Akita Wiki talk:Style guide

As 2012 has dawned, so has my realization that I will only be here for another 7 months. During that time I also have to get around to planning two weddings and finding a new job. I have wanted to give all of the municipality/district pages an overhaul for quite a while, and if I don't start now, I don't think it will ever get done.

As it stands, with the exception of the templates, all of the municipality pages are in completely different formats which make the information hard to navigate. Granted, relevant information for each place is different, but we should have some degree of standardization across the site.

The goal of this style guide is to make each page as concise, relevant, and easily understood as possible.

I am going to start going through all of the pages starting Feb. 1st, so I am hoping to reach a consensus on just what formats are preferred by then. I know that no one wants to actually go through and reformat all of these pages, and I am not asking anyone to. Just let me know what format you guys think works best, and I will go through and change the actual pages. That being said, if you are willing to help, by all means go crazy.--Casey 11:25, 10 January 2012 (JST)

Sections

What sections each municipality should be divided into, and in what order.

• Currently I think the Kosaka page has the cleanest layout. It is easily the most encyclopedia like, although I am not sure if the goal of this website is to make an encyclopedia. More than anything I like that no part of the page has devolved into bullet point lists, as many pages tend to. I know I am particularly guilty of this. The Kosaka page is divided into
  1 Overview
  1.1 Getting there
  2 History
  2.1 Pre-World War II
  2.2 Post-World War II
  3 Sightseeing
  3.1 Historical sites
  3.2 Nature
  3.3 Festivals
  4 Onsen
  5 Eating and drinking
  5.1 Eat
  5.2 Drink
  5.3 Chains
  6 Shopping
  7 See also
  
  I think that this would work well on most other pages. If the particular page didnt have specific information (such as Kamikoani before world war 2) then we would just leave that section out.--Casey 11:25, 10 January 2012 (JST)

Shop/Onsen layout

• Like I said above, one of my concerns about the municipality pages is how quickly they just turn into bullet point lists. The worst example of this is probably Noshiro, although most pages aren't much better. I think unless we are talking about an onsen resort with multiple separate businesses, like Tsuru-no-yu, then we should just list the place without a bullet point. My preferred format for shops/onsen/restaurants has the english name bolded, with the Japanese name is brackets in normal lettering. The name is followed by a brief explanation which would include information such as hours and prices without line breaks. At the end there is one line break for the address in Japanese, along with the telephone number and website. Here is an example:
  
  Red brick Local Museum Akarengakan (赤れんが郷土館) The old Akita Bank Headquarters. After Akita Bank moved into their current building, they donated the red brick house to the city to be used as a museum.
  〒010-0921　秋田県秋田市大町3-3-21 ☎ 018-864-6851 http://www.city.akita.akita.jp/city/ed/ak/ (Japanese)
  
  I know that doug made a shop template a little while back, but I personally find the template a little harder to use than just putting in the formatting myself. --Casey 11:25, 10 January 2012 (JST)
  • I suggest three changes. 1. a full stop after the kanji, 2. the address with a link to a map for convenience and 3. and the website listed as 'Homepage' or 'Website'. For example:
    
    Red brick Local Museum Akarengakan (赤れんが郷土館). The old Akita Bank Headquarters. After Akita Bank moved into their current building, they donated the red brick house to the city to be used as a museum.
    〒010-0921　秋田県秋田市大町3-3-21 ☎ 018-864-6851 Homepage (Japanese)
    owencunn 13:26, 10 January 2012 (JST)
    • I agree that we should have a full stop after the name now that I think about it. I havn't been including google map links in pages as of late just because too many blue links make it somewhat hard to read for me. Could just be a personal preference. What do you think about putting the google map link in a smaller (map) format after the address like:Peacock (ピーコック) 八橋新川向4-17 (map)--Casey 15:40, 10 January 2012 (JST)