QBWiki:Style Guide

General

Both [[square braces]] and '''triple quotes''' work to bold the subject of a page - though some older pages use square braces, triple quotes is likely simpler.

Categories should appear at the bottom of the page. The c template is a shorthand for writing categories.

Whenever possible, references to forum posts should be added in as <ref>references</ref> rather than external links. A potential format is as follows:

<ref>[forums link "Name of post"] by [[forum user]] » time stamp</ref>

The information used in this reference can be obtained by simply copy-pasting the header of the post in question and removing the "Post" text that appears due to the tooltip of the link icon.

Player pages

Infobox

In general, most players should have infoboxes (opt-out). The ib template provides a convenient shorthand.

Years active

Players should have all their years active at a given institution listed in their infobox. This should include all years the player was active - for instance, if a player played for their school from the fall of 2018 to the spring of 2021, their infobox should say (2018-2021).

The "(highschool/middleschool) Player active in (year)" categories should be used as well. The year specified by this template is the end of the competition year, so the "Player active in 2014" categories indicates that a player was active in the 2013-2014 competition year. This distinction is outlined in each of the category pages.

The active, activehs, and activems templates are useful shorthands.

Affiliations

Schools that a player has played/coached for should be included as categories on their page. The preference is to include these alongside other categories at the bottom of the page, rather than in the infobox next to their years played.

Schools that have changed names

To eliminate confusion and a multiplication of unnecessary redirects or duplicate pages, refer to schools that have undergone a one-to-one name change by their current name in most contexts. E.g., "Truman State" instead of "Northeast Missouri State University," or "Staunton High School" instead of "Robert E. Lee High School," even when talking about a tournament from before the name change. Use in-text explanations or footnotes to clarify as needed.

There may be situations when it makes more sense to use the old name, especially when recounting a primary narrative from a contemporary source, or when the situation is more complicated than a single institution changing its name (e.g. when assigning institutional history from a high school that has since closed and merged into another school). The above should be taken as a general guideline and not an ironclad rule; the principle of maintaining clarity, avoiding the creation of duplicate pages such as "1991 Truman State" and "1991 Northeast Missouri State," and simply explaining the situation somewhere on the page is what is important, and there may be different ways to achieve this goal in different situations.