Example Page

Album (Serbian Cyrillic: Албум, lit. "Album") is the debut/second/third/etc. album by folk singer Artist, released in year, by Studio. Here you can write a short description of the album, write notes such as if it is the only known album in an artist's discography, the rarity of an album, or anything else notable that wouldn't fit in the Background or Release section. Over the course of developing your article, please avoid any and all personal statements like "I think", "you'd think that", "we worked on restoring", etc. and be formal in your writing throughout the entire article. Before you get started, double-check that the title of your page is spelled correctly, otherwise the page will have to be moved with redirects disabled. Page and image deletion can only be done by admins which is a pain for not only you but also the admins, so make sure you have the proper scans ready and the page name correct. Otherwise, this is the point of no return.

Album
Label version of release
Studio album by Artist
Released	January 1, 2000 (2000-01-01)
Genre	Genre
Length	20:00
Label	Studio
Producer	Producer
Artist chronology
Album (2000) Next Album (2001)

Background

Before proceeding, if you had somehow contacted an artist about their work on a certain album, please ask them if you can make that information public. We will not be liable for private information that is not meant to be publicly viewed.

What typically goes in "Background"?

You can write about historical events that occurred that influenced the album like in the case of Borovo Selo and Zbogom oružje but please do not not bloat the "Background" section. Provide details in clear and concise manner, summarize whenever possible, and most importantly be as impartial as humanly possible. In the event that a historical event only affects one song however, only make a brief mention of it as seen in Ljubo Granata. If you know the history of the album with the case of Pravoslavci or Ne dam Krajine it, no matter how brief, should be added.

No information? No problem. Writing about the people involved with the production such as "Album would have Orchestra as the backing band and Lyricist (who worked on Another Album for Another Artist four years prior as the primary lyricist) would return from their hiatus for this album, though with significantly less involvement" is fine.

Most importantly, if you do not have anything to add here and/or to the Release section or are short on time and are planning to get around to filling in the deets at a later date, just put "[TBA]". It is preferable that you do not write something incomplete and informal like "lost media" or "partially found" since it looks sloppy and unprofessional as seen here. We have a dedicated page to lost media, so please do not write the article in the format of a Lost Media Wiki info box.

Citing do's and don'ts

Use citations whenever possible. If your information comes from a sensitive source and are unable to include it, please make note of it in the submission notes. However, getting your information from someone who said that according to this guy his friend of a friend is in possession of the Lagao me lagao master is not a viable source unless backed up by interviews or any other official means. If your information comes from rumors or forum posts that has information that hasn't been backed up, refrain from including it. You really think people would do that? Spread misinformation online? In this community, this has sadly happened more times than you'd think. On that note, please read how to properly cite information. We are a secondary (and by extension, unfortunately will be seen as an untrustworthy) source, but that doesn't mean you can start shamelessly copy+paste or make information up. There are sources that will show you what not to do when citing/quoting a source. We tend to paraphrase more than quote and thankfully Purdue has a guide for that. Writing "For unknown reasons" and "It is speculated that" is okay as long as there is a valid reason. For example, "Due to the lack of information on the release itself, it is unknown if Dragutin was granted permission to use these songs in the compilation" is okay, but "It is speculated/assumed that Baja intentionally rushed Idemo dalje in order to use its poor sales as a tax write-off" is not. Refrain from writing "it is theorized that" as it sounds more informal.

Message to English language learners who would like to write articles

If English is not your native language, do not worry about it. We encourage you to try your best at writing an article no matter your English skill level. Despite this, we encourage you to not machine translate your words since translators like Google Translate cannot interpret nuance, cultural references, or any complex statement. This is especially because while Translate is getting better, the skill in its translation vary from language to language. For example, if you were to type something like "crna žena" into Translate, it will literally interpret to "black woman" when it should be "cursed woman" and if you typed in the word "diko" which means "pride", Translate would interpret the word as "dude" or sometimes not translate it at all! Make sure to catch any names of historical figures or towns. This has happened on another site where someone either did not know Serbian or had no idea that Translate translated titles because Ravna Gora was unnecessarily translated to "Float Mountains". This also applies when translating lyrics or writing the translation of an album title; if you do not know it, do not bother putting it in. Do not be afraid to consult any of us for grammatical help. I, the author and a native English speaker, still find myself messing up "i before e" words and still look up the order in which adjectives, adverbs, and nouns are placed.

With that said, here are some tips to help you out for formal writing

Break up contractions like "don't" and "it's" and make it "do not" and "it is" etc. If they do not sound grammatically correct, try to re-word or rearrange the words in the sentence. "Its" is possessive, "It's" is a contraction of "it" and "is". Otherwise, an apostrophe makes something possessive. "Their" is possessive, "they're" is a contraction of "they" and "are" and "there" is for location and time. "Some time" denotes a passage of time where as "sometime" denotes how often something occurs. "Aswell" is not a word and should be written as "as well" and the same goes for "Alot".

You can use "however" at the beginning of each sentence. Contrary to what my fellow Americans have learned in our English classes, it is not grammatically incorrect, but some sources generally agree upon using it sparingly. On that note, try not to use the same adverb over and over again. For example if you find yourself using "however" a lot, look up synonyms or combine phrases with a conjunction. If you do not know what a conjunction is, please click here. While the official MLA site says that using conjunctions at the start of a sentence is not grammatically incorrect and is ultimately a matter of opinion, refrain from using them in that way since most reputable sites seldom do it.

