Len'en Wiki:Guidelines

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This page is to list all possible editing guidelines that should define how editors go about creating certain kinds of pages, as well as other information pertaining to editing this wiki.

Please be aware that these guidelines could potentially change on a whim at any given time by an administrator. Use the talk page if you feel the need to discuss these guidelines.

If you are new to Wiki editing, please check out this helpful guide on Wikipedia.

Editing the Wiki

  • Be brave in editing pages you think needs updating.
  • Use material from official sources to write summaries and such. This includes but is not limited to Dialogue, Scenario, Omake.txts, Official Profiles, etc.
  • Use the {{Hidetext}} template to conceal spoilers.
  • Do not include the full text of lengthy primary sources quote by quote in the main pages.
  • When in doubt, take it to the talk page. If you discuss changes on the article's talk (or discussion) page before you make them, you should reach consensus faster.
  • Decent edit summaries and clear, transparent explanations of what you did and why are appreciated.
  • Assume good faith in edits. If you think an edit is wrong, revert is once with an explanation why.
  • Sign your posts on talk pages using ~~~~. This gets replaced by your username and timestamp when you hit Save.
  • Use the preview button to check formatting and page layout. It helps prevent edit conflicts and mistakes.
  • If a new page, headline or bullet point is added, be willing to commit to adding information to it. This is to prevent too many pages, headlines or bullet points containing barely any information of worth.
  • Never edit someone else's User space unless given explicit permission.
  • Ask administrators for site related problems such as protection and blocking. The staff at ShoutWiki may need to be contacted for other back-end issues.
  • Ask Users for community related issues such as logos, categorisation of pages, and other issues directly related to the actual content.
  • Before starting a project, make sure there is not something similar already made. If that is the case, make changes there.
  • If you believe that a certain rule listed here stops you from improving the wiki, then by all means disregard it and explain why.

Manual of Style

The following lists what kind of standard this wiki prefers when styling writing.

Common Standards

  • Repeat the title of the article in the first sentence of the summary and make it bold. Use the nihongo template to display the Japanese text.
  • Show details, do not just state the obvious. Provide some information about the subject too, as much as you can.
  • Avoid using "you". Use another term like "the player" or the name of the playable character, or rewrite the sentence entirely.
  • Link to as many other articles as possible once and only once per section to allow greater navigation for the users. You can do this even if the page does not exist.
  • Italicise all media titles as well as linking to them. Spell card names are also italicised.
  • Music titles are to be surrounded in quotation marks.
  • Use navigation via templates.
  • Categorise with many categories.
  • Never use Level one headings = =.
  • Add images to visualise the article.
  • Use infobox templates like {{Infobox Character}}.
  • Tables to lay out statistics neatly.

Page Naming Standards

  • Media articles are named with the English sub-title. If there is no English sub-title, then the Japanese romaji or a translation of it is used instead.
  • Media articles should not contain a "the" at the beginning, even if the work itself appears to be named that way.
  • Media titles need to be capitalised using APA style of title casing, even if JynX used a different case.
  • Character articles should show the full name of the character (e.g. "Yabusame Houlen"). If the name is too long, then a common alternative is acceptable (e.g. "Clause" rather than "[omitted]").
  • If there is no official name for a title page, then an unofficial one can be made up until an official one appears. The name would need to be reasonable and making sense to the topic in question. Use {{Unofficial title}} to notify that the title is unofficial.
  • File names have Lexx at the start of the name if the file comes from a game of the series. If the game is not in the numbering series, then an abbreviation of the game is used instead.
  • File extension must be in lowercase. E.g. use .png, not .PNG.

Gender Neutrality

Since the majority of characters in the Len'en Project (and even JynX) are intentionally gender-ambiguous, this wiki makes use of gender-neutral words and forbids gender-specific words when referring to characters of unknown gender. As such, try to avoid any words that are considered to be gender-specific, such as "man/woman" or "boy/girl" and use "person" or "child", as well as using "sibling" over "brother/sister". There are many obvious gender-specific examples (e.g. waitress/chairman), and most should be in one way or other gender-neutralised whenever possible.

