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 My opinions on these matters are as follows:
- They/Them - The only reason people are starting to be more lenient about this is because it is technically grammatically incorrect, but it is a common, everyday mistake nowadays in the English language. It's the same reason why words like "twerking" manage to make it into the English dictionary. This reliable, up-to-date source pushes for the usage of "he or she" and "him or her" over "them/their/they," but it is not necessarily "wrong" to do so. This site is also a .edu source, which means it is used for education purposes, thus people are being taught this stuff. We wouldn't teach people incorrect grammar. That's counterproductive to the school environment. The only reason I've been combatting the usage of they and them in articles for so long is because in the several years of schooling I have had, I have been told by teachers and professors alike (people who have doctorates in this, for Christ's sake...) that "they/their/them" is WRONG when it is used simply for the purposes of gender neutrality, as it is technically a plural term that applies to MULTIPLE subjects. Instead, these teachers and professors stress the usage of "he or she" and "him or her" in cases where gender is ambiguous. If the consensus on the Wiki is that "they/them/their" is allowed despite our stress for grammatically correct, professional-sounding articles, then I will no longer fight it. It will bother me, but I'd rather not cause problems. Do tell me, though, why these teachers would have their degrees and be certified to teach grammar to students like me if they were wrong? The point is, we're battling endlessly about preferences, and it's causing needless conflicts and leading us nowhere. I'd personally rather spend my time in other areas on the Wiki, rather than patrolling the captions for grammar issues.
- Ability Captions - Again, it really is stupid that this is causing such a problem when our time could be spent improving the sections of the Wiki that need it, rather than being all nit-picky about the captions' contents. I say our images should just have no captions at all unless absolutely necessary; the only reason I have been adding captions is I personally find the thumbnail frame, if just slapped on the page to reduce image size, to be ugly and not needed. Using vague terms such as "the user" all the time just creates a lot of redundancy an awkward sentences. Which sounds better: "Curaga allows the user to hold the user's Keyblade above the user's head as leaves wrap around the user," or "Curaga allows Aqua to raise her Keyblade above her head as leaves wrap around her body."? Obviously option number two is better-sounding. I know I chose a poor ability to illustrate my point, but you get where I'm coming from. To me, it's just annoying to say "the user" when the image is clearly exclusive to a certain character, and that character is obviously in the image using said ability. Again, we really are just getting ridiculously nit-picky here. It's the same issue that was raised on that stupid, unnecessary music forum: different writers will write different things, and based upon each writer's preferences, that will surely lead to conflict and an endless chain of edit wars. I find that the captions certain users like, such as the one on Inverse Burst, are generally weird-sounding. If we could just be free to say "Inverse Burst allows Riku to team up with Mickey and bombard enemies with light and dark projectiles," then it would be a much smoother read, as well as a simpler one.
- What are we even using the image captions for, anyways? I recall a user telling me directly that we should not just rehash the game's ability descriptions (which I feel, personally, would solve all of our ability caption problems). Instead, I was told the purpose of the captions is to state something the article cannot, such as a visual description of the ability ("Gold sparkles rain down while X uses Y in Z."). Then in recent days, people simply started describing what the ability did or gave a more generic visual description. Naturally these types of captions would be longer. I don't care how "irrelevant" people dub the caption type "X using Y in Z," because at least then, those captions are short, get the point of the image across, no matter how obvious, and prevent all these stupid arguments about wording preference, which, personally, I see no end to, because everyone has his or her (note I did not say "their") own opinion. Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is I have felt genuinely lost when trying to improve our captions, which, in general, are poorly written all across the Wiki. Since we seem to be squabbling only about the ability captions for now, what is their purpose? That needs to be decided before we decide how to actually word what needs to be said.
- Game Titles - It was my understanding that this Wiki strives to be professional and as detailed as possible on all of its articles. Thus I believe we should always use game titles in full. Otherwise, it's just lazy, unprofessional editing to say "Birth by Sleep is the prequel to Kingdom Hearts." I do NOT think we should be saying Kingdom Hearts ___________ at the start of every sentence, mind you, but eventually we need to reaffirm what we are talking about, and in the case of game titles/names, the best way to do that is to state the full title. Obviously we, the editors, know what we are talking about, but we need to assume some idiot who has never played Kingdom Hearts before is reading one of our articles, gets lost in what we're saying, and then finds himself (notice I did not say "themselves," even though I do not know the gender of the reader in this example) asking, "What are they talking about, again?" It's important to say Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep in more places than just the article header. Again, using what comes after the colon (or just the subtitle in general) is lazy.
- Nav Template Order - I technically don't care what format we decide upon, game chronology, or in order of release date. To those who make mention of certain scenes that take place in game that crosses timelines with a later or earlier game, I say you're reading too much into it and making things unnecessarily difficult. Obviously we know Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (notice I did not say Birth by Sleep) takes place before Kingdom Hearts, regardless of the fact that the main chunks of its secret ending take place after Kingdom Hearts II. That's all that matters when placing the templates in order of the games' stories, in my opinion. This is really just a matter of reaching a consensus, and then fixing the articles to reflect that. The only reason this was a problem yesterday was because one user simply chose to reorder the nav templates of his own volition without any prompting from another user, a policy that was in violation the way things were, or otherwise.
I personally feel as if this "discussion of what needs to be updated in the MoS" turned into an argument about who's right and who's not, as well as why some people's opinions are better than others. The Manual of Style is severely out of date, but rather than argue and continue to deliberate on what the MoS should say, we need to ACT AS A COMMUNITY through polls or other such things and develop rules that set our consensuses in stone, rather than leaving them "implied" and then enforced by those whose opinions they are, thus confuses other editors who are not in that particular user's brain and leading to the creation of such forums as these.
I do not mean to sound rude, immature, confrontational, or unprofessional in any way. I just want to feel as if my opinion matters on this place and to know that my voice has been heard. I will support whatever we decide 100%. I would just like our reasoning behind what we decide upon for the MoS to be based less upon one or two people's shared opinions, and more about concrete explanations/facts/evidence. I would like to apologize to the users of this Wiki for any trouble I might have caused. I am simply doing what I feel is best for this site, which may contrast other people's views. I did not mean to create any problems. Once these issues have been solved, I will resolve to ensure the Wiki reflects everything that is decided here, rather than based upon my personal opinion.
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Welcome to Spy Force One. - 01:20 PM Mon, January 12, 2015 MST
They: When we craft a theme for a piece of literature, we must avoid using second person or first person. My teacher looks down upon using "they" as for a singular neuter pronoun, so I alternate to "one." "One must.." This word could be a solution but might get confusing when people read it, and this isn't Shakespearian times. 
15:58, 13 January 2015 (UTC)
