AGHSReunions:Manual of Style (Article Names)
From AGHSReunions
In general, this wiki follows the naming conventions used by the English Wikipedia except as noted below. Due to the geographical and topical specialization of this wiki, we use our own naming standards for articles related to people, places, and schools. In other situations, please assume the Wikipedia conventions apply here.
For people, we prefer to name articles using the individual's full name and graduation year. Name changes (e.g., following a marriage or divorce) may be mentioned in the article, but the article's title is not updated to reflect the different name. However, a redirect or disambiguation page should be created to help readers locate the person more easily.
When it comes to places, this wiki is primarily concerned with the Central Coast and secondarily with the rest of California. Beyond that, we are interested in other places as they relate to people from the Central Coast (hometowns, where they moved to or from, etc.). This is the result of the deliberate decision to focus the wiki on the Central Coast and California rather than being a general-purpose encyclopedia.
Contents |
People
Biographical articles should be named using the individual's current common name (i.e., how the person generally introduces him or herself to others) followed by the graduation year in parentheses.
- Example of a main article title
- "Will Murray (1988)" for Kevin "Will" William Murray who graduated in 1988.
Alternate names
People born with a formal given name (e.g., Elizabeth or Rebeca) who regularly use an informal form of their name (like "Becky"), should have their main article listed under their preferred name ("Becky" in this case).
Those who regularly switch between two names ("Matthew" normally, but "Matt" to friends) should be listed under their formal name ("Matthew").
Nicknames and other monikers are generally to be avoided, unless the person uses such alternate names as his or her common name in most situations and around most people. If a nickname is only used among close friends or family members, then the most common proper name should be used.
People who are known professionally by one name (a stage name, pen name, etc.) and their own name should have their main article named under their personal common name and graduation year. The professional name could either be a redirect (see below) to the main article, or to a sub-article under the main article. Example: for a very well known author, John Doe (1500) might be the main article, and John Doe (1500)/Ima Writer would be the sub-article. A redirect from Ima Writer to John Doe (1500)/Ima Writer would work well. For a writer with less biographical information available, a link to a subheading in the main article may be more appropriate (e.g., John Doe (1500)#Work as an author).
Name changes are discussed below.
Duplicate names
As the number of biographical articles increases, so does the likelihood that two or more people will share the same name. This is the reason the graduation year is added to the main article whenever possible. If the year of graduation is not known, simply enter the person's name without a year.
If two people share the same name and graduation year but graduated from different high schools, the standard abbreviation for the high school should be placed inside the parentheses following the year: Will Murray (1988 AGHS). If two or more people still would share the same article name, consider adding an initial or using a different name (birth names, name used in high school, etc.) for one or both people in a way that makes sense. If using a different name, include a note explaining the reasoning on the talk pages of each articles.
Redirects
Redirect pages should be created as necessary to help readers locate the person easily. Continuing the original example above, the following pages for Will Murray should redirect to the main article.
- Good redirect examples
- Will Murray - Current common name without the graduation year; applicable to all entries
- Kevin Murray - Name used in high school if different from the current name
- Kevin Murray (1988) - Name used in high school with the graduation year
- Additional redirect examples (not necessary, but acceptable)
- Kevin William Murray - Birth name
- Kevin William Murray (1988) - Birth name with the graduation year
- Names used other than the current common name and name used in high school
- Bad redirect examples (should not be linked)
- "Red" Murray - Nicknames shared only among close friends
- Murray, Will - Names in reverse order
- Will - First or last names only (unless they are as well known as Madonna or Einstein)
Disambiguation
When a redirect page already exists for a different main article, it should be converted to a disambiguation page. Such pages help readers locate a particular person using a common name. People should be listed in reverse graduation order (most recent graduate listed first), and then in alphabetical order by main article title. To further help identify the people, the person's current or most notable job title, high school, name used in high school, and/or other helpful (but brief) information should be added following the name and year.
- Disambiguation examples (assuming that all these Kevin Murrays existed)
- Kevin Murray (2003): Student; Paso Robles High School
- Kevin Murray (1995 AGHS): Arroyo Grande High School
- Kevin Murray (1995 SLOHS): San Luis Obispo High School
- Kevin Murray (1988): Lompoc High School
- Will Murray (1988): Network consultant; Arroyo Grande High School (as Kevin Murray)
- Kevin Murray (1964): Retired; St. Joseph's High School
Name changes
Legal name changes (e.g., following a marriage or divorce) should be mentioned in the article, and the article should be moved to match the new name. Important: All links to the old article name should be updated, especially if a "double redirect" is created (a redirect that leads to the old article name, that then redirects to the new article name after the move).