When using third-person pronouns in reference to a known person, rather than "he/him" or "she/her", please use singular "they/them". If you need help figuring out how to use this pronoun in the third person, here is a list of pronoun forms:

  • Nominative: they (e.g. Yabusame is okay. I think they are going home.)
  • Accusative: them (e.g. Tsubakura tried to give them something. They called them.)
  • Pronominal possessive: their (e.g. I gave their thing back.)
  • Predicative possessive: theirs (e.g. Kuroji thinks it's theirs.)
  • Reflexive: themself (e.g. Clause proved to themself how good they are. NB: "themselves" is an acceptable alternative, but the former is preferred.)

Other notes:

  • The Oxford Dictionary accepted the neutral title Mx (e.g. Mx. Iyozane or Mx Iyozane). Feel free to use this.

We do not expect you to accept a neutral position as your headcanon; rather, use your interpretation to whether you think a character is male or female, just like how JynX intended for this to happen.[1] If someone is known to officially be of a particular gender (e.g. Haru and Hoojiro Shitodo), then by all means use the revelant pronouns as this rule does not apply to those characters. Additionally, you are allowed to make use of your gender headcanons on any of the characters if the page's namespace has "User:" or "Talk:".

Japanese Formatting

The {{nihongo}} template helps a lot with displaying Japanese text, romaji and English text together on written articles.

Romanisation

This wiki uses Hepburn romanisation; this means consonants and Youon (diphthongs) are spelled as pronounced, e.g. sha (instead of sya), chi (ti), ji (zi), shi (si), fu (hu) etc. This applies even when Kunrei-shiki is used in an official spelling (Fujiwara instead of Huziwara). Some extra specifications to consider is:

  • preserve long vowels ou / oo, unless macrons are already used/required;
  • preserve obsolete kana (e.g. "Tewi" instead of "Tei");
  • preserve syllabic n () (e.g. "Konpaku" instead of "Kompaku");
  • preserve western naming order for character names unless there is a "no" in the middle, e.g. Yabusame Houlen, but Adagumo no Yaorochi;
    • (Even for Western names, such as Lumen Celeritas, JynX uses Japanese naming order when writing the names in the games.[2])
  • preserve what JynX suggests for meaning purposes (e.g. using an L in Yabusame's surname rather than an R).

Translations

If you see a mistake in translation or writing, do not be afraid to change or debate it. More correct translations should be preferred over incorrect "established" ones. Also, just because a translation appears in a game patch does not make it 100% correct. Translations do change and become more accurate over time. Games may also have inherent limitations such as maximum length of text per line, an issue that occurs when translating between languages.

Other notes:

  • Don't trim translations for them to fit within in-game dialogue: that is a patcher's job, not the wiki's.
  • It is usually encouraged to use actual translations rather than romanising something for the most part, e.g. "Present World Overhaul", not "Genkai Overhaul".
    • For works, The Japanese romaji is usually preferred, with a rough English translation noted elsewhere.
  • A work's sub-title is usually separated from the main title with a tilde (~).
  • Still add a period (full stop) in dialogue translations, even if the original transcription didn't have one.
  • Underscores (_) are removed in English translations.

Pronunciation

Many pages include IPA to assist in exact pronunciation, especially with character names. Names with Japanese names uses Japanese IPA.

The wiki additionally accepts audio files that pronounces the characters name. However, they should be clearly spoken, whilst having both the Japanese pronunciation and a westernised pronunciation.

Date

Throughout the wiki, dates are written in the order of day-month-year with the month written out and no ordinal suffix on the date, e.g. "30 October 2017".

For short forms, YYYY/MM/DD is used (alternatively, YYYY-MM-DD may also be accepted), e.g. "2017/10/30". If the day or month are less than 10, they are written with a leading zero.

