Wheel of Fortune History Wiki:Manual of style

Our Manual of Style for editors.

General

In general, like most Wikis, we have a set of "common sense" rules.

• First, the big one: contributing to this Wiki should never, ever feel like "work". If you ever feel like contributing to this Wiki is work, we suggest taking a break from editing for a day or so.
• Another big one is that we don't discriminate against anyone due to race, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, occupation, finances, health issues, political affiliation, etc. We do, however, exercise careful judgement if we feel or know that a contributor's edits are being colored or influenced by a religious, political, or work-related affiliation.
• Try to maintain a neutral point of view in writing articles. Keep the opinion pieces to talk pages, your blog, or your userspace.
• Having a username is recommended, but by no means required unless you wish to upload pictures (per Wikia policy, IP-address editors cannot upload anything).
• Use proper spelling, capitalization, and punctuation if possible. If you are using a quote that incorrectly spells something, or refers to something that would generally be considered to have incorrect spelling, place "[sic]" where needed.
  • Related to this, if you are unsure of which style of English spelling to use (i.e., "gray" or "grey"), ask someone.
• If a number is lower than 10, write it out; if 10 or higher, use the numerical form. Exceptions are for rounds and seasons (e.g., "Season 5" and "Round 2"), TV stations (e.g., "WPTV-5" or "WSVN-TV 7"), dollar amounts (e.g., "Guint puts $9 on account following Round 2, but loses it to Bankrupt in Round 3."), or solutions to Fill In the Number puzzles. One exception regarding dollar amounts is the Million-Dollar Wedge, which is used rather than "$1,000,000 Wedge". Also, please refrain from using letters for larger numbers (i.e., "K" for thousands and "M" for millions), as they don't look good. This rule also applies for ordinal numbers (i.e., don't use "1st" for first, "2nd" for second, etc.; "10th" and subsequent numbers are fine).
  • Decades are also written out, such as "1970s"; for the "decade" categories, only one apostrophe is used when writing the numerical form (i.e., "The 90's") unless the show did not use them, which was the case from 2003-06. If you are unsure of whether to put the apostrophe before or after the number, ask someone.
• While Wikia allows for page comments, we discourage it as they remove from the professionalism of the page. If you wish to discuss something, either leave a message on a user's talk page or create a talk page (in the Monobook skin, click the "discussion" tab at the top of any page or picture; in the Wikia skin, add "Talk:" to the address bar of your browser).
• Basically, use common sense. For example, don't ask someone "Is it okay if I can upload pictures for [page title]?" after having already done so. Ask beforehand, and we'll all have fewer headaches.

Talk Pages

• In general, if you have a question, feel free to ask! Be considerate and patient, however: all users have lives outside of the Wiki, so a response may not be immediate; further, the reply will almost always be on the talk page you asked on (see below as to why this is done).
• When responding to talk page questions, preface your reply with a single asterisk (*) on the next line (lists or addendums to your own messages should use two asterisks). While colons are generally used for this purpose on sites that use Wiki-based software, it also creates an indent that leaves progressively less horizontal space for text as messages are added to that same discussion; asterisks allow for the full horizontal space while keeping the discussion fluid and easy to follow when reading or adding a response.
• If you want to reply to a message left on your talk page, simply add it to that particular topic. Responding on the other person's talk page fragments the conversation and makes it difficult to follow.
• Related to the above, if you wish to respond to someone who left a message for you but failed to put it under a separate header, it is recommended that you create a new header above that message and make your response below it.

Images

Uploading

• Do not use JPEG/JPG pictures unless that is how you found them: JP(E)G is a lower format that makes low-color, low-resolution images look bad, especially when shown as thumbnails (the loss of detail due to compression artifacts is too great) – more specifically, JP(E)Gs tend to not save the colors 100% accurately, along with losing quite a few pixels in compression and hence distorting the picture. For this reason, PNG files are preferred.
• If the episode/clip/etc. you wish to take a picture from is uploaded online, take screenshots from there (Ctrl-Print Screen on Windows, Command-Shift-4 on Mac) and remove the unnecessary (e.g., not Wheel) portions in an image-editing program such as Paint.
• While screenshots are fair-use in general and generally cannot be "owned" by a single person except the show's creators, it is recommended that you not copy screenshots from other websites, especially those that use watermarks. Due to not only watermarks but the possibility of re-listing items, eBay is off-limits.
• Please do not watermark images yourself, either.
• Before uploading an image, regardless of source, edit out any black bars on the sides, top, or bottom; this will minimize file size and "enlarge" the thumbnail, along with simply looking better.
• Make sure that the image is of suitable quality overall (e.g., not blurry or compressed). An exception is if the source is a video and its quality is blurry or low-quality, but there are no other copies available (such as the page image for Summer Bartholomew).
• Image names should be self-explanatory with capital letters where necessary. Titles such as "capture" are not.
• Uploaded pictures should have a summary explaining what it is, the date (if known), and any other significance.

