Style Guide
A work in progress style guide to MoHA.WIKI and MoHA
Program Naming conventions
Full, Formal Title: The Museum of Human Achievement Casual Title: None Abbreviation: MoHA Use when trying to limit character count, but establish first “The Museum of Human Achievement (MoHA)” Internal or Informal Communication Logos NOT: Museum of Human Achievement The MoHA, Moha, moha, MoHa, or MOHA
Full, Formal Title: Welcome to my Homepage Digital Artist Residency Program Casual Title: Welcome to my Homepage Casual title used in most cases. Use full, formal title when referencing the program without a blurb in external contexts. Abbreviated as: Homepage Disambiguation: Welcome to My Homepage! use case: when referencing the original artwork created by Rachel that housed Welcome to My Guest Room and eventually became the residency program also called: welcometomyhomepage.net never: www.welcometomyhomepage.net (which is the URL of the residency program website) NOT: WTMHP Discontinued former program names: Welcome to my Guest Room Digital Artist Residency Program, Welcome to my Guest Room Full, Formal Title: The Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+) Casual Title: CATS+ Use “CATS+ (Collaborative Art + Technology Situation)” the first time listed in a document. The full name is an explanation of the program name, not the actual program name. NOT: CATS CATs Cats Plus CATS+ (Collaborative Art & Technology Situation) CATS+ (Collaborative Art and Technology Situation) CATS+: Collaborative Art + Technology Situation Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+) The Collaborative Art + Technology Situation Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+)
Full, Formal Title: inreallife.lol Casual Title: IRL IRL @ MoHA is also valid Full, formal title is also the url NOT In Real Life Discontinued former legal name: In Real Life
Full, Formal Title: Games Y’all NOT Games Ya’ll
Games Yall
Full, Formal Title: Fantastic Arcade
Full, Formal Title: Digital Do-si-do NOT Digital Do-Si-Do Digital do-si-do Digital Do si do etc
Full, Formal Title: Cage Match Project Abbreviation: The Cage or CMP Full, Formal Title: The Mall NOT the Mall
Full, Formal Title: Unlisted Projects Abbreviation: UP
Punctuation and/or capitalization
Title case is used in (unless otherwise noted or specifically stated) Event Names (https://moha.wiki/Past_Events) Program Names (https://moha.wiki/Category:Programs) Headers (https://moha.wiki/Board_Application_MoHA)
Bullet Points are cool! Use the actual bullet points unless the platform doesn’t allow for them Not: “-” or “~” or other notation Wiki format for bullet points is “*” for a single bulletpoint and “**” additional asterisks per indentation.
Numbered lists should only be used in lieu of bullet points if the numeric is relevant.
Bold is used for:
Italics are used for: Italics are used for emphasis, rather than boldface or capitals. But overuse diminishes its effect; consider rewriting instead.
Underline is used for:
Headers are used for:
Title Font Name: Inknut Antiqua Black Color: #114a9f (or black) Size: 40pt
Google Doc: Page Title
Wiki: H1
H1
Font Name: PT Mono Bold (700)
Color: #114A9F (or black)
Size: 26pt
Google Doc: H1
Article or subject header
Wiki: H2
Article or subject header
Automatically collapsed on wiki when opening on mobile and collapsible on browser
H2
Font Name: PT Mono
Color: black
Size: 22pt
Google Doc: H2
Sub-subjects underneath header, this will be reflected in table of contents as such
Wiki: H3
Sub-subjects underneath header, this will be reflected in table of contents as such
H3
Font Name: PT Mono
Color: black
Size: 16pt
Wiki: Below H3 and so on…
H4
Font Name: PT Sans Bold
Color: black
Size: 14pt
Wiki: Below H4 and so on…
Body Font
Font Name: PT Sans
Color: black
Size: 12pt
Dates are formatted as: MM/DD/YYYY
Oxford comma? Fight to the death about oxford comma Event Names Events titles cannot begin with a lowercase letter; Event titles cannot contain certain forbidden characters.