Places
Communities
"Communities" on AGHS Reunions Wiki include incorporated cities and towns, unincorporated towns and communities, census designated places (CDP), or any other generally recognized grouping of homes and businesses larger than a neighborhood.
Article name guidelines for any community
- Articles are named with the full commonly used name of the community, followed by a comma, and then the common name of the state or province (e.g. "Paso Robles, California").
- Full legal names of the community that differ from the common name may be added as redirects (e.g., "El Paso de Robles, California" redirects to "Paso Robles, California").
- It is also advisable to add a redirect to the full commonly used community name followed with the state's abbreviation ("Paso Robles, CA" redirects to "Paso Robles, California").
Article name guidelines for Central Coast communities
- The community name, without the state name, should be added as a redirect to the main article ("San Luis Obispo" redirects to "San Luis Obispo, California"; "Pismo Beach" redirects to "Pismo Beach, California")
- Central Coast communities with common nicknames should redirect to the main article ("SLO" and "SLO Town" redirect to "San Luis Obispo, California"; "Pismo" redirects to "Pismo Beach, California").
- Additional redirects are not desirable usually for communities outside of the Central Coast, since this wiki is concerned primarily with the Central Coast area.
Articles and sub-articles
The main article for a community should provide a general overview of the community, and for many smaller communities, a single article page may be adequate to describe fully the history, geography, economics, demographics, and other aspects of the community. Larger communities, or small communities without dedicated websites, may need to expand beyond a single page by going into more depth on various topics, adding community calendars of upcoming events, etc. In such cases, sub-articles are the preferred way to organize the information.
Sub-articles are named by following the main article's name (i.e., the community name and state) with a forward slash ("/"), and then the sub-article topic. It is critical to use the actual main article name, and never a redirect name; doing otherwise causes technical problems and is difficult and time-consuming to fix.
- Examples (which may not actually exist)
| Arroyo Grande, California | Main article |
| Arroyo Grande, California/History | History of Arroyo Grande |
| Arroyo Grande, California/Demographics | Detailed demographic information |
| Arroyo Grande, California/Events | A calendar of upcoming or annual events |
Counties and parishes
- Articles are named with the full commonly used name of the county or parish, followed by a comma, and then the common name of the state or province (e.g. "San Luis Obispo County, California").
- This is true anywhere the county name appears in an article or category title; think of the name and the state or province as being a single unit. Within the text of the article, the state or province should be mentioned near the beginning of the article, but usually should be omitted elsewhere within the same article.
States and provinces
- U.S. and Canadian articles are named with the full commonly used name of the state or province (e.g. "California" and "Massachusetts").
- States and provinces outside the U.S. and Canada are are named with the full commonly used English name of the state or province, followed by a comma, and then the country name (see below) (e.g. "Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile" instead of the Spanish spelling of "Región").
- Full legal names of the state or province that differ from the common English name may be added as redirects (e.g., "Commonwealth of Massachusetts" redirects to "Massachusetts", "Región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile" redirects to "Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile").
- Common abbreviations (e.g., two-letter postal abbreviations like "MA" or other standard abbreviations like "Calif.") may be setup as redirects or disambiguation pages as appropriate. However, if two nearly equally significant places or people share a common abbreviation (e.g., "CA" for California and Canada), it would be better to create a disambiguation page instead.
Countries
- Country articles are named with the full commonly used English name of the country (e.g., "United States").
- Names that conflict with names more local to this wiki should be disambiguated (e.g., "Georgia" refers to the U.S. state, "Georgia (country)" refers to the country in Eastern Europe).
- Full legal names or localized names of the country that differ from the common name may be added as redirects (e.g., "United States of America" redirects to "United States").
- Common abbreviations (e.g., two- and three-letter ISO abbreviations like "US" and "USA") may be setup as redirects or disambiguation pages as appropriate.
- If there is disagreement about what to name a country (e.g., "Burma" or "East Timor"), the ISO English name will be used as the official name here without regard to political or ideological concerns.
- If the ISO does not use a specific name for an area, then the FIPS name will be used. Anyplace not identified by ISO or FIPS as a country is almost certainly a smaller division of another country, and the article name must reflect that.
Disambiguation
Usually there is no question as to which community an article discusses, since all main articles should include both the community name and the full state or province name (e.g., "Greenfield, California"), and cities and towns rarely share the same name within a state. Short name redirects ("Greenfield") can be more ambiguous (Does it refer to Greenfield, California, Greenfield, Indiana, Greenfield, Iowa, Greenfield, New Hampshire, Greenfield, New York, or somewhere else?).
