Terraria Wiki talk:Style guide

Trivia Guide
I think we should try to cut down on the amount of postulated pop-culture references on the wiki by having a more thorough description of what constitutes suitable trivia as part of this style guide. I'd write it up myself but I'm not sure I'm in a position to make assertions of that magnitude, so I'm just proposing it. Gearzein (talk) 22:59, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I was thinking about that too, I'm just not sure how to codify it, or it even can be. "Cutting down" is a subjective thing. We can certainly see which items tend to be stepping over the line but I'm not sure if there's any rule we could write that would define the boundary. I'm open to suggestions though.  Equazcion ( talk ) 23:01, 30 Oct 2014 (UTC)
 * Okay. A couple of guidelines I think are worth expounding on:
 * Be sure to read the page before editing. Editors frequently add tips and trivia that are actually explained in the first paragraph of the page.
 * Trivia should be points that are not immediately obvious and are interesting beyond a purely gameplay-oriented point of view. Points like Gold being super malleable and not suitable for weapons and armor, or explaining who George is, are good examples. Many things posted as trivia and not immediately reverted could still be just as easily classified as tips or bugs. If trivia seems far too obvious (e.g "Boreal Wood is wood from a Boreal Forest") it's probably not worth mentioning.
 * Trivia should not be speculation or untested research on item functions. If something is legitimately found to have interesting properties that are both provable and able to be replicated then they're better off as tips. (Untested phenomena may be anomalies or even bugs, but look into them a bit first, lest they turn out to be unrelated phenomena. For example, bosses spawn of their own accord sometimes, and it's easy to miss the warnings. Just because you threw a potion before it came into the world doesn't mean throwing that potion causes it to appear.)
 * Before adding trivia stating an item to be a reference to another piece of media, google it a bit to be sure that a) Terraria didn't come first and b) that media isn't referencing an older literary idea. A good example is the Broken Hero Sword- while it's commonly said to be a reference to any number of video games, most of those games in turn draw from knightly imagery dating back to the first swords ever forged.
 * Most pop-culture references in Terraria are plainly laid out, as with the several vanity sets that directly mimic the appearance of trademarked characters, so be certain when making large leaps in logic to justify a mention. A good rule of thumb: If you consider using the phrase "might be a reference", it's probably not. Re-Logic probably has no idea who Minamitsu Murasa is, so it's unlikely that they're the inspiration for the Anchor dropped during the pirate invasion, which actually is part of a public cross-promotion with Pixel Piracy. Which leads to the final point-
 * If at all possible, source your references. Some things like the Dye Trader having lines that reference Anchorman seem really farfetched, but have been confirmed by the team at Re-Logic. The word of the devs trumps anything else, so if they've outright said that something in the game is meant to reference something else then that's that.
 * That's all I've got for now. Really, I think most infringing cases (like almost everything said to be a reference to League of Legends) are clear-cut enough to not require a hard adherence to a set of rules, but general guidelines for newer users could be good nonetheless. Gearzein (talk) 00:09, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I added some of this, albeit pruned down and edited to be a little more concise. Pages like these tend to be ignored unless they're very very easy to read so I distilled down to the essential points. Hopefully it will help. I may add a link to this guide in the wiki's sidebar soon.  Equazcion ( talk ) 01:11, 31 Oct 2014 (UTC)