Malazan Wiki Policies |
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Manual of Style • Layout Guide |
Spoilers • Rules |
Our spoiler policy[]
We aim to display article content on character pages in publication order under relevant book headers with the main series by SE first and either followed or interspersed by ICE novels as appropriate. These are followed by the Kharkanas books and the ICE prequels. Non-character pages are more likely not to follow publication timeline and new readers should be aware that they may come across spoilers on such pages.
Definition of Spoilers[]
Anything a reader has not yet come across is potentially a spoiler and it would be impossible to accommodate every individual person's requirement but we hope to make the site as spoiler friendly as can be. Especially major spoilers should only be disclosed in the appropriate places.
Our definition of a major spoiler would be:
The death of a major character, a significant betrayal, a completely unforeseen major turn of events etc.
Warnings[]
General Warning[]
There is a general spoiler warning on the main page as we can not guarantee all content to be spoiler free. However, all possible precautions should be taken when writing articles to ensure that the information is displayed in such a manner that the site can also be used by new readers. We recommend that new readers access the site via the New Readers Zone.
Page Specific[]
We have begun adding spoiler icons to the top right corner of a page. An open eye as seen on this page means that the content has been deemed to be displayed in a spoiler friendly manner. A page displaying a closed eye may contain spoilers at any point.
In addition, an open eye symbol () is in use on Dramatis Personae pages indicating pages which have been deemed spoiler friendly.
Please note that previously vetted pages may be rendered temporarily unsafe by newly added content. Should you spot any issues, please edit them or let one of the regular editors/admins know.
Writing Style[]
General[]
Please beware of inadvertently disclosing major spoilers about a character/place etc. which is not the subject of the page ahead of its timeline. Remember that maps and images may also contain spoilers. Use appropriately.
Article Introductions and Infoboxes[]
When writing an article introduction or adding detail to an infobox, only use information which is available to the reader soon after they first come across the subject matter. Do not include any overt spoiler information such as a character's death. Infoboxes should avoid information such as ranks, titles, or family relationships that are not revealed in the character's initial appearance. If the article isn't long enough to have anything more than a summary, then keep the spoiler information towards the bottom of the article. Try lengthening the article by including an image, a map, book header, etc. to bring the spoiler info further down.
Article Main Body[]
Character pages: On the whole, the content on character pages should be displayed under book headers in publishing order with the main series first, followed by the ICE novels and then the later books. In the case of one or two characters, where ICE novels may be interspersed with the main series, this should be stated, preceding the first book header. On character pages, extra spoiler warnings should not be needed unless in very, very extreme jaw dropping, not anticipated, it is in the interest of the sanity of the reader type cases.
Other pages: For other pages, for example places, items, organisations etc. there is currently no uniform spoiler policy other than that where possible, again book headers should be used and in the case of spoilers being disclosed in non-timeline fashion use the {{Spoiler}} and {{Endspoiler}} templates.