Memory Gamma:Policies and Guidelines/Naming Articles

Naming Articles

OFFICIAL POLICY

This page is considered an official policy on Memory Gamma. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.

To create a new article, type the name in the search box and press "Enter". Names should be as simple and precise as possible--something everyone would recognize. If the article already exists, you will be taken to that article's page, or you will see the closest match in a list of search results. If the article doesn't exist yet, it will appear redlinked at the top of the results page, or you will see a message asking if you wish to create the article.

Titles

For new articles, use the name of the person, place or thing as the title of the article. The title should be kept simple. Omit hyphens as a rule, uses of the word "the", apostrophes ( ' ) and other special typographical characters (#, *, _, etc.).

Ex.: (use) Constitution class

(not) ''Constitution''-class

(proper) Battle of Wolf 359

(not) The_Battle_of_Wolf_359

(Note that titles can always be altered for appearance through the use of {{title}}.)

Capitalize

1. The first and last words of the title
2. All nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives
3. Any conjunction or preposition of five letters or more  (Optional. An older rule says not to capitalize prepositions or conjunctions regardless of length. Just be consistent.)

Do NOT capitalize

1. Articles (the, a, an), unless the article is the first or last word of the title
2. Prepositions of four letters or fewer (unless the preposition is the first or last word of the title)
3. Conjunctions of four letters or fewer (unless the conjunction is the first or last word of the title)
4. The particle "to" used with an infinitive (unless the "to" is the first or last word of the title)

Main body

Avoid uses of the word "the" or "a" at the beginning of an article. Only proper nouns should be capitalized in every word of the title. For example:

Jean-Luc Picard

Dominion War

Battle of Sector 001 (not "Battle Of Sector 001")

Do NOT capitalize if not using proper nouns. Use lowercase in all subsequent words (second word and thereafter), unless the title is a proper noun (name of a person or place).

Borg cube (not "Borg Cube")

Constitution class starship (not "Constitution-Class" "Starship")

heavy cruiser (not "Heavy Cruiser", "Heavy cruiser")

Sol system (not "Sol System")

warp drive (not "Warp Drive")

Note, articles will automatically be named with the first letter as a capital. It is not necessary for you to do this, unless using the word at the beginning of a sentence in another article.

Use singular nouns. Do not pluralize.

human

Klingon

Ferengi

Not:

Vulcans

Gorns

Ferengis

(Note: There may be variations on this guideline, depending on the situation.)

Special characters

Do not use special characters in the name of an article, unless somehow particularly relevant -- e.g., ', ", #, *, _, =, @, ;, , (comma), !, etc. Only if the title happens to be the name of a special article--say, a fictitious book or fan episode title--should special characters be allowed. Avoid underscores ( _ ) in any case, as these are not necessary (using the spacebar on your keyboard creates the necessary spaces). Also do not use slashes (/, \). These create subpages (which generally do not qualify as "articles"). Slashes are ONLY used for user pages and stories.

Events

Certain events, if major, may be capitalized (Earth-Romulan War), but please keep the title as concise and short as possible. Avoid fancy wording:

Battle of the Bassen Rift (acceptable)

The Incident Between the Romulans and the Federation in 2379 (not acceptable)

Abbreviations

Spell out words. Don't abbreviate or use acronyms. Abbreviations are only acceptable if referring to a series: TOS, TNG, STP, etc. (do not link these). Templates are available for linking series references.

Ships

When creating new ship articles:

USS Enterprise (proper)

Not:

U.S.S. Enterprise (improper)

If necessary to add a ship registry to the title (only in order to disambiguate--never as a first rule), enclose it in parentheses (not brackets [ ]).

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Not:

USS Enterprise, NCC-1701

USS Enterprise [NCC-1701]

USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Disambiguations

If there are two or more articles using the same title, they will be distinguished (disambiguated) by disambiguations pages. If your article must share this title, add an extension in the form of (extension), including the parentheses.

Vulcan (species)

Vulcan (planet)

Starfleet (mirror)

Last but not least: Always remember to check your spelling... on everything!

Canon

All canon articles, ones that are a real part of the Star Trek universe, are open for everyone to edit. If you would like to create your own canon page, put () and type in your username after the page. Such as James T. Kirk (ElectricSupernova).