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''This is a draft of a policy being worked on by the [[Willipedia board]]. It has no effect until approved by board consensus.''
Try first If you want to choose write an article on something rather specific, make sure that it is accessible from related, more general topics. You can do this in one of two ways:* Link to your specific article from the most more general title that names article* Include the realm content of your subject. However, if would-be article in the more general article Often this means you'll need to create a perfunctory article or introduction for the more general name topic, but the benefit is one that you do not expect that a Willipedian can write meaningfully about, choose a more specific titlepeople who search for the general topic will also be able to find your article.
'''When to make a redirect.''' For redirectsSometimes, more is usually better. Any time you think of a term that people often use to name something else, and that term only names that one thingthough, make the page a redirect. WUFO is only word has more than one thing, so it's a great redirectmeaning. "Hopkins," unfortunately, is both the administrative hall as well as and the dormitory. The page [[Hopkins]], then, needs to be a [[#Disambiguation pages|disambiguation page]].
Most of the time, a singular noun is preferred. When the main focus of an article will be to explain, define, or give the history of the subject, use a singular noun (eg. [[broomball]], [[Mountain Day]], [[crusty]]). "Guide to X" often becomes "X".
For some topics, however, defining seems totally unnecessary -- "Class" or "Prank" are good examples. It's outside the scope of Willipedia to explain what ''Use a class or prank is, but we singular noun''are'' quite likely to want to talk about instances of for articles that:* Explain or define a subject, e.g. [[Classescrusty]] and * Give the history of a subject, e.g. [[PranksMountain Day]] '''Use a plural noun''' for articles that:* Provide a topical survey, e. In such cases, where the content will be listing and explaining instances, use the pluralg.[[restaurants]]
==='''Use a gerund (-ing verbs===word)''' for articles that:<div style="float:top"><font size="-2">[http://en* Explain how to do something, e.wikipediag.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions#Use_gerund_of_verbs [[configuring an email client]]* List ''Wikipedia origintechniques'']</font></div>For activitiesfor achieving particular goal, common practices, and the like, try to use the most basic but most unique gerund verb applicablee.g. Instead of "Great places to ski" use "Skiing"; instead of "How to X"[[procrastinating]], consider "X-ing".[[skiing cheaply]]
When a section of an article gets large and detailed enough Often you'll want to be its own redirect from the other possible articlenames. For example, use the shortest descriptive title you can, such as [[Skiing cheaply]] instead of "Ways you can ski cheaplybeer" and "beers". Whatever name you choose, be sure to link should probably go to the detail same article in , but make the appropriate choice for the primary article it was spun from (as in [[Skiingbeers]]'s ). See [[Skiing#Lift PassesRedirects|Lift PassesRedirects]] section)for more information.
User:05jl/Naming conventions moved to Willipedia:Naming conventions: enacting policy
Titles of articles in Willipedia are chosen to serve two crucial goals which are sometimes at odds.
#Titles [[Willipedia:Policies#Article_Titles_are_a_Promise_._._.|create expectations]], and therefore a title ought to accurately reflect the content that follows it.
#But, on Willipedia, titles are the names that articles are called by. Titles need to be succinctly namedIf titles are not succinct, or they will never be called by editors, will never be linked to, and will fall into obscurity.
'''For an example,''' consider the old article, "How To Procrastinate." This was the first title it had, and it did a good job of creating the expectation of a list of suggestions, which is indeed what the article was. But only editors suppose that someone who already knew such an doesn't know about this article existed could is writing a related article; his prose is much more likely to contain (and so more likely to link to it; naive editors were unlikely ) the word "procrastination" or "procrastinating" than the full phrase "how to guess procrastinate." Thus the unintuitive name. Eventually, it was renamed to article is currently called [[Procrastinatingprocrastinating]], a name with the advantage of still being decently descriptive, and far more likely to be linked to in the course of normal writing.
The set of naming conventions below arises from this need for a minimal set of rules for editors to learn so we know how to best name our new articles, and how to link to where an article is ''existing content (or will be'' future content) as we write body text.
==General guideline==
'''Illustrative examples:'''
''Problem:'' You want to write about how awesome the beech in the [[Forest Garden]] is for [[tree-climbing]].
:''A good start:'' Even though you just want to write about that one tree, start/edit the article "Tree climbing," and place what you write in a section of it. If you want to do a really good job, go the extra mile to start a preface on the general title to help other editors get an idea of where they can work from.
