This page is considered an official policy on Porn Base Central.
It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone must follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.
This guideline is a part of the English PBC's Manual of Style.
It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though it is best treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.
The Manual of Style (MoS or MOS) is the style manual for all English PBC articles. This primary page is supported by further detail pages, which are cross-referenced here and listed at PBC:Manual of Style/Contents. If any contradiction arises, this page always has precedence.
The MoS presents PBC's house style, to help editors write articles with consistent and precise language, layout, and formatting, making PBC easier and more intuitive for users. Plain English works best. Avoid ambiguity, jargon, and vague or unnecessarily complex wording.
Style and formatting should be consistent within an article. Where more than one style is acceptable under MoS, editors should not change an article from one of those styles to another without a good reason. Edit warring over optional styles is unacceptable. If a style or similar debate becomes intractable, see if a rewrite can make the issue moot.
New content added to this page should directly address a persistently recurring style issue.
The Biobox is a mandatory section for all articles on personalities within PBC. Editors are obliged to complete specific fields within the Biobox, without exception, to maintain a consistent and accurate representation of personal data.
The following parameters must be filled in the Biobox:
name
image
birth_country
ethnicity
nationality
Additionally, the sections Body and Performances within the Biobox must be meticulously completed. The Body section encapsulates the individual's physical appearance or physique, while the Performances section chronicles significant actions within their field.
Image Parameter in Biobox - Headshot/Portrait Photos Policy
In PBC, the image used in the Biobox adheres to specific guidelines regarding its format and quality. The headshot or portrait photo must represent the individual clearly and professionally.
The following are the mandated specifications for the headshot/portrait photos:
Watermarks: No watermarks or other obtrusive markings are allowed on the image.
JPEG Compression Quality: The image's compression quality must not fall below 58%. It ensures that the visual representation is clear and free from unnecessary artifacts.
Aspect Ratio 2:3: The aspect ratio of the image must strictly be 2:3. Examples of resolutions maintaining this aspect ratio include 400x600, 800x1200, 2000x3000, etc.
Non-compliance with these mandatory parameters is a criterion for fast deletion of the article, in accordance with PBC's deletion policy.
A title should be a recognizable name or description of the topic that is natural, sufficiently precise, concise, and consistent with those of related articles. If these criteria are in conflict, they should be balanced against one another.
Capitalize the initial letter (except in rare cases, such as eBay), but otherwise follow sentence case (Funding of UNESCO projects) not title case (Funding of UNESCO Projects), except where title case would be expected were the title to occur in ordinary prose. See PBC:Naming conventions (capitalization).
To italicize, add {{italic title}} near the top of the article. For mixed situations, use e.g. {{DISPLAYTITLE:Interpretations of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''}} instead. Use of italics should conform to PBC:Manual of Style/Text formatting § Italic type.
Do not use A, An, or The as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The economy of the Second Empire), unless it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague) or title of a work (A Clockwork Orange, The Simpsons).
Normally use nouns or noun phrases: Early life, not In early life.
The final character should not be punctuation unless it is part of a name (Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), an abbreviation (Inverness City F.C.), or when a closing round bracket or quotation mark is required (John Palmer (1814 schooner)).
Whenever quotation marks or apostrophes appear, add a redirect for the same title but using “curly” quotemarks/apostrophes instead of the usual "straight" ones.
Subject both to the above and to PBC:Article titles, the rest of the MoS, particularly § Punctuation, applies also to the title.