Using

• Images should be right-justified.
• Do not insert pictures into the middle of a sentence.
• Some pictures are self-explanatory, and do not need a caption when they are placed onto a page. If you must add an explanatory caption, it should be one to-the-point sentence with punctuation as necessary.
• If a picture applies to a specific section (such as the debut of the Mystery Wedges in Season 20), place it below the section header so it will appear in edit previews. Some pictures should be placed at the end of the preceding paragraph/line to make it appear next to the relevant one.

Editing In General

• This Wiki uses the official names of the show's elements, with two exceptions: officially, the contestant arrows are known as "Wedge Ledges" and the Prize wedge (now usually referred to as "tonight's featured prize") as the "Goody".
• Always capitalize category names and any facet of the game (Bonus Round, Bonus Wheel, Wheel when referring to the Wheel itself, Gift Tag, Mystery Wedge, etc.). Exceptions are "puzzle board" and the second word of "Prize wedge".
• Note the proper use of capitalization regarding verbs, prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. The "a" in "Lose a Turn" and "Buy a Vowel" is an article and therefore should not be capitalized. Conversely, in phrases such as "Fill In the Blank" or "Fill In the Number", the "In" is a phrasal verb and not a preposition and therefore should be capitalized.
• Puzzle solutions should always be rendered in all capitals, to match how they appear on the board.
• Although the show frequently uses it as such, this Wiki does not treat "solve" as a noun (e.g. "nice solve").
• Always capitalize "Season" and "Round" when they are followed by a number (Season 5, Round 2, etc.).
• Consider the timeframe; certain things have happened more frequently or less frequently over time. A Wheel Prize valued at over $10,000 is notable in the 1990s and earlier, but not so notable in the present day. Using Before & After or Same Name in every game was only a standard for the short time in the 2010s, and the absence of either category is not notable at any other time.
• Aversions are generally considered notable (e.g., three consecutive wrong letters not being edited out on a late-2000s episode).
• If a phrase or title ending in a punctuation mark ends a sentence, then no other punctuation is needed (e.g. "Round 4 and the Bonus Round are What Are You Doing?" or "...later appears on a 1992 episode of Jeopardy!")
• As America's Game weeks are by design composed of sixth episodes from five other taping sessions, the taping that they originated from should not be noted unless it has an impact on gameplay and/or presentation (e.g., a team episode in a week otherwise composed of normal three-player matches).
• If an entry is disputed, inquire on the talk page or ask another editor.
• Please do not add indiscriminate information. Consider only which details are most important, but if you're unsure feel free to ask and we'll try to help.

Timeline

General

• Right-justify images so they don't interfere with the bullet points.
• Always write entries in the present tense.
• If multiple events happened on the same day, list them under Level 2 bullets (**). This does not apply to "By [date]" or "As of [date]" unless there are three or more applicable items.
• Try to maintain consistent phrasing for similar events.

Research

If you're not sure on the exact airdate, try to get as close as you can. This can be broken down two ways:

• General: References to day of the week/time of year, closing narration for primetime lineups or other plugs, commercials, and set decorations (Wintertime, Christmas, Halloween, etc.). Closing narrations are especially helpful for daytime episodes, while set decorations are especially helpful for Seasons 1-6 of nighttime.
  • EPGuides.com, the Internet Movie Database, TV Tango, and Wikipedia can help you figure out the airdate, timeframe, or sometimes just the day of the week (and have all assisted here in some way). Similarly, eBay has assisted in various factors, as have various YouTube comments.

• Daytime vs. Nighttime: From 1983-87, the daytime and nighttime versions were near-identical. Here's a few ways to tell them apart.
  • The overhead Wheel shot during the opening spin, opening chant (August 1983-July 1989), and credits can easily determine the version and timeframe. If $1,000 is present on the former or $5,000 on the latter, it's nighttime; if a blue $1,000 is present on the former, it's most likely the week of November 3, 1975. If Buy A Vowel is present, it's before that point in '75. If $750 is blue, it's from the Goen daytime era (1989-91); if yellow, from the nighttime show or 1975-89 NBC era. If $550 is tan, it's from the pilots; blue from 1975-early 1986 and late 2014-present, purple from late 1986-early 2013.
  • From September 1983 to June 1989, only the daytime show had a "Recorded at NBC Studios in Burbank, California" chyron. From July 1989 to January 1991, only daytime had a "Recorded at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California" chyron (complete with CBS eye); inversely, only the nighttime show used the King World logo.
  • In terms of top dollar values, $2,000 is NBC daytime from 1979-89, $5,000 is nighttime, and $1,250 is CBS/NBC daytime from 1989-91.
  • In terms of the Bonus Round cash prize, $5,000 is daytime (July 1989-September 1991) and $25,000 is nighttime.
  • 1990-91 daytime episodes use turntables only (always active), while the nighttime show uses turntables and rugs (depending on the episodes, some turntables are active and some are not).
  • Cars worth less than $10,000 are almost certainly daytime, though >$10,000 cars were offered with the show's return to NBC in January 1991. While nighttime typically offered two or more cars per week, from 1989-91 the daytime show offered just one per week. As for the types of cars, daytime only offered economy cars while nighttime offered a mix of both economy and luxury cars (though mostly the latter).