This page is considered an official policy on the Barney Wiki.
It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow.
The Manual of Style is the style manual for all Barney Wiki articles. It describes the guidelines that should be followed so articles stay consistent throughout.
Creation Style
- When creating an article, please do research. It's encouraged to cite sources when creating and adding to an article. Of course not everything will be cited, but information found on public websites (such as newspaper articles) are encouraged to be cited. This is to show readers that this site can be a trusted source of information.
- For SEO purposes do not create articles less than fifty words. Articles such as those will be deleted.
- Do not create a page and then leave it blank. If a page is left blank for a twenty-four hours, it will be removed, citing that the page is irrelevant if no information is on it by the creator. You can be a big help by researching more about the topic!
- Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) should not be used to create nor alter text on the wiki.
- Do not plagiarize directly from other websites; please add written content in your own words and of course please use citations when necessary.
Trivia Style
- Don’t add facts that can be found on other pages.
- Ex. You add this fact on Barney's Big Surprise -
- "The video aired on PBS in 1998, being the fourth of only eleven Barney Home Videos to be televised on that network. The first being Barney in Concert (aired during the Barney & Friends Family Marathon) and the others being Barney Live! In New York City, Barney Safety, Barney's Night Before Christmas, Barney's Christmas Star, Barney's Best Manners: Your Invitation to Fun!, Let's Go to the Farm, Dino-Mite Birthday, Barney's Jungle Friends, and Big World Adventure."
- This entire information is more useful for the article “PBS” as broadcasts are listed there, and it’s quite a long trivia fact for this article. These home videos have nothing to do with said article it's on.
- Ex. You add this fact on Barney's Big Surprise -
- Do not add false information, speculation and or fan-created facts to a page.
- A fan-created fact would be "This is the end of the Barney and Friends' Second Era (July 8, 1997 - August 27, 2002)." As much as they're fun to go by, eras are not official and were created by fans of the franchise.
- Do not add facts that only note trivial repeats (e.g. “This is the second time Derek dresses as a doctor”) unless it carries narrative significance.,
- Do not add one-off character co-appearances like if it has no broader relevance (ie. “the only time (insert name) and (insert name) appeared together”).,
- Do not add mundane continuity details that don’t add contextual or thematic value.
Writing Style
All articles should be written in an out-of-universe view. This means that articles should be tailored to and understandable to viewers who aren’t familiar with the Barney franchise.
- Example (using the article “Barney Through the Years”)
- Unacceptable – The blue dog was first used in 1988.
- Acceptable - "Dubbed as the "blue dog" costume and internally as B-001,"
- With the exception of copying product and synopsis descriptions, articles should remain unbiased and free of excessive details or flowery language that can make them difficult to read by viewers who are not familiar with the Barney franchise.
- Example (hypothetical section on "Alternate Barney Costumes")
- Unacceptable - This incredible, creative 1993 costume was pivotal to Barney as a whole and displayed unique traits such as its dynamic hue; cool, right?
- Acceptable - The 1993 costume is significant for its lighter shade of purple.
- Example (hypothetical section on "Alternate Barney Costumes")
- Do not add redundant information.
- Example: If it's found in the trivia section that a respective video was a character's final appearance, do not add in parenthesis in the cast section the same information. Pick one section for the respective note, which in this case, would best be suited in trivia.
- Titles: When writing out a home video title, they should be in italics and when writing out a song title they should be in quotes.
Other
- While Wikipedia is a great resource for information, we kindly ask that you refrain from providing direct links to any Wikipedia article. It's better to link to another page on the Fandom platform (also known as interwiki linking). However, if you are going to interwiki link, try to use this occasionally and make sure it's relevant to this wiki's content (not for random things unrelated).
- For release dates on home video templates, only add when the video released. Do not add when a video might've debuted live on stage, when it aired on TV or do not add any other physical release date that came after. This template is for home video purposes.
- Example, if a video was released on VHS and released on DVD later, only add the format that it was first released on within the template. Release dates can be expanded within the release section of a respective article.