Forbidden Characters (wiki - see link) The following characters are forbidden due to clashes with wiki markup and HTML syntax:
- < > [ ] { } |
See this link for “Other Problematic Characters”
Series of events In wiki, page names cannot be duplicates and event names each will have a representative page, therefore.. Events in a discrete series which has a set start and end date should be numeric and listed as “Event Name 1”, Event Name ”2”, etc.. Events which are ongoing (i.e. Games Y’all monthly meetups) should be listed as “Games Y’all August 2023”
Universal style choices LGBTQIA+ Black Latinx or Latine BIPOC Global Majority not: minority disabled not: differently-abled
Present/Past/Current Tense Events Event submissions and details should be written in the tense most applicable and not changed after the fact. For example: “Come join us on…” should be maintained as the tense the material was submitted in. Programs Should retain their original language. For example “Altar is an ongoing series” versus “Altar was a series”.
Writing Style If using a phrase like “Let us know!” try to define who “us” is. No jargon, do not use academic or dense writing. In articles or instructions, try not to assume knowledge unless instructed otherwise. A nerdy joke, pun, or play on words is appreciated.
Key Vocab Words Underserved Having to do with being services or resources being offered or accessible Underrepresented Having to do with being represented within a structure Institutional Resources Resources coming from an established institution (government, historical wealth, businesses, capitalism, loans etc…)
Alt Text Include alt-text for images! Unless they’re purely decorative and not part of a net art project Keep it short and sweet Text info on the image can be excluded if it’s duplicated in the text of the page/post (unless it’s art) Don’t include a generic “picture of…” “image of…” …just describe the image Do use words that describe the medium, if it’s significant to understanding the meaning of the image, disambiguating artworks from event documentation from editorial graphics, etc. Don’t provide outside context unless it would be knowable to a mainstream audience. yes: Keanu Reeves holding a pair of red crocs outside of a Chipotle no: My neighbor Donna crouching in a bush next to locally loved restaurant Chuy’s on Barton Springs Road just a few days after her pregnancy Unless artwork, do adjust your description to the context the image is being used in (ie - what are the important elements communicated by the image) Ex from Guilty Pleasures Powerpoint night: meme of Nickelback holding a graph (meme implies lol, Nickelback implies guilty pleasure, graph implies powerpoint night level of nerdiness) Images as links/navigation Say where the image goes vs literally interpreting the icon (unless it’s art) Not art example: link to About Resident page (vs question mark icon) Art example: A sink hole that leads to the About page (vs link to About page)
Wiki specific (see link)
Opportunity Names
If an opportunity has potential to be the same across multiple programs (i.e. Board Application) the opportunity should be named first based on what it is “Board Application” and then the program it applies to “MoHA” with the full title being “Board Application MoHA” and not “MoHA Board Application”
Onboarding, Manuals, Policies etc.. If a page title has potential to be the same across multiple programs (i.e. Resident Artist Onboarding) the opportunity should be named first based on what it is “Resident Artist Onboarding” and then the program it applies to “CATS+” with the full title being “Resident Artist Onboarding CATS+” and not “CATS+ Resident Artist Onboarding” Article titles “A title should be a recognizable name or description of the topic that is natural, sufficiently precise, concise, and consistent with those of related articles. If these criteria are in conflict, they should be balanced against one another.”
Section Info An article's content should begin with an introductory lead section – a concise summary of the article – which is never divided into sections
Section headings Section headings should generally follow the guidance for article titles (above), and should be presented in title case (Funding of UNESCO Projects in Developing Countries)
For technical reasons, section headings should:
Be unique within a page, so that section links lead to the right place. Not contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked. Not contain images or icons. Not contain <math> markup. Not contain citations or footnotes. Not misuse description list markup (";") to create pseudo-headings. Not contain template transclusions. These technical restrictions are necessary to avoid technical complications and are not subject to override by local consensus.
As a matter of consistent style, section headings should: Not redundantly refer back to the subject of the article, e.g., Early life, not Smith's early life or His early life. Not refer to a higher-level heading, unless doing so is shorter or clearer. Not be numbered or lettered as an outline. Not be phrased as a question, e.g., Languages, not What languages are spoken in Mexico?. Not use color or unusual fonts that might cause accessibility problems. Not wrap headings in markup, which may break their display and cause other accessibility issues.
Abbreviations
Write first occurrences in full
When an abbreviation will be used in an article, first introduce it using the full expression:
an early local area network (LAN) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) ... DEC's later LAN products were ...
Do not use capitals in the full version merely because capitals are used in the abbreviation: an early Local Area Network (LAN).