Information about bodybuilding competitions (for bodybuilders) (under a section heading "Bodybuilding Career", "Bodybuilding Competition history", etc. as appropriate);
Gay studio pornographic works list (under a section heading "Gay Pornographic Career" as appropriate);
Straight studio pornographic works list (under a section heading "Straight Pornographic Career" as appropriate);
Bisexual studio pornographic works list (under a section heading "Bisexual Pornographic Career" as appropriate);
Transexual studio pornographic works list (under a section heading "Transexual Pornographic Career" as appropriate);
Webcam works list (under a section heading "Webcam & Live Chat" as appropriate);
Amateur pornographic works or publications (OnlyFans, ManyVids, etc.; under a section heading "Amateur Videos" as appropriate);
Modeling works list (under a section heading "Modeling" as appropriate);
Media links (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.; under a section heading "Media" or "Video" as appropriate)
Image galleries (under a section heading "Pictures of -Performer name-" as appropriate);
Filmography or Web Scenes;
internal links to related English PBC articles (section heading "See also");
External links;
notes and references (section heading "Notes" or "References", or a separate section for each; see Citing sources);
Information about bodybuilding competitions (for bodybuilders) (under a section heading "Bodybuilding Career", "Bodybuilding Competition history", etc. as appropriate);
Solo studio pornographic works list (under a section heading "Gay Pornographic Career" as appropriate);
Webcam works list (under a section heading "Webcam & Live Chat" as appropriate);
Amateur pornographic works or publications (OnlyFans, ManyVids, etc.; under a section heading "Amateur Videos" as appropriate);
Modeling works list (under a section heading "Modeling" as appropriate);
Media links (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.; under a section heading "Media" or "Video" as appropriate)
Image galleries (under a section heading "Pictures of -Performer name-" as appropriate);
Filmography or Web Scenes;
internal links to related English PBC articles (section heading "See also");
External links;
notes and references (section heading "Notes" or "References", or a separate section for each; see Citing sources);
Other article elements include disambiguation hatnotes (normally placed at the very top of the article) and infoboxes (usually placed before the lead section).
Section headings should follow all of the guidance for article titles (above), and should be presented in sentence case (Funding of UNESCO projects), not title case (Funding of UNESCO Projects).
Use equals signs around a section heading: ==Title== for a primary section, ===Title=== for a subsection, and so on to ======Title======, with no level skipped. =Title= is never used. Spaces around the title are optional and ignored, e.g. ==Title==.
Section headings should:
Be unique within a page, so that section links lead to the right place.
Not contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
Do not wrap headings in markup, which may break their display and also cause additional accessibility issues.
These are broadly accepted community preferences.
An invisible comment on the same line must be inside the == == markup:
==Implications<!--This comment works fine-->==
==<!--This comment works fine-->Implications== ==Implications==<!--This comment causes problems-->
<!--This comment breaks the heading completely-->==Implications==
It is more usual practice to put such comments below the heading.
Before changing a heading, consider whether you might be breaking existing links to it. If there are many links to the old title, create an anchor with that title to ensure that these still work. Similarly, when linking to a section, leave an invisible comment at the heading of the target section, naming the linking articles, so that if the heading is later altered these can be fixed. Combined example:
The above guidance about sentence case, redundancy, images, and questions also applies to headers of tables (and of table columns and rows). However, table headings can incorporate citations and may begin with, or be, numbers. Unlike page headings, table headers do not automatically generate link anchors. Aside from sentence case in glossaries, the heading advice also applies to the term entries in description lists. If using template-structured glossaries, terms will automatically have link anchors, but will not otherwise. Citations for description-list content go in the term or definition element, as needed.
The English PBC prefers no national variety of the language over any other. These varieties (for example American English or British English) differ in vocabulary (elevator vs. lift), spelling (center vs. centre), date formatting ("April 13, 2018" vs. "13 April 2018"), and occasionally grammar
For an international encyclopaedia, using vocabulary common to all varieties of English is preferable.
Use universally accepted terms rather than those less widely distributed, especially in titles. For example, glasses is preferred to the national varieties spectacles (British English) and eyeglasses (American English); ten million is preferable to one crore (Indian English).
If one variant spelling appears in a title, make a redirect page to accommodate the others, as with artefact and artifact, so that all variants can be used in searches and linking.
Terms that differ between varieties of English, or that have divergent meanings, may be glossed to prevent confusion, for example, the trunk (American English) or boot (British English) of a car ....
Use a commonly understood word or phrase in preference to one that has a different meaning because of national differences (rather than alternate, use alternative or alternating, as appropriate).
When more than one variant spelling exists within a national variety of English, the most commonly used current variant should usually be preferred, except where the less common spelling has a specific usage in a specialized context e.g. connexion in Methodist connexionalism.
An article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should use the (formal, not colloquial) English of that nation. For example:
Afrikaners (South African English)
American Civil War (American English)
Australian Defence Force (Australian English)
Christchurch (New Zealand English)
Dublin (Irish English)
Great Fire of London (British English)
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Pakistani English)
Mumbai (Indian English)
Vancouver (Canadian English)
Institutions of the European Union (British or Irish English)
For topics with strong ties to Commonwealth of Nations countries and other former British territory, use Commonwealth English orthography, largely indistinguishable from British English in encyclopedic writing (excepting Canada, which uses a different orthography).
