Futurepedia:Manual of Style

We here at Futurepedia like things to be uniform and everything so this Manual of Style is here to set things straight.

For information on the most basic writing techniques and styles, which are used here, see Wikipedia's Manual of Style.

Below are some basic BTTF formatting do's and don't's.

Layout guide

In-universe

All in-universe articles should be structured as follows:

1. Main article
2. Stub
3. Behind the scenes (notice the capitalization)
4. Appearances
5. Sources
6. See also
7. External links
8. Succession box
9. Category

For more details as to what each section of an article should contain, see the Layout Guide.

Naming articles

There are some rules regarding how articles on Futurepedia should be named.

• Article names should be in singular form, not plural.
• The titles of articles about individual characters should be the name by which the character was most commonly known in the the BTTF universe, with later names preferred to earlier names, and full names preferred to partial names or nicknames. Titles, such as military ranks or titles of nobility, should be omitted.
• Unless the name of the article contains a proper noun, only the first word should be capitalized.

For more details, see the naming conventions (in development; in case of contradictions, regulations of this Manual of Style apply), and the archived Consensus track discussion on Article naming conventions.

Using the #

Do not use the # in a link unless you intend to direct to a section of that article with the title after the # as a section. When linking to articles, particular books and guides with numbers denoting their order, omit the # and simply put the number. Otherwise the software will look for that number as a section title on the page.

e.g. Back to the Future 7, not Back to the Future #7

Perspective

In-universe

If something is in-universe, or is described as such, it belongs to the Back to the Future universe exclusively and not into the real world. Characters are for example in-universe, but the actors who play them are not in-universe. Pseudohistory is an integral part of in-universe treatment of canon material.

Out-of-universe

Out-of-Universe refers to the perspective in which an article is written; it is the opposite of in-universe. Something written from an out-of-universe (OOU) perspective is written from a real life point of view. It will refer, for example, to real life publications, actors, authors, events, and so on, acknowledging that its subject is fictional. In contrast, an in-universe perspective will strive for verisimilitude; that is, it will be written as though the author existed within the BTTF universe. Articles about any in-universe things, such as characters, vehicles, terminology, or species, should always be written from an in universe perspective. If a section in the article is not, such as the listing of a character's published appearances or behind the scenes details, it should be tagged as such. In contrast, articles about books, movies, games, or other real life BTTF material should obviously be written from an out-of-universe perspective, but should still be noted as such. Basically, in-universe articles should never refer to Star Wars by name, or any other real life things such as publications, actors, or the like.

This is similar to futurefication.

Headings

Use the == (heading) markup for headings, not the ''' (bold) markup. Example:

===This is a heading===

which produces:

This is a heading

If you mark headings this way, a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article. Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article.

• Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case.
• Avoid links within headings.
• Avoid overuse of sub-headings.

Usage and spelling

Though the readers and editors of Futurepedia speak many varieties of English, we prefer standard American English spelling, punctuation, and word usage. This is the variety of English used in the first printings of most primary sources.

If the title of an article differs in different varieties of English, the American title should be the article title, with alternate names being used as redirects (for example).

Tense

"It's not a question of where the hell are we, but when the hell are we."

—Doc Brown, 2015

All in-universe articles should be in past tense, per the quote above.

The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, the articles on Futurepedia are presented as historical recordings that have been pieced together from scraps of information left over from the Back to the Future era. As such, all details pertaining to this history have not yet been uncovered, and more information may be added at a later date. Keeping articles written in past tense provides consistency and flavor. Secondly, the BTTF universe takes place over time timeframes. Writing in-universe articles in past tense properly relates the timeline of that universe with our own perspective.

Despite this, do not include phrases like "His ultimate fate is unknown" or "what happened to the ship after that is a mystery".

Quotations

Quotations should follow this general format:

• If the quote is less than a paragraph long, simply including it in the article's body with "quotation marks" will suffice.
• If the quote is at least a paragraph in length, or a dialogue, insert as a block quote:

"Block quotes are indented with a colon at the beginning of each new paragraph. Each paragraph needs only one colon, not a new colon for each line (word wrap will accomplish this automatically).

New paragraphs, however, do require their own colon."

Please be sure to provide as much information as possible (for instance: source, page if applicable, and characters speaking if applicable).

• Users should not correct the capitalization, spelling, grammar, or word usage within direct quotes taken from copyrighted sources as such modifications jeopardize our Fair use claim on that material. Article quotes ought to be verbatim and any changes, edits, or exclusions should be explicitly noted by using square brackets ("[ ]"). Any errors made by the author may be noted by using "[sic]".
• Quotes that serve as introductions to article subsections should not contain internal links because they appear unprofessional and are generally distracting. The only exception to this rule would be in-universe words or phrases of an obscure nature (ie. flux capacitor).
• Redundant internal links should not be added to quotes because they serve little purpose beyond making the quotes appear cluttered and messy. Links should only be added to quotes if they contain a specific article's ONLY mention of a particular concept, but even then, it is better to integrate the internal link into the body of the article's text.
• Piped links should be avoided as much as possible. If the context of the quote is not readily apparent, it is best to add appropriate information to the quote attribution field of the quote template rather than adding piped links to ambiguous pronouns such as "you", "he", or "they".

Examples

• Single speaker

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

—Han Solo to Luke Skywalker

• Two or more speakers

"I prefer more straightforward methods."
"Master of understatement."

—Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Units of measurement

For consistency, all in universe articles should use metric units of weight, mass, length, and other measurements. This follows the practice in most sources of official BTTF canon. (See also List of measurement units.)