Manual of Style
This is the Screamer Wiki Manual of Style. All pages are expected to meet this layout to keep the site intact and exquisite. This guide consists of how to write and edit articles on Screamer Wiki in order to keep them uniform-looking. Articles which are not written in this layout will have the {{Cleanup}} Template added.
Not following these guidelines will NOT get your account banned.
General page layout
The page should start with a few sentences about the screamer along with an infobox. Then, if necessary, you may break the article up into different sections. At the end of the page, there should be a "Links" section with a screamer note and an un-clickable link with the https:// removed.
Example
<!-- ... --> is a comment. They are optional and are used to clarify parts of the source code. Having them is not required when writing an article. This is an example of how a page should look like in the source editor:
<!-- Templates explaining the page -->
{{Deleted}}
{{Infobox
...
...
}}
Opening paragraph about the screamer
More general detail about the screamer
==More Info if needed==
Things such as "history," "in popular culture," "see also," etc.
==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image1.jpg|About the image
Image2.jpg|About the image
</gallery>
==References==
<references />
You only need to add this section if <ref> was used in the article.
==Links==
<u>NOTE</u>: The following game contains a [[screamer]]!
* winterrowd.com/maze
{{Comments}}
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:2004]]
[[Category:Jeremy Winterrowd]]
Grammar
Make sure to follow the Associated Press stylebook when it comes to grammar. You are not expected to know everything about it.
Quotation Marks and Quotes
Punctuation always goes inside the quotation marks except when using a colon or semicolon.
- "Then, a voice reads "Ever been so wide awake? K-fee. Canned caffeine with coffee."
- "...finally hear the sound signaling the arrival of Christmas day"; the sentence then gets interrupted by the same loud scream used in the other K-fee commercials.
If you are quoting more than 4 lines, then use <blockquote> instead. You do not need to put quotation marks around the quote when you use blockquote.
You can also use the template {{Quote}} to mention anything stated by the speaker or in the screamer. This template is normally only used before the lead text or inside the heading.
{{Quote| text here | speaker }}
Appropriately follow the template and replace the "text here" and "speaker" with anything you want to attribute from the article.
{{Quote|I made this game in October of '04 for Halloween and sent it to a few of my friends in an email. About 5 months later, someone had sent the same email back to my mother! It had turned into a viral email joke. I was very flattered and figured I should make a website for all the stupid prank games I've made.|Jeremy Wintterowd}}
I, You, We
Unless quoting someone, do not use these words.
- Replace "Once we reach the third level of The Maze, the walls get thin and you reach the screamer at the end..."
- with "Once the player reaches the third level of The Maze, the walls get thin and the player reaches the screamer at the end..."
The exception to this one is jokes.
Contractions
The AP Stylebook discourages the use of contractions, as contractions are not seen as formal. The use of contractions on more formally written parts of the wiki are discouraged, but not prohibited.
- Notch states that he was going to remove them at midnight on April 2nd, but didn't due to illness.
- Notch states that he was going to remove them at midnight on April 2nd, but did not due to illness.
Citing Sources
Generally, all information that cannot be gathered from the screamer itself should be cited.
There are no banned websites for citing sources. Just make sure the sources are accurate.
The content warning template
{{ContentWarning}} should be added to any page which is a shock site, or would be considered "NC-17."
Links
Screamer links should ALWAYS be non-clickable. This does not apply to other links in the article, nor censored screamers.
Make sure the link is indented with a bullet point. The description (if needed) should be bold, and placed before the link itself (which should NOT be bold). DO NOT link to content that is illegal, see here.
- youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ - Weird 2009 version
- Weird 2009 Version: youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
If the link is deleted, make the text strikethrough and note that the link is deleted.
- Deleted:
Agor.io
Humor
Adding humor to pages is encouraged, as long as it's sensical, decently funny, and not too offensive.
If you wish to write a satire/parody article, create it under your username (i.e., User:YourUserName/Page Name).
Dealing with political screamers
Some political screamers do indeed exist. For example, the Free Enterprise Fund Committee Commercial. It's important that when reporting on a political screamer, you do not write the article in a way which is biased to support one side over the other. You may indeed make jokes in the article still, but make sure they are not done in a way that would be partisan.
Categories
A screamer should never also be listed as a shock site, and vice versa.
- Fruit Launcher should just be labeled as a shock site, not a .gif or website.
The release year and origin country should also be listed in the categories, unless the information is unknown. If the article is about a website which used to be normal but later turned into a screamer or shock site, then categorize it as the year it was changed.
- Regular gore or pornographic videos doesn't count as a shock site.
Search Engine Optimization
To add keywords to the source of a page, use the following code:
{{#seo:
|keywords=Keyword 1, Keyword 2, Keyword3
}}
Make sure to use reasonable, high ranking keywords for the topic. To find good keyword suggestions, use [keywordtool.io] and add them to the template.
Passive and Active Voices
In most cases, you should use the active voice instead of the passive voice. Passive language should only be used when the topic being written about does not exist anymore.