In such cases, the redirect should point to the main article of the Central Coast community (if there is one) or elsewhere in California, since the focus of this wiki is on the Central Coast and the rest of California. At the top of the article, a disambiguation tag should be added to inform the reader of the other articles with similar names.
If there are two or more communities in California with the same name, the one on the Central Coast would take precedence over another elsewhere. If all things are equal (two on the Central Coast, two in California without any on the Central Coast, or two or more elsewhere and none in California), a disambiguation page should be used instead of a redirect.
Article categorization
Grouping related articles together into categories helps readers find related information.
Community categories
- Further information: CatCommunity template
The best and easiest way to categorize most community-related articles is to place the {{CatCommunity}} template at the bottom of the article. If any category links already exist, the template should be placed immediately prior to any other category tags. The template automatically generates all of the following category links, which are provided as a reference.
- 1. Stubs
- Stub articles concerning California communities should be identified by adding the following tag near the end of the article, just above the category:
{{stub|geo|Monterey County, California}}
Which adds the article to the appropriate category and generates this message:
This San Luis Obispo County, California-related article is a stub. You can help us by expanding it.
- Stubs concerning U.S. and Canadian communities outside of California should be identified with a tag similar to this:
{{stub|geo|New Jersey community}}
Which adds the article to the appropriate category and generates this message:
This New Jersey community-related article is a stub. You can help us by expanding it.
- Stubs concerning communities outside of the U.S. and Canada should be identified with:
{{stub|geo|International community}}
Which adds the article to the appropriate category and generates this message:
This International community-related article is a stub. You can help us by expanding it.
- 2. Type of community.
The type of community should be categorized. Recognized types include Cat:Cities, Cat:Towns, Cat:Census areas, unincorporated, Cat:Metropolitan areas, and other miscellaneous Cat:Communities. Always use the most accurate and specific category possible based on the legal status of the community.
- 3a. California communities
Communities in California should be categorized by county name (substitute the correct county name):
[[Category:San Luis Obispo County, California communities]]
- 3b. Out-of-state communities
Communities outside of California usually should be categorized by state name only. However, if more than around fifty communities are added to a category, dividing the category into logical subcategories by region or county may improve usability.
[[Category: Massachusetts communities]]
- 3c. Out-of-country communities
Canadian communities should be treated as out-of-state communities, categorized by province or territory name and country.
[[Category: British Columbia, Canada communities]]
Communities outside of the United States and Canada usually should be categorized by country only. However, if more than around fifty communities are added to a category, dividing the category into logical subcategories by region or state may improve usability. Please note the reversed order for constructing category names ("Communities in Brazil" instead of "Brazilian communities") and the proper name of the country ("Netherlands" instead of "Holland").
[[Category: Communities in Brazil]] [[Category: Communities in the Netherlands]]
Larger areas
Since there is much more variation outside of the community regarding categories, there is no template, and categorization must be done manually.
These guidelines are still under development. Cat:San Luis Obispo County, California is a good reference point to use if you wish to add new areas while the guidelines are finalized.
Schools
- This section will be expanded soon. Sorry for the temporary inconvenience.
Articles concerning schools should be named using the full common name of the school, including the type of school.
State universities (e.g., "Sacramento State University", "University of California, Santa Barbara") are generally not shortened ("Sacramento State", "U.C. Santa Barbara"). Due to the length, we make an exception for the two California Polytechnic State Universities, which we refer to simply by their common names of "Cal Poly".
Except for state universities, campus names should appear as sub-articles under the main school article, not as separate articles. Use common sense, and create separate articles for campuses with entirely different purposes or criteria from the main campus (e.g., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is distinctly separate from University of California, Berkeley though both are operated in Berkeley by the University of California).
- Examples
| Preferred | Avoid (or possibly create as redirects) |
|---|---|
| Arroyo Grande High School | Arroyo Grande High — Include the full type of school. AGHS — Do not use abbreviations. |
| San Luis Obispo High School | San Luis Obispo High— Include the full type of school. SLO High — Do not use nicknames. |
| Paulding Middle School | Ruth Paulding Middle School — Use common names, not formal names. Paulding Junior High School — Use current names, and redirect older ones. |
| Cuesta Community College | Cuesta College — Include the full type of school. Cuesta Junior College — Use current names, and redirect older ones. |
| Cuesta Community College/Main Campus | Cuesta Community College, Main Campus — Campuses should be sub-articles. Cuesta Community College, San Luis Obispo — Use the actual campus name, not the location. |
| University of California, Santa Barbara | U. C. Santa Barbara — Do not use abbreviations. UC Santa Barbara — Do not use abbreviations. |
| Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo | California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo '— A special exception (see above). Cal Poly SLO — Do not use abbreviations. |
