Difference between revisions of "Standards"
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== Style== | == Style== | ||
− | Remember that this is [[Fancyclopedia|'''''Fan'''''cyclopedia]], not the completely separate (and | + | Remember that this is [[Fancyclopedia|'''''Fan'''''cyclopedia]], not the completely separate (and excellent) [[Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]. Entries should emphasize the significance of the subject to [[fandom]], not merely to [[science fiction]]. Entries deemed irrelevant or tangential to fandom may be deleted. |
+ | |||
+ | ''If in doubt, leave it out!'' While we don’t require extensive citations and attributions of sources (tho they’re great if you’ve got them), we recognize that memory is fallible. If you are uncertain of a fact, it’s better to omit it altogether than to add something questionable. | ||
+ | * Facts you’re unsure of and extraneous details can be added under the Discussion tab. | ||
+ | * If you research someone or something and come up blank, save another researcher trouble by putting details on the Discussion page and adding the article to the list of [[Missing Information]]. | ||
+ | * Don't write entries describing events as current or future ("is currently", "in a forthcoming"), as they will become confusing with time. The exception is [[conventions]] that can say "will be held". | ||
+ | * If quoting more than a line or two from an old fanzine: | ||
+ | Place a space before and between each paragraph. | ||
+ | |||
+ | So it looks like this. | ||
− | |||
==Templates== | ==Templates== | ||
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(July 4, 1932 – July 31, 1999) | (July 4, 1932 – July 31, 1999) | ||
− | '''Joe Phan''', a [[New York]] [[fan]] | + | '''Joe Phan''' (né Joseph Mundane, aka '''Jophan'''<boldface names used in fandom>), a [[New York]] [[fan]] active in the 1950s.... Blah, blah, blah. Lorem ipsum...His friend, [[Joan Femfan]], described him as....<ref>says me</ref> |
− | <The biography goes here. It may be short or it may occupy hundreds of lines. If long, subheadings make for better readability.> | + | |
+ | <The biography goes here. It may be short or it may occupy hundreds of lines. If long, subheadings make for better readability. In general, it is best to begin with the person’s major accomplishments in fandom and put mundane details such as birthplace and livelihood at the end. Don't spend a lot of time on pros’ accomplishments unless they are fan-related — we link to SFE for that. | ||
+ | |||
+ | <Do mention fans’ spouses, day jobs, and other facts that round out the picture of a fan’s life and personality. As Jack Speer complained in Fancy1, “The biografies usually give date and place of birth, and sometimes physical characteristics, but for the most part are given over to the fan's entrance and career in fandom, and his preferences as to promags, fanzines, fans, etc, to the virtual exclusion of information about his schooling, family background, jobs, &c, which would be useful in understanding the person.”> | ||
+ | |||
+ | * {{SFE|name=phan_joe}}. <for pros with listings in the SF Encyclopedia> | ||
+ | * {{link | website=http://www.JoePhan.org|text=Website.}}<We are moving away from hiding websites in the bottom templates.> | ||
+ | * [[Joe Phan's Eofandom Reminiscence]] | ||
{{fanzines}} <skip this section altogether if empty> | {{fanzines}} <skip this section altogether if empty> | ||
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{{recognition}} <skip this section altogether if empty> | {{recognition}} <skip this section altogether if empty> | ||
− | * 1989 | + | * 1989 — [[Fantasticon 3]] <a GoHship> |
− | * 1990 | + | * 1990 — '''[[1990 Best Novel Hugo]]''' for ''Waterworld'' |
− | * 1991 | + | * 1991 — [[1991 Best Novel Hugo]] nominee for ''Fireworld'' |
− | * 1992 | + | * 1992 — [[Filk Hall of Fame]] |
− | <Award winners only. Only mention nominations for Hugo Awards, where nomination itself is notable | + | <Award winners only. Only mention nominations for Hugo Awards before 2010, where nomination itself is notable. Skip minor pro awards> |
+ | ___<br> | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||
+ | |||
{{person | born=1932 | died=1999}} | {{person | born=1932 | died=1999}} | ||
− | [[Category:fan]] | + | [[Category:fan]] <and/or pro or mundane> |
− | [[Category:US]] <or | + | [[Category:US]] <or wherever> |
− | [[Category: | + | <if appropriate:> |
+ | [[Category:artist]] | ||
+ | [[Category:filk]] | ||
</pre> | </pre> | ||
|} | |} | ||
==Publications== | ==Publications== | ||
+ | [[Fanzines]], [[semiprozines]] and [[prozines]], plus websites and [[books]] ''about'' [[fandom]]. [[Novels]], in general, should be described on their author’s page, and only when particularly significant to fandom. | ||
