User blog:Hatebunny/Editor pet-peeves

As an administrator, I am monitoring... a lot of pages. As such, I get notifications about new edits on those pages pretty frequently.

It's my responsibility to go in and make sure that each edit is good, informative, useful, correct, acceptable, etc. (It's your responsibility too, friends!).

So, I run across a lot of edits that drive me crazy, and, for your education/entertainment, I'mma list them here.

"Codename (Real Name)":
 * This makes sense during events like Battle for the Cowl or Knightfall where multiple characters appear as Batman. Anywhere else, it's redundant. Spoiler Alert: Bruce Wayne is Batman. If you tag it as Batman, it doesn't require that you tag it as Batman (Bruce Wayne). We know it's him. Everybody knows it's him. It's okay.
 * As a corollary to that point, Green Lanterns do not need to be listed as Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), etc. Assume they are all Green Lanterns, and use their real names. It'll be okay. The point is to help people find the character they want, and click through to their character page. Readers of Green Lantern are expecting a Green Lantern to appear. Readers of Green Lantern Corps are expecting multiple lanterns to appear. Dig it.

Item appearances:
 * Okay, so, there are items that appear in an issue, and they're very important to the story. Those should definitely be listed when they appear. Then there is the Batsuit. Batman wears the Batsuit in every issue that he appears as Batman. Guess why? The suit is kind of important to the whole identity thing... If you tag that every time, you might as well tag "Bruce Wayne's hair" in every issue too. Again, Batsuit in a Battle For the Cowl or Knightfall issue is wonderful. Every other issue? Redundant. I'm not just talking about the Batsuit, of course. The same could be said of Superman's indestructible armour, Catwoman's catsuit, robin's jockey shorts, Green Arrow's bow...

International English:
 * Hello, my American friends. Let me teach you a lesson in being a member of the global village. You are the only fools who spell words like humour without the u. The internet is an international venue, not a sub-region within the great nation you live in. If someone has written an article using International English, you are not helping by "correcting" their spellings to the American versions. You are especially not helping because the words are veritably INTERCHANGEABLE. That qualifies as an empty edit, and empty edits are the kind of strike against you that makes me decide to block you if you ever slip up on something that's actually SERIOUS. I'm not saying every article needs to be written in International English, or that one is better than the other. I'm saying that you should not assume that your way is the right way. It doesn't matter either way. Just leave it alone. You can survive reading the occasional "ou". If you can't, fuck right off, xenophobe.

Out of Universe writing:
 * We take an in-universe position when writing here. The word "I" should never appear, because you are not a comic book character. Phrases like "we cut to a scene of Clark and Lois..." are a) cheesey, and b) not in-universe. I have written more than 500 synopses and history sections on this wiki. Take them as examples (I'm sure you can find at least one, somewhere). Present tense (unless in flashback), description, etc. Needless to say, if you don't have a strong grasp of the English language, and if you're one of those people who doesn't care to type or spell correctly because "it's the internet" - do not bother. Don't even click the edit button.

Image Templates:
 * I understand that this is a very confusing template for people. I'm not sure WHY it is, but apparently, it is. One day, I will explain in a very convoluted blog post how to fill out the image template properly. Until then, just... do your best, okay? Don't suck. Just... don't suck. You can do this. DC Database:Image Template has examples and explanations! Go there! Read them! Many of the images on the website ARE templated properly. Many, many more are not. Please, find one that is. Copy it. Incorporate it into your editor's lexicon. Make it so! Succeed! Do not fail.

... That's all I can think of, for now. I promise, I don't actually get violently angry about all of these, but they do bother me.

So, if you have any questions about policy or editing, feel free to put a message on the walls of any of the DC Database:Administrators. They would much rather answer a few questions (no matter how obvious the answer is) than have to clean up your messes. - Hatebunny 19:33, July 9, 2012 (UTC)