Fairfaxpedia talk:Manual of Style

Naming Conventions -- Chuckhoffmann 20:05, 16 February 2012 (EST)
I propose the following conventions for using people's names: Please note I propose these conventions for American-style names only, as Hispanic naming conventions are different.--Chuckhoffmann 20:05, 16 February 2012 (EST)
 * For articles about a person, the article title should be the person's full first name, middle initial (if known) and last name, e.g. "Irma I. Person". Their full name should be used in the first paragraph of the article, bolded, and their nickname, if any, included in single quotes after their middle name or initial, e. g. Irma Isadora 'Izzy' Person. Redirects should be created for possible aliases, i. e. "Izzy Person" should redirect to the "Irma I. Person" article.

Re: Naming Conventions -- Frank Muraca 21:28, 16 February 2012 (EST)

 * This looks good. Except if they're unable to find the middle initial, then "Izzy Person" will be fine for the article title.

Re: Naming Conventions -- Joshdoe 22:20, 16 February 2012 (EST)

 * I tend to prefer the most commonly used name (within Fairfax County), such as John Cook instead of John C. Cook. Wikipedia's convention for naming articles for people does this, but goes into much greater detail. However, so long as we have redirects for the common usage it doesn't matter that much too me.

Re: Re: Naming Conventions -- Chuckhoffmann 00:15, 17 February 2012 (EST)

 * I'll agree with the idea of using the most commonly used name as the title of the main article, rather than my initial idea above. For example, if I ever write the M. D. Hall article on this wiki, I'll use that name rather than Milton D. Hall, which I can virtually guarantee no one ever called him in life. The only question that obtains is how do we form a consensus on the most commonly used name? For example, I see Gerald W. Hyland referred to as such in news reports, but I also see him referred to quite frequently as Gerry Hyland. It's not a huge problem, really, just create an article and redirects as appropriate; it's more of a splitting hairs sort of thing.--Chuckhoffmann 00:15, 17 February 2012 (EST)

Capitalization of category names -- Joshdoe 22:41, 16 February 2012 (EST)
I'd suggest we follow Wikipedia's convention for category names, in particular to "not capitalize regular nouns except when they come at the beginning of the title". There's value to adhering to Wikipedia's standards except when there's a good reason to do so, i.e. for the ease of contributors that might go back and forth between the two wikis. In particular the capitalization of some category names were recently changed, e.g. from Category:Historical societies to Category:Historical Societies. I won't change them unless I get agreement however.

Re: Capitalization of category names -- Frank Muraca 22:59, 16 February 2012 (EST)

 * That may be easier. That's what I initially started doing, then switched to how Cvillepedia did it. I feel like new editors may feel like category names need to be capitalized as well. That's just an assumption though. Let's start doing that from now on.

Re