− | <pre> | + | {| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="center" |
− | Description<ref>really</ref> | + | | <pre> |
+ | '''''Phan's Zine''''' was a [[fanzine]] [[pubbed]] by [[Joe Phan]].... Description, including author or editor, where published, period of publication, impact, etc. If it isn’t a fanzine or a prozine, explain its relevance to fandom.<ref>really</ref> | ||
{{prizes}} | {{prizes}} | ||
− | * 1990 | + | * 1990 — '''[[1990 Best Fanzine Hugo]]''' |
+ | <tab head=top> (For fanzines) | ||
+ | Issue || Date || Pages || Notes | ||
+ | 1 || September 4, 1956 || 25 || [[Ditto]]. Cover by [[Bill Rotsler]]. Contributors include [[Arthur C. Clarke]] and [[Rick Sneary]]. | ||
+ | 5 || July 1957 || 42 || [[Mimeo]]. Mostly a [[letterzine]]. Announces Joe Faned’s CoA at Miskatonic University. | ||
+ | 6 || September 1957 || 100 || [[Offset]]. First annish. Last issue. | ||
+ | </tab> | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{fanzineindex|name=Phan's Zine|dir=Fanac.org page}} <For zines on Fanac.> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ___<br> | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||
+ | |||
{{publication | year = 1978}} or {{publication | start=1978 | end=1992}} | {{publication | year = 1978}} or {{publication | start=1978 | end=1992}} | ||
− | [[Category:Fanzine]] <or whatever> | + | [[Category:Fanzine]] <or whatever; if category is apazine, newszine, fanthology, clubzine, etc., also include category fanzine.> |
[[Category:US]] <or whatever> | [[Category:US]] <or whatever> | ||
</pre> | </pre> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==Where Am I?== | ||
+ | In general, the place categories reflect where something actually happened. So websites, fanzines, books, etc., are categorized as from the place where they were published. | ||
==Locales== | ==Locales== | ||
− | Countries, states, cities (hotels and houses should be ''Venues''). Describe the fannish activity that has happened there | + | Countries, states, cities (hotels and houses should be ''Venues''). Describe the fannish activity that has happened there. Include attributes or [[fanac]] of the area fans. Don't create locale unless it has [[fannish]] significance. Specifically, if the only thing you can say about a locale is "Such-and-such convention was held in X" it should not get a locale page. |
It is common for larger cities to have suburbs or nearby cities in which fannish events happened. Do not create a separate locale for each of them, but add a redirection to the main city. For example, "Boston, MA" is a locale. The Boston suburbs of Cambridge, Brookline, Waltham, Newton, Danvers also all hosted Boston-area conventions or clubs. All of them should redirect to Boston. | It is common for larger cities to have suburbs or nearby cities in which fannish events happened. Do not create a separate locale for each of them, but add a redirection to the main city. For example, "Boston, MA" is a locale. The Boston suburbs of Cambridge, Brookline, Waltham, Newton, Danvers also all hosted Boston-area conventions or clubs. All of them should redirect to Boston. | ||
− | (How far away is far away enough to warrant a separate locale? It's a judgment call, and depends on how the fandom ''in that area'' views it. Always ask, "How do the people themselves see | + | (How far away is far away enough to warrant a separate locale? It's a judgment call, and depends on how the fandom ''in that area'' views it. Always ask, "How do the people themselves see themselves?" If you don't know the answer to that, a good rule is to ask yourself how you'd explain it to a person unfamiliar with the area. (E.g. if a convention was held in Downers Grove and someone in London asked you where it was held would you say (always assuming you wanted to inform) "Downers Grove, IL" or "a Chicago suburb"? |
==Venues== | ==Venues== | ||
− | + | Buildings, such as hotels and houses. Use the current name for hotels that have changed name. (Old names of the hotel should redirect to the current name.) | |
+ | |||
+ | As with locales, venues should be created only when a site has more than trivial importance, where you could tell a fannish story about the site rather than just saying "Five X-cons were held there in the 90s." | ||
+ | |||
+ | If a venue is memorable because of a specific event in [[fanhistory]], describe it on a page about the event rather than creating a venue page. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==Awards== | ||
+ | |||
+ | We try to document awards given to each person, but because we are '''''Fan'''cyclopedia'', we have a strong focus on ''[[fan]]'' awards: Awards which are | ||
