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The following is a style guide on how to create a high quality character page, and is part of our Manual of Style.
Aims
This style guide aims to help you write articles on all one-time, mentioned and recurring characters from The Simpsons, provided they fall within our notability policy.
Structure of an article
Naming
Naming should follow our naming policy. This states that full names should be used wherever possible. If not, the following conventions should be used:
Articles with brackets should use {{title}} to remove the bracketed content from the page title, unless it is "(character)", in which case the {{chnav}} should be used. For guest stars this is used as {{chnav||name}}. For other crew, the first should detail the person's job, most likely crew member. If the first parameter is changes, then |ngs=yes should be added.
Articles with conjectural titles should have {{Conjecture}} at the top of the article.
Character infobox
{{Character
|name =
|identity =
|image =
|gender =
|alias =
|hair =
|age =
|status =
|job =
|relatives =
|appearance =
|mentioned =
|voiced by =
}}
Explanation
- Name: The name of the character. This is usually the article name.
- Identity: If the character article is for a superhero or another alter-ego, the identity is their real identity.
- Image: Image of the character.
- Gender: Gender of the character. If the article is for a character group with more than two genders, use
|gender2 =
- Alias: Nicknames and other names the character has gone by.
- Hair: The character's hair color.
- Age: The age of the character. This needs to be referenced with the media the age was mentioned. No guesses or estimates are allowed. See ages for more information.
- Status: The last known status of the character. See character statuses for more information.
- Job: The character's job or jobs.
- Relatives: The known relatives of a character. If a character has many relatives, only use the immediate relatives.
- Appearance: The first appearance of a character.
- Mentioned: The first time a character is mentioned, only if they haven't appeared before then.
- Voiced by: The voice actor for the character.
Maintenance templates
If the page lacks certain things, then respective templates should be added to the top of the article, or if it pertains to only one section, then at the top of that. The most commonly used are {{No voice}}, {{In-universe}}, {{Incomplete}}, {{Cleanup}}, {{Image needed}} and {{Engrish}}.
The article itself
The article should be written in-universe view, without mentioning episode names in the text. Episodes should be referenced with the <ref>"[[Episode Name]]"</ref> (quotation marks), while comics and other media should be referenced with <ref>''[[Comic Name]]''</ref> (italics). Any articles with references should have
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
at the bottom of the article.
Episode names are only allowed in the infobox, trivia, Behind the Laughter appearances, and references. If you come across an article about a character that is not written in-universe view, then you can help by fixing it, or by adding {{In-universe}}.
Note that one-time characters do not need references.
Non-canon
Non-canon information should follow the above conventions, but be split from canon information. For most characters, this will be through a non-canon section, which should feature {{noncanon}} or {{noncanoncomic}} at the start. If, however, the whole article pertains this information, then this template should place at the start of the article.
Appearances
For a very minor character a list is used, though for a recurring character, the following scroll box is used. Every appearance should be mentioned.
{{scroll|
*{{ul|Good Night}}
*{{ep|Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire}}
*{{THOH|Treehouse of Horror}}
*{{mov}}
*{{ep|Holidays of Future Passed}}
*{{spec|FOX's 25th Anniversary Special}}
*{{ad|Hard Times}}
*{{bon|The Amazing Colossal Homer}}
*{{game|The Simpsons: Hit & Run}}
*{{bk|The Simpsons Uncensored Family Album}}
}}
will produce
Appearances should be listed in the order of release date of media, and in the order of:
- Shorts
- Episodes
- Specials
- Adverts
- Comics
- Games
- Books
- Merchandise
Navigational templates
Every character page should end with {{Simpsons characters}}. In addition, various other templates are available to be used for different character groups, and any relevant ones should be added to a character's page. For a list, see Wikisimpsons:Navboxes
Categories
Every character should be in Category:Characters, which is automatically added by the infobox. Gender is also automatically added, as are many other categories, which are added with the relevant navbox, for example Category:Simpson family is added when {{Simpsons family}} is on the page.
Besides the automatic categories, the following should be considered:
- Appearance type: Only one of the following should be added to every page: Category:Recurring characters, Category:One-time characters and Category:Mentioned characters.
- Statuses: Also consider the following: Category:Bongo comic book characters, Category:Crossover characters, Category:Fictional characters, Category:Future characters, Category:LGBT characters, Category:Non-canon characters, Category:Non-speaking characters, Category:Possibly deceased characters and Category:Real-world characters. For Category:Deceased characters, add
{{Deceased characters}} instead.
- Season introduction. For recurring characters only, add Category:Characters introduced in season <number>. For the Ullman shorts, add Category:Characters introduced in the Tracey Ullman shorts, and for The Simpsons Movie add Category:Characters introduced in The Simpsons Movie.
- Voice actor - Category:Characters voiced by <Voice actor> should be added for characters who are voiced by a regular voice cast member, whereas Category:Characters voiced by guest stars should be used to articles for characters who are voiced by guest stars.
- Age groups: Category:Babies, Category:Children, Category:Teenagers, Category:Adults and Category:Seniors.
- Profession: A wide range of categories, most of which need adding by hand. For a list, see Category:Characters by profession
- Family: Many families have navboxes. If not, and the character has a family category, such as Category:Bouvier family, add it in.
There are also other minor categories you may consider. Every relevant category can be found within Category:Characters.
Other
- If the article is lacking information, then add
{{Character stub}} to the end of the article.
- Every character's talk page should have
{{Talkheader}} followed by {{Article Style Guide Characters}}.
Layout
The basic layout of a character article should follow this format, with unneeded sections left out:
- {{Title}} templates, Featured article templates, and the maintenance templates.
- Infobox
- Article opening
- History/Biography sections
- Non-canon sections
- Trivia
- Behind the Laughter
- Appearances
- References
- See also
- External links
- Navboxes, including {{Simpsons characters}}
- Categories
See the example for what a page should look like.
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