Difference between revisions of "Help:Naming conventions"

Revision as of 00:34, 29 June 2012

Naming conventions is a list of guidelines on how to appropriately create and name pages.

It is important to note that these are conventions, not rules written in stone. As Cacheopedia grows and changes, some conventions that once made sense may become outdated, and there may be cases where a particular convention is "obviously" inappropriate. But when in doubt, follow convention.

Generally, article naming should give priority to what the majority of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making linking to those articles easy and second nature.

In addition to following the naming conventions it is also important to follow the linking conventions. Following consistent conventions in both naming and linking makes it more likely that links will lead to the right place.

22xqts phenwebs.txt;3;6

Other specific conventions

Animals, plants, and other organisms

The capitalization on the common names of species has been hotly debated in the past and has remained unresolved. As a matter of truce both capitalized and non-capitalized (except for proper names) are acceptable, but a redirect should be created from the alternative form. Scientific names are always written in italics. The first name (genus) is capitalized, the second (species) is not. Examples: Homo sapiens, Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor.
See: Capitalization

City names

Convention: In general, there are no special naming conventions for cities, unless multiple cities with the same name exist. Discussion, rationale, and specifics: See: Naming conventions

Historical names and titles

Convention: In general, use the most common form of the name used in English (not necessarily the name translated into English) and disambiguate the names of monarchs of modern countries in the format [[{Monarch's first name and ordinal} of {Country}]] (example: Edward I of England).
Rationale and specifics: See: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (names and titles) and Wikipedia:History standards

Lists

Convention: Put a list of Xs as list of Xs, rather than Xs, famous Xs, listing of important Xs, list of noted Xs, list of all Xs, etc. See wikipedia:list. Consider making a category instead of a list: categories are easier to maintain.

Numbers

Articles about numbers and related meanings are at N (number), for example 142 (number), not One hundred forty-two nor One hundred and forty-two nor Number 142. 142 is for the year (see above). See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers).

External links

Should external links of non-html type files (such as doc, pdf, and xls) be in the following format?

• World Port Rankings 2002, by metric tons and by TEUs, American Association of Port Authorities (xls format, 26.5kb)

Initials

Initials in people's names, or companies named after them, should be written with full stops (periods) after them, with a space between the initials and the name, and between initials. Thus, W. E. B. Du Bois, I. F. Stone, T. E. Lawrence, and F. W. de Klerk. (See Oxford Style Manual 3.2, Chicago Manual of Style 8.6). (This convention is under discussion; see Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions.) An exception is a reference to someone using only initials, such as is occasionally done in informal discourse in reference certain U.S. presidents: FDR, LBJ, or JFK.

Acronyms and initialisms such as IBM, NATO, and WYSIWYG are likewise written without periods (see: Naming conventions (acronyms)).