+ | #given by fans | ||
+ | #primarily for [[fannish]] activities | ||
+ | |||
+ | We also document [[pro]] awards, but only wins and only for major awards. We document nominations '''only''' for the Hugos. We do not document [[Nebula]] nominations and normally document Nebula wins only in the form "Two Best Novel Nebulas" without bothering to break them out by year. | ||
− | + | List [[awards]] in the year they are given, not the year the work appeared. E.g.: | |
+ | * 1997 — [[Past President of the Fan Writers of America]] for 1951 | ||
+ | * 1999 — 1998 [[Nebula Award]] for Best Novel | ||
+ | * 2020 — [[1945 Best Novel Retro Hugo]] | ||
== Page titles== | == Page titles== | ||
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We will create redirects in Mediawiki as necessary to redirect different usage to the standard, titlecase forms, e.g. "SF writer" will redirect to "SF Writer". | We will create redirects in Mediawiki as necessary to redirect different usage to the standard, titlecase forms, e.g. "SF writer" will redirect to "SF Writer". | ||
− | Acronyms/ | + | Acronyms/[[Initialism]]s should be in ALL CAPS, unless fannish use says otherwise, e.g., LASFS, but gafia. Use redirects as necessary. |
== The Naming of Names== | == The Naming of Names== | ||
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* Pages should be created under the most commonly used form of a name, and where two versions are comparably commonly used, we will use the less ambiguous version. Examples: | * Pages should be created under the most commonly used form of a name, and where two versions are comparably commonly used, we will use the less ambiguous version. Examples: | ||
− | + | # "'''Walt Willis'''", not "Willis" or "WAW" or "Walter A. Willis" (the latter ''is'' less ambiguous, but also much less commonly used) | |
− | + | # "'''E. E. Smith'''", not "Doc Smith" or "Edward Elmer Smith, PhD" | |
− | + | # "'''LASFS'''", not "Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society" (''Everyone'' calls it "LASFS".) | |
* '''When using initials, use periods and put spaces between them'''. So "E. E. Smith", not "EE Smith". | * '''When using initials, use periods and put spaces between them'''. So "E. E. Smith", not "EE Smith". | ||
− | * When you are dealing with an ambiguous reference, create a link using an unambiguous form. So if the reference was "When Walt got back to Belfast" you would link it as "When | + | * When you are dealing with an ambiguous reference, create a link using an unambiguous form. So if the reference was "When Walt got back to Belfast" you would link it as "When <nowiki> [[Walt Willis|Walt]] </nowiki> got back to Belfast". |
* When multiple forms of a name exist, add redirects from the lesser-used forms to the main page. | * When multiple forms of a name exist, add redirects from the lesser-used forms to the main page. | ||
− | * Use redirects only where the form being redirected is reasonably unique. So, we would not redirect "Walt" to "Walt Willis" because there are other well-known Walts in Fancy. But we ''would'' redirect "Willis" in spite of | + | * Use redirects only where the form being redirected is reasonably unique. So, we would not redirect "Walt" to "Walt Willis" because there are other well-known Walts in Fancy. But we ''would'' redirect "Willis" in spite of there being other Willises -- none of the rest are significant enough to be referred to by last name alone. |
A redirect makes a page just a pointer to another page. If we've written up a page named "E. E. Smith", we also want references to "Doc Smith" to point there. We do this by creating a "Doc Smith" page and ''redirecting'' it to the "E. E. Smith" page. | A redirect makes a page just a pointer to another page. If we've written up a page named "E. E. Smith", we also want references to "Doc Smith" to point there. We do this by creating a "Doc Smith" page and ''redirecting'' it to the "E. E. Smith" page. | ||
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A redirect is done by putting the line | A redirect is done by putting the line | ||
<nowiki>#REDIRECT [[E. E. Smith]]</nowiki> | <nowiki>#REDIRECT [[E. E. Smith]]</nowiki> | ||
− | + | at the top of the page. To point the redirect at a subsection, use | |
− | + | <nowiki>#REDIRECT [[Main Page Name#Subhead]]</nowiki> | |
− | (Feel free to ignore this -- the | + | (Feel free to ignore this -- the editors will be scurrying around behind the scenes adding redirects as necessary.) |
==Clashing Names== | ==Clashing Names== | ||
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To refer to a fanzine as a whole (that is, not to a specific issue) use | To refer to a fanzine as a whole (that is, not to a specific issue) use | ||
