specifically dedicated to a subject which contains mostly events (or series of) that took place in the United States and its territories, in which the date should be written following the MM/DD/YYYY or Month-Day-Year format.
Correct International Formats:
- 26 February 2023
- 26th of February, 2023
- 26th February 2023
- 26-02-2023
US-Only Formats:
- February 26 2023
- February 26th, 2023
- 02-26-2023
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are words or sentences that, when clicked on, lead the user to a different page, either from inside or outside of the Wiki. For example, if a page mentions the song Clint Eastwood, then it should have a hyperlink directing the user to such pages, like this: Clint Eastwood (written as ''[[Clint Eastwood]]''). The titles of songs and albums should also be written in italics instead of under single or double quotation marks. The first mention to an article's respective title or name on its own page should also be written in bold.
There may be occasions where an article may not have been created yet but is still worthy enough of being created in the future or is on a to-do list, in which case you can also create a hyperlink to it so that you or other users may create it in the future.
Example: A booklet related to the band given away with a Magazine, for example, is an article relevant enough to the Wiki for it to be created, so a hyperlink should still be made. However, this does not apply to everything, as an album made by a collaborator, which (outside of the collaborator itself) has nothing to do with the band should not have a hyperlink to it made.
It is worth emphasising that, with the exception of templates (which are elaborated on below), it is not appropriate to include a hyperlink to a particular page more than once within an article. For instance, in this case, the following occurrence of Clint Eastwood should not contain a hyperlink directing the reader to the song's page, as a hyperlink to it has already been previously included.
Adding Images and Videos
On the Special:NewFiles page, you can upload images and videos from external websites to the Wiki. You can also use the Special:Upload page to do so, which also gives you the option to upload different file formats (such as OGGs, GIFs etc) along with a short guide on how to add these files to an article. This page also gives you the option to upload multiple files at the same time, which may be useful if you’re making a gallery page, for example. Selecting a Licensing for the file you’re uploading is also important and helps define the origin or author of the file.
The main picture(s) for most articles (people, songs, games, books, films, groups etc) should be included on their respective infobox. Other pictures featured across the article can also be included across sections of text (with an appropriate size and position so that it doesn’t harm the arrangement of the article) or in a Gallery section of an article.
Articles which contain separate pages dedicated to a Gallery should include the Gallery template linking to the main Gallery article. More information on dedicated Gallery pages can be found below.
Edit Summaries
Providing a summary of your edit is not essential, but it does make a staff member’s job to review your changes easier. Some things you may think are right that an admin does not, so use the edit summary to explain why you changed an article whenever possible. If an edit is reverted multiple times by an admin, do not keep adding it back as that could earn you one or more 'strikes'. What you should do is explain, in detail, the changes on the relevant talk pages. Please make an effort to read edit summaries as well, because an admin may be giving you a warning and requesting you to stop making a particular edit.
Templates
Templates are essential elements which all pages have. They’re pages designed to be included on other pages and display material or layouts that need to be shown on multiple articles. Templates can fill many different roles, from a uniform style on various articles of the same kind to the structuring of important pages, such as the Main Page.
Below are some of the most important templates that are frequently used in many different articles. A full list of the templates this Wiki has to offer can be found here.
Notices
Notice templates are closed bars which may appear at the top of an article, usually containing a picture and a song lyric associated with the message. They’re used to indicate specific information about the article, such as if it is under construction, requires cleanup, contains spoilers about something, is a gallery page etc.
The full list of notice/article management templates, each one with a specific usage guide, can be found here.
Infoboxes
Infoboxes are information boxes located on the right side of articles which contains important information about the article’s subject as well as one or more illustrative pictures. They’re used to keep the page clean, organize the information and overall make the articles more visually appealing. Most articles should include infoboxes, but it’s not mandatory for every single one of them (transcript, gallery and disambiguation pages, for example).
The full list of infobox templates, each one with a specific usage guide, can be found here.
