Help:Established Standards

These are the basic guidelines for this Wikipedia's rules. Keep in mind that these are subject to change with/without notice.

Card Pages
1) Monsters must have a printed Level/Rank between -12 and +12.

2) No cards with a printed original ATK and DEF over 5000 points.

3) The card's OCG (official card grammar) should be at the same level as Konami's (proper punctuation and OCG terms). Try your best; I make some mistakes so I'm not supposed to be critical on this part. Try to use the most recent version if possible.

4) Anyone can edit your card(s), so don't be alarmed if you see a difference. Most of the time, it may be just some minor fixes with OCG and/or other stuff you missed. Although if pages get vandalized, I'll revert them back to their original state.

5) Have fun making your cards. Remember, you're allowed to do plenty of things here, except swear of course.

6) Other series sets will be allowed, but be sure you're allowed to use them (it helps to leave a link to the image as credit).

7) No violence, sex, drugs, etc. allowed on cards. Unfortunately, this also includes Naruto Sexy Jutsu, etc.

8) If you want to create a custom Attribute/Type/Subtype, please let me know on my talk page and I'll look it over. If I do approve, you'll be allowed to create the pages for them. However, you are responsible for updating the type pages, etc. for them.

9) Cards MUST be in English (you can use other languages too, but English is REQUIRED)

10) Don't make cards of characters from other series (while yes, some of the pics you use may come from other series [whether you know it or not], but just don't make it obvious)

Spelling
All spelling is requested to be in American English since cards released in the TCG are printed in American English. For you Brits out there, if this goes against your wishes, I apologize in advance but just follow along. If you need a guide to differentiate US/Brit English, use the table below.

Differences between American/British spellings
Common differences between American and British English spellings include:

Capitalization
Words considered to be proper nouns, proper adjectives etc. have their first letters capitalized, while common nouns, common adjectives etc. don't unless used at the start of the sentence.

Some card game terminology is capitalized different than normal English. The capitalizations used in gameplay terminology should be used on this site.

Gameplay terms which use all capital letters, include:
 * Attributes: LIGHT, DARK, FIRE, WATER, EARTH, WIND and DIVINE
 * ATK and DEF
 * FLIP (only when used at the beginning of Flip Effect Monsters' lores)

Gameplay terms which begin in capital letters include:
 * Types e.g. Aqua, Beast-Warrior
 * Battle positions: Attack Position and Defense Position
 * Types of cards e.g. Trap Card, Normal Monster, Continuous Spell Card
 * Types of Effect monster such as Gemini and Tuner do not capitalize the "m" in monster.
 * Types of Summons and Sets e.g. Normal Summon, Synchro Summon, Set
 * Phases and Steps e.g. End Phase, Damage Step
 * Decks: Main Deck, Extra Deck, Fusion Deck, Side Deck
 * Locations on the playing field. e.g. Graveyard, Monster Card Zone
 * Effect types: Quick Effect, Flip Effect
 * Spell Speeds
 * Types of games e.g. Duel, Match, Turbo Duel
 * Other words which are capitalized include:
 * Attribute
 * Battle Damage
 * Tribute
 * Type

Gameplay terms which do not start with a capital letter, but are sometimes mistaken for starting with them include:
 * Battle (when used by itself)
 * Card (when used by itself)
 * Damage (when used by itself)
 * Damage calculation
 * Draw (The action, not the game result)
 * Hand
 * Monster (when used by itself or after types of Effect Monsters, such as Gemini or Tuner)
 * Remove from play

Quotation marks
In prose, card names are always written in quotation marks. e.g. "Dark Magician". When a portion of a card name that may refer to a group of cards is used, it is also written in quotation marks. e.g. "Elemental Hero".

If the last word in a sentence is within quotation marks, the period is only placed inside the quotation marks if it is part of the material being quoted. If the period is not part of the quoted material it is left outside. The same applies for commas. This practice is known as logical punctuation. In the United States and Canada, it is more common to leave periods and commas inside the quotation marks irrespective of whether it is part of the material being quoted. This practice is known as traditional punctuation.

Yu-Gi-Oh! cards use logical punctuation, so the same is usually used on this site.

Examples:
 * Correct: This card's name is treated as "Harpie Lady".
 * Incorrect: This card's name is treated as "Harpie Lady."
 * (The period is not part of the source)


 * Correct: Chazz said "Cards are merely weapons."
 * (The period is part of the source)


 * Correct: Chazz said that cards are "weapons".
 * Incorrect: Chazz said that cards are "weapons."
 * (The period's presence in the source is uncertain and its usage within the quotation marks is unnecessary)

In all major forms of English, whether question marks and exclamation marks go inside or outside the quotes depend on whether they are part of the material being quoted.

Date formats
Official sources usually use American date formats. e.g. January 5, 2000 or 1/5/2000. Sometimes 2000-1-5 is used.

January 5, 2000 is favored over 1/5/2000, as some readers may read the latter as 1 May 2000.

The format January 5, 2000 should be used in articles. Any dates inserted by the system will appear in whatever format the user has specified in Special:Preferences.

Shortened month names like "Jan" should be avoided unless used in tables where there is little room.

Examples
 * Correct: January 5, 2000
 * Incorrect: January 5 2000
 * Incorrect: January 5th, 2000
 * Incorrect: 5 January 2000
 * Incorrect: 5th January 2000
 * Incorrect: 5th of January 2000
 * Incorrect: 5/1/2000


 * Incorrect: 1/5/2000


 * Incorrect: 2000-1-5

When given years BC and AD (Before Christ and Anno Domini) are favored over BCE and CE (Before Common Era and Common Era). Although the AD is omitted when giving years in its range.

Newspapers in the manga, have used BC, which is why it is favored here.

Examples
 * Correct: 2000
 * Incorrect: 2000 AD
 * Incorrect: <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 A.D.
 * Incorrect: <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 CE


 * Correct: <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">2000 BC
 * Incorrect: <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 B.C.
 * Incorrect: <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 BCE