Except in special circumstances, common abbreviations (such as PhD, DNA, USSR) need not be expanded even on first use.
Italics Italics are used for: Italics are used for emphasis, rather than boldface or capitals. But overuse diminishes its effect; consider rewriting instead.
Use ... or Template:Em for emphasis. This allows user style sheets to handle emphasis in a customized way, and helps reusers and translators.
Correct: The meerkat is not actually a cat. Correct: The meerkat is Template:Em actually a cat.
Use italics for the titles of works (such as books, films, television series, named exhibitions, computer games, music albums, and artworks). The titles of articles, chapters, songs, episodes, storylines, research papers and other short works instead take double quotation marks.
Quotations
Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. While quotations are an indispensable part of Wikipedia, try not to overuse them. Using too many quotes is incompatible with an encyclopedic writing style and may be a copyright infringement. It is generally recommended that content be written in Wikipedia editors' own words. Consider paraphrasing quotations into plain and concise text when appropriate (while being aware that close paraphrasing can still violate copyright).
Quotation should be used, with attribution, to present emotive opinions that cannot be expressed in Wikipedia's own voice, but never to present cultural norms as simply opinional:
Acceptable: Siskel and Ebert called the film "unforgettable".
Unacceptable: The site is considered "sacred" by the religion's scriptures.
Concise opinions that are not overly emotive can often be reported with attribution instead of direct quotation. Use of quotation marks around simple descriptive terms can imply something doubtful regarding the material being quoted; sarcasm or weasel words such as supposedly or so-called, might be inferred.
Permissible: Siskel and Ebert called the film interesting.
Unnecessary and may imply doubt: Siskel and Ebert called the film "interesting".
Should be quoted: Siskel and Ebert called the film "interesting but heart-wrenching".
Attribution
The reader must be able to determine the source of any quotation, at the very least via a footnote. The source must be named in article text if the quotation is an opinion (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view § Attributing and specifying biased statements). When attributing a quotation, avoid characterizing it in a biased manner.
Punctuation
Apostrophes
Use straight apostrophes ('), not curly apostrophes (’).Do not use accent marks or backticks (`) as apostrophes.
Quotation characters
Use "straight" quotation marks, not “curly” ones. (For single apostrophe quotes: 'straight', not ‘curly’.)
Brackets and Parentheses
This section applies to both round brackets ( ), often called parentheses, and square brackets [ ].
If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase, place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets (as shown here). However, where one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets, place their punctuation inside the brackets. There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket. An opening bracket should usually be preceded by a space. This may not be the case if it is preceded by an opening quotation mark, another opening bracket, or a portion of a word:
He rose to address the meeting: "(Ahem) ... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome!" Only the royal characters in the play ([Prince] Hamlet and his family) habitually speak in blank verse. We journeyed on the Inter[continental]. Most people are right-handed. (Some people are left-handed, but that does not make right-handed people "better" than left-handed people.) There should be a space after a closing bracket, except where a punctuation mark follows (though a spaced dash would still be spaced after a closing bracket) and in unusual cases similar to those listed for opening brackets.
Avoid adjacent sets of brackets. Either put the parenthetical phrases in one set separated by semicolons, or rewrite:
Avoid: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919) (also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. Better: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919; also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. Better: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. He was also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv.
Ellipses Use an ellipsis (plural ellipses) if material is omitted in the course of a quotation, unless square brackets are used to gloss the quotation (see § Brackets and parentheses, and the points below).
Wikipedia's style for an ellipsis is three unspaced dots (...); do not use the precomposed ellipsis character (…) or three dots separated by spaces (. . .)
Colons A colon (:) introduces something that demonstrates, explains, or modifies what has come before, or is a list of items that has just been introduced. The items in such a list may be separated by commas, or if they are more complex and perhaps themselves contain commas, the items should be separated by semicolons or arranged in a bulleted list.
We visited several tourist attractions: the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which I thought could fall at any moment; the Bridge of Sighs; the supposed birthplace of Petrarch, or at least the first known house in which he lived; and so many more. A colon may also be used to introduce direct speech enclosed within quotation marks (see § Quotation marks).
In most cases, a colon works best with a complete grammatical sentence before it. When what follows the colon is also a complete sentence, start it with a capital letter, but otherwise, do not capitalize after a colon except where doing so is needed for another reason, as for a proper name. Except in technical usage (a 3:1 ratio), no sentence should contain multiple colons, no space should precede a colon, and a space (but never a hyphen or dash) should follow the colon.
