Wikipedia:WikiProject Slipknot/Guidelines

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"Guidelines" Welcome to the guidelines for how to write an article related to Slipknot. Please remember that these are just guidelines; nothing is set in stone here, each article is subjective and these are just recommendations. Also, Project members are actively encouraged to contribute to the guidelines to further aid the Projects impact upon articles within its scope.

Infobox
One thing that cannot be stressed enough is the importance of an infobox in an article. For those who do not know what an infobox is, an infobox is a box on the right hand side of the page that gives the reader basic information on the article. The infoboxes used for Slipknot related articles is Infobox Album, Infobox Song, Infobox Single, and Infobox Musical artist. A full list of musical infoboxes is available at: Category:Music infobox templates. An example of what an album infobox might look like is to the right-hand side of this paragraph. The necessary codes for all infoboxes for articles within the Project's scope are below. Not all of the code is needed for absolutely every article, although for the ease of future editing, please copy all of it when the infobox is being created in case another editor decides they want to fill it in.

Lead
The first thing needed in an article is a hatnote (if necessary). This is simply a link to a disambiguation page or an article with the same name, often this isn't needed due to originality but they are required were necessary.

The first question that the reader will probably ask themselves is "Is this the article that I am looking for?" The lead is one of the most important parts of the article as it gives the reader a general overview of the article. The first sentence should include the name of the subject in bold. For albums also add italics to the subject. For songs add quotations outside of the bold. The lead should also includes some basic information (even if it is already covered in the infobox). A lead in is a summary of the article and it's recommended that you write it retrospectively.

A common mistake in the lead is using weasel words and saying something to the effect of "Many believe that this is the best album ever." An improved replacement for such a phrase would be "This album is widely regarded as a good album." followed by references to reviews from well-known music review websites.

Layout
The sectioning of an articles content helps establish key areas that groups of information fall under. All articles should have multiple sections where possible. Here is a list of recommended sections to be used in articles within the projects scope:

Band Members

 * Biography
 * Musical Career
 * Personal Life
 * (Other notable careers e.g.; director/actor/author)
 * Style
 * Equipment
 * Influences (both of the artist and influences on other artists)
 * Discography
 * Videography

Example: John Lennon

Albums

 * Recording and production
 * Music style and lyrical themes
 * Reception
 * Track listing
 * Chart positions
 * Personnel

Example: Reign in Blood

Songs/Singles

 * Background and writing
 * Music and structure
 * Reception/Reviews
 * Appearances
 * Music video
 * Formats and track listings

Example: All You Need Is Love

Writing Style
When editing any article within the project's scope bear in mind that Wikipedia's editorial policy is the "neutral point of view," which offers that all articles must be written without bias opinion and provide facts and not opinions.

All articles should also follow the Manual of style (see WP:MOS).

Images
Wikipedia policy determines that some usage of copyrighted materials without permission of the copyright holder can qualify as fair use in the United States (see WP:IUP). All articles regarding albums, singles and DVDs should have an image depicting the product, these images require a fair use rationale (see WP:RAT). Any images regarded as in the public domain may be used in any article, however the usage must be beneficial to the article and not just used because it's available. Wikimedia Commons has free media related to Slipknot.

Templates
The appropriate template to place at the bottom of all Slipknot related articles is Slipknot. Regardless of the subject, this template is to be present on all articles related to Slipknot. All articles within the project's scope should also have the Slipknot Project template on their talk page.

Stub templates
A stub is an article containing only a few sentences of text which is too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of the subject, but not too short as to provide no useful information (see WP:STUB). All stub articles should use stub templates were necessary.

Please use musician-stub for band member articles, band-stub for band articles, Album-stub for album related articles, and song-stub for song related articles. For a full list of music related stub templates visit WikiProject_Stub_sorting/Stub_types. The stubs listed above are not the ones you have to use, if you can find a better one please use it. Of course, stub templates are only necessary if the article is stub-sized.

Categories
If the article is a band member article then it should be placed in Category:Slipknot (band) members. If the article is an album article then it should be placed in Category:Slipknot (band) albums. If the article is a song article it should go in Category:Slipknot (band) songs. If the article is a DVD article it should go in Category:Slipknot (band) video albums. All other Slipknot related articles that do not fit in to any of the previous categories should be placed in Category:Slipknot (band). See WP:CAT.

Examples
Citing a news article:

See below for result.

Reusing a reference:

To reuse a reference you need to set the parameter "name" in the

See below for result.

Second use:

See below for result.

Footnotes

The citations are displayed by placing a tag at the bottom of the article (see Template:Reflist).

Multiple book citations

However if you are using multiple references from the same book, it is preferred that the book is sourced inside the references section and footnotes are created using Harvard referencing (see Template:Harvard_citation_no_brackets).

Place the book citation in the references section:

Then use Harvard referencing for footnotes:

For an example see Slipknot (band).

Reliable sources
This is a list of potentially useful sources deemed reliable by Project members.

General
 * RoadrunnerRecords.com
 * AMG
 * Billboard.com
 * AOL
 * RIAA Gold/Platinum Database

News/Magazine Websites
 * RollingStone.com
 * MetalHammer.co.uk
 * Kerrang.com
 * NME.com
 * BlabberMouth.net
 * MTV.com
 * VH1.com
 * BBC News


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