Portal:Naming conventions
From PhilosophyWiki.org (public beta)
This page details the naming conventions for PhilosophyWiki pages and content. In general, the rule is to follow the published works as closely as possible, although some standardisation is necessary in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of pages due to variations in capitalisation and punctuation of names and titles, as well as helping to promote a consistent style across the site. Comments and suggestions on these conventions is welcome, and a brief summary of the current naming conventions may be found below.
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People
Personal names are always given in Lastname|Firstname format with the two names separated by a vertical bar or 'pipe' character. This is required to ensure that names are correctly sorted by surname in automatically generated category index pages. Page titles, however, always contain personal names in their normal English word order, making it easy to link to the relevant page by simply surrounding the name in [[double square brackets]].
Author names
- Authors should be listed using the name that they are normally published under. This corresponds to the way that the name would be written in an ordinary English sentence, including full first names and/or initials, where appropriate, with each word capitalised according to the usual conventions.
- Where initials are used, each initial should be given in upper case and followed by a single full stop (period) character. Multiple initials should not be separated by spaces, although a single space should be used between the initials and last name when referencing the name from other pages.
Notes
- Names in languages where the family name normally appears before (rather than after) the personal name should be listed in this way. Where names must be given in Lastname|Firstname format, e.g. in the {{author}} template, the full name should be given without the use of the vertical bar (pipe) character. Instead, family and personal names should be separated by a single space in order to ensure correct sorting of automatically generated index pages.
Redirection pages
Where more than one variant of an author name is in common use then additional redirection pages may be created in order to direct readers to the canonically named page. A redirection page may be created by inserting the text #REDIRECT [[Author Name]] at the start of the page, where Author Name is replaced by the canonical form of the author's name, as described above. Redirection pages may be also created for the short (i.e. surname only) versions of an author name so that references to Russell, for example, automatically redirect the reader to Bertrand Russell.
Disambiguation pages
Where a single name is commonly used to refer to two or more different people then a disambiguation page may be created in order to distinguish between them. These take the form of a regular wiki page that lists the canonical form of each of the variants as bullet points (*), optionally including some brief comments to assist users in selecting the correct link.
Examples
Some examples of canonically formatted author names are:
Examples of incorrectly formatted names are:
- B. Russell (non-standard usage)
- PF Strawson (missing punctuation)
- P. F. Strawson (unnecessary space between initials)
- Daniel Dennett (missing middle initial)
Examples of names that may lead to redirect or disambiguation pages:
- Russell redirects to Bertrand Russell
- Strawson disambiguates between P.F. Strawson and Galen Strawson
- Dan Dennett redirects to Daniel C. Dennett
User names
- It is recommended, although not required, that users register using their real name, including spaces and any relevant punctuation. This will in many cases differ from their name as it appears in any published works and may be less formal or a shortened version of their preferred published name.
- Where users choose to register themselves under a different name, their full preferred name should be given in Lastname|Firstname format when submitting reviews and responses within the site. In some cases, user name may be specified instead of last and first names, but this can be omitted by users who are registered under their real name.
Organisation names
- The names of organisations, e.g. universities, colleges, publishers and so on, should be given in full according to the conventions of the organisation themselves. For example, The University of York or King's College London.
- Acronyms and abbreviations should be expanded in full where possible with redirection pages to allow users to link to their short form; e.g. AHRC redirects to Arts and Humanities Research Council (note the use of the word 'and' as opposed to the symbol '&').
- Names which conventionally start with 'The' or some other prefix should be indexed under the first important word by achieved by the use of the name parameter; e.g. name=York, The University of in the relevant PhilosophyWiki template.
Article and publication titles
The conventions for naming pages that relate to books, articles, journals and other published works are:
- The page title should be capitalised according to normal English title case, i.e. with all important words capitalised and connectives or articles such as 'and', 'the', 'in' etc. in lower case, with the exception of the first word, which is always capitalised. This applies to all works, regardless of how the title appears in the printed version.
- Punctuation should match the original as closely as possible, including trailing question marks at the end of titles that are given as a question, e.g. 'Is the Visual World a Grand Illusion?'.
- Subtitles, whether listed below or after the main title, or given after a colon (:) character, should generally be omitted from the page title for brevity, although there are occasional exceptions.
Notes
- Latin phrases such as a priori, a posteriori, which should always be capitalised when they appear in a page title, unlike the English 'a', which would normally appear in lower case unless it is the first word of the title, which is always capitalised.
- Where the subtitle of a work forms an important part of its title, e.g. Ethics: The Big Questions, this may be included as part of the page name. This is typically the case where the full title would be used when referring to the work in printed text.
- Titles in non-English languages should be given using their customary English translation. Where more than one translation is commonly used then a disambiguation page may be created.
- Works whose title starts with the English words 'the', 'a' or 'an' should be indexed under the first letter of the following word. This may be achieved by use of the title parameter; e.g. title=Critique of Pure Reason, The in the book, anthology, journal or article template. Again, this does not apply to titles starting with a priori, a posteriori etc.
TODO: adopt a page naming convention for titles that are shared by more than one work.
Examples
Some examples of correctly formed article or publication titles are:
- Objectification, Pornography and the History of the Vibrator
- The Foundations of Arithmetic
- Ethics: The Big Questions (the single word title is insufficient to identify the work)
Some examples of incorrectly formed article or publication titles are:
- the problems of philosophy (incorrect capitalisation)
- Die Grundlagen der Arithmetic (non-English title)
- Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition, An Anthology (subtitle is unnecessary to identify of the work)
Section naming
Pages that contain more than one section should use normal English sentence case for the title of each section, as per Mind editorial guidelines. Links to a specific section may be generated by adding the hash (#) character to the end of the name followed by the section name exactly as it appears on the page. To link to the unnamed preface of the page, the special section name of '0' (the number zero) may be used.
Examples
- [[#People]] links to the People section of this page
- [[Home page#Getting started]] links to the Getting started section of the home page
- [[Portal:Naming conventions#0]] links to the first section of this page.
Summary
Page naming conventions are necessary in order to avoid duplication of content, which cause different pages to be created within PhilosophyWiki due to variations in capitalisation and punctuation. Page names are case sensitive and should generally be formatted as they appear in the printed work, or as per their common English usage. In particular:
- Author pages should be given as they appear in their published work; e.g. Bertrand Russell or P.F. Strawson
- Organisation names should be given in full; e.g. The University of York.
- Book, article and journal titles should have all important words capitalised and include any relevant punctuation; e.g. The "Meaning" of a Literary Work.
Note that the easiest way to create a page of a particular type is to navigate to the appropriate index page (e.g. books, journals, authors etc.), type it into the field in the highlighted box at the top of the page and click on the 'Create' button. This will take you to the relevant item if it exists, or present you with a template that may be used to create it. This also avoids any issues with punctuation mark characters including the '?', '&', '+' symbols being interpreted as having a special meaning by the web browser. Such characters will be automatically encoded using the percent (%) or underscore (_) character in order that they appear correctly formatted within the body of the page.