- Active Voice: "when the player clicks the red button, a close-up picture of Pazuzu appears"
- Passive Voice "when the button is clicked by a player, a close-up picture of Pazuzu is shown"
Profanity
Profane language is allowed on the site uncensored. Profanity, however, should only be used in an informative manner and should never be censored.
Take note that obsessive profanity may be muted.
Racial slurs shall only be used when absolutely necessary to explain an article. A good example of this situation is the Last Measure page. Racial slurs should never be used on user pages, comments, or the forum.
Profanity and racial slurs, however, must be always censored if they appear on the front page. Not doing this will cause a severe downranking by Google and possibly other search engines, which just sucks for everyone.
Attributing the Creator
The creator of the screamer should always, if known, be the creator's real name (if one person). If multiple people, the username or name of the group/company is okay. Don't use the creator's real name if the only place it comes from is a dox or data breach.
Mentos + Yakult is a screamer created by Linboyz
- Mentos + Yakult is a screamer created by Lincoln Lin Junhong (Linboyz)
Hosting Download Links to Files
We host downloadable files and screamers at the in-house files.screamer.wiki. If you need to upload and add a link to a download or file, then Mediafire, Mega, Catbox, Internet Archive, or any other free public hosting service is acceptable.
The use of Google Drive is discouraged as it engages in data-mining.
External free web hosting platforms (ex. 000webhost (screamerwikihost.net16.net)) should be avoided as well as many free hosting providers can easily terminate a website. Make sure to always archive links to any files to prevent link rot. The archived link doesn't have to be added to the article unless the original has been deleted.
Archiving screamers
Please use web.archive.org to archive any videos or websites containing video files/animations. To archive an individual image or GIF, you may use archive.is or the Wayback Machine.
Showcase Videos
When making a showcase video, make sure to blur or pixelate the screamer/shocking content itself and mute any screams and loud noises. This will avoid scaring or shocking the viewer, especially if they have a heart condition. The recording should be at the highest resolution possible.
Mentions of the Screamer
The first mention of the Screamer/Shock site should always be bolded. If the screamer is mentioned again later in the article, do not bold it.
Kekma.net, formerly called kekma.ga, is a bait and switch shock site launched on the 23rd of April, 2019.- Kekma.net, formerly called kekma.ga, is a bait and switch shock site launched on the 23rd of April, 2019.
Biases
Follow WP:NPOV. All articles should have a neutral point of view. This also applies to hyperlinks in most cases. Examples of what not to do are linking to Rotten Websites Wiki because you don't like a website or linking to Conservapedia or Rationalwiki for George W Bush.
This, of course, does not apply to comments or user/talk pages.
Artificial Intelligence
Avoid the usage of AI when writing your pages. While indeed, ChatGPT and other tools can help you write or rewrite pages, they have a very specific way of writing sentences which removes all creativity and openness that a human has, and people can tell when something is AI-generated. Do not add any unnecessary sentences that are written by AI (including non-AI too) to an article either. You can still use it to help you out however.
Unsupported attributions
Words to watch: some people say, many scholars state, it is believed/regarded/considered, many are of the opinion, most feel, experts declare, it is often reported, it is widely thought, research has shown, science says, scientists claim, it is often said, officially, is widely regarded as, X has been described as Y ...
Weasel words are words done to assert an attribution to nobody. You must attribute who those "some people" are. If you see an article that does not attribute, add {{Who}} to that line, or fix the line yourself if you know the correct attributions.
The examples above are not automatically weasel words. They may also be used in the lead section of an article or in a wikipedia:topic sentence of a paragraph, and the article body or the rest of the paragraph can supply attribution. Likewise, views that are properly attributed to a reliable source may use similar expressions, if those expressions accurately represent the opinions of the source. Reliable sources may analyze and interpret, but for editors to do so would violate the Neutral point of view policy.
- Some people think Rata Bailando is the scariest screamer out there.
- [delete entirely]
- ...but people have complained about it scaring them.
- ...but a few users[1] complained to AnimatorXP about the game scaring them.
Infobox
- Infoboxes make it easy to view surface information about a topic.
Maker
Self-explanatory. Who made the screamer?
- Jeremy Winterrowd
- Steve Zuranski (SZWorld)
- Unknown
Type
What type of screamer is this? Fill in the type of media that contains the screamer.
- Bait-and-switch video
- Website
- Shock video
- Commercial
- Flash game
- HTML5 game or Browser game
- Video
- Comics
Release date
When was the screamer or shock site released? Use MM/DD/YY as your format. You can omit the month, day, and/or year if the exact date is not known.
- March 15th, 2020
- March 15, 2020
- March 2020
- 2020
Images
- Add an image of the contents before/after the screamer. Do not include the actual screamer itself - the image will be deleted and removed.
Source
{{Infobox
|title = The Maze
|image = The_Maze.jpg
|imagecaption = The third level in The Maze.
|maker = Jeremy Winterrowd
|type = Flash game
|date = October 2004
}}
