BattleTechWiki talk:Manual of Style/BattleTech Style Guide

House vs State

I know for a lot of old school BT players this might be a bit of a contraversial one but I would like to request that it is formally included in our style guide that the state and ruling family are seperate entities. So House Davion would be the family and Federated Suns the state.--Dmon (talk) 13:13, 3 June 2021 (EDT)

I like that. And I like the section title. Consider it done.--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 20:04, 3 June 2021 (EDT)

Thank you, and you put it much more eloquently than I did.--Dmon (talk) 05:42, 4 June 2021 (EDT)

Thank you for *that*. However, I can expect Frabby can cut thru all my flowery BS and make it even more clear.--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 08:20, 4 June 2021 (EDT)

Hyperpulse generator style

Even in its own article use of uppercase and lowercase characters is wildly inconsistent. Sourcebooks and similar products mostly use hyperpulse generator within sentences, which seems a reasonable standard to add to the Style Guide. Madness Divine (talk) 00:25, 6 February 2022 (EST)

Going by gut feeling, the term is (should) usually be spelled all downcase though there may be instances where it reads better when capitalized (when discussing fictional BT technology for example). It should never be spelled in CamelCase though, ie. not with a capital P. Frabby (talk) 02:08, 6 February 2022 (EST)

Scope of the Style Guide to include other parts of speech

I understand that the majority of topics on the BattleTech Style Guide deal with nouns (mostly proper nouns).

Would it be appropriate to recommend style for other parts of speech, like verbs?

For example, would it be out of the scope of the BattleTech style guide to recommend that Sarna wiki articles that are historical in nature should strive to use verbs in the past tense over verbs in the present tense?

Like, "Vlad Ward was a trueborn warrior" versus "Vlad Ward is a trueborn warrior". 75.23.228.139 04:11, 28 July 2022 (EDT)

There has been discussion of that several times in the past, but no real consensus. Maybe it's time to raise it again, because—as I recall—there was only disunity on which types of articles should practice it. If you're on Discord, send me a DM and we'll hash out how to get a consensus discussion started.--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 06:06, 28 July 2022 (EDT)

Capitalisation and italics

The Style Guide could use a section on what should and should not be capitalised/italicised. Madness Divine (talk) 10:02, 28 July 2022 (EDT)

We're in the midst of discussion with CGL this very week on this subject. We want to have a policy that aligns. And I agree with you, in spirit. The list of what should not be capitalized could be unnaturally long, if not done right. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 11:47, 28 July 2022 (EDT)

I was thinking of something simple like these things are capitalized but these similar things aren't; everything else isn't, but better worded. Madness Divine (talk) 17:52, 28 July 2022 (EDT)

To start the discussion, what are some examples of what would be listed on the "do not" list? --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 18:45, 28 July 2022 (EDT)

Capitals:

• Weapons types: Gauss seems to be always. Streak usually, LB always, ultra is inconsistent...
• Why is OmniFighter capitalised and camel case but aerospace fighter is now neither? Where does DropShuttle fall? How about Starport?
• Are all 'Mech derivatives in camel case?
• How about compounds formed with Omni? OmniPilot? Omni pilot? OmniVehicle/Omnivehicle crew members?
• How consistent is aerospace?
• Inner Sphere military units - regiment, battalion, company, etc.

Italics:

• Spacegoing thingies: drones, small craft, missile systems - I think these should all be normal text but even I have frequent doubts.
• Airgoing thingies: sometimes I have to look at the type of infobox used to know whether an aircraft is an aerospace fighter or conventional.
• The various Ryuken units - are they or are they not italicised?
• Common loanwords - a lot of Japanese words are in a gray area because they're common enough to be recognised by most English speakers but aren't fully accepted into everyday language, like seppuku, bonsai, and katana.
• Unique 'Mechs - I believe it's supposed to be italics if the pilot has given the machine a name (like Bob naming his 'Mech Burger) but quotes if it's the name of the individual pilot (like Atlas "Bob") but even record sheets are inconsistent on this.

Numbers:

• Cardinals: 6-ton or six-ton? 10 or ten? 100 or (one) hundred? Is it different for unit names and tonnage/capacity/armament?
• Ordinals: First through Tenth is something every guide agrees on. 21st, Twenty-First, or Twenty-first? 105th or One Hundred and Fifth? 4077th or Four Thousand and Seventy-Seventh or Four Thousand and Seventy-seventh or Four-Oh-Seven-Seventh?

No doubt other stuff will occur to me. Madness Divine (talk) 21:45, 28 July 2022 (EDT)