UniWiki:Guides

For the purposes of the UniWiki, a guide is a walkthrough, set of step-by-step instructions, or explanation of a game mechanic or concept geared toward new players.

What a guide is:

What is a guide? What does a guide do?

• Guides lead readers toward a goal.
  • They are called "guides", after all, and what do guides do? They lead you to a destination. When deciding how to classify an article, ask the question, "Is the reader being led to a specific conclusion by the end of this article? If so, what is it?" If the answer to the first question is "No", the article is not a guide. If the answer to the second question is unclear or isn't specific, the page is either not a guide, or needs to be rewritten with a clearer goal.
• Guides are specific.
  • The end goal of a guide must be clear, specific, and able to be expressed in one or two sentences. In the real world, you wouldn't hire a guide just to take you to a country; you can do that yourself, because it's big. But if you want to get to a specific location, like a hidden waterfall, that's what a guide is for. An article about creating an alt in general isn't a guide, but Creating an Alt Hauler is.
• Guides explain concepts in a way that builds on previous information.
  • While all articles should be organized in a logical manner, guides present information in a way that encourages readers to read from top to bottom in a clear sequence.
• Guides are substantial.
  • Given EVE's complexity, there are many things that can be explained step-by-step. However, short articles that quickly detail how to use a specific feature (such as Audio Alerts) are not guides. Brief explanations of how to use specific game features are considered implicit in the description of those features.
• Guides are current, relevant, and up-to-date.
  • To avoid confusion and conflicting information, deprecated, historical, and other outdated pages should be removed from this category. Other category tags may be left for organizational purposes.
• Guides are in the Main namespace and are (relatively) complete.
  • Pages in the User namespace (such as sandboxes or other sub-pages) are considered drafts, and should not be assigned the Guides tag. Once a guide has been moved to the Main namespace, the author is attesting to its accuracy and completeness. It is acceptable for small sections of a guide to be incomplete, or for the guide to be marked with {{Work in progress}}, but the article should still be useful as-published.

What a guide is not:

Most articles are not guides, nor should they be labeled as such. The UniWiki is first and foremost an encyclopedia documenting game mechanics, items, and concepts in EVE Online. There is absolutely a place for guides on the UniWiki, but it is important to distinguish a "guide" from an explanatory article.

What guides aren't:

• Guides are not simply an explanation or description of a topic.
• Guides are not lists, checklists, indices, glossaries, or assorted tips and tricks.
• Guides are not guides just because they say they are.
  • Anyone can write an article on the UniWiki. Not all authors will read these guidelines, and may proudly proclaim in their introductory paragraph that their article is "a guide". However, if it does not meet the criteria for being a guide, it should not categorized as one, regardless of what the article's text asserts. Similarly, having the word "guide" in the title also does not necessarily mean that the article is a guide.

Article types that are never guides:

• Syllabi
  • Syllabi (such as Armor Tanking 101) are used by teachers to teach classes, so they are written for teachers, not new players/students. Teachers may re-write the syllabi they use as scripts, but regardless of the format of a syllabus, they should never be marked as guides.
• Articles about 3rd Party Tools
  • In general, a description of how to use a tool is implicit in the description of the tool. If a particular function of a tool warrants its own page and provides step-by-step instructions, then that specific page may be labeled as a guide.
• Articles about features of the User Interface
  • Like articles that describe 3rd party tools, a description of how to use a particular feature of the UI is implicit in the article. Again, if a particular feature is complex enough to warrant its own page and requires step-by-step instructions, then that specific page may be labeled as a guide.