Falasan Inquirer/Archive/Writing Style
Contents
The Falasan Inquirer Style Guide
The Falasan Inquirer uses templates to prepare its articles. If you wish to add your own article, here is how you can do it:
Main Article
Main articles are placed in the Falasan News Major Left template. You just need to copy & copy from the box below and add in what is appropriate (that is, place the title of the article after "|title=", etc). Be aware that you will need to halve your article and place the second half under the "|column2=" option.
Of first preference would be to cut off the article at the end of a paragraph, of second preference at the end of a sentence, and if you must, cut it off at a comma (or other punctuation which induces a pause in the flow of writing). This is so that the reader will not be disjointed from the sudden need to zip back up to the top of the article.
Finally, if in following the above you find it impossible to exactly halve the article (especially for long articles!!), I would suggest that you make "|column1=" shorter than "|column2=" for the simple reason that it will be easier for the reader to scroll up & down while reading the article, particularly for articles which are long enough to require that scrolling--a shorter distance to scroll up, and then the reader needs only to scroll down the rest of the way on the 2nd column.
{{Template:Falasan News Major Left
|title=
|date=
|column1=
|column2=
|author=
}}
Side Articles
These are for extremely minor articles, I'm thinking of just for commentaries. This is so because unlike the main articles template, I can't get these to fit nicely below each other :( other than that, you just need to do the same as above: copy & paste the template below and fill in the blanks.
Note that placing this template before a main template will show this template slightly above the main template. I do not suggest placing one of this template above another of this template unless they are 1) short enough or 2) the main article they are placed beside is long enough to contain the length of the minor articles. Otherwise, the two minor articles will be placed side by side in the middle of the page.
{{Template:Falasan News Minor Right
|title=
|date=
|column1=
|author=
}}
Battle Reports
The Falasan Inquirer reports only on battles worthy of note. Battles against foolhardy single knights or even two, peasants, monsters, or undead should be automatically disregarded.
Adding Battle Reports
(copied and modified from Battle Reports, with the colours changed from The1exile's battle report)
A. If you want to take a battle report and post it on a website, here's what you have to do:
A. Taking the scribe report and putting it in Word.
- First, you must view a battle report via your scribe report.
- Click on "View Source".
- Copy the source by either right clicking and pressing "Copy" or using "Ctrl P".
- Open up a Word Document.
- Right click and select "Paste" or simply type "Ctrl V".
B. Editing the text for the web page. Use "Find and Replace" and follow the next 13 steps.
- Replace "<Char" with "<".
- Replace "</Char" with "<".
- Replace "<_" with "<". (Where as "_" is equal to ONE blank space.)
- Replace "<p>" with "<br>"
- Replace "<>" with "".
- Replace "#DDDDDD" with "#00FF00".
- Replace "#FFFFFF" with "#0033FF".
- Replace "#E0E0FF" with "#FF00DD".
- Replace "#E0FFFF" with "#00CCFF".
- Replace "#FFFFE0" with "#FF0000".
- Replace "</FONT<" with "<"
- Replace "CS" with "CS"
- Delete everything above and including the following phrase found near the beginning "Scribe Note, X turns old:"
- Delete very last info:
"</Body></HTML>".
- "
- </BODY>
- </HTML><script language='javascript'>postamble();</script>"
- Preview the battle report. You may notice that certain areas are coloured where your unit participated in battle. Using the "Find" function, search out all places where "0033FF" occurs and delete the colour tag where appropriate.
- Note: It is possible to automate most of this process by creating a macro in to alter this in Microsoft Word. For that matter, it's possible to edit it using a self-made script--but for a non-programmer like myself, I'll stick to patching up a Word macro.
Formatting
The title of the conflict is added before the "<hr>" tag and between the "<center><big><b>CONFLICT_NAME</b></big>" tags; the name of the battle is dropped a paragraph by adding <br> after the <hr>, and the battle named is bolded by placing it between the "<b>BATTLE_NAME</b>" tags. The date is added immediately after, but not bolded, so leave it outside of the "<b></b>" tags. Finally, add a </center> tag immediately before "
Total:
" and press enter to break the line (pressing enter to place the following code on another line is very important; it prevents the following text from also being centered.)
Dates
The dates use the following format: (Day of Month)(-st/-nd/-rd/-th) of (Month), (Year). So a battle taking place September 23, 1814 would be: "23rd of September, 1814".
Naming
Naming the battles: battles are named based on the region they took place, the size of the battle and whether or not a previous battle of that size took place in the region before. Fortifications also influence the name.
The basic format of a battle's name is the following: "BATTLE_NUMBER BATTLE_TYPE of REGION_NAME". REGION_NAME is determined by the region in which the battle took place. If the battle took place in Tucha, then REGION_NAME would be Tucha. BATTLE_TYPE is determined by the size of a battle and fortifications.
- Siege of: a battle involving many combatants (at least 40k CS combined) where one side had control and use of the fortifications.
- Battle of: a battle involving many combatants (at least 10k CS combined).
- Note that if fortifications were present but less than 40k CS was involved, then it was a battle. If fortifications were not present but more than 40k CS was involved, then it was a battle.
- Skirmish in: any battle involving less than 10k CS combined, with the exception of massacres.
- Massacre of: any battle were the forces arrayed were so one-sided, it is surprising that the smaller side did not surrender from the start. Any battle where one side's combat strength is 10 times greater than the other side would be labelled as a massacre, even those involving >40k CS...especially those.
- i.e., 1 one-unit very 10,000 CS, stuff like that.
Note that all BATTLE_TYPEs refer to the region as BATTLE_TYPE of REGION except for skirmishes.
Finally, BATTLE_NUMBER is determined by the number of times a battle of that BATTLE_TYPE took place in the region. If 5 battles took place in Tucha, 2 which were classified as skirmishes and 3 as massacres, then they would be named:
- First Skirmish in Tucha
- Second Skirmish in Tucha
- First Massacre of Tucha
- Second Massacre of Tucha
- Third Massacre of Tucha
- Note that if only one battle of that type has occurred in that region, then BATTLE_NUMBER is omitted. That is, if from three battles in Tucha, only one was a skirmish, you would not name it "First Skirmish in Tucha", but simply "Skirmish in Tucha".