− | <nowiki>[[File 770]]</nowiki> | + | <nowiki>''[[File 770]]''</nowiki> |
To refer to a specific issue use | To refer to a specific issue use | ||
<nowiki>{{File770 | issue=23}}</nowiki> | <nowiki>{{File770 | issue=23}}</nowiki> | ||
− | |||
To refer to a specific ''page'', use | To refer to a specific ''page'', use | ||
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== Is there already a page for that?== | == Is there already a page for that?== | ||
− | Don't create pages for "X, someone who does Y", just create a redirect X that points to Y. If something has no independent existence, like awards only given at a particular convention, or someone's pet, add detail to the parent page. The site is about fandom, don't create pages about | + | In general, Fancyclopedia is moving away from making readers click all over for related topics and instead grouping broad subjects in longer articles with subheadings. |
+ | |||
+ | Don't create pages for "X, someone who does Y", just create a redirect X that points to Y. If something has no independent existence, like awards only given at a particular convention, or someone's pet, add detail to the parent page. The site is about fandom, don't create pages about the things fans do in the rest of their lives | ||
So, for example, "Con runner" redirects to "Con Fandom". Note that we make a point of using the term "conrunners" in the Con Fandom page and we make it bold. This helps the reader who expected a definition of "con runner" to find it. | So, for example, "Con runner" redirects to "Con Fandom". Note that we make a point of using the term "conrunners" in the Con Fandom page and we make it bold. This helps the reader who expected a definition of "con runner" to find it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | If XYZ Club has a subgroup that goes jitterbugging every Saturday, note that on the XYZ Club page instead of creating an XYZ Jitterbuggers page. “The History of Kishinev Fandom” goes in the Kishinev page. [[Ktp]]. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Use subheadings to break up the text on pages with lots of parts. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Put the relevant categories for the redirected article, if different, on the redirect page. For example, the article for [[Robert A. Heinlein]] has a subsection about ''[[Robert A. Heinlein#Stranger in a Strange Land|Stranger in a Strange Land]]''. The Heinlein page is in the “person” category. The redirect page for ''Stranger'' has the “book” category. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==Wikilinks== | ||
+ | To link to another page on Fancyclopedia, use double square brackets <nowiki>[[Like This]]</nowiki>. Note that this will only work if you use the same upper and lowercase configuration as the article name. We have made lowercase redirect around this annoying WikiMedia case sensitivity, but where they don’t exist or you want to use different words, you can use a pipe <nowiki>[[Like This|in this fashion]]</nowiki>. | ||
+ | |||
+ | To link to a subsection of a page: <nowiki>[[Main Title#Subsection Title|text you want]]</nowiki>. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We encourage you to be lavish with wikilinks to help steer readers to other parts of Fancylopedia. It’s ok to link the same name or term multiple times on a page. (Once per paragraph is probably enough, though.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===What if a wikilink is red?=== | ||
+ | The first thing you should do is search to make sure the article you’re trying to link to exists and that you have spelled your link and used the same case as its actual title. (Some articles have display titles different from their actual titles, e.g. “Joe Fann” vs. “Joe Fann (IL)”; in such cases, the actual title is in small print below the display title.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | If no article exists, and you don’t want to create one, it’s perfectly all right to leave the redlink. Someone will likely do something about it by and by. | ||
+ | |||
+ | However, please don’t wikilink people, places or things that aren’t appropriate for '''''Fan'''cyclopia'' entries. If Famous Mundane was a special guest at Hitchiecon 11, and you don’t think fans will automatically know Famous, you can explain who [[heesh]] was in a parenthetical note in the Hitchiecon 11 article, or, if need be, make an outlink to some other source. This applies to all such nonfan folks apt to be at fan events as scientists, actors, media personalities, musicians, mainstream publishers, etc. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==Adding Images == | ||
