Valve Developer Community:Avoid peacock terms

This article is a modified version of the article available on Wikipedia [1]

In articles, try to avoid Peacock Terms that merely show off the subject of the article without imparting real information.

Some terms to watch for:

• "an important..."
• "one of the most important..."
• "one of the best..."
• "the most influential..."
• "a significant..."
• "intriguingly..."
• "indisputable..."

These terms do not help establish the importance of an article. Let the facts speak for themselves.

Inappropriate subjects

On the converse side, if you are trying to dress up something that doesn't belong in the VDC—your band, your Web site, your company's product—think twice about it. The VDC is not an advertising medium or home page service. Developers are pretty clever, and if an article is really just personal gratification or blatant advertising, it's not going to last long—no matter how "important" you say the subject is.

See also

• Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words
• Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles