DigimonWiki:Manual of Style

Style
In most situations, the dub version of a name or event takes precedence. However, this does not mean that the original Japanese version should be ignored; on the contrary, it should be noted immediately after the dub version.

The name of a fiction, such as Digimon Tamers, should always be italicized.

Any list involving multiple sets of the fiction should be ordered by anime, then manga, then games, as such:
 * Digimon Adventure
 * Digimon Adventure 02
 * Digimon Tamers
 * Digimon Frontier
 * Digimon Data Squad
 * Digimon X-Evolution
 * Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01
 * Digimon Chronicle
 * Digimon D-Cyber
 * Digimon Next
 * Tamer series
 * Digimon World series
 * Rumble Arena/Battle Spirit series
 * Digimon RPG
 * Digimon Racing
 * Digivices
 * Virtual Pets

Information from the cards should be integrated into the article - the profile quote should be part of the main profile, the attack list should be part of the attack list, and the group info and card numbers should be part of the infobox. Digivolution requirements should largely be ignored, excluding special circumstances which will be covered below.

Cards should be ordered as such, where applicable:
 * Digimon Trading Card Game/Taco Bell metal cards
 * Digi-Battle Card Game
 * D-Tector Card Game
 * Digimon Collectible Card Game
 * Hyper Coliseum
 * Alpha Evolve
 * Battle Terminal

Digimon
In order to differentiate between a Digimon as a species, and a Digimon as a character, a general format for article naming should be followed:
 * Crowmon for the species.

and
 * Falcomon (Data Squad) for the character.

For a character, the form it is most commonly in should be used for the base article, and the other forms (in this case, Peckmon (Data Squad), Crowmon (Data Squad), etc.) should be made into redirects pointing to the correct section on the base page. By differentiating it as such, it is also easier to add new character Digimon of the same species as previous characters, without having to correct a large number of links.

Humans
Simply to be professional, human characters should be listed under their full names, with their common name given as a nickname. For example, Takeru "T.K." Takaishi. Other forms of the name, such as the original Japanese (Takeru Takaishi) or the nickname by itself (T.K.) should be made into redirects pointing to the character's page. If there is no dub name, the original Japanese name should be used.

Digimon
As nearly all Digimon articles use the Digimon infobox, they should have a standardized method of displaying information about the Digimon. If a parameter is not used for a specific Digimon, simply do not add it.


 * Name: The Digimon's dub name. If not available, then the most common romanized name. If the Digimon has more than one dub name, then the one used most frequently is to be used.
 * Katakana: The actual characters of the Digimon's Japanese name, whether it be katakana, kanji, or both.
 * Japname: If the dub and romanized names differ, the romanized name is given here. If possible, the romanized name should be sourced to an official romanization.
 * Image: An official image of the Digimon. Most preferable are the Toei character art images, and then the Bandai image. If neither is available, a screenshot or card scan will suffice. These images should not be edited outside of special circumstances; ask an admin to check whether such circumstances exist.
 * Appears: A list of which media the Digimon made major appearances in&mdash;the Digimon must either have a speaking or storyline role to qualify, so no "Etemen appears in the crowd at the Autumn Leaf Fair in Digimon Frontier". Each appearance should be separated by a  tag, with no spaces before or after it.
 * Actors: A list of the actors which have voiced the Digimon, linked to their article on wikipedia, or (if that is not available) their own website. The version and season in which the actor voiced the Digimon should be noted, like this:
 * (En:) Richard Cansino (Tamers)
 * (Ja:) Kumiko Nishihara (Frontier)
 * The voice actors for the same language should be separated by commas, while the lists for each language should be separated with the  tag.  If the voice actor voices for more than one season, separate them by "/", like this:
 * (En:) Michael Sorich (Tamers/Frontier)
 * In the case of two actors combining their voices for one Digimon, as with DNA or Biomerge Digivolution, use "and" to combine them, like this:
 * (Ja:) Noda Junko and Naozumi Takahashi (Adventure 02)


 * Partner: The Tamers which have had Digimon partners of that species, linked to that character's article by their full name. In the case of DNA Digivolution with two different partners, use "and" to separate the names.
 * From and To: A list of the Digimon which have been shown to have a digivolution from or to the topic Digimon. These Digimon are linked to by their name (for example, Meramon), and separated by  tags. These must be sourced to a storyline instance, and what this means differs between the media. The guidelines on acceptable digivolutions are detailed here. Only the first instance of a Digivolution, according to the order given above needs to be given as a source. Details on how to source are given below.
 * Attribute: The Attributes (Vaccine, Data, Virus, Variable, or Unknown) of the Digimon, separated by  if there are more than one.
 * Family: The Family to which the Digimon is shown to belong to. This is usually denoted by the background of the cards it appears on.
 * Type: The Type of the Digimon. If the species has had more than one type, these are listed in alphabetical order, and the first must have "Digimon" after it, as such:
 * Dinosaur Digimon
 * Reptile
 * These also need to be separated by a  tag.


 * Cards: The card numbers for each card representing the Digimon.

Humans
Humans generally use the Infobox animanga character template, as shown below:



Relatively self-explanatory, all that is needed is to fill the fields. Trait is used for Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 to refer to which Crests or Digi-eggs they have. For humans in Digimon Tamers and Digimon Data Squad, the Digimon Partner in aux3 name can be moved up to aux2 name. Due to their Digimon forms, however, the characters of Digimon Frontier currently use the Digimon Infobox.

Characters pages are generally separated by timeline, starting with seasons using ==Season Name== headers, and movies or supplemental material within the season using ===Name=== headers. This is followed by a Coupling section with links to the relative page and then a small Trivia section detailing miscellaneous information, such as video game appearances and the like.

For humans, there are three exclusive categories: DigiDestined, Male DigiDestined, and Female Digidestined.

Sourcing
Non-summary information from a specific episode or chapter should be sourced after the info, with the format, like such:

If the information is from a game or virtual pet, it should simply be sourced to or, as such:

If the information is from a card, the sourcing should be and linked to the card's article, as such:

If the ref is used more than once in an article, it should use the refname tag, as such:

The number part is simply the episode or chapter number. For movies, this number should be "M1" or "M2", for games and V-Pets it should be the version number, and for cards, it should be the full card number (ST01, for example).

The "Season" part of the refname should be derived from these abbreviations:
 * Adventure: "1"
 * Adventure 02: "2"
 * Tamers: "3"
 * Frontier: "4"
 * Data Squad: "5"
 * Digimon World: Data Squad: "DSDW"
 * X-Evolution: "X"
 * Adventure V-Tamer 01: "V"
 * Chronicle: "C"
 * D-Cyber: "DC"
 * Next: "N"
 * Anode Tamer: "AT"
 * Cathode Tamer: "CT"
 * Tag Tamers: "TT"
 * D1 Tamers: "D1T"
 * Brave Tamer: "BT"
 * Digimon World: "DW"
 * Digimon Rumble Arena: "RA"
 * Digimon Battle Spirit: "BS"
 * Digimon Racing: "DR"
 * Digimon RPG: "DRPG"
 * Digimon V-Pet: "VP"
 * Digimon Pendulum: "P"
 * Digimon Pendulum Progress: "PP"
 * Digimon Pendulum X: "PX"
 * Digimon Accel: "A"
 * Digimon Mini: "M"
 * Digimon WonderSwan: "WS"
 * Digivice: "DV"
 * Digimon Trading Card Game: "DTCG"
 * Digi-Battle Card Game: "DBCG"
 * D-Tector Card Game: "DTCG"
 * Digimon Collectible Card Game: "DCCG"
 * Hyper Coliseum: "HCCG"
 * Alpha Evolve: "AECG"
 * Battle Terminal: "BTCG"

Digivolutions
Unlike some other series', Digimon usually have a great variety of possibilities to digivolve to and from. While in some cases these are useful, gameplay requirements in both the video games and cards usually require Digimon to have digivolutions that have no basis in the fiction, and are simply present to make gameplay possible with the Digimon present in the game. Listing all of these disparate possibilities would be overwhelming, and not very informative.

Therefore, Digimon Wiki focuses on the digivolutions that happen as part of the fiction. As a rule of thumb, if you cause the Digivolution, it is not considered acceptable, but if you watch the Digivolution, it is. This includes:
 * Digivolutions explicitly shown as part of the storyline in the anime, manga, or video games, such as Agumon's Warp Digivolution to WarGreymon or the degeneration of every Digimon in Digimon World Dusk.
 * Digivolutionsmentioned as part of the Digimon's profile or backstory, such as during the Digimon Analyser, or the Digimon World "Digimon Galleries".
 * Digivolutions in fiction-based games such as Rumble Arena, Battle Spirit, or the "Digivice" virtual pets.
 * Digivolutions explicitly shown on the cards, such as those on the "Win Ratio 80%" cards.

There is a master document of digivolutions at DigimonWiki:Digivolution References, that can be used to determine whether an Digivolution is acceptable, and to assist in adding appropriate sources to the Digimon's article. If the document does not have a certain Digivolution that you believe it should have, please bring it up on the discussion page.

On a related note, there is a difference between "Character" and "Species" digivolutions. While a species article can list every in-fiction digivolution that species has displayed throughout the franchise, a character article can only list those that that character has displayed. Therefore, despite the fact that Omnimon is shown in Adventure to digivolve from WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, the Omnimon who is a Royal Knight has not been shown to digivolve from WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, so they should not be added to his section in the Royal Knights article.

Digimon (Species)
Articles should start off with a profile of the Digimon, usually derived from Digimon Channel or from the cards, and then proceed with a list of the Digimon's appearances in anime, manga, and video games.

If there is more than one version of a Digimon, such as "Agumon (Original)", "Agumon (New)", "Agumon X", and "Agumon (Black)", each of these should have a rank-2 header, and

should be added at the top to make the page more navigable.

The Digimon's appearances should be organized by the season name, as such:
 * ===Digimon Frontier===

If the Digimon is a prominent character in that season, there should be a "main" link under the header, and all info about that character should be on that character's page. If there are other appearances of the character, such as the multiple Gotsumon in Frontier, there should also be information detailing these under the "main" link.

These appearances should be grouped together only if it is confirmed that it is the same specific Digimon or group of Digimon, otherwise, they should be in separate paragraphs. So, the Burgermon on the moon should not be in the same paragraph as the Burgermon that were attacked by Petaldramon; though they are both Burgermon, they are separate characters.

If a Digimon appears but does not have a speaking or plot-important role (i.e., it is a "cameo"), then it should only be mentioned that the Digimon is in that scene. So, for the Angewomon in Kurata's lab, we would only say:
 * "An Angewomon appeared in one of the stasis tubes in the lab where Relena was getting her operation."

instead of
 * "An Angewomon appeared in one of the stasis tubes in the lab where Relena was getting her operation. It was upside down, and its wings covered its legs. This was the only appearance of Angewomon in this season, and the color of her wings was slightly more red then they are supposed to be. If Relena had been operated on as planned, she could have been given Angewomon's wings and gloves."

A Digimon's role in the toys and video games should also be covered. See DotFalcomon and Zurumon for examples.

After all the information on the Digimon's place in the fiction, it's attacks should be listed, under the header
 * Attacks

If its known which attacks are "Special Techniques" and which are "Normal Techniques", they can be separated under those headers instead.

Only the attacks from the cards, the anime, and the manga can be unsourced. Any attacks from other sources, such as video games or V-Pets, must be sourced, either by putting them under a header like "Attacks in Digimon World", putting the source in comments, or using a ref tag, named as covered here. Descriptions of attacks must come from how the attack is used in the anime, manga, video games, or official profile - no matter how obvious the name of the attack makes the description seem, there are too many instances of contradictions to allow editors to make up a description themselves.

The attacks should be organized in a bulleted list, and if the dubbed name is different from the original attack, the original should be present in italics, like this:


 * * Flame Fist (Knuckle Fire): description

If the original or dubbed name of the attack is a Japanese word, or in kanji, the attack name should be listed as such:
 * dub name (『Kanji』)

so, Ninjamon's Dancing Leaves technique would be displayed as such:
 * Dancing Leaves (『木の葉乱舞』,)

If the literal translation is close to the dubbed name, the "lit." box should not be used. Also, if there is no dubbed name of the technique, the Romaji name should be used as the main name, and the "Romaji" box should be left blank. For example, Ravemon's sword would be written as
 * Chououmaru (『鳥王丸』)

and would display as
 * Chououmaru (『鳥王丸』)

The "『" and "』" are optional, but preferred.

The attack descriptions should be in present tense, and describe the action, not the Digimon. See Zurumon's article for an example.

After the attacks, a "Notes" section should be added:
 * ==Notes==

Finally, the article should have all applicable categories listed.

User profiles
As user pages are meant to introduce you, and there is no real need for other editors to add to them, you essentially have free reign in how your user page is written. You can fill it with rants, you can talk about your day, you can leave it blank, you can right it entirely in Farsi. However, we must stress that content on these pages is "safe for work" - specifically, school-children should not get in trouble for reading the pages. Well, besides for not doing their schoolwork.

However, there are several helpful features you can add to your userpage to interact with the community and help out other editors.


 * A Sandbox: A list of articles you are using to test out a change you want to make, or a compilation of notes. These can be used as a resource of information inappropriate in its own form for public use, but beneficial to editors in adding to the mainspace articles. For example, look at User:Ned Scott/sandbox or User:KrytenKoro/Deva Translations. While these are largely "your" pages, and other editors are discouraged from making banal edits, it is also an opportunity to put a draft up for comments or assistance without having it meet the standards for inclusion in the public articles.
 * A Todo List: A listing of tasks you are working on or plan to work on. By making this public and organized, it allows other editors to help out and get the work done faster. And, as a todo list, it allows you to keep track of the multitude of goals you are working towards.
 * Userboxes: Visual tools similar to a personal profile that allow you to express yourself or your accomplishments (in Digimon terms, of course). These can also be used to communicate wiki-related qualities - for example, whether you are an admin, how active you are, or your fluency in foreign languages. Certain userboxes, like the foreign-language fluency ones, will also add categories to your userpage that make it easy for editors to find you when searching, for example, for "strongly-fluent Japanese speakers".
 * A Personal Profile: A description of you. While not primarily constructive, it allows other editors to get to know you better, to see you as more than a name on a screen. It can also help you engage in conversation, and who knows? Maybe you'll make a friend in the real world with one of the other editors because of it.
 * Your collection: Really more of a personal tool, but maybe another editor is interested in merchandise you have, and vice-versa? That's opportunity, right there.

Fan: namespace
While Digimon Wiki encourage a healthy fan community, and allows fan fiction, fan art, and discussion of Couplings to be shared with the readers, it is imperative that these are never placed such that a reader confuses them for official materials. Such a thing would be misleading to readers, and so would be treated as vandalism by the admins, and either reverted or deleted.

In order to keep fan work you upload from being deleted, make sure to add the "Fan:" or "Fan fiction/" prefix to the article's title when creating it. Currently, only "Fan fiction/" works, but we are in the process of setting up a "Fan:" namespace which would make navigation and searching easier.

Fan art and user-edited images should usually never be added to the main articles, but can be uploaded and used on fan fiction articles, or even your own user page. However, to keep your uploads from appearing as spam and being deleted, please add to the image summary of your upload.

For more information on Digimon Wiki's fan community, how to upload fan works, and guidelines on what is acceptable, please visit the Fan fiction and Couplings articles.