Not sure if a word you're using is incorrect or the site not recognizing it? Consult a thesaurus. Those are all online now and if you live where English is the main language of your country you can even google "is [x] a word?". If you aren't sure on how to write a plural of a weird word, how to properly make something possessive, properly using a semicolon, or need help with English grammar in general, check out a site called Grammar Monster. They have some useful articles that will help both English learners and native speakers. Although we push formality, avoid usage of ten-cent words. That is the use of archaic words that are usually used to substitute a commonly used one in order to bloat word count or to prevent redundancy. Unless if a translation requires an archaic word (i.e. the use of "obtesting" in "Loš učenik") do not use ten-cent words.

Release

Album was released on 1st January 2000 (most times you will use "in [Year]", but in the event that the album has a complete date, EU date format is preferable since citations use it). This is the equivalent to the "Reception/Legacy" part of albums on a certain virtual encyclopedia. Please do not write "Album currently has a cult following" or any variation of it as that can be said for any album that has surfaced online. It is only in very rare occasions where it can be used, though the label mostly applies to songs and artists more than albums.

Here you can also write about the known variants of the tape. Writing about the album's cover design in a way where its elements are explained is also okay. Comparing music styles and the subject matter they cover to previous albums is also okay, though it is important to keep in mind to avoid inserting your personal opinion and prevent the usage of weighted words à la a personal review. Something to the effect of "The crude photo-editing of Ne damo mi svoje's cover and double-fold may have been due to the lack of resources" is fine, but "The disgusting color gradient used in Nedam te! really shows how shitty Yugoslavia's GDP was because my grandpa who died before photoshop was invented and who was severely colorblind could coordinate color better" or even "This is one of the worst Yugoslav war albums out there, don't waste your money" is not. Avoid assumed consensus such as public opinion as it is difficult to prove (no, YouTube is not public opinion, it is a bubble; forums aren't, either). You are not a judge in the court of public opinion, you are merely a part of the audience.

While overall repetitive, if the album is online via an "official" source and if notable enough, writing "with the audio quality in poor condition, it is assumed/speculated that the master is lost", "with the rights being questionable at best, it is assumed that the master is lost", and even "the origin of the audio is currently unknown" are fine as long as they are plausible. Do not write statements such as "Due to SuperTon's greed in the present day, they are the current 'rights holders' of Srbima za sva vremena". Avoid opinionated statements and do not use sources you can't use. This is a formal article, not your personal review. If you, the author, are responsible for a restoration of a tape and are writing an article (i.e. BalkanMapper creates an article about Oda zavičaju, Generacide creates an article on Vera pravoslavna, Randomatribute20k creates an article about Srpkinjo, majko, rađaj sinove, etc.) avoid self-inserting. Something brief like "Randomatribute would upload the album on YouTube in 2023" is fine, but statements like "Generacide would obviously provide the best quality of the album out there because preserving historical media is his M.O." or "BalkanMapper would blow all of these companies out of the water because he actually cares about this stuff" is absolutely, positively, not tolerated. Do not write about the quest to acquire the album like "Random's tape plug one day emailed her the tape offer of a lifetime", either. If you want to tell the reader your story, you should start blogging on Tumblr or Blogger or make a YouTube video about it.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Артист except where noted; all music composed by MUSICIAN.

Side A

No.	Title	Lyrics	Length
1.	"Track 1"	LYRICIST	2:40
2.	"Track 2"		4:05
3.	"Track 3"	LYRICIST	2:30
4.	"Track 4"		3:10

Side B

No.	Title	Lyrics	Length
1.	"Track 1"	LYRICIST	3:25
2.	"Track 2"		3:30
3.	"Track 3"		2:45
4.	"Track 4"		2:55
Total length:			20:00

• In the track listing section, use the variant of the Artist's name used on the release.
• If you've read up on the submission guide, you'll know that the way things are titled in Serbian is not the same as English.
• If times are unavailable on the release and aren't on the internet via official channel uploads and if you have a copy, you can check the times on your recording.
• In this section specifically, you can write additional notes about the release such as "Label release has an extended version of "Track 1".
• It is rare to include a second track listing within an article. If the album in question has a CD release or an online release, do not include a second track listing.
• If the CD has bonus tracks, make mention of them here.

Personnel

Writing

• Lyricist - Tекст (lyrics)
• Оркестар - Aрамжмани (arrangements)
• Musician - Mузика (music)

Production

• Извршни Продуцент - Продуцент (producer)
• Уредник - Главни и одговорни уредник (Editor-in-chief)
• Студио - Студио (Studio)

Miscellaneous

Here you can transcribe the moral support, dedications, or other notes from the album itself.

Tape variants

Studio release (2000)

Notes:

• Here, you can write about dupe quality
• You can also write the color of tape and the labels
• Color faded? Extra text not seen on other releases?
• You do not need to add everything.
• If you are not sure of release year, just write "(Year unknown)" in the header

Label release (2000)

Notes:

• Other notes to consider are noting if it's a foreign distribution
• Or maybe it's a reissue?
• Be careful when labeling something as a first issue. Contacting another reputable community member is highly recommended.

Gallery

This section will only be used if there are other photos from the same photoshoot of the cover or anything similar. This section isn't needed most of the time.

References