(from CorbeauKarasu)
Guidelines
We will be doing away with several "ou" and "uu" clusters (except in the word "Rurouni") in favor of the letters ō and ū. I understand that this may be difficult to remember, but you can copy them from here when you need them.
I don't think that there's been a problem with this, but we will NOT be copying and pasting large tracts of information from wikipedia for this site. Write it yourself or paraphrase. Copying and pasting titles and names from wikipedia to save time is, of course, fine, but only so long as it doesn't go further than that.
Links on individual pages are essential, but only need to appear once, or at MOST, once per section. For example, Sagara Sanosuke's page will make several mentions of Himura Kenshin, but Kenshin's name only needs to be a link the first time it is used (or again, if you prefer, only the first time it is used in each section).
For the most part, we will be using the translations for names, items, occurrences, organizations and places as they appear in the Viz English translation of the graphic novels, since they are usually of high quality, but there may indeed be exceptions to this where the official translation falters. If you think a page or phrase merits such an exception, please discuss it in a blog post.
Character names, as you have noticed, will be listed in the Japanese style, with surname first and given name second, except when dealing with characters not of Japanese origin (of which there are very few). Episode pages will be listed as "Episode X", with "X" obviously standing in for the episode's number. Manga chapters will be the same, with the word "Act" standing in for chapter (ex: "Act X").
New pages
As unpopular an opinion as this might be, I feel that a major contributor to the decline of a wikia site is the large number of pages that are created as stubs and left untended. Be advised that it is FAR MORE PREFERABLE to leave a red link than to create a great number of pages to which you do not intend to immediately add sufficient information. Unless you are creating a page for an extremely minor occurrence, item, or background character, one introductory sentence is not enough. Either focus on filling out the page with information or leave the link red for someone else to take care of.
Manga Chapter Pages
For the most part, I have seen people doing a great job with manga chapter pages, but be advised that there is an Infobox template for manga chapters which must be included at the beginning of every manga chapter's page. Include the infobox, fill it with the necessary information and a manga splash page image if one is available. If one is not available, don't worry, they can be added later. As the template page states, splash page images are to stand at 200px for portrait-shaped pictures and 280px for landscape splash pages.
Each chapter page is to include a Synopsis section and a Chapter Notes section. For the most part, you have all been doing a great job including those. As for the title of each chapter, we will be going with the chapter titles that have been published in the English Viz translation of the graphic novels.
Character pages
The point made earlier about new pages still stands. If you do not intend to add sufficient information to a new character page, better to leave the link red for another time or for another user to update it. There is also an Infobox template for characters which must be included at the beginning of every character page. The box is designed so that any information that is not available for a character will not leave a glaring blank space, so don't worry if you don't know enough about someone to fill the whole box in. Images are also hard to come by, so if you don't have an adequate photo to place in the infobox, you may leave it blank until a later time. But every character page must have one. Pictures in the infobox are to stand at 200px with very few exceptions, if any.
The amount of information for each character varies significantly and, sometimes, a minor character will warrant only one or two introductory paragraphs. but for characters with more information, each page should strive to include seven (7) major sections: Appearance, Personality, Relationships, Abilities, History, Gallery, and Development & Reception. Some characters will not warrant or have enough information to fill out all of these sections, but those are the basics we're shooting for.
While we want to make the pages as complete as possible, some information is extraneous and serves only to clutter up sections. For example, when putting together a character's Relationships section, include only the characters who have had a significant relationship with the page character in question. This may make things appear a bit one-sided, but this is for the best. For example, Saizuchi's page will require a relationship paragraph about Shishio Makoto, since Saizuchi's position is as one of Shishio's underlings, but Shishio – who has very little significant interaction with Saizuchi and does not seem to hold him in any particular regard – will not require any relationship information on his page regarding Saizuchi.
History sections can be tricky, but the way I feel would best and most neatly portray each character's history is to write it with the character's perspective in mind. Certain occurrences that are important to the story have no bearing on a particular character's past and can safely be left out, leaving them to be discussed on another page or as part of another character's history. There is no need to insert a line about Kenshin replacing his Sakabato, for example, in Usui's character history, as that fact (while important to the story) has absolutely no bearing on him.
Galleries
This is, I think, one of the issues that has plagued me the most. I am unaccustomed to image galleries on character pages, but I do think they are a fine idea to continue implementing on this site. However, they should serve a purpose. Character galleries on this site ARE NOT to simply be blow-by-blow accounts of the story, but will instead be catalogues of a particular character's different appearances in media. For example, the Shinomori Aoshi page's gallery section should include one (1) image of his normal appearance in the manga, one (1) image of his normal appearance in the anime series, one (1) image of his normal appearance in the New Kyoto Arc OVA, one (1) image of his normal appearance in the live-action film series, one (1) image of his teenage appearance in the manga, one (1) image of his teenage appearance in the anime, and one (1) image of him in his outfit during the Jinchū Arc. That is all.
Episode pages
Episode pages have been handled, for the most part, very well by all of you, but I do intend to include an infobox for each of them as well. The episode pages will be numbered rather than titled, since this reduces confusion and because the RuroKen anime series received two dubs with frequently differing episode titles.