User:Iadmc/Manual of Style (Record Charts)

__NOINDEX__ NB - This is userspace experiment based on the present Manual of Style: Record charts

This page gives some guidelines for formatting record chart information in music-related articles. The chart positions should be organized into one table, and the table should be formatted using.

Basic rationale
Charts should be arranged by country in alphabetical order.

Within the table, charts should be properly named as listed by the source and peaks should not appear boldfaced, as this violates Wikipedia's policy regarding neutral point of view and breaches WP:MOSBOLD.

All of these example tables include indicators to show correct location of references. (These are not legitimate references for information contained in this article.) References should be as specific as possible, and generally should be to a URL that will display the exact charting information being included, not simply to the website where the chart may be found. Thus sources should be archived meaning that they can be accessed at later dates. 'Outside' archive sources such as the Wayback Machine or WebCite are also acceptable.

Please note that while the charting action is active or on-going within a specific market area (country), that non-archived reference(s) from reliable sources may be used as it pertains to that specific chart due to the fact it is too early for such information to appear in official archives. Where possible 'outside' archiving is also preferred.

Original chart format
Note that references should be individual and specific to each chart that is being used. Sources per column or table are insufficient.

Albums and singles which appear on different charts during different years are formatted with the charts for the most recent year furthest down the table:

Alternative versions, such as remixes or radio edits, of the same song should be indicated in the table as an additional line within the Chart name cell:

Chart macros
The singlechart template is available for formatting chart tables for single articles. The use of the macro is strongly encouraged, as it automatically creates a correct reference for the chart entry, allows changes to sourcing sites to be accommodated by editing a central location instead of edits across thousands of articles, and will permit future implementation of a bot to assist in vandalism reversion. Documentation on the use of singlechart is available at the template page.

The macros will look something like this on pages:


 * Notes:
 * For the German macro you must format the artist name "last,first" and the song must be written like it is on their website for example "I Want to Know What Love Is (2-track)".
 * The United States Billboard charts visually look the same as the original chart format.
 * Although the macros are not compulsory they are not to be reverted if they have been upgraded.