Some starting ideas:
General rules:
- No plagiarism
- All content should be written in semi-formal second or third person
- Do not use capital letters or bold text for emphasis
- Write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence
- Quotes longer than a few words should utilise the quote markdown formatting
Questions:
- Titles should be written in the form of “What are the best…?”
- Titles should have a question mark at the end.
- Provides context on the use-case and requirements if applicable
- Poor: “What are the best laptops?”
- Good: “What are the best laptops for programming?” (use-case)
- Best: “What are the best laptops for programming under $1500 with Linux support?” (use-case and requirements)
- Is scoped in a way that all options are directly comparable
- Poor: “What are the best developer SaaS services?”
- Good:
Options:
- Option titles do not end with a period
- Option descriptions explain what the option is (objectively) not how it performs (subjective)
- It’s best to have descriptive images (such as screenshots) instead of branding (such as logos)
- When adding an application that has a free and a paid version, always list the paid version (unless the questions is specific to free apps)
Pros & cons:
- Titles do not end with a period and shouldn’t be capitalized
- Titles should be a standalone statement
- Poor: “Fast, easy to use, intuitive UI”
- Good: “Has an intuitive UI”
- Titles should describe benefit/drawback not list a feature
- Poor: “Concurrent compilation”
- OK: “Fast build times” (assuming the description explains why)
- Best: “Concurrent compilation provides faster build times”
- Description should provides more detail to the statement.
- Descriptions should be readable by users that aren’t acquainted with the domain, so it’s best to explain acronyms and domain specific language.
References:
- References should have quotes
- References should be as independent as possible
- Priority: objective data > expert opinions > editorialized reviews >
word of mouth > product page