English Varieties

Since there are Len'en fans worldwide, the Len'en Wiki accepts all different forms of English (i.e. from American English, British English, Australian English, etc.), therefore it does not matter whether one uses "color"/"colour" or call a sidewalk a pavement. However, try not to intentionally change spelling or vocabulary from one variety of English to another, or try not to do it too often without reason. It is recommended to use universal terms rather than regional ones. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style § National varieties of English for an extended guideline, or Comparison of American and British English if you want to look into this.

Some things however are put into place:

  • The Len'en Wiki uses APA style for title cases on headlines and titles, such as game titles, music titles, etc. This is implemented even if JynX used a different case.
  • For quotations, double quotations should be general use as primary standard, with single quotes in nested quotes. Also, it is preferred to use straight quotes (" ") rather than curly ones (“ ”).
  • "Spell card" and "flash bomb" are preferred to be spelt as two separate words rather than a compound.
  • If JynX uses a particular spelling or vocabulary in their writing, then it must stay as it is when transcribing/translating.

References

It is important to verify that the information you write into an article is true, so that other people can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Depending on the context, even if you are sure that something is true, it must be verifiable before you can add it. As such, you need to add citation (See Wikipedia:Citing sources for a thorough explanation). However for this wiki, it is simple. You can use the {{Ref}} template or the <ref>...</ref> tags to cite your source inline along the content in question, and have a {{Reflist}} template as the footnote to the source. Example:

Markup:
Lorem ipsum.{{ref|Citation stuff}} Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.<ref>Citation stuff</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
Rendered as:

Lorem ipsum.[example 1] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.[example 2]

References

  1. Citation stuff
  2. Citation stuff

And that is it! The "Citation stuff" could be whatever you want to add into it, as long as it links to the original source. We do not want citation to be complicated like Wikipedia's cite web template. See Tsurubami Senri as an example.

Other notes:

  • An article's summary or infobox does not generally need a reference, as long as the information is detailed later on with references.
  • References should only come from material officially from the Len'en Project, or from statements by JynX themself, such as their twitter or blog. Anything other than that are usually not references.
  • If you see unsourced content and you are not sure whether it needs citation, add {{Citation needed}} next to the content in question.
  • If you want to use this for making notes rather than citations, use the {{Note}} and {{Notelist}} equivalents.

Redirects

Redirects are used to forward the user from one page on the wiki to another page, by creating a new page and using #REDIRECT [[page name]]; they are highly-encouraged. We use redirects to connect logical search phrases to helpful places. There are a few exceptions, but unless one redirects to a place to where someone would not want to go, there is no downside to having them. In such a case where a redirect could have multiple meanings, it is to be turned into a disambiguation page instead.

For example, let's have a look at the search phrase "lenen project". Without a proper redirect, users are taken to this results page. Redirects save people from having to search for what they are looking for. If there is even a small chance that a redirect will help someone, it is not useless.

Keep in mind of the following:

  • We do not need the redirect Game with serintsu and daijin because it is too silly.
  • We do not want the redirect First len'en game because we are not positive what page the user is looking for (you might say Evanescent Existence, but maybe they are actually trying to find Emergency Everyday), so the search page is the best place for them to be.
  • We do not require the redirect Evanescent existence because entering "evanescent existence" in the search field takes the user to Evanescent Existence without any redirects.
  • Spelling mistake redirects are a grey area. The general rule is: don't think about them too much. Do not go off creating as many spelling mistake redirects that you can think of. We suggest reasonable mistakes aimed at more-popular subjects, which is subjective but not 100% subjective.
  • Due to certain devices using smart quotes by default (“...” and ‘...’), searching a title that uses regular quotes won't direct those users to that page unless they use the correct type, so creation of smart apostrophe/quote redirects (for example, Lenen Project for Len'en Project) is encouraged.
  • Linking to redirect pages is discouraged, so always try to link to the actual page name in the written pages.
  • Fix any double redirects.

