Celestial Omnibus:How-to

Hello there!

Welcome to the Celestial Omnibus Drinks Cabinet. fellow editors! Here, whether you are a new or old editor, you can find the conventions and rules of this Wiki. As we aim to be a peaceful sort, we will have created this easy to understand guide containing the relevent information you need to get started. Any questions? Pop over to the talk page and ask!

Scope of this Wiki
While the Celestial Omnibus Drinks Cabinet aims to cover as much as possible, we do have to draw some boundaries on what we document as otherwise we'd become a mixed fiction wiki with information from all sorts of series and franchises! As fun as this sounds, we need to keep the scope of the wiki a bit more focused. To do this, we have set some loose rules about what we will and won't cover.

Please bear in mind that specific discussions always overall general rules.


 * 1) Any story, novel, anthology, short story or other piece of fiction written or edited by Paul Magrs is covered by default (see his credits).
 * 2) Anything using characters or concepts that originated in a source already covered on this wiki where the characters or concepts are used with permission (such as with a license) is probably covered by default.
 * 3) Any fanfiction given recognition by someone authorised to write stuff set in the Magrsverse is probably covered by default.
 * 4) While not a source in of itself, quotes from Magrsverse-related authors and the like can be used to add information to this Wiki; as an example, Katy Manning has been said to be the "alter-ego" of Iris Wildthyme on the blurb of Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus, which, while isn't a source, can be used on an article, so long as it is properly cited.

Discussions of case by case inclusion/exclusion should take place on this forum board.

Writing style
There are three golden rules for basic writing on this Wiki
 * Firstly, it is written from an in-universe perspective, as the Wiki is focused upon the worlds created by Paul Magrs.
 * Secondly, we write in past-tense, as the Magrsverse is set across the span of time - otherwise, we would use past, present, and future tense, which would very quickly become a headache to read.
 * And thirdly, this Wiki uses, considering that the works that make up the Magrsverse are primarily British, written by British authors.

Internal
Internal links are simple to understand. Here is an example:


 *  (PROSE: Could It Be Magic?) 


 * As you can see, the citation should firstly be enclosed within brackets. 
 * Then the citation should be prefixed with a term denoting the medium; written works like short stories and novels get "PROSE", live-action and televisual stories get "VID", etc. (For more in-depth info about prefixes, see below.)
 * Thirdly, all story titles should be italicised. You can do this be placing two apostrophes  ''  either side of the link to the story.
 * Then comes the link to the story title. To create a link, enclose a term, in this case the title of the story, with   . Make sure you type it out exactly as it is on the page you are attempting to cite, maiking sure it follows the same capitalisation as well as the disambiguation term. (More details about dab terms are below.)

External
External links are even simpler. Here is an example:


 *  


 * Firstly, where you want to cite a fact on the Wiki, bookend the link with " ", and, if it isn't there already, create a Footnote heading at the bottom of the article, (between the External links heading and templates and/or categories) as well as placing a template just after the heading.
 * Place one square bracket at each end of the link.  [ ] 
 * The add the link.
 * Then add the title of the link, a space after the link itself. Depending on the page name you are linking, you may want to italicise it. After the name, write out the name of the website itself.

Wayback Machine
For archival purposes, due to the fact that information about the Magrsverse isn't typically well documented (that's what this Wiki aims to rectify!), creating and/or retrieving archived copies of web pages is preferable. So we use the Web Archive where possible, and you can see it in use around the Wiki. If you use a page archived on the Wayback Machine, make sure that after you type out the website name in your external citation you include "via the Wayback Machine" so that it is immediately obvious.

Source request templates
If you see a fact that seems that it ought to be cited, yet isn't, please use one of these four templates to mark it.
 * , for when no source is cited.
 * , when a source is cited but ideally needs other sources to support the claim.
 * is similar to the other two, but instead of the issue lying with the absence of citations, the issue lies with the lack of information from those citations. E.g., if you know a source has more information to offer than what is currently present, you would use.
 * is used when a fact that has been presented seems incorrect, but you aren't completely certain.

Clarification request templates

 * , to be used when a sentance is unintelligible or poorly phrased, to the point that you cannot understand it.

Attribution request templates
The following templates have the same purpose, but each one depends on the context of the sentance. Use one of these templates when a statement is cited to a person but the identity of that person isn't mentioned.

Caveat to the citations
Sometimes, you will see that the Wiki uses an external type citation on a source that is covered by this Wiki. This is reserved for when wholly out-of-universe information is present within a source covered; such as (but not limited to) a fact from the (aka the copyright page) or an introduction to a story. In this case, please use a Harvard Reference (or similar), with the source title being an internal link. You can find a reliable Harvard Reference generator at Neil's Tool Box.

Prefixes
When using internal citations, part of the citation is a prefix for the medium. The list is as follows. More detailed lists for usage can be found on the respective pages.
 * PROSE - for short stories, prose, poems, etc. Basically anything that is written.
 * AUDIO - for audio dramas, talking books, etc.
 * COMIC - for stories that are comprised of sequential art, that forms a narrative, no matter how loose. This prefix also covers sources such as colouring books.
 * VID - anything televisual based, such as episodes broadcast on television or online. Typically used for Doctor Who stories that lead to the.
 * On the Tardis Wiki, this prefix is split into, , and.

Disambiguation terms
Another part of the internal citations are disambiguation terms, also called dab terms for simplicity. Unlike Wikipedia, we follow the in regards to dab terms, wherein in-universe pages do not get dab terms unless if the page name is shared with another page - as such, out-of-universe pages typically get dab terms.

Pages for stories, anthologies, etc will typically get dab terms.

Out-of-universe dabs
{|width=75%
 * valign="top" width=50%|

Prose

 * (short story)
 * (novel)
 * (anthology)
 * (poem)
 * (novella)
 * (novelisation)
 * (photo novelisation)
 * (flash fiction)

Audio

 * (audio story)
 * (audio anthology)
 * valign="top" width=50%|

Comic

 * (comic)
 * (colouring book)

Video

 * (episode)
 * (mini-episode)
 * (film)
 * (stageplay)

Games

 * (game)
 * (video game)
 * }