Editing Wiki 24:Manual of Style

{{shortcut|MoS}}

* The titles of articles about characters should be the name by which the character was most commonly known in the ''24''verse, with later names preferred to earlier ones, and full names preferred to partial names or nicknames. Titles such as "Doctor," "Agent," "General" or "Mister" should be omitted.

* Abbreviations such as "CTU", "DoD", and "FBI" should not be used. Rather, they should be written out in full ([[Counter Terrorist Unit]], [[Department of Defense]] and [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]) with a redirect page created for the abbreviation (see "Redirects" below).

{{shortcut|Dab policy}}

Disambiguation tags are usually necessary for people or things which share the same name. These tags appear in the title in parentheses, e.g. (Day 3), (One Shot), (writer), etc. Deciding what to title a tag can be tricky, but it must be consistent. The only uncontested exceptions to this rule are the articles [[Kiefer Sutherland]] and [[Max]], which would otherwise require the disambiguation tags "(actor)" and "(Day 2)" respectively.

In the case of [[Doug Masters]] and [[Masters]], two distinct characters, neither a tag or a disambiguation page (see next section) is necessary. The page for Masters simply receives a note, linking to the page for Doug Masters.

As illustrated above, the most common form of disambiguation page on '''Wiki 24''' distinguishes between character names. ''24'' has repeated the first and last names of characters and it can often be confusing. If two characters share an identical name, or more than two characters share ''similar'' names, a separate disambiguation page is created.

For example, if there exist ''two or more'' characters with the name "Bob", such as "Bob Smith", "Bob Jones", and "Bob Miller", no disambiguation page is needed. However, if there later appears a character named simply "Bob", who ''lacks'' a surname, a disambiguation page will need to be created — titled "Bob (disambiguation)" — listing all four characters alphabetically with descriptions and links to their proper pages. The character known only as "Bob" will not need a tag in its title. Instead it will contain a disambiguation note, which will link to the disambiguation page to assist readers who are looking for another Bob.

However, if two pages share a full name (i.e. both first name and last name), then there is no need for a disambiguation page. Most commonly this will occur in the instance of a mentioned character being named after a cast or crew member - in such a case, the real life person is given the normal page name and the namesake in-universe reference is given a disambiguation tag.

All disambiguation pages have the {{tl|disambig}} template, are categorized as such, and most will contain "(disambiguation)" in their title. Note that these rules apply exactly the same for last-name-only characters, as well as locations and items which share the same name.

The first thing on most pages is the sidebar, or "info box", which places a handful of important facts and a picture in the upper-right-hand corner of the article. To maintain consistency, there are templates that are copied and pasted into new articles for the creation of sidebars. See [[Wiki 24:Page templates]] for a list of full templates currently used. The sidebar documentation itself, without other page template information, is found at [[Wiki 24:Sidebar documentation]].

{{shortcut|iu}}

All in-universe (IU) articles are to be written in the '''past tense''', from the perspective of someone from the future documenting factual events. All articles for ''characters, places, objects,'' and ''events'' within the show's fictional world are written in the past tense style. This creates consistency across all in-universe articles and eliminates the necessity of subjectively deciding when an unresolved loose end is no longer "current" or "recent." Additionally, although much of ''24'' takes place in our future, the future tense should ''never'' be used in in-universe articles.

The major types of articles which are written in the "in-universe" style are:

{| class="simple" style="width:600px;"

! width="40%" | Common types !! width="40%" | Examples of "in-universe articles"

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| Character articles || [[Jack Bauer]], [[Stephen Saunders]]

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| Places, vehicles, objects || [[226 Pine Crest Road]], [[Natalia]], [[Dobson Override]]

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| Fictional events || [[Sentox nerve gas attack on CTU Los Angeles|The Sentox attack on CTU LA]], [[Operation Nightfall]]

|}

The main body and the introduction of in-universe articles should never refer to the events or characters of the show as such, but rather as if they were real life occurrences and people. Actual real life factors pertaining to the creation and presentation of ''24'', such as actors, "episodes" and the like, are limited to the info box sidebar and the "background information and notes" section of IU articles.

{{shortcut|oou}}

: '''''Kiefer Sutherland''' was born in London, United Kingdom in 1966. He currently plays the role of Jack Bauer on ''24''. Kiefer will be appearing in the upcoming film ''Twelve''.''

The major types of articles which are written in the "out-of-universe" style are:

{| class="simple" style="width:600px;"

! width="40%" | Common types !! width="40%" | Examples of "out-of-universe articles"

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| Episode guides || [[Day 1 11:00pm-12:00am]], [[24: Redemption]]

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| Comics, novels, & games || [[24: Nightfall]], [[24: The Game]]

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| Crew, writers, actors, etc. || [[Jon Cassar]], [[Kiefer Sutherland]], [[Paul Blackthorne]]

|}