Infosphere:Manual of Style

This is the Manual of Style for The Infosphere. It contains information about the standardisation of this wiki. This article is recommended for all users to read.

Article overview
When writing an article, introduce in a single or few paragraphs what it is about. If it is a minor topic and there is not much information available, keeping these/this paragraph(s) as the only information is preferred. If this information is too heavy for an introduction, create a section either "Biography" or "Description" depending on what you are describing.

Additionally, most articles can be supplied with an infobox. These help give the users overview about what the article is about. And often include a picture of the article in question is about.

There are few exceptions however. When writing episode articles, don't use a paragraph to introduce it, go straight straight to the story.

"Additional Info"
Almost articles, except those that are not in the main categories of articles (such as Production) have an "Additional Info", "Additional info", "Additional Information" or "Additional information" section. This section includes several subsections, most of them optional. Usually only "Appearances" is required. These are the preferred names for subsections;


 * Trivia
 * Always keep trivia above all else in this section. Trivia includes pieces of information that does not go well in the introduction, description/biography, but also does not fit into any other additional info subsection.


 * Continuity
 * (Only for episode, film, and comic articles) This section includes references in the episode/film to other episodes/films. For other articles, this goes in the Trivia section.


 * Allusions
 * (Only for episode, film, and comic articles) This section includes references in the episode/film to other popular culture than Futurama. For other articles, this go in the Trivia section.


 * Appearances
 * In episode, film, and comic articles, this section should consist of both a "Characters" section and a "Places" section, which list the characters/places that are seen or mentioned. In other articles, it includes a list of appearances of the item/character/place/group in question.  The list is made up of the following templates;  (for episodes/films),  (for comics) and  (for the game).  Read their respective documentation for more information about how to use them.  In these two cases, the templates, , and  are used to note whether a mention occurs in speech, text, or both.

Keep it clean
Be civil when writing. Make sure your English is as close as perfect as you can be, if unable, just leave it as it is, someone else will fix it for you. However, avoid swear words not used on the show. While you can both keep an in-universe and out-of-universe writing of articles, don't stray too far off. It just seems off.

Any English goes
There are several English variants out there. And some of our regular members prefer to write articles in other English variants than the show's American English. All English variants are allowed. And none of them are discouraged. However, when it comes to titles for articles and names, American English spelling is preferred, but necessarily grammar. Case in point, the article of Mom is spelt the American way of spelling "mum" (in British English).

Change between different variants of English
When an article is created by any user, the English of the original version should remain intact. It is very discouraged to change the spelling differences during edits of other articles. And these edits will commonly be reverted. While any English variant is allowed, our transcripts appear only in British English due to the language of their creator. (See for a list of American and British English spelling differences.)  If you are simply standardising an article that is using more than one variant, please write an  saying so.

Possessive nouns
In a possessive case, such as Fry's, where the possessive word ends on an 's', such as Welles, usage of -s' is preferred over -s's.