:''In the future:'' Even without a preface, it's a very good bet that others will expand on this subject, with more trees and perhaps a guide to history and technique of the pasttime.
''Problem:'' You want to give advice on procrastinating on a thesis. You're thinking "How to procrastinate on a thesis" might be a good title.
:''A good start:'' Think about your topic in the general sense. You are talking about two things: the practice of [[procrastinating]] and the topic "[[thesis]]." Start/edit an article with either name, and include what you want to write in a well-named section, even if it is a lonely section at first.
:''In the future:'' Others are likely to have something to say about "Procrastinating" or "Thesis". The articles are likely to cross-link. Over time, what you started will evolve into a rich article.
<nowiki>#redirect [[REDIRECT_TARGET]]</nowiki>
</center>
where <nowiki>[[REDIRECT_TARGET ]]</nowiki> is the name of the article you want to go to -- in this case, "[[Williams Ultimate Frisbee Organization]]". '''Make redirects often.''' Any time you think of a term that people often use to name something else, and that term only names that one thing, make the page a redirect. WUFO can only refer to the frisbee club, so it's a great redirect. Furthermore, any time you were deciding between a few choices for a new article title (class or classes? skiing or alpine skiing?) it's usually a great idea to make the title you didn't use a redirect to the one you did use.
===Disambiguation pages===
A disambiguation page is a page whose sole function is to provide access to the two or more meanings that one word or phrase has, such as [[Spencer]] and [[Weston]]. The page content can be anything that helps readers find their way to the right place, so long as the page has a link to every reasonable interpretation. It also should begin with the code <nowiki>{{disambig}}</nowiki>. This tags the page as a disambiguation page.
===Renaming (moving) a page===
To rename a page so that its title conforms to these guidelines, move it using the "Move this page" link at the bottom of the screen. When you move a page, the program automatically creates a [[#Redirects|redirect]] at the old location that points to the new location.
It is not a big deal, but it is good form, when you move a page, to fix all the links in Willipedia that pointed to the old name. If you move a young page, this is often a short job, and a nice thing to do. If you move an old page, it can have dozens of links to it, making this job very annoying. No one will fault you for not wanting to go and do all that work yourself, but consider leaving a message for the [[Willipedia board]] letting us know we ought to look into it.
==Conventions==
Effort is wasted when someone starts an article "Prank" when it really could have been added to (or already was in) "[[Pranks]]". Using naming conventions lets us use content to its fullest extent, and build on what's there already. Much of the below is adapted from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions Wikipedia's naming conventions].
===Singular vs. Plural nounsvs. Gerunds===
<div style="float:top"><font size="-2">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions#Prefer_singular_nouns ''Wikipedia origin'']</font></div>
===Sentence-style capitalization===
<div style="float:top"><font size="-2">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions#Lowercase_second_and_subsequent_words ''Wikipedia origin'']</font></div>
Even though the title of something, like an encyclopedia article, typically has all words campitalizedcapitalized, Willipedia is different. Capitalize article and section titles as though you were writing a sentence: the first word is capitalized, and all other words are lowercase unless they are proper nouns.
===Naming students and alums===
Even though it is convention in most Williams publications to include the class year whenever a student or alum is named, on Willipedia, the class year should usually not be part of the title of a page on a person (''ie'', "Joe Freshman" is preferred to "Joe Freshman '09"). This is for ease of linking: in this system, an editor who wishes to link to a person need only know his/her name. If class years were in titles, on one would need to know name ''and'' graduation year to link. You can still, of course, include the class year in your prose, e.g. "<nowiki>[[Joe Freshman]]</nowiki> '09".
===Use full names to be unambiguous===
Another common issue for Willipedia is that we have a lot of things named after people (namely, [[:Category:Building|buildings]]). This creates a need to resolve ambiguity about whether "Hopkins" is an article about [[Hopkins Hall]], [[Mark Hopkins House]], or [[Mark Hopkins]] the person.
The solution in most cases is to use the full name of something, even if it is rare in common parlance. So while it is typical to say, "I'm eating at Mission," the article on this it would have to be "[[Mission Dining Hall]]". Notice that all words in this titles title are capitalized, as it is the proper name of the place.
If you're feeling very helpful, create a [[#Disambiguation pages|disambiguation page]] at the common name that forks to many related pages. The [[Spencer]] and [[Dodd]] pages are examples of these.