View source for Battlestar Wiki:Standards and Conventions

=== Prose and Grammar ===

{{mainarticle|Battlestar Wiki:Standards and Conventions/Prose}}

==== Spelling and Numeric Notation ====
* American English spellings are default. British English spellings are allowed by users familiar with that language, but expected your edits to be converted into American English. (i.e. "colour" will be converted to "color", etc.)
* Numbers should use commas ( , ) to mark every three digits, and decimal points ( . ) to denote numbers with decimals.
* Numbers less than 13 should be spelled out, "five" for "5", etc.
** '''Example:''' Number Eight was revealed to be the last of the [[Significant Seven]].
* Any proper nouns with numbers should be written out without Arabic numerals, this includes ''[[Colonial One]]'' and ''[[The Twelve Colonies]]''.
** The exception to this are Vipers or Raptors identified by numerics, i.e. [[Viper 8757]] or [[Raptor 1]]. 
* Use an apostrophe-S ('s) for all possessives, unless the noun is plural.
** "Pegasus's fuel reserves are low." (singular possessive)
** "The Vipers' ammunition would not fire." (plural possessive)

==== Characters Names and Titles ====

* When first introducing a character, always introduce them by their '''first and last names'''.
* In text, characters should always be referred to by their last names.
** '''Exception:''' Characters sharing the same last name, like [[Saul Tigh]] and [[Ellen Tigh]], or [[William Adama]] and [[Lee Adama]], may be either be referred to by their first names, by rank and last name (if applicable), or - sparingly - with rank only (e.g. in an article from Lee Adama's point of view: "The Admiral tells Adama to...")
* Members of the [[Quorum of Twelve (RDM)|Quorum of Twelve]] should always be referred to as "delegates", not "representatives". 
* Characters should not be referred to by their nicknames. For instance, when writing an article, William Adama should never be referred to as "the Old Man" or "Bill".
* For characters with both callsigns and proper names, like [[Apollo]]/[[Lee Adama]], [[Hot Dog]]/[[Brendan Costanza]] or [[Kat]]/[[Louanne Katraine]], generally refer to these characters by their last names. Using callsigns may be appropriate when dealing with pilots in the cockpit, however.

==== Ship Names ====

: '''''Rule of Thumb:''' If a ship has a name, like a person, then you do '''not''' use the word "the" before it. You wouldn't refer to the commander of ''Galactica'' as "the [[William Adama]]," now would you? So why would you call Adama's ship "the ''Galactica''" instead of ''Galactica''? The answer: you wouldn't—and you shouldn't—because it's '''wrong'''.''

* Ship names are '''proper nouns''', and therefore should be '''treated in the same manner'''.
* It is '''''incorrect''''' to use the definite article "the" before a ship name (''Galactica, Rising Star, Pegasus'', et al.), although many people in both writing and speaking make this grammatical error.
** '''Exception:''' The word "the" should only be used when describing the ship type ''before'' naming the vessel, i.e. "the [[battlestar (RDM)|battlestar]] ''[[Galactica (RDM)|Galactica]]''", "the civilian ship ''[[Scylla]]''."

==== Titles for episodes, movies, books and shows ====

* When citing a television episode, use quotations (i.e. "[[Valley of Darkness]]") most of the time. [[#Linking to Episodes|Click here for the exception.]]
* When referring to a book by its name, use ''italics'' (i.e. ''[[Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion]]'').
* When referring to the television series itself, use ''italics'' (i.e. ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', ''[[Galactica 1980]]'').

==== Tense ====

* All articles that involve the fictional characters, events and places of the series are to be written in the present tense, ''unless'': 
** The article occurs ''before'' the "Event Zero" of a continuity. "Event Zero" is defined by the following:
*** For the Original Series, anything happening before the events depicted in "[[Saga of a Star World]]" should be written in ''past tense''.
*** For ''[[Galactica 1980]]'', anything happening before the events depicted in "[[Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I]]" should be written in ''past tense''. The only exception for this is "[[The Return of Starbuck]]", which is mostly a flashback episode, but most of the events should be written in the present tense.
* As for the [[Re-imagined Series]], anything happening before the events depicted in the [[Miniseries]] should be written in the ''past tense''. However, this is where things get interesting: 
** If an article is ''exclusively'' about ''[[Caprica (series)|Caprica]]'' (which occurs roughly 50 years before the Miniseries), then it should be written in ''present tense'', except for events from before the [[Caprica pilot|''Caprica'' pilot]]. The same applies for articles exclusively about the Re-imagined Series.
** If an article spans from ''Caprica'' to the Re-imagined Series, then:
**# Events occurring ''before'' the [[Miniseries]] (timeline-wise) should be written in the ''past tense''.
**# Events occurring ''during'' and ''after'' the Miniseries (timeline-wise) should be written in the ''present tense''.

==== About Signatures... ====

* Signatures are to be used '''exclusively''' on talk pages. If the title of the page you're editing '''does not''' have "talk" in its name, '''do not add your name or timestamp to it'''.
** The only exceptions to this are: the [[Battlestar Wiki:Chiefs' noticeboard|Chiefs' noticeboard]], the [[Battlestar Wiki:Galactipedians Quorum]], the [[Battlestar Wiki:Think Tank|Think Tank]] and a [[BW:RFA|few]] [[BW:RFC|others]].
* In short, '''never sign articles'''!