In this page ideal formatting rules are outlined, whenever possible follow these:
Links
For file links we recommend doing it in this manner, do not use leading or trailing whitespace on the link, and do not separate the File: namespace name from the filename:
No:
[[File: Marxism.png]]
No:
[[ File:Marxism.png]]
No:
[[File:Marxism.png ]]
Yes:
[[File:Marxism.png]]
Files are all capitalized automatically, so the first letter's case is insensitive, so while a leading lowercase letter works, it is highly discouraged:
No:
[[File:marxism.png]]
Yes:
[[File:Marxism.png]]
Similarly, the File: namespace's first character is insensitive and automatically capitalized, but again, it is disadvised:
No:
[[file:Marxism.png]]
Yes:
[[File:Marxism.png]]
If your filename has spaces, replace them with underscores, even if such action is not necessary as Mediawiki automatically converts between the 2 in internal links, it leaves some ambiguity in the link.
No:
[[File:Authoritarian Conservatism.png]]
Yes:
[[File:Authoritarian_Conservatism.png]]
If you want the icon to link to a page, add a | and link= followed by the page name, all without additional whitespace:
[[File:Altcentr.png|link=Main Page]]
It is advised to leave whitespace after the icon link, as it makes the rendered page's formatting nicer, but this depends on context.
Yes:
[[File:Altcentr.png]] [[Dead Centrism]]
Usually not ok:
[[File:Altcentr.png]][[Dead Centrism]]
Internal Links
For internal links use the standard internal link syntax without leading or trailing whitespace:
[[Diarchy]]
The first character of a page name is always capitalized and as result the first character is case insensitive, but for consistency purposes, not capitalizing the first character is heavily discouraged:
No:
[[diarchy]]
Yes:
[[Diarchy]]
If the page name has spaces, leave them as spaces, do not convert them to underscores:
No:
[[Democratic_Socialism]]
Yes:
[[Democratic Socialism]]
If you want the linked page to have an alias, add a | and the alias name afterwards, again without any additional whitespace:
[[Dead Centrism|Our mascot]]
If the pages you're wanting to link from are from a namespace, add the namespace without whitespace in between them, like the file links:
[[Community:TheGhostOfInky]]
Similar to the pages themselves, the namespaces' first character is auto-capitalized, and as a result is case insensitive, but it is discouraged to leave it in lowercase:
No:
[[community:TheGhostOfInky]]
Yes:
[[Community:TheGhostOfInky]]
Bear in mind that the Category: and File: namespaces automatically add a category and file link by default, so to link to the pages you need to add a leading :, as follows:
[[:File:Marxism.png]] [[:Category:Centrists]]
External links
If the external link is to a page on the Polcompball anarchy wiki, use the provided {{PCBA}} template, similarly to internal links, don't add extra whitespace and use spaces instead of underscores:
{{PCBA|PCBA Graveyard|Banned users}}
For links to other wikis, use their respective interwiki links, following the same rules formatting as internal and PCBA links, like for example:
For chromeball:
[[mh:chromeball:Google Chrome|Ram eater]]
For wikipedia:
[[w:Chicken nugget|Nuggies]]
Subpages
Subpage links work similarly to page links, with the subpage's name separated from the parent by /. Keep in mind the subpages' first character isn't case insensitive like the parent page, it is advised that you create subpages with the first letter capitalized, and similarly links to them must be capitalized to function.
No/Broken:
[[List of movements/Political Parties/poland]]
Yes:
[[List of movements/Political Parties/Poland]]
Bullet lists
For unordered lists, add * followed by a trailing whitespace character, as follows:
* Hello * World
Similarly, for ordered lists, do the same only with a # character:
# Item 1 # Item 2
Templates
Templates from the Template: namespace can be added to pages by simply adding the name between a pair of curly brackets {{}}, with arguments separated by |, as follows:
{{PCBA}}
{{PCBA|Arg1}}
{{PCBA|Arg1|Arg2}}
Pages outside the Template: namespaces can also be used as templates, for example to transclude the main page in a page you can do the following:
{{:Main Page}}
As mentioned prior, pages from the Template: namespace do not need their namespace name mentioned, and so it is disadvised to include it:
No:
{{:Template:PCBA}}
Yes:
{{PCBA}}
And similarly subpages from either the Template: namespace or other namespaces can be used as templates:
{{MessageBox/Wip}}
{{:Main Page/Announcements}}