+ | Adding photos or artwork is great. Complete [https://mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images MediaWiki directions are here], but here’s a quick rundown: | ||
+ | |||
+ | Start on the Upload Files page. Upload the image. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Then go to the page you want the image on. Click Edit. Put your cursor where you want the image to go. Click the little box up in the formatting bar with mountains in it. A box will open. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fill in the filename and the caption. You can use wiki links in captions: | ||
+ | <pre>'''[[Joe Fann]] and [[Morojo]] at [[Nycon]] in 1939.''' ''Photo by [[4E]].''</pre> | ||
+ | |||
+ | If you want the default alignment (on the right), just click Insert. Otherwise, use the Align pulldown to put it left or center first. You can then preview the page to see how it looks. (Note that photos of people tend to look best when the subject is faced toward the text.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Or, just e-mail us the picture, and we’ll get it posted. | ||
== Year links== | == Year links== | ||
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Year links should be avoided in tables or lists. | Year links should be avoided in tables or lists. | ||
− | |||
− | |||
The exception for using year of publication is for fan-fund trip reports and fanhistory articles, when the dates the events occurred should be used. | The exception for using year of publication is for fan-fund trip reports and fanhistory articles, when the dates the events occurred should be used. | ||
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== Future proofing external site links== | == Future proofing external site links== | ||
− | + | A link going dead is not a reason to remove it. If possible, replace offsite failed links with a link to the archived page at the Internet Archive. Report bad links at Fanac to an administrator. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | to | ||
− | |||
− | + | Please avoid using url shortening services, as that introduces another point of failure. | |
[[Category:Admin]] | [[Category:Admin]] |
Revision as of 01:48, 26 November 2021
Contents
- 1 Style
- 2 Templates
- 3 Unicode
- 4 People
- 5 Publications
- 6 Where Am I?
- 7 Locales
- 8 Venues
- 9 Awards
- 10 Page titles
- 11 The Naming of Names
- 12 Clashing Names
- 13 References to Publications
- 14 Is there already a page for that?
- 15 Wikilinks
- 16 Adding Images
- 17 Year links
- 18 Sequences
- 19 Future proofing external site links
Style[edit]
Remember that this is Fancyclopedia, not the completely separate (and excellent) Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Entries should emphasize the significance of the subject to fandom, not merely to science fiction. Entries deemed irrelevant or tangential to fandom may be deleted.
If in doubt, leave it out! While we don’t require extensive citations and attributions of sources (tho they’re great if you’ve got them), we recognize that memory is fallible. If you are uncertain of a fact, it’s better to omit it altogether than to add something questionable.
- Facts you’re unsure of and extraneous details can be added under the Discussion tab.
- If you research someone or something and come up blank, save another researcher trouble by putting details on the Discussion page and adding the article to the list of Missing Information.
- Don't write entries describing events as current or future ("is currently", "in a forthcoming"), as they will become confusing with time. The exception is conventions that can say "will be held".
- If quoting more than a line or two from an old fanzine:
Place a space before and between each paragraph. So it looks like this.
Templates[edit]
We use mediawiki Templates to collect structured data. For example Template:Person or Template:Convention which should be included with {{person | born=????}} or {{convention}}. The template pages give documentation on the arguments, all of which are optional, though you might get nag messages if obvious things, like the year of a convention, are missed.
Unicode[edit]
Mediawiki handles Unicode well, but it can be difficult to find the characters on keyboards, so assume users will be often searching without them. Page names should use the accents in names, places and publications, but a redirect should be written for the ASCII form. Use "'- rather than the typographic “”‘’— in titles, more freedom is allowed in the content.
People[edit]
In Fancyclopedia people are generally fans and/or pros, or fictional. We generally don't write entries for people outside the SF community at all, but when we do, we categorize them as mundane. If an entry doesn't have one of these three categories, it falls through the cracks in the indexing system.