When an English variety's consistent usage has been established in an article, maintain it in the absence of consensus to the contrary. With few exceptions (e.g., when a topic has strong national ties or a term/spelling carries less ambiguity), there is no valid reason for such a change.
When no English variety has been established and discussion does not resolve the issue, use the variety found in the first post-stub revision that introduced an identifiable variety. The established variety in a given article can be documented by placing the appropriate Varieties of English template on its talk page.
An article should not be edited or renamed simply to switch from one variety of English to another. The {{subst:uw-lang}} template may be placed on an editor's talk page to explain this.
Generally, do not capitalize the word the in mid-sentence: throughout the United Kingdom, not throughout The United Kingdom. Conventional exceptions include certain proper names (he visited The Hague) and most titles of creative works (Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings—but be aware that the may not be part of the title itself e.g. Homer composed the Odyssey).
Titles of works
The English-language titles of compositions (books and other print works, songs and other audio works, films and other visual media works, paintings and other artworks, etc.) are given in title case, in which every word is given an initial capital except for certain less important words. The first and last words in an English-language title are always capitalized.
Correct: An Eye for an Eye
Correct: Worth the Fighting For
Capitalization in foreign-language titles varies, even over time within the same language; generally, retain the style of the original for modern works, and follow the usage in English-language reliable sources for historical works. Many of these items should also be in italics, or enclosed in quotation marks.
Correct: "Hymnus an den heiligen Geistcode: de is deprecated "
Months, days of the week, and holidays start with a capital letter (June, Monday; the Fourth of July refers only to the US Independence Day—otherwise July 4 or 4 July).
Seasons are in lower case (her last summer; the winter solstice; spring fever), except in personifications or in proper names for periods or events (Old Man Winter; competed on the Spring Circuit).
Ligatures should be used in languages in which they are standard (hence Moreau's last words were clin d'œil is preferable to Moreau's last words were clin d'oeil) but not in English (encyclopedia or encyclopaedia, not encyclopædia), except in proper names (Æthelstan not Aethelstan).
Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. In strict analysis, they are distinct from contractions, which use an apostrophe (e.g., won't, see § Contractions), and initialisms. An initialism is formed from some or all of the initial letters of words in a phrase. Below, references to abbreviations should be taken to include acronyms, and the term acronym to apply also to initialisms.
Write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence
When an abbreviation will be used in an article, first introduce it using the full expression:
an early local area network (LAN) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)... DEC's later LAN products were...
Do not use capitals in the full version merely because capitals are used in the abbreviation: an early Local Area Network (LAN).
Except in special circumstances, common abbreviations (such as PhD, DNA, USSR) need not be expanded even on first use.
Plural forms
Pluralize acronyms by adding -s or -es: Three CD-ROMs and two BIOSes were released. (Do not use apostrophes to form plurals: Three CD-ROM's and two BIOS's were released.)
Punctuation and spacing
An abbreviation may or may not be terminated with a full point (also called a period or stop). A consistent style should be maintained within an article. North American usage is typically to end all abbreviations with a period/point (Dr. Smith of 42 Drummond St.) but in common British and Australian usage, no period/point is used if the abbreviation (contraction) ends in the last letter of the unabbreviated form (Dr Smith of 42 Drummond St) unless confusion could result. This is also common practice in scientific writing. Regardless of punctuation, words that are abbreviated to more than one letter are spaced (op. cit. not op.cit. or opcit). There are some exceptions: PhD
While, in principle, either US or U.S. may be used (with internal consistency) to abbreviate "United States" in any given article, the use or non-use of periods (full points) should also be consistent with other country abbreviations in the same article (thus the US, UK, and USSR, not the U.S., UK, and USSR). In longer abbreviations (three letters or more) that incorporate the country's initials (USN, USAID), do not use periods. When the United States is mentioned with one or more other countries in the same sentence, U.S. or US may be too informal, especially at the first mention or as a noun instead of an adjective (France and the United States, not France and the U.S.). Do not use the spaced U. S. or the archaic U.S. of A., except when quoting; and do not use U.S.A. or USA except in a quotation, as part of a proper name (Team USA), or in certain technical or formal uses (e.g., the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes and FIFA country codes).
To indicate approximately, the abbreviation c. (followed by a space and not italicized) is preferred over circa, ca., or approx. The template {{circa}} may be used.
Avoid abbreviations when they might confuse the reader, interrupt the flow, or appear informal. For example, do not use approx. for approximate or approximately, except in a technical passage where the term occurs many times or in an infobox or a data table to reduce width.