Note: song infoboxes should include the covers of the singles/albums/EPs they were featured in as well as important album artwork if any organized by relevance. For example, Faust should include the song artwork first (in this case G-Sides’), followed by G-Sides (the compilation it was featured on) and the Rock The House single. Other images, such as alternate album artwork on specific releases, vinyl records, back covers, wallpapers etc should be included in the Gallery section (more about that later). These last rules also apply to albums and other releases.
Naxboxes
Naxboxes are portable navigation boxes that may be present at the bottom of an article. Their purpose is to make navigating between articles from the same group easier (such as songs on an album, rooms at Kong Studios, members of a band etc). All items listed on a navbox should also have it included in their own articles.
The full list of navbox templates can be found here.
Citations
Citation templates are used to cite sources, references and additional information on articles while making this process more understandable and easy to use for all users. There are different kinds of citation templates for different kinds of references used, so make sure to use the one which suits it best.
The full list of citation templates, each one with a specific usage guide, can be found here.
Other Important Templates
All of the following templates have usage instructions on their respective pages:
- Tabber: Template located at the very top of certain articles that display sub-articles related to them (for example, the music video for a song, a dedicated gallery page for a character, the transcript of an interview etc).
- Colour: Template for changing the colour of a certain line of text.
- Delete: Header template that can be added to different pages to mark them as candidates for deletion, along with a reason as to why.
- Quote: Template for adding quotes to articles.
- Main Article: Used to link to a dedicated article on a certain topic on a certain page (for example, the music video of the respective song).
- Lyrics: Scroll box for adding lyrics to song articles.
- Track listing: Template for adding track listings to album articles and similar ones.
- Reflist: A list of references from an article inside of a scroll box; should be used when an article contains a lot of references to make the page size shorter.
- W: Template used to add WikipediaW links on articles with an unique 'W' indicator (as seen here).
Categories
Categories are tags added at the end of every article that indicate different groups into which those articles or the topics and subjects covered in them fall into. All pages need categories, but only some categories fit every page.
Most categories function as branches of wider and broader ones. For example, the category 'Phase 1 songs' is a smaller branch of two categories: 'Gorillaz songs', which embraces songs from their entire catalog, and 'Phase 1', which embraces all content from the time period known as 'Phase One'.
When there is an article that fits on both the smaller and wider categories, it should ideally be added to both of them. There are, however, exceptions to this rule which apply to specific kinds of pages. For instance, overgeneralised categories (such as 'Music' or 'Humans') should be avoided whenever possible, and articles regarding particular songs or collaborators should also not be added to their respective 'Phase' categories so as to not overcrowd them and to make navigation on these categories easier as well.
Categories themselves can also be added to other categories, and all of them should also be included in the larger Browse category.
Page Structure
There are many different kinds of articles on the Gorillaz Wiki, but most of them follow a specific set of structure guidelines in order to make sure everything is properly organized and the information addressed is evenly and well-presented.
The structure of most pages is subjective to the user’s choice, but should still follow commonly used standards such as the ones from Wikipedia. Notable exceptions on this Wiki, however, are listed below:
People/Characters
Articles related to real people should include, in addition to a brief description of the person, a short biography detailing notable moments in their lives or careers that may be relevant to those reading the page. If they are a Gorillaz collaborator, there should also be a section detailing their work with Gorillaz or involvement in other projects or works by Gorillaz band members. Discography, quotes and gallery sections may also be included in the article if they’re fitting. Articles regarding fictional characters shouldn’t be very different from those, but should also explain their significance on Gorillaz’ history (if they are Gorillaz characters, that is) as well as a list of their appearances across the years.
Songs
Articles regarding songs, remixes or similar topics should contain pertinent information such as background or recording details if available. Real-life information and information pertaining to the band's fictional universe should be presented separately to avoid any confusion. In addition, it is advisable to include information on the reception of the work, its general impact, song credits, and a concise summary of any accompanying video(s), with a link to a dedicated article using the Main Article template.