We have a more-or-less standard approach for people entries. (Notes are in <pointy brackets>):
(July 4, 1932 – July 31, 1999) '''Joe Phan''' (né Joseph Mundane, aka '''Jophan'''<boldface names used in fandom>), a [[New York]] [[fan]] active in the 1950s.... Blah, blah, blah. Lorem ipsum...His friend, [[Joan Femfan]], described him as....<ref>says me</ref> <The biography goes here. It may be short or it may occupy hundreds of lines. If long, subheadings make for better readability. In general, it is best to begin with the person’s major accomplishments in fandom and put mundane details such as birthplace and livelihood at the end. Don't spend a lot of time on pros’ accomplishments unless they are fan-related — we link to SFE for that. <Do mention fans’ spouses, day jobs, and other facts that round out the picture of a fan’s life and personality. As Jack Speer complained in Fancy1, “The biografies usually give date and place of birth, and sometimes physical characteristics, but for the most part are given over to the fan's entrance and career in fandom, and his preferences as to promags, fanzines, fans, etc, to the virtual exclusion of information about his schooling, family background, jobs, &c, which would be useful in understanding the person.”> * {{SFE|name=phan_joe}}. <for pros with listings in the SF Encyclopedia> * {{link | website=http://www.JoePhan.org|text=Website.}}<We are moving away from hiding websites in the bottom templates.> * [[Joe Phan's Eofandom Reminiscence]] {{fanzines}} <skip this section altogether if empty> * [[Fanzine 1]] [1973-77] * [[Apazine 2]] [1988-95] (for [[FAPA]]) * [[Fanzine 3]] [1994] (with [[Another Fan]]) {{recognition}} <skip this section altogether if empty> * 1989 — [[Fantasticon 3]] <a GoHship> * 1990 — '''[[1990 Best Novel Hugo]]''' for ''Waterworld'' * 1991 — [[1991 Best Novel Hugo]] nominee for ''Fireworld'' * 1992 — [[Filk Hall of Fame]] <Award winners only. Only mention nominations for Hugo Awards before 2010, where nomination itself is notable. Skip minor pro awards> ___<br> <references /> {{person | born=1932 | died=1999}} [[Category:fan]] <and/or pro or mundane> [[Category:US]] <or wherever> <if appropriate:> [[Category:artist]] [[Category:filk]] |
Publications[edit]
Fanzines, semiprozines and prozines, plus websites and books about fandom. Novels, in general, should be described on their author’s page, and only when particularly significant to fandom.
'''''Phan's Zine''''' was a [[fanzine]] [[pubbed]] by [[Joe Phan]].... Description, including author or editor, where published, period of publication, impact, etc. If it isn’t a fanzine or a prozine, explain its relevance to fandom.<ref>really</ref> {{prizes}} * 1990 — '''[[1990 Best Fanzine Hugo]]''' <tab head=top> (For fanzines) Issue || Date || Pages || Notes 1 || September 4, 1956 || 25 || [[Ditto]]. Cover by [[Bill Rotsler]]. Contributors include [[Arthur C. Clarke]] and [[Rick Sneary]]. 5 || July 1957 || 42 || [[Mimeo]]. Mostly a [[letterzine]]. Announces Joe Faned’s CoA at Miskatonic University. 6 || September 1957 || 100 || [[Offset]]. First annish. Last issue. </tab> {{fanzineindex|name=Phan's Zine|dir=Fanac.org page}} <For zines on Fanac.> ___<br> <references /> {{publication | year = 1978}} or {{publication | start=1978 | end=1992}} [[Category:Fanzine]] <or whatever; if category is apazine, newszine, fanthology, clubzine, etc., also include category fanzine.> [[Category:US]] <or whatever> |
Where Am I?[edit]
In general, the place categories reflect where something actually happened. So websites, fanzines, books, etc., are categorized as from the place where they were published.
Locales[edit]
Countries, states, cities (hotels and houses should be Venues). Describe the fannish activity that has happened there. Include attributes or fanac of the area fans. Don't create locale unless it has fannish significance. Specifically, if the only thing you can say about a locale is "Such-and-such convention was held in X" it should not get a locale page.
It is common for larger cities to have suburbs or nearby cities in which fannish events happened. Do not create a separate locale for each of them, but add a redirection to the main city. For example, "Boston, MA" is a locale. The Boston suburbs of Cambridge, Brookline, Waltham, Newton, Danvers also all hosted Boston-area conventions or clubs. All of them should redirect to Boston.
(How far away is far away enough to warrant a separate locale? It's a judgment call, and depends on how the fandom in that area views it. Always ask, "How do the people themselves see themselves?" If you don't know the answer to that, a good rule is to ask yourself how you'd explain it to a person unfamiliar with the area. (E.g. if a convention was held in Downers Grove and someone in London asked you where it was held would you say (always assuming you wanted to inform) "Downers Grove, IL" or "a Chicago suburb"?