Specific Article Type Guidelines

Not all pages follow these rules, one reason being a lack of information and putting everything under a General section. Some pages might even have additional header sections depending on the amount of information.

General Game Article Outline

See: Evanescent Existence for example.
  • The first thing on the page should be {{Infobox Game}}. Please fill out as many of the fields as possible, adhering to the documentation given on the template page.
  • After that, before the first heading, should be a general summary of the game. Details can include a literal translation of the game title, when it was released, where it was released, and any other information that fits into a general description.
  • The first heading should be Name and Concept, detailing the "concept" of the game - such things as its theme, design elements, and the like.
  • After Name and Concept, there should be a Gameplay section. Briefly outline what makes the game unique from other Touhou or Len'en games, but refrain from going in detail too much. The complete gameplay mechanics description should be linked to a subpage to using {{Main}}.
  • The third heading should be Story. Do not go too in-depth with it: do not simply detail the entire story, give a summary. A subpage that details the story, along with further linking to the main translation pages, should be linked to using {{Main}}.
  • The fourth heading is Music. General information about the music should be placed here.
  • Finally, there should be a section for Development. This would explain the game's progress through its development and releases.
  • The final section is the External Links section. Separate it into Official and Unofficial sections. Prefix all link names with the name of the game.
  • After that, place a navigational template for the game and possibly a Reference section before that.
  • Categories: An official Len'en game should be placed in the category with the same name. It should also be placed under the Official Games category.
  • To cut down on the sheer context a game has, subpages are used to organise content under the main article for that purpose (e.g. Evanescent Existence/Music). See Evanescent Existence as an example of how subpages are implemented.

General Dialogue Outline

See: Evanescent Existence/Story/Yabusame's Scenario for example.
  • The first thing on the page should be {{SubpageNav}}. Please fill out as many of the fields as possible, linking to other pages of dialogue.
  • After that would be a header called Stage 1. Here is where you add the actual dialogue, as well as a screenshot of the stage's title.
  • Next is adding a big table. {{DialogTable}} is used continuously to fill out all the transcriptions and translations.
  • Be explicit on who is talking per box. E.g. in case of Suzumi Kuzu, "Suzumi" sometimes is not enough indication, so add "(Hamee)" or "(Ardey)" after.
  • Dialogue in-game tends to be two lines per box. Therefore it should stay like that when transcribing and translating.
  • Format the translated text into wiki code. Keep in-game formatting away from the pages.
  • "!" or "?" written as the very first thing can break the table. Add "nowiki" tags (<nowiki>!</nowiki>) around them to prevent the wiki from seeing it as wiki code.
  • After finishing, the same steps from bullet two are repeated until all stages are covered.
  • Notes, Refenences, navigation boxes and categories will be at the end.

General Character Article Outline

See: Tsurubami Senri for example.

There is a general standard on how character pages are laid out. A character's page lists as follow:

  • The first thing on the page should be {{Infobox Character}}. Please fill out as many of the fields as possible, adhering to the documentation given on the template page.
  • After that, before the first heading, should be a general summary of the character. Details can include the character's name, what their species are, common relationships with other characters, and their involvement in the series.
  • The first heading should be General Information, detailing the character more thoroughly about their involvement in the series' plot and game appearances. Anything else regarding the character could be included. This section would also have sub-sections:
    • Personality: Describing the character's personality in detail.
    • Abilities (and possibly Strength): Explains the character's abilities and how they work in detail. Possibly explaining how strong they are.
    • Occupation: Possibly explaining their job role in more details.
    • Possessions: Possibly describe some of the items the character possesses... probably.
  • If there is enough information, the next section would be Backstory. This explains the character's history prior to the current series.
  • The next section is Background Information. This covers the character's possible origin of inspiration, their name in detail, and a description of their design appearance. Depending on the character, these sections could be merged.
  • After, it's Appearances. This sections lists the games or other works the character has appeared in, or is mentioned as an important plot device. This covers their involvement to the story of the work, as well as their gameplay mechanics.
  • Next is Relationships. This covers the character's common relationships with other characters. Some characters have met all other characters of the series, so not all could be covered.
  • The next fun one is Gallery. Sometimes it is okay to place a thumbnail image scattered across the article, especially if the image in question is relevant to the nearby text. However, if there is no room for any more scattered images, then they can be placed in this section.
  • The next common one is Spell Cards. This links to the List of Spell Cards page and lists the character's spell card in a hidden bar. Sometimes details about the character's spell cards could be written before it.
  • Next is Additional Information. This acts as a "trivia" section, a place to add information that could not fit anywhere else on the article.
  • The final section is the Official Sources section. This lists all the possible primary sources that contains information about the character.
  • After that, place a navigational template for the games the character appears in, and possibly a Reference section before that.
  • Categories: Characters would be added to the Characters category, and the navboxes will add them to the respective game's categories.

