From Encyclopedia Dramatica

Policy
This article defines official ED Policy.

Hi there! This is ED's Style Guide. Here's where you'll find hot ProTips for making your shit article a verifiable internets success.

Step Zero: The Very Basics (Wiki Format)

To link to another ED article, [[do this]]. If you did it right, it'll look like this: do this.
To pipe that link (i.e., use another word for it), [[do this|hi there]]. If you did it right, it'll look like this: hi there.
To add a template, {{dothis}}. If you did this correctly, it will look like a template.
To add a picture, [[Image:Do this.jpg|thumb|FUNNY TEXT GOES HERE]]. If you did this correctly, a thumbnail of your picture will appear on the righthand side of your article
To link outside of ED, [http://dothis.com Do this]. If you did this correctly, it'll look like this: Do this
To make your font bold or italic, add ''' for bold and '' for italic.

Step One: Write Fucking Nothing (Article Prep)

Before you write a single goddamn thing, here is what you should do:

Know what you are talking about. If, for example, you are writing an article on Quizilla, you should be familiar with it. If you want to add lulz to an existing article, it would be helpful to lurk near the subject of the article.
Lurk Moar. Getting to know the style and flow of existing {{notcrap}} articles is bound to help your own wiki skillz.
Links plz. Find links that are relevant to your subject. The more drama, lulz, or memedom behind your links, the better the article will turn out.
- PROTIP: Always ALWAYS add a link to the subject itself. If you are writing about Quizilla, you WILL add a link to www.quizilla.com.
Ruff draft. Write it out first and put it somewhere not important, such as Wikipedia. If you are not comfortable with your draft, rewrite. If you complete an article, and you still do not feel it conveys the lulz you are looking for, ask for assistance.
Crack your knuckles. God, that felt good.

Step Two: Write Fucking Everything (Writing the Article)

Though we've been surprised before, we usually assume that you know how to read and write when you decide to contribute to the site. That said, here are some Protips regarding your new article.

RTFM. If you haven't already, read Step Zero. In fact, open it in a seperate tab for quick reference.
A layout is fine too. With few exceptions, good articles are split up into a few sections. This is much easier on the eyes than a big wall of text, even if it does have paragraph breaks. Adding == to either side of a word or phrase will give it its own header.
- PROTIP: If you want to get fancy, you can further break down sections with ===. One of those will give your text the same effect as two <big>s with <bold> too.
Pix plz. Unless you are writing a shitty stub and praying to be banned, you're going to want to find some pictures for your article. We have a huge database of pictures already, and you should at least take a look at them. Failing that, go find your own images, upload it, and stick it on your page to max out your pretty factor.
Why not pipe? Why not indeed? But in lieu of piping, be sure to link to at least a few other pages on ED. This will increase page views dramatically.
Add a cat. A cat is fine too. A category, however, will make your article more visible and will save it from being categorized as crap.
Use the preview button. Meet your new best friend: the preview button. Even veteran dramaticians sometimes forget to add that second bracket, and saving it in such a state will make them look like total fucktards. You are the new generation; you have no excuse for looking like that. In fact, I will ban you on sight if you refuse to use the preview button. Guaranteed.

Step Three: ????

Step Four: Profit! (Post-Article Creation)

Lean back and look upon that which you hath wrought. Every active sysop is watching recent changes like a hawk, looking for articles with the big N next to it; we WILL read it. We will also probably criticize it, edit it mercilessly, and some asshole will probably add {{crap}} to it. No worries, though. If you followed all the directions, nodded solemnly at my HAWT TIPS, and added categories, links and pictures to your article, you should be fine.

Do these things now:

Find new friends. Do this IRL and on the wiki too. Find new friends for your baby article by linking to it from other articles. For instance, if you wrote the article "Gays For God", you will want to add [[Gays For God]] to Homosexual, God, and maybe even Christian.
Get on IRC fgt. You are now a full-blown ED writer. Show your face on IRC so we can get to know you better. This is important, because pretty much all the n00bs who lurk constantly on ED IRC end up getting considered for sysop. Providing we don't hate you, of course.
Repeat. Keep writing articles. Failing that, keep editing existing ones. Failing THAT, look around on the community portal for ways to kill time while keeping your ED cred.

Required Reading

Well, that's it! That's all you really need to know to write your very own article. Consult these other pages and you will be well on your way to stardom!

Taken from ED:101

Things to Avoid

Now that you know some things you should be doing, let's take a quick look at the things one shouldn't do on ED. The following are painfully overused techniques and should be avoided at all costs. They're no longer funny and chances are if you add them to an article your edit will be reverted and you'll be chastised, if not worse.

AMIRITE

NO YOU ARE NOT RIGHT.

The strikethrough tag

The taint of Uncyclopedia has spread to ED and brought with it this unfunny method of editing. The idea is that something already added to a page needs to be replaced, therefore one ~~strikes through~~ the text and makes an addendum directly afterwards. The problem with this, aside from being overused and unfunny, is that this is a wiki. If something needs to be removed or replaced, simply do it. Don't waste your time and mine by adding unnecessary edits to a page, making it read like a talk page edited by retarded monkeys. This technique can at times be useful if it's used to deliver a joke, but even then it's usually poorly done and unfunny anyway. Only use this if you really know what you're doing.

DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS

Quite often found with the strikethrough, this is yet another example of the anti-lulz that can be found more and more frequently here. With this, the joke (if one could consider it that) is that the poster has reneged on his or her word and exclaimed that they suck cocks, rather than whatever the previous statement had indicated. The problem is that this phrase is only effectively used when you are imitating another poster, preferably after hijacking his/her account so that you can fool people. As such, it is a moot point on a wiki, as anyone could easily navigate through the page's history to discover that it is you who suck cocks, not the OP. Avoid this like the plague, as it's somehow linked absolutely everywhere.

IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAND

Somehow this has become the default measurement for anything, regardless of actual quantity. Guess what? It's linked from over 9,000 pages on ED, and thusly is no longer anywhere near funny. Lore states this came from Dragonball Z, which is just a terrible excuse for programming and should embarrass anyone caught watching it. The numeral 7 wordfilters to over 9000 on 4chan which should instantly indicate that it's so played out that you should be executed for considering using it.

Last Thursday

Let's face it, none of you were around for last Thursday. Don't even pretend to know what it's about.

At least 100

Once upon a time we mocked TOW and we mocked them hard, and this was one of those statements we used. Since then, everything in recorded history has happened shortly before the last century began. Not only has the debate surrounding creationism taught us this isn't true, it's simply silly. Let's not fall into the trap of assuming everything just happened, OK?

An Hero

Let's get this straight right now: There is only one an hero. All others are merely suicides. Unless one has died as a result of a lost iPod, one cannot truly be an hero. In addition, this is a noun, not a verb, you fuckwits.

The Bel-Air

The original incarnation of this meme was to interupt the climax of an exciting story with the the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But at some point in time, it was decided by a swarm of retards that every event ever must conform to the format of the theme song, because they are strange and obsessive. It worked a few times, but was soon beaten to death, added to articles for no reason at all, and exposed to increasingly poor execution. Sadly, it is no longer funny (if in fact it ever was funny), and thusly should not be added to articles, new and old alike.
See Also: So Cash

Unnecessary vulgarity

Yes, you're allowed to say shit, piss, fuck, cock, dick, bastard, dyke, cunt, twat, ass, dildo, nigger, kike, spic, wop, wog, jigaboo, jap, chink, gook, beaner, dago, cum, faggot, paki, sand-nigger, towel-head, Jew, gypsy, tits, pussy, boobs, taint, homo, smegma, shite, snatch, snizz, queef, and felch here. Don't you feel a little more grown-up for it?

'''Bold text'''

You idiot, you clicked the formatting buttons and still couldn't figure it out.

???? and PROFIT!

Remember when this was on South Park? Oh man, so do I! That was so funny! Ten years ago!

First Person Perspective

“	I think My Immortal is terribel its liek teh worst fanfic evar, amirite? I mean, i could rite better than that it like srsly maed me vomit we shuld all petition to get it taken down or sumthin! OMG it reminds me of sumethng my little sister would rite lol u should see her shes so stupid anyway why won't anyone pay attention to me im so lonely ;_;	„
—A fictitious quote, but plausible nonetheless

Before you begin EDiting, it's important that you understand exactly what medium you're using to write. Since you were probably intelligent enough to type "www.encyclopediadramatica.com" into your address bar, you're also probably clever enough to infer that this is an encyclopedia; an incredibly unorthodox one maybe, filled with profanity, porn, and a complete disregard for proper research, but an encyclopedia nonetheless. It documents things, and it is not your own personal internet soapbox. Have you ever seen first person pronouns in, say, Encyclopædia Britannica? No, because you don't read books because you're an idiot. But just take my word that a first person perspective doesn't work well in reference materials. It weakens the writing and generally makes the article look like shit. That doesn't mean opinions aren't welcome, though. Unlike some poor excuses for encyclopedias, ED does not pretend to be NPOV. ED is quite the opposite, but just try to cram your stupid opinion in without breaking the third person perspective. Save the "I, Me, My, and We" for talk pages and your LJ.

Overuse of Memes

So, you know what Pedobear is, you post cat macros on Saturday morning, you redirect people to Rick Astley videos, and you have very fond feelings for a certain blue pokemon. You're internet savvy. Good for you, but that doesn't make you funny. Nor does compound overuse of internet memes make your articles funny. You probably see this everywhere on site, and might think it's a good way to fit in. It's not. This problem is touched upon above, but extends to more than just the aforementioned memes. Memes are no substitute for actual humor, and merely referencing them doesn't count for anything if you're not being funny in the first place. An internet meme, like any joke, is worthless without good delivery. Please don't cram your edits full of links to unrelated memes; it's not funny and it only furthers to cheapen the memes you're using. Also, try not to use so many in jokes that your article is incomprehensible to normal humans. Just because you spend 23 hours a day online doesn't mean everyone else does.

Uploading Images

Highly trained Image Inspectors

You can easily upload images, by using Special:Upload linked in the toolbox on the left of every page below the search bar. Before you upload, make sure to read and follow the image use policy. Uploading bestiality and child porn is obviously a very bad thing and anyone doing this will be banned indefinitely.

You will need to include a description of the file in the Summary. If the file does not have a description or the description is inaccurate, the image may be deleted. See ED:MEDIA.

Make sure that you upload an image with a proper filename. Google Image Search needs to be able to find your image, so filenames such as Image:1282759137539.jpg may be deleted.

Important:

CHECK THE FUCKING FILE SIZE!
Please try and not upload anything larger than 150kb. kthx!

Readability and Basic Tips

If you're taking the time to write a well-fleshed out article, your word count can easily grow to a point where the average reader may not want to wade through it.

Here are some basic tips for readability:

Use short paragraphs -- four lines tops.
Use one-line paragraphs to emphasize something.
Don't use adjectives ending in '-ly'.
Indent key points.
Use the active tense and active verbs. Avoid passive verbs and tenses.
Read it out loud when you're done. Smooth out the parts which don't sound good.
Sprinkle underline, bold, italics throughout your article for emphasis. These draw the reader in.

User:Paco650/Encyclopedia Dramatica:Style Guide