BenTheGangster Wiki:Manual of Style

These are the guidelines by which we form our articles. They will help explain how and why the Wikia has its own particular style of doing things.

Pictures
When a picture is put on an infobox, it should not be changed unless it is a low quality picture

Language and Spellings
This Wikia uses American spellings, grammar rules, and terminology, in keeping with the original Channel being American. As such, words such as "humor" and "favorite" The term "'cause" is used instead of "cos". A car's "registration plate" or "number plate" would be a "licence plate". Etc. Indicator would be "turn signal" or Torch would be "flashlight"

The Wikia also uses the standard "school paper" form 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.

Establishing Roles
After a list of characters on the episode page, some are followed by either, "(does not speak)", "(cameo)",(mentioned)" "(not named)", or "(voice only)". In the past, there has been some confusion as to what this means. A "cameo" appearance is a minor appearance where a character is seen, but doesn't speak nor is it referred to. A "does not speak" role is where a character appears and is referred to by name or by either another character. When a character does not physically appear, but is mentioned by a character, that is classified as a "mentioned" role. The "voice only and does not speak" tag is most often used for Skits. This is when a character speaks, but isn't seen in any of the illustrations. A speaking role is, obviously, when a character actually speaks is generally viewed as a speaking role, however there are some exceptions to this rule. If any other confusions occur, please notify an admin or leave a message to the relevant talk pages.

Additionally, there is an order in which we list the characters. This goes as follows:
 * Main Characters
 * Recurring Characters
 * Minor Characters
 * Forgotten Characters
 * Deceased Characters
 * Mentioned Characters
 * One-time Characters
 * Toy Characters

Galleries
Galleries should have no borders and should be in the "center" position. When adding images make sure "File:" goes in front of each image name.

No more than two images from each season should be included in a character's gallery. This applies mainly to characters that have appeared in most seasons. Minor characters, one-offs, or characters that were absent for several seasons are an exception. Images that look similar should not be included in a character gallery.

Trivia and Errors
The trivia section is strictly for unique information about the episode or character. This may include fun facts about episode production, cultural significance or references, or relation to the SML videos, The trivia section is NOT for differences in cast among different dubs. The goofs section is mainly for production errors.

Edit Summaries
Providing an edit summary is not essential, but it does make an admin's job easier to review your changes. Some things you may think are right which an admin does not, so use the edit summary to explain why you changed an article. If an edit is reverted multiple times by an admin, don't 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 warning and telling you to stop making a particular edit.

The Stub Template
If a page is just a few lines of text and some images, then it's a stub. If the page has five or more lines of text, images, and another template, then it's NOT a stub.

Categories
All pages need categories, but not every category goes on every page. Also, "Character galleries" categories only go on character galleries pages.

Biographies
In character biographies, only state significant events the character is involved in. Also avoid phrasing events in character biographies in a manner such as in "SML Parody: Everyone is sick". If possible, use the year instead, "In 2017, Chef PeePee made his first appearance...". This helps make biographies look less cluttered.