Saintapedia:Naming convention
Naming conventions explains titles for wiki articles.
Titles for articles must meet certain conventions in Saintapedia. For example, acronyms are discouraged and in most cases not allowed. Parenthetical statements are also discouraged. Common names are preferred over specific names, except to avoid acronyms. This guideline page details all of the accepted naming conventions on Saintapedia.
Saintapedia
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Make sure your title is specific
When creating a title for your article, make sure that it is specific enough that it won't cause confusion for other Saintapedia users. For example, an article titled "Leadership" should discuss leadership qualities and related information, as opposed to the leadership of a specific country.
Choose titles that will be valid indefinitely
Create articles with titles that have long-lasting meaning. Do not name an article that is transient or dated, since one year from now, no one will ever find this valuable historical article under such a title.
Renaming pages
Even when the best practices are used to create good, long-lasting article titles, a changing world can often require a page to be renamed. The Help:Renaming page describes the best practices to follow when this type of issue occurs.
Capitalization
Please do not use all caps for articles - instead, follow the capitalization guidelines below:
- Capitalize all nouns and verbs in proper names
- Use sentence case: Capitalize the first word of the title and words that are normally capitalized
Acronyms
To aid in linking and findability, Acronyms are STRONGLY discouraged in titles. This is especially because acronyms can have multiple meanings at (see Category:Disambiguation).
Acronyms are considered elitist because of their specialized and esoteric nature and do not appeal to broader audiences. Please spell out terms and avoid jargon speak within titles. Even common acronyms like NASA should be spelled out. However, acronyms are encouraged for making pages that redirect to the full article, which has the title spelled out.
Acronyms that have become common words, such as laser or radar, should be listed as their word form. That is, do not make a page called LASER or Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, but instead use the common word form which was previously only an acronym: make the page as Laser. For a acronym to fit this criteria, it must be listed in one of the commonly used dictionaries.
Corporate branding
The inclusion of organizational names within topical article titles is discouraged. Saintapedia is organization-neutral and topic-focused.
Saintapedia can manage the information explosion more effectively if we work topically not organizationally in wiki space. So organizationally nesting an intelligence topic discourages outside contributors, perpetuates issue “ownership” attitudes, and is not inclusive.
For example, Mobility Analysis is more inclusive than NNSA Mobility Analysis. Likewise, Fidel Castro is more inclusive than a CIA Fidel Castro article.
Topics with the same name
When there are topics that have the same name there are a few ways to resolve the situation.
- The general topic, such as St. John, can be the disambiguation page and other topics should be listed with the general topic with the subtopics listed in parenthesis. Examples: St. John of the Cross, St. John of God, and St. John of Damascus
- If the general topic is strongly associated with one of the specific subtopics, the general topic can point to that specific subtopic page with an
{{About}}at the top of the page pointing to the main topic's disambiguation page.
Singular vs. plural
When in doubt, choose the singular. Use "Anti-tank Weapon," instead of "Anti-tank Weapons," and "Amphibious Vehicle" instead of "Amphibious Vehicles." When the article is about something normally referred to in the plural, such as "Punic Wars" or "Grapes," use the plural. The opposite is true for categories. For example, titanium would be categorized under Category:Metals, not Metal.
Do not categorize using titles
Categorizing titles is discouraged. Examples of categorizing in titles include using colons (i.e. Aircraft:F-16 Fighting Falcon or NIE:South Africa), using subpages (i.e. Aircraft/F-16 Fighting Falcon), or using parentheses (i.e. F-16 Fighting Falcon (Aircraft)). All of these examples are unacceptable. Instead, use categories for categorizing articles.
Special characters
In general, special characters are discouraged. They should only be used when they are an integral part of the name of the page. There are very few cases where these special characters are appropriate and that is the goal of the guideline to help reinforce this point and provide justification to users for when the page is moved.
Why? Simplified linking for one reason: true external (full URL) links often have to replace special characters with code so they render properly. The second reason is simple: a standard for consistency.
Slashes
Slashes hold a special meaning in Saintapedia as a designator for subpages. They also imply hierarchy. Use of slashes in an article's name is highly discouraged as there are many different ways the same message can be conveyed without the use of a slash. In fact, unless greater specificity is needed to resolve a disambiguation issue, make the title as specific as possible and use links within the article to say how it relates.
Exceptions
In few cases, there will be exceptions for use of slashes in the article main namespace. This is only when there is no other name that can be used for the article.
Colons
Colons are used to categorize and therefore are highly discouraged. Only in rare and special cases should they be used. Instead of Iraq: Collection Requirements, use Iraqi Collection Requirements. In most cases, a colon can be avoided by changing the form of one word. Colons are to be avoided, not just because they represent poor title design, but also because they appear to be referring to Saintapedia's formal categorization using namespaces (for example, Saintapedia:Guidelines). Finally, in the event that Iraq were to be made a formal namespace in the future, articles that begin with Iraq: may pose a problem.
Parentheses
In general, parentheses are discouraged in titles, as they frequently exist only to categorize. One exception is for disambiguating between subjects which have identical or very similar names. However, even in the case of disambiguation, avoid parentheses whenever possible. When used, the word or words in the parentheses should NOT be capitalized unless they are proper names. Acceptable examples include:
- Mercury (mythology)
- Mercury (element)
- Mercury Dime
- Mercury Records
- Project Mercury
- The Mercury (Hobart) - a newspaper published in Hobart, Australia
- Mercury (automobile)
- Mercury, Nevada
- Hurricane Mercury (2008) - shows year of the storm or hurricane
Ampersands
The ampersand "&" should not be used in titles without good reason (e.g. the official title uses it). Use "and" instead.
Quotation marks and asterisks
In general, quotation marks and asterisks are discouraged in titles. The title of an article should match the proper name of the subject of the article.
Common names
Use common names for article titles, except if that common name is an acronym. The rationale is to maximize user friendliness. Examples include:
- Air Force (not Department of the Air Force)
- George W. Bush (not George Walker Bush)
Template naming conventions
Templates should be simple and concise, ideally just one word or two, ideally all lowercase.
Pages with naming convention problems
There is no current procedure for dealing with pages that have naming convention problems. Fix naming convention problems as necessary, utilizing discussion pages as warranted.
How to edit an article title
If, after careful consideration, you decide to change the title of an article, you will need to "move" the article to the new title. A redirect from the old name will be automatically created. See Help:Moving A Page for how to rename a page. Be sure the new name complies with these guidelines.