To streamline our site, we are going to streamline our site's code. While our existing codebase is grandfathered in and will be fixed in the future, we want to turn our new HTML code into something that is standards-compliant, uses our proper CSS and takes advantage of a large part of our own functionality.

I try to stick to the common standard usage of words. The below words are fully capitalized in the text to emphasize their meaning, and their wording should be followed.
MUST: The text must be followed, no choice. When applicable, these are marked as a RULE
SHOULD: The text must be followed, but if there are good reasons, one can move away from them. When applicable, these are marked as a GUIDELINE
MAY: The text can be followed. This is not mandatory, but may lead to better code or usability. When applicable, these are marked as a HINT
MUST NOT: This construction is forbidden
SHOULD NOT: This construction is forbidden, unless very specific exceptions are met

Also see http://rfc.net/rfc2119.html

Basic HTML

RULE: All HTML-tags MUST be closed. There are a handful of tags that have no meaningful content, as so can be closed immediately. This mostly applies to <br />, <img /> and <input />. Others signify information about a group of text, and should be formatted as such: <p>This is a block of text</p>.

RULE: You MUST surround paragraphs with <p>(...)</p> . You MUST create line breaks with <br /> .

RULE: The following HTML elements MUST NOT be used. Their relevance is to our code only: <input>, <script>

RULE: &nbsp; is evil. You MUST NOT use it.

RULE: Centering text, images and so on is done through the 'center' CSS class, not through the <center>-class

Layout

RULE: Content MUST NOT use inline CSS (in style-attributes).

GUIDELINE: You SHOULD always use the available CSS-classes. The addition of new ones is possible, but should only be done if a major feature is lacking.

Content

RULE: There are some discussion about what is considered a Pokemon and what is considered a legendary. The following MUST be followed in any PKMN.NET content:

• MissingNO is not a Pokemon. It's an erroneous interpretation of random data from the cartridge. It should never be referred to as an actual Pokemon.
• Rotom is not an actual legendary. It is comparable to Snorlax and Sudowoodo, not Mewtwo and Lugia.
• Manaphy and Phione are legendaries. They can breed, but the surrounding semantics are distinct enough to make them a special case.

GUIDELINE: We have Dex and other such database-driven software for lists of stats, locations and other structured data. If such information is useful for a seperate page, it SHOULD be arranged through code, as it offers us more flexibility and accuracy. Consult a coder about details on how to add the required information for this. Such a page must, however, have added value over what we store elsewhere.

RULE: Pages MUST be of significant length and have significant value. Three line pages should not exist and will not be accepted. Just as a list of stats is not something useful as a page, a short page or one without any real information has no reason to be on the site in these days.

GUIDELINE: When writing pages that are similar to ones that are already on the site - such as games pages that have also been written for earlier generations - SHOULD follow the standards and layout set by the existing page.

Themes

GUIDELINE: You SHOULD use the themedevkit to define kits. Any documentation given assumes that you do.

RULE: Only the information in the /theme/-directory should be changed. The other files are there to help you develop, but all themes rely on these.

GUIDELINE: You SHOULD try to be different in your themes. Don't just take another theme's colours, try to add something to them.

RULE: You MUST not use the CSS to (significantly) change the site's layout. Sidebars and the like should stay in the same place.

RULE: You MUST change the images included in the file, and only those images.

GUIDELINE: You SHOULD also change the bg-classes to have an appropriate look. These are extensively used and readability is a main concern.

GUIDELINE: You SHOULD not change text size. In particular, making it (much) smaller reduces usability by a lot. Themes doing so will be rejected.

RULE: You MUST not change the background colour of the content area. Our systems are not set up to support that. You SHOULD not generally change other background colours.

{pkmn}-tags

RULE: When submitting content you MUST use the following {pkmn}-tags when submitting. If an items is mentioned multiple times, if it fits in context, it SHOULD be tagged as such once, although this can also happen more often.

You can use pkmn tags in this field. These should look like this: {pkmn|GROUP|ID}. GROUP and ID should be replaced as below. Translations are done automatically where appropriate.
The following tags are accepted:

Page written by Joeno.

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