Semicolons A semicolon (;) is sometimes an alternative to a full stop (period), enabling related material to be kept in the same sentence; it marks a more decisive division in a sentence than a comma. If the semicolon separates clauses, normally each clause must be independent (meaning that it could stand on its own as a sentence). In many cases, only a comma or only a semicolon will be correct in a given sentence.
Correct: Though he had been here before, I did not recognize him. Incorrect: Though he had been here before; I did not recognize him.
Hyphens Hyphens (-) indicate conjunction. There are three main uses: In hyphenated personal names (John Lennard-Jones, Omar al-Bashir). To link prefixes with their main terms in certain constructions (quasi-scientific, pseudo-Apollodorus, ultra-nationalistic). To link related terms in compound modifiers:[o] Hyphens can aid ease of reading (that is, they can be ease-of-reading aids) and are particularly useful in long noun phrases: gas-phase reaction dynamics. But never insert a hyphen into a proper name (Middle Eastern cuisine, not Middle-Eastern cuisine).
Spacing: A hyphen is never followed or preceded by a space, except when hanging (see above) or when used to display parts of words independently, such as the prefix sub- and the suffix -less.
Dashes
Two forms of dash are used on Wikipedia: en dash (–) and em dash (—). To enter them, click on them in the CharInsert toolbar, or enter them manually as:
– or —
Do not use a double hyphen (--) to stand in for a dash. (See also: Wikipedia:How to make dashes.)
Sources use dashes in varying ways. For consistency and clarity, Wikipedia adopts the following principles.
Punctuating a sentence (em or en dashes) Dashes are often used to mark divisions within a sentence: in pairs (parenthetical dashes, instead of parentheses or pairs of commas) or singly (perhaps instead of a colon). They may also indicate an abrupt stop or interruption, in reporting quoted speech. In all these cases, use either unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes, with consistency in any one article:
An em dash is unspaced (with no space on either side): Another "planet" was detected—but it was later found to be a moon of Saturn. An en dash is spaced (with a space on each side) when used as sentence punctuation: Another "planet" was detected – but it was later found to be a moon of Saturn.
In ranges that might otherwise be expressed with to or through For ranges between numbers, dates, or times, use an en dash: pp. 7–19; 64–75%; Henry VIII reigned 1509–1547
Slashes (strokes) Generally, avoid joining two words with a slash, also called a forward slash, stroke or solidus ( / ), because it suggests that the words are related without specifying how. Replace with clearer wording.
An example: The parent/instructor must be present at all times. Must both be present? (Then write the parent and the instructor.) Must at least one be present? (Then write the parent or the instructor.) Are they the same person? (Use a hyphen: the parent-instructor.)
And/or Avoid writing and/or unless other constructions would be lengthy or awkward. Instead of Most had trauma and/or smoke inhalation, write simply trauma or smoke inhalation (which would normally be interpreted as an inclusive-or to imply or both); or, for emphasis or precision or both, write trauma or smoke inhalation or both. Where more than two possibilities are present, instead of x, y, and/or z write one or more of x, y, and z or some or all of x, y, and z.
Gender-neutral language Use gender-neutral language – avoiding the generic he and generic she, for example – if this can be done with clarity and precision. This does not apply to direct quotations or the titles of works (The Ascent of Man), which should not be altered, or to wording about one-gender contexts, such as an all-female school (When any student breaks that rule, she loses privileges).
References to space programs, past, present and future, should use gender-neutral phrasing: human spaceflight, robotic probe, uncrewed mission, crewed spacecraft, piloted, unpiloted, astronaut, cosmonaut, not manned or unmanned. Direct quotations and proper nouns that use gendered words should not be changed, like Manned Maneuvering Unit.
Instructional and presumptuous language Avoid phrases such as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone and lean toward instructional. They are a subtle form of Wikipedia self-reference, "breaking the fourth wall". Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, may express a viewpoint, and may call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is interesting, ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, etc. Simply present sourced facts neutrally and allow readers to draw their own conclusions. Such constructions can usually just be deleted, leaving behind proper sentences with a more academic and less pushy tone: Note that this was naturally subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers. becomes This was subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers.