Venues[edit]
Buildings, such as hotels and houses. Use the current name for hotels that have changed name. (Old names of the hotel should redirect to the current name.)
As with locales, venues should be created only when a site has more than trivial importance, where you could tell a fannish story about the site rather than just saying "Five X-cons were held there in the 90s."
If a venue is memorable because of a specific event in fanhistory, describe it on a page about the event rather than creating a venue page.
Awards[edit]
We try to document awards given to each person, but because we are Fancyclopedia, we have a strong focus on fan awards: Awards which are
- given by fans
- primarily for fannish activities
We also document pro awards, but only wins and only for major awards. We document nominations only for the Hugos. We do not document Nebula nominations and normally document Nebula wins only in the form "Two Best Novel Nebulas" without bothering to break them out by year.
List awards in the year they are given, not the year the work appeared. E.g.:
- 1997 — Past President of the Fan Writers of America for 1951
- 1999 — 1998 Nebula Award for Best Novel
- 2020 — 1945 Best Novel Retro Hugo
Page titles[edit]
Mediawiki titles are case sensitive (unlike Wikidot), so we need to be consistent in page names. They should be in title case, which keeps conjunctions and prepositions in lower case. Read up on it here
If uncertain about a phrase, type it in www.titlecase.com which reports for AP-style:
Use lower case: a an and at but by for in of on or the to up
Capitalize: Above About Across Against Along Among Around As Before Behind Below Beneath Beside Between Beyond Down During Except From Inside I Into Is It Like Near Off Since Toward Through Under Until Upon With Within
We will create redirects in Mediawiki as necessary to redirect different usage to the standard, titlecase forms, e.g. "SF writer" will redirect to "SF Writer".
Acronyms/Initialisms should be in ALL CAPS, unless fannish use says otherwise, e.g., LASFS, but gafia. Use redirects as necessary.
The Naming of Names[edit]
Names are important, since we want all references to a person or place or thing to go to that P/P/T's page. For that reason we have a simple set of rules for links:
- Pages should be created under the most commonly used form of a name, and where two versions are comparably commonly used, we will use the less ambiguous version. Examples:
- "Walt Willis", not "Willis" or "WAW" or "Walter A. Willis" (the latter is less ambiguous, but also much less commonly used)
- "E. E. Smith", not "Doc Smith" or "Edward Elmer Smith, PhD"
- "LASFS", not "Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society" (Everyone calls it "LASFS".)
- When using initials, use periods and put spaces between them. So "E. E. Smith", not "EE Smith".
- When you are dealing with an ambiguous reference, create a link using an unambiguous form. So if the reference was "When Walt got back to Belfast" you would link it as "When [[Walt Willis|Walt]] got back to Belfast".
- When multiple forms of a name exist, add redirects from the lesser-used forms to the main page.
- Use redirects only where the form being redirected is reasonably unique. So, we would not redirect "Walt" to "Walt Willis" because there are other well-known Walts in Fancy. But we would redirect "Willis" in spite of there being other Willises -- none of the rest are significant enough to be referred to by last name alone.
A redirect makes a page just a pointer to another page. If we've written up a page named "E. E. Smith", we also want references to "Doc Smith" to point there. We do this by creating a "Doc Smith" page and redirecting it to the "E. E. Smith" page.
A redirect is done by putting the line
#REDIRECT [[E. E. Smith]]
at the top of the page. To point the redirect at a subsection, use
#REDIRECT [[Main Page Name#Subhead]]
(Feel free to ignore this -- the editors will be scurrying around behind the scenes adding redirects as necessary.)
Clashing Names[edit]
How do we handle more than one page with the same name? This is pretty complicated, alas, and we have a page devoted to just this topic.
References to Publications[edit]
Fancy has the hope of -- eventually -- automatically linking from references to publications in its articles to the publication itself on its companion site, fanac.org. To prepare for that day, we have a simple standard for a very few fanzines and convention publication references. Currently only File 770, Ansible, Ratatosk, and The National Fantasy Fan (TNFF)
To refer to a fanzine as a whole (that is, not to a specific issue) use
''[[File 770]]''
To refer to a specific issue use
{{File770 | issue=23}}
To refer to a specific page, use
{{File770 | issue=23 | page=4}} {{Ansible | issue=23 | item=4}} {{Ratatosk | issue=35 | page=2}} {{TNFF | volume=5 | number=6 | page=12 | text=description}}
The template adds leading 0s as required.
