For the formatting standards, see: Article style criteria/Formatting
Notice: This article uses RFC 2119 to describe requirement levels.
This article concerns writing standards for all English articles. The writing standards for translations can be found in the translations of this page.
All English articles must use plain English.
Translations are subject to strict content parity with their English article, in the sense that they must have the same message, regardless of grammar and syntax. Any changes to the translations' meanings must be accompanied by equivalent changes to the English article.
There are some cases where the content is allowed to differ:
There are two language registers on the wiki: neutral and informal.
The neutral register is the default on the wiki.
The informal register is special and given to a small handful of articles. Some examples with this register include FAQ and Help Centre.
For both registers, all rules in this part of the article style criteria must be followed. Exceptions for either register will be noted.
British English spelling variants must be used when there are conflicting spellings of English words. For example, use:
colour instead of color
centre instead of center
skilful instead of skillful
analyse instead of analyze
Article names, when written in a paragraph, must not be capitalised, unless it is a link that points to the article or it is a proper noun (e.g. BanchoBot). The following is an example:
If you want to know more about chat, refer to [Chat Console](/wiki/Client/Interface/Chat_console).
Game modifiers must have the word mod after the mod name to reduce ambiguity. These must be spelt as seen below (letter casing and spacing must match):
Easy or EZ
No Fail or NF
Half Time or HT
Daycore or DC
Hard Rock or HR
Sudden Death or SD
Perfect or PF
Double Time or DT
Nightcore or NC
Fade In or FI
Hidden or HD
Flashlight or FL
Relax or RL
Autopilot or AP
Target Practice or TP
Spun Out or SO
1K, 2K, 3K, 4K, 5K, 6K, 7K, 8K, and 9K
xK.Co-op or CO
Random or RD
Mirror or MR
Auto or AT
Cinema or CM
Touch Device or TD
ScoreV2
These game modifiers are no longer being used by osu!; however, if needed, these must be spelt as seen below (letter casing and spacing must match):
Fade Out
No Video
10K
Taiko
When writing out game modifiers for tournament articles, they must instead use upper camel case (omit the space and keep the letter casing as seen above).
Gameplay elements must not be capitalised, unless they act as a title for a link that points to the article. The following is an example:
In the osu! game mode, beatmaps are composed of three different gameplay elements: hit circles, sliders, and spinners.
Language names must be capitalised. The following is an example:
The `#spanish` chat channel is for those who speak Spanish.
Proper nouns must be capitalised. The following is an example:
Dean Herbert (also known as peppy) created osu! back in 2007.
For rules regarding osu!, see: osu!
The following trademarks must be spelt as follows (letter casing must match):
Discord
Facebook
GitHub
Google
Reddit
Skype
Twitch
Twitter
YouTube
Trademarks must not be followed by the trademark or registered trademark symbols.
The formats found in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Formats are all accepted date formats. Date formatting should be consistent throughout the entire article.
The YYYY-MM-DD date format should only be used in tables.
Time formatting must be done using the following format:
HH:MM TIMEZONE
Time is written in 24-hour format and any single digits must be prefixed with a zero. The timezone must be written immediately after the time and should be in UTC+0 for global events or in the timezone of the event for smaller events. Use UTC instead of GMT.
Bad examples:
3:30 PM UTC
22:30 (UTC+7)
11:30
Good examples:
15:30 UTC
22:30 UTC+7
11:30 UTC-4
UTC (without an offset) is implied to be UTC+0. Either one may be used, but usage must be consistent. UTC with an explicit 0 offset must use a plus symbol (+).
When both date and time are used together, the date must be written first, followed by the time. The time must be in between parenthesis (( and )).
Bad examples:
October 25, 2016 at 11:45 UTC
October 25, 2016 11:45 UTC
Good example:
October 25, 2016 (11:45 UTC)
When mentioning the game itself or any of the related projects or terms, follow the brand identity guidelines. Use proper names of the game modes, such as osu!taiko, except when in historical context.
User titles that include osu! as part of the title name must be capitalised. Examples include:
osu! Alumni
osu! Champion
osu! should not end a sentence. If it does, use a full stop (.) or question mark to get osu!. or osu!?.osu! must not be followed by an exclamation mark (i.e. osu!!) — rewrite the sentence if necessary.These words must be spelt as follows (spacing must match):
approach circle
game mode (or mode)game mod (or mod)gameplay
hit burst
hit circle
hitsound
in-game
playstyle
slider tick
slider ball
slider path
Kudosu (to be treated as a proper noun)Some words have variants. Their preferred spelling must be used and is as follows:
creator or mapper instead of beatmapper.mapped instead of beatmapped.BN or Beatmap Nominators when referring to the Beatmap Nominators.sign in instead of log in, unless the name of a button or link says otherwise.sign out instead of log out, unless the name of a button or link says otherwise.register instead of sign up, unless the name of a button or link says otherwise.These words must be spelt as follows (spacing must match):
No Mod, or NM
Free Mod, or FM
Tiebreaker (not a proper noun, i.e. not capitalised within sentences)Abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms must have their meaning written out upon their first occurrence. Other occurrences are optional, but done only when necessary. The following is an example:
The NC (Nightcore) mod is similar to the DT (Double Time) mod because both NC and DT increase the speed of the music by 50%. However, NC will change the pitch of the music and add a clap and finish to the beat.
Abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms must be capitalised, with exception. The following are examples:
CS for Circle Size
AR for Approach Rate
DT for Double Time
SBS for Storyboard Scripting
Use e.g. for "for example" and i.e. for "that is".
Abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms should not be pluralised. The following is an example:
Avoid: BNs can nominate your beatmap.
Prefer: Beatmap Nominators can nominate your beatmap.
player, user, skinner, storyboarder, and creator should be used when referring to the reader or another person. they, them, their, and theirs may be used when needed.
you and your should be avoided. I must not be used. we, he or his, and she or her must not be used (see above for other terms).
Articles with informal registers may ignore this section; however, I in paragraphs should be avoided.
Articles should prefer using simpler American grammar and syntax.
Contractions must not be used.
Articles with informal registers may use contractions; however, usage should stay consistent throughout the entire article.
For number formatting, see Wikipedia's Manual of Style on Number formatting
Articles with informal registers may ignore this section; however, usage should stay consistent throughout the entire article.
Articles with informal registers should avoid using semicolons (;).
The serial comma, also known as the Oxford or Harvard comma, must be used.
Refer to Wikipedia's Manual of Style for dash usage. When punctuating a sentence however, use em dashes with spaces around them (" — "), not spaced en dashes (" – "). Hyphens ("-") must not be used in place of dashes.
Refer to Wikipedia's Manual of Style for logical quotations.
From Wikipedia's Manual of Style:
Include terminal punctuation within the quotation marks only if it was present in the original material, and otherwise place it after the closing quotation mark. For the most part, this means treating periods and commas in the same way as question marks: keep them inside the quotation marks if they apply only to the quoted material and outside if they apply to the whole sentence.
By extension, emphasis, links, and parentheses should follow the same rules regarding punctuation (i.e. whether they enclose a whole sentence or only part of one).
When quoting text from someone, specify the person being quoted after the blockquote with an em dash (—). If the original quote is from a non-English source, specify it in parentheses.
> plz enjoy game
—rrtyui (translated from {language})
In general, the source of the quote should be specified above it. See the above section for an example. When quoting a written article or otherwise, and not necessarily a specific person, the writer does not need to be specified below the blockquote.
Written pronunciation must use the International Phonetic Alphabet.