Spell Card Outline

  • When making a spell card page, use the {{SubpageNav}} and {{Spell Card Info}} templates. See Evanescent Existence/Spell Cards/Stage 1 for an example.
  • The file names of spell card images must adhere to the following naming format: LexxSCyyy.jpg.
    • xx is based on the filename for the game's .exe file in the numbering series of the Len'en games, so Evanescent Existence is 01, Earthen Miraculous Sword is 02, and so on. Games not in the numbering series are replaced with an abbreviation of the game's title.
    • yyy is the spell card's number. While there is not a definite number order officially, the numeration involves the character's stage appearance, the spell card, then the difficulty.
  • For spell card images of most games, images must represent the danmaku well. Additionally, they should:
    • ...be at native resolution and cropped to the exact size of the playing field (384×448px for Le01-03, but 398×438px for Le04).
    • ...be saved in a .jpg file format set at the highest quality possible.
    • ...have the correct font, which requires the use of AppLocale for most users. This means that the game is left unmodified; it should not even be an English patch.
    • ...preferably Yabusame Houlen as the character.
      • Characters other than Yabusame may be used for character-specific spell cards (e.g. Le03 Stage 4).
    • ...have no visible shots coming from the player, or visible upgrades/skills in Le04.
    • ...have no clear hitbox showing from the player.

Some of these rules can be ignored on Unreal/Absurdly Extra modes due to immense difficulty, but it will be appreciated if the rules can still apply.

General Location Article Outline

(Still need to work out how we properly lay out location articles. Please wait warmly.)

High Scoring

The purpose of the high scores page is to collect and document all highest known scores from around the web in one easily maintainable place.

General Rules

  • By default, runs using Light Level are forbidden.
  • It is not possible to upload replays onto the wiki, thus an external link to the replay download is required.
  • Scores should be added to the page regardless of the players' consent or their availability on other major scoreboards.
  • Only the information that has a clear intention of public availability should be uploaded to the wiki. Password-protected replays, personal information that is not available on the players' sites and blogs, real names and addresses, etc., should not be uploaded without explicit permission. Asking for said permission is left to the editors' discretion.
  • All score updates must be accompanied with either a replay or a recording of the run for proof that the score was achieved. Replays are encouraged when possible, either by being linked to directly, or being linked to in the description/comments of a linked video.
  • Video proof is acceptable, especially if the replay desyncs.
  • Screenshots are not permitted.
  • Non-cleared runs are accepted, especially for harder difficulties.

Providing Information

  • Player name is required to allow identifying the author. An external link to their profile on another site or an internal link to their user page on this wiki is allowed.
  • For players with multiple active usernames, select the most appropriate one (e.g. their most notable name, or the name that came with the replay file).
  • For players with non-Latin characters in the name, these characters should be romanised where appropriate.
  • Date information is strongly advised. Use the internal date of the replay, not the date it was submitted on!
  • If a replay doesn't clear the game, it must be clearly marked as a non-clear.
  • Clearly state which version of the game the high score was achieved. This is especially required since some players like to play older versions of the games due to the challenge they presented.

