Help:Writing Canonical Events

A majority of canonical changes that take place on the Blaseball Wiki relate to the movement of players between teams, incinerations, and alterations to players and teams via Election Results. These events are routine and are handled as time allows by a combination of Recordkeepers and automation and scripts. However, a sizable portion of the history of Blaseball cannot be recorded with just boilerplate text or automation processes. This Help article is intended to point out where canonical historical information should be stored, how to approach writing that information, and a few additional tips.

Writing up Regular Events

In the Expansion Era, there are three regular weekly events: Earlsiesta, Latesiesta, and MVP Voting. Recording these events is fairly simple and should be completed each week in a relatively timely manner.

The best way to get started with these events is to use the community tool from Mr. Pokeylope, https://wikitools.notcode.org/. This will generate wiki text for major events as generated by The Feed.

Earlsiesta

First, grab the wikitext for the Earlsiesta event from the wikitools site. Bring them to the Earlsiesta page and paste them under a new section. In the commented code of the page, there blank tags that can be used to generate the sections for other parts of the wiki. Make sure that the <section begin> and <section end> tags are correct. Make sure that the order of the Reader blockquote and the results themselves are in the same order as they appeared on the site. This often means putting the blockquote up above the reading, or when applicable, including a Lōotcrates quote in its proper context.

Then, simply write up the Earlsiesta happenings in paragraph form. This is where you would connect any logical threads from previous events and note particularly unusual happenings. One to two paragraphs is all that’s needed for this. And you're done!

Latesiesta

This is very similar to the Earlsiesta. Look in the page code for a commented out template, including the section tags and a collapser. Once again, make sure the section tags have the correct name in them. Write up a single paragraph naming the new renovations that season and their function. You may need to come back to this over the coming days if there is hidden functionality in the renovations that is not apparent by the description text. Paste in the lengthy wikitext from the Latesiesta phase of the wikitools site, and that's it! Again, if there is any text from an NPC, make sure to present it in the order of its appearance.

MVP Voting

This one is more involved and requires posting on multiple pages. On the Idols page, you will want to list out the MVPs for the week in a bulleted list. Then, in paragraph form, list out any changes to players as a result of the idol board closing for the week. This will likely come in the form of new modifications that alter the status of a player or team. Then, you need to copy and paste those results to the Current Season page, in the Regular Events > MVP Voting subheader. Adjust these instructions for any new shenanigans within or after the Expansion Era.

If there are any player driven shenanigans that season to manipulate the board and it results in a notable outcome, write it up in a paragraph for the Idols page, but not for the Current Season. Be sure to consult any community leaders who headlined the efforts to make sure any fancy names or intent is accurately recorded.

NPCs

NPC dialogue is a big part of the writing of Blaseball. With the advent of the Feed, it's easy to follow the linear flow of dialogue, but still harder to see an entire history of dialogue, so we make sure to enter all dialogue on the wiki.

The currently available NPCs include The Shelled One (deceased), Monitor, Boss, the tarot readings, and Lōotcrates. When using dialogue from them in full, use <blockquote class=[thing]> where [thing] is defined as "peanut", "squid", "coin", "tarot", and "lootcrates". You can also cite this dialogue in-line with <span class=[thing]>.

NPC dialogue rarely gets posted on the Current Season page in full, due to it usually needing context with another ongoing event. Be sure to put NPC text in full on the correct page, then cite selections of the speech in-line as needed elsewhere.

Non-Regular Events

For non-regular events, there are essentially two places where this information needs to be written: on the Current Season page, for the benefit of the Timeline, and on any applicable event-specific page, like Day X or The Second Wyatt Masoning.

Deciding how to lay out event information is really a matter of scale. If a few small things happened this season, identify them and write them up in a small section for the current Season page. If those smaller events are part of a larger, ongoing plot line and there is a unique page for it, be sure to update that unique page as necessary as well.

If something happens that really captures the attention of the community, has significant impact on the state of Blaseball as a whole, or is going to take a lot of space to explain, be sure to make a separate page for that event. Usually in these cases, the administrative team will be present to help guide conversation and allocate people for handling certain tasks. When large events occur, they still need to be recorded on the current Season page, but not in great detail. Writing 1-2 summary paragraphs for a significant event and using the Main template at the top of the section to point people to the full page with all the detail is the way to go.

The important thing to remember for Season page write-ups is that they should be unique and to-the-point. As components of the Timeline, they should communicate what is necessary to understand the Season as an independent narrative or cultural moment that ties into the Era’s broader narrative. Though this may require duplicating information from Earlsiesta or Latesiesta, this should be avoided when possible. Focus on what new mechanics were introduced, events involving Entities, or community campaigns that influenced the game’s state.

If you are not a regular user of the Blaseball Discord, we recommend taking a look at the Recent Changes log to see if editors are actively working on pages related to recent events. In the case of large events, the administration team is often making snap decisions and posting them only to the wiki-talk channel on the Blaseball Discord, and perhaps the @BlaseballWiki Twitter account if there’s time.

Stylistic Notes for Canonical Events

This wiki aims to be a third-person omniscient voice of the history of Blaseball, but we can also have a little fun and style when we write about the canonical history of the game.

Take for example the Day X write up. It is very detailed in the history of events, incorporating onscreen events and information from Twitter. A video recording of the event was used to write up what occurred, so the accuracy is ensured. The voice of the article is tense and dramatic when it needs to be. This is a historical record, but it is also kinda scary. Using vivid language in a controlled way makes the Blaseball wiki interesting and tasteful, especially when it comes to the record of canonical events.

Many other events that are less dramatic in nature take a more serious approach and simply record the events as they are seen. The Second Wyatt Masoning is like this. It incorporates all the key events, explains context, and offers the reader a detailed understanding of what actually happened.

Making Sure Events Are Recorded Everywhere

As mentioned, the core places where events need to be recorded is on the Current Season page and on any secondary pages that specifically collect that information. Additional pages that might not immediately come to mind would include any players who were significantly involved in the event and the current Era page (Discipline Era, Expansion Era, etc), any NPCs involved (writing a paragraph or two summary of their involvement with a Main template to link back), and more. Think about where mentioning the event would enhance the page, but not clutter it up.