The song's lyrics should be included where applicable, as well as details regarding different formats such as singles or EPs, chart positions, a list of officially released versions, and videos for the song, which may consist of pure audio uploads, music videos, visualisers, visuals, or lyric videos. Availability of the song in records, albums, EPs, singles, and other formats should also be included. Moreover, the article may include optional sections such as trivia, gallery, and references, provided that they are contextually relevant.
Trivia
The Trivia section is dedicated to additional and usually interesting pieces of information that generally wouldn’t fit elsewhere in an article. It isn’t meant to be used for obvious or unremarkable information, such as “this is one of the most misunderstood Gorillaz songs ever released” or “they are the eighteenth musician to ever record a song with the band”, instead it should include information that is either more relevant to the context of the article itself or would separate it from others of its kind, such as “it is the only song from X album to not have its own visualiser”.
References and External Links
All information presented in articles should include a reference or a source to indicate where they were taken from, to avoid the spread of misinformation across articles. References and citations should include where they were taken from (either a book, an article, an interview etc) along with a title, the author of or the origin of the information and the date the information was made available/retrieved by the user. Information whose sources are already provided in an article (such as if a person’s hair colour is shown on their picture or if a citation is present on a picture in the Gallery section, for example) do not need to have their direct sources specified, as those should be made clear by the reading of the article itself.
The list of references always comes at the very bottom of a page, before only the Navigation boxes and the categories. If the page does not already have one, add the <references/> tag to it, which is where the references using the 'ref' tag will appear.
Plagiarism
Any and all information added to the Wiki should be written by the user and in their own words. One should avoid copy and pasting information from other sources directly into the Wiki unless explicit permission is given first by the original author (in the case of direct citations, references shall always be included alongside them).
Dedicated Page Types
The standard Page Structure rules do not apply to these kinds of pages. Instead, they have their own unique list of guidelines to follow. You can read more about them below:
Galleries
Galleries are pages derived from main articles with the function of housing photos, gifs and occasionally videos related to the main articles. Images that are extremely similar to others should not be included in the same gallery.
It is not essential for an article to have a dedicated Gallery page if there is little information or photos/videos associated with it. In such case, the Gallery may be included as a regular section on the main page itself.
Articles that have dedicated gallery pages must include them in the Tabber template, in addition to including a Gallery item in the main article with no more than 3 images with the template Gallery to take the user to that page.
Do not add galleries with the [[File:]] parameter. Instead, use the <gallery>+</gallery> one for better display and adjust it to suit the article's needs.
Transcripts
Transcripts are, as the title suggests, transcriptions of spoken word sections of videos or interviews. Usually, transcripts are located on a separate page from the original article, separated by a '/' with no spaces between them just like the Galleries. Videos or shorts with very minor or short sections of spoken word may include the transcript as its own entry on the main page itself. All transcript pages should be included in the Transcripts category.
Disambiguations
Disambiguations are unique pages which list different articles associated with the same name (for example: Plastic Beach (album), Plastic Beach (song), Plastic Beach (Web Game), Plastic Beach (location) or even Escape To Plastic Beach (game), Escape To Plastic Beach World Tour, you get the point). The disambiguations are a recent introduction to the Gorillaz Wiki, so they’re still in the process of being created. All disambiguation pages should include the Disambiguation template as well as be part of the Disambiguation pages category to indicate their purpose. An example of a disambiguation page is Plastic Beach (disambiguation).
Articles which have names similar to or which could be mistaken for others should also include the OtherUses template above the main text and infobox, explaining briefly the purpose of this specific article and linking to its own dedicated disambiguation page.
Final Words
We thank you for thoroughly reading the Manual of Style, and we wish you the best of times here on the Gorillaz Wiki. If you have any questions not answered here, or maybe a suggestion regarding it, feel free to contact any of our staff members either through here or through our Discord Server.
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