Is there already a page for that?[edit]
In general, Fancyclopedia is moving away from making readers click all over for related topics and instead grouping broad subjects in longer articles with subheadings.
Don't create pages for "X, someone who does Y", just create a redirect X that points to Y. If something has no independent existence, like awards only given at a particular convention, or someone's pet, add detail to the parent page. The site is about fandom, don't create pages about the things fans do in the rest of their lives
So, for example, "Con runner" redirects to "Con Fandom". Note that we make a point of using the term "conrunners" in the Con Fandom page and we make it bold. This helps the reader who expected a definition of "con runner" to find it.
If XYZ Club has a subgroup that goes jitterbugging every Saturday, note that on the XYZ Club page instead of creating an XYZ Jitterbuggers page. “The History of Kishinev Fandom” goes in the Kishinev page. Ktp.
Use subheadings to break up the text on pages with lots of parts.
Put the relevant categories for the redirected article, if different, on the redirect page. For example, the article for Robert A. Heinlein has a subsection about Stranger in a Strange Land. The Heinlein page is in the “person” category. The redirect page for Stranger has the “book” category.
Wikilinks[edit]
To link to another page on Fancyclopedia, use double square brackets [[Like This]]. Note that this will only work if you use the same upper and lowercase configuration as the article name. We have made lowercase redirect around this annoying WikiMedia case sensitivity, but where they don’t exist or you want to use different words, you can use a pipe [[Like This|in this fashion]].
To link to a subsection of a page: [[Main Title#Subsection Title|text you want]].
We encourage you to be lavish with wikilinks to help steer readers to other parts of Fancylopedia. It’s ok to link the same name or term multiple times on a page. (Once per paragraph is probably enough, though.)
What if a wikilink is red?[edit]
The first thing you should do is search to make sure the article you’re trying to link to exists and that you have spelled your link and used the same case as its actual title. (Some articles have display titles different from their actual titles, e.g. “Joe Fann” vs. “Joe Fann (IL)”; in such cases, the actual title is in small print below the display title.)
If no article exists, and you don’t want to create one, it’s perfectly all right to leave the redlink. Someone will likely do something about it by and by.
However, please don’t wikilink people, places or things that aren’t appropriate for Fancyclopia entries. If Famous Mundane was a special guest at Hitchiecon 11, and you don’t think fans will automatically know Famous, you can explain who heesh was in a parenthetical note in the Hitchiecon 11 article, or, if need be, make an outlink to some other source. This applies to all such nonfan folks apt to be at fan events as scientists, actors, media personalities, musicians, mainstream publishers, etc.
Adding Images[edit]
Adding photos or artwork is great. Complete MediaWiki directions are here, but here’s a quick rundown:
Start on the Upload Files page. Upload the image.
Then go to the page you want the image on. Click Edit. Put your cursor where you want the image to go. Click the little box up in the formatting bar with mountains in it. A box will open.
Fill in the filename and the caption. You can use wiki links in captions:
'''[[Joe Fann]] and [[Morojo]] at [[Nycon]] in 1939.''' ''Photo by [[4E]].''
If you want the default alignment (on the right), just click Insert. Otherwise, use the Align pulldown to put it left or center first. You can then preview the page to see how it looks. (Note that photos of people tend to look best when the subject is faced toward the text.)
Or, just e-mail us the picture, and we’ll get it posted.
Year links[edit]
Use links to year pages very sparingly. Any years in the bottom templates will become links automatically, don't duplicate the links in the article body.
Year links should be avoided in tables or lists.
The exception for using year of publication is for fan-fund trip reports and fanhistory articles, when the dates the events occurred should be used.
Sequences[edit]
To provide links forward and backwards in a sequence of conventions, awards etc, use:
{{convention | series=Picocon | before=Picocon 32 | after=Picocon 34 | series1=Eurocon | before1=Eurocon 10 | after1=Eurocon 12}}
Future proofing external site links[edit]
A link going dead is not a reason to remove it. If possible, replace offsite failed links with a link to the archived page at the Internet Archive. Report bad links at Fanac to an administrator.
Please avoid using url shortening services, as that introduces another point of failure.