BPoHC Runs

Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle is unique in a way that allows one to take any route, mode or playable character they desire. Routes (Haze, Neutral, Brilliant) are not taken into consideration as separate categories, so it is up to the player to decide which route can achieve the highest score for a single run, whether the final boss is against Taira no Chouki or Tenkai Zuifeng. It also doesn't matter if one is using barriers or instant-death mode.

Upgrades have a major effect on scoring. Due to this, there are three separate categories for no upgrades, achievement-limited upgrades, and unlimited upgrades. The latter two categories must have an upgrade of at least LV1. For achievement-limited upgrades, upgrades are capped in accordance to the requirements for achievements; levels higher than the following are disallowed:

  • Since Easy and Normal have no upgrades allowed, these aren't recorded for this category.
  • Hard: LV50 max.
  • Unreal: LV300 max.
  • Extra: LV200 max.
  • Absurdly Extra: LV700 max.

Additionally, BPoHC has a cap that displays scores at 999,999,999 max, however a patch exists that allows the score to exceed this. It can be found at Game Tools and Modifications § Score Patch for Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle. If your run scores that high, it's recommended that you either record the run using the patch, or provide the replay for your run.

Disallowed Replays and Suspected Cheating

Problematic replays may come up that required additional attention and discretion from editors.

  • Desyncing replays are not allowed, unless video recording of the completed run is available.
  • Broken replays that reproducibly crash the game are not allowed.
  • Replays that were initially created via a mod of a game that substantially impacts the score system (i.e. expanding the grazebox) are not allowed.
  • If a replay was created with the use of a translation patch, providing a video recording along with the replay is encouraged, in case the patch causes replays to desync on unpatched versions of the game.
  • Replays that exploit a glitch that affects the scoring system are not allowed. (The RMI item duplication glitch is allowed, but a glitch like the DDC score underflow glitch that massively increases the score without actually 'earning' that score would not be allowed.)
  • Replays with abnormally high slowdown rate are not allowed.
  • Replays that exhibit unnaturally quick and precise motion or unnatural behaviour are to be reviewed additionally, and possibly discussed. In case the suspicion is supported by others, the problematic replay should not be allowed. Future contributions from the same player are to be treated with awareness of this fact.

Banned Replays

  • Replays with Suzumi (sub) and Iyozane (any) in BPoHC are banned for achievement-limited upgrade runs. The strat is having Suzumi as a sub. Having the flash gauge decrease slightly and then maxing it out will have Iyozane make the player invincible, potentially having the player invincible throughout most of the run. This is considered too broken to have for limited-upgrade scoring.

Unofficial Content

Posting unofficial content is welcomed, but only to an extent. Len'en is a relatively small community, so it is not easy to accept content like this.

Community-Made Materials

  • Fan-made or community-related content should only be documented if it has any particular significance. This includes but is not limited to fangames, fanfiction, comics, and music.
  • Keep it obvious that it is fan-made material by adding the "Fangame", "Fanfiction", or "Arrangement CD" categories.
  • Fan-made characters (or OCs) are not allowed unless that character is either part of some other popular derivative work or are particularly noteworthy in their own right. Having a page for a fan-made character should be discussed beforehand if there is demand.
    • If making a page for an OC, they will follow the same rules as the outlines.
  • This wiki is not the place for gag translation projects, and translations for other languages should be done in their respective language-specific wikis.
  • Try to keep theories off the official pages. Exception to this is if the theory in question has enough evidence to back it up.
  • Keep any and all speculation off pages and inferences to a minimum. Doing so just forces your views onto other people.

Derivative Works

We allow fan works listed on the wiki, as well as Danmakufu scripts listed. However, they should only be listed on the page "derivative works", and to warrant a full page on the wiki, they should:

  • ...strongly relate to Len'en;
  • ...have enough content as a full release (or demo release with some flexibility);
  • ...not be made as a simple joke;
  • ...have enough notability amongst the community.

See Also

References