Style guide

From Ease Gill

This page describes how to contribute to the wiki. This guidance is not meant to be prescriptive: it is better to provide a description in any form than not to provide anything; but the tips here aim to help contributors provide better information, and to keep a consistent style.

It assumes familiarity with using WikiMedia. See Help page. Looking at the source of existing pages can help.

Making notes[edit | edit source]

Descriptions should be based on notes taken in the cave, preferably by traversing each passage in both directions.

Make notes of any features that will help cavers with route finding, or just reassure them that they are on the right route.

Make note of each side passage; but there is no need to write a description of each.

Make a note of particular hazards, such as a risk of flooding, or loose boulders. Also make a note when care should be taken to avoid damaging formations.

Splitting descriptions[edit | edit source]

An important consideration is how to split a description into separate pages.

Each piece of description forms a segment: this could be a section of passage, a junction, or an entrance location. Segments are then composed together into routes; a particular segment may form part of many routes. Thus descriptions should be split into segments that help with constructing routes.

A passage should normally be split at a significant junction, say where two different ways on will each be taken more than about once per year. However, sometimes a couple of close junctions can be described together, to avoid splitting the description too much.

A junction can be made into a separate segment, to avoid having to describe it in several different segments. This is recommended for complex junctions, say with more than three passages joining, or for major junctions.

A route is formed by concatenating several segments together. Routes include: inwards routes, starting at an entrance; outwards routes, ending at an entrance; internal trade routes, from one major junction to another; or side routes, visiting an interesting part of the system. When describing a route that starts at a major junction, include the description of that junction; but do not include the description of the ending junction: this allows routes to be concatenated together without repetition.

Writing descriptions[edit | edit source]

Try to give a description that will best help cavers find the route. Note relevant features. In complex passages, the description has to be rather thorough.

Note objective hazards, such as risk of flooding or loose boulders. Note also areas where care must be taken to avoid damaging formations.

At the start and end of segments, try to make the text follow on from linking segments, without significant repetition.

Provide descriptions in both directions (except, perhaps, for dead-end passages).

Use titles for pages such as "X to Y", "X to Y via Z Passage", or "Z Passage from X to Y"; sometimes it is necessary to resort to titles such as "Z Passage downstream", or "Z Passage, northwards".

If possible, include each segment within one of the existing categories.

Stylistic guidance[edit | edit source]

Write a description of the cave, rather than instructions for cavers.

Give each segment a level-3 heading, e.g.

=== Stop Pot ===

Describe side passages or alternative routes, in square brackets: roughly speaking, use these for anything that the caver will not see. Typically, these will just be a few words long. If you want to give a description longer than a couple of sentences, it's best to do so on a separate page.

Use bold font to note hazards or conservation warnings.