Do not invent abbreviations or acronyms
Generally avoid devising new abbreviations, especially acronyms (World Union of Billiards is good as a translation of Union Mondiale de Billard, but neither it nor the reduction WUB is used by the organization or by independent sources; use the original name and its official abbreviation, UMB).
If it is necessary to abbreviate in a tight space, such as a column header in a table, use widely recognized abbreviations. For example, for New Zealand gross national product, use NZ and GNP, with a link if the term has not already been written out in the article: NZ GNP. Do not make up initialisms such as NZGNP.
Either the <abbr> element or the {{abbr}} template can be used for abbreviations and acronyms: <abbr title="World Health Organization">WHO</abbr> or {{abbr|WHO|World Health Organization}} will generate WHO; hovering over the rendered text causes a tooltip of the long form to pop up.
In normal text and headings, use and instead of the ampersand (&): January 1 and 2, not January 1 & 2. But retain an ampersand when it is a legitimate part of the style of a proper noun, such as in Up & Down or AT&T. Elsewhere, ampersands may be used with consistency and discretion where space is extremely limited (e.g. tables and infoboxes). Quotations may be cautiously modified, especially for consistency where different editions are quoted, as modern editions of old texts routinely replace ampersands with and (just as they replace other disused glyphs, ligatures, and abbreviations).
Italics are used for emphasis, rather than boldface or capitals. But overuse diminishes its effect; consider rewriting instead.
Use <em>...</em> or {{em|...}} for emphasis. This allows user style sheets to handle emphasis in a customized way, and helps reusers and translators.
Correct: The vaccine is <em>not</em> a cure.
Correct: The vaccine is {{em|not}} a cure.
Titles
Use italics for the titles of works (such as books, films, television series, named exhibitions, computer games, music albums, and paintings). The titles of articles, chapters, songs, episodes, research papers and other short works instead take double quotation marks.
Italics are not used for major religious works (the Bible, the Quran, the Talmud).
Many of these titles should also be in title case.
Use italics when mentioning a word or character or a string of words up to one sentence (the term panning is derived from panorama; the most common letter in English is e). When a whole sentence is mentioned, double quotation marks may be used instead, with consistency (The preposition in She sat on the chair is on; or The preposition in "She sat on the chair" is "on"). Quotation marks may also be used for shorter material to avoid confusion, such as when italics are already being heavily used in the page for some other purpose (e.g. many non-English words and phrases). Mentioning (to discuss grammar, wording, punctuation, etc.) is different from quoting (in which something is usually expressed on behalf of a quoted source). Quotation is done with quotation marks, never italics, nor both at once
Use italics for phrases in other languages and for isolated foreign words that are not common in everyday English. However, proper names (such as place names) in other languages are not usually italicized, nor are terms in non-Latin scripts.
Scientific names
Use italics for the scientific names of plants, animals, and all other organisms except viruses at the genus level and below (italicize Panthera leo and Retroviridae, but not Felidae). The hybrid sign is not italicized (Rosa × damascena), nor is the "connecting term" required in three-part botanical names (Rosa gallica subsp. officinalis).
Don't use italics for quotations. Instead, use quotation marks for short quotations and block quoting for long ones.
Italics within quotations
Use italics within quotations to reproduce emphasis that exists in the source material. If it is not clear that the source already included italics (or some other styling) for emphasis, add the editorial note [emphasis in original] after the quotation.
If adding emphasis that was not in the original, add the editorial note [emphasis added] after the quotation.
"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." [emphasis added]
Italicize only the elements of the sentence affected by the emphasis. Do not italicize surrounding punctuation.
Incorrect: What are we to make of that? (The question mark applies to the whole sentence, not just to the emphasized that, so should not be italicized.)
Correct: What are we to make of that?
Correct: Four of Patrick White's most famous novels are A Fringe of Leaves, The Aunt's Story, Voss, and The Tree of Man. (The commas, the period, and the word and are not italicized.)
Italicized links
For a link to function, any italics markup must be either completely outside the link markup, or in the link's "piped" portion.
Incorrect: He died with [[''Turandot'']] still unfinished.
Correct: He died with ''[[Turandot]]'' still unfinished.
Incorrect: The [[USS ''Adder'' (SS-3)]] was a submarine.
Correct: The [[USS Adder (SS-3)|USS ''Adder'' (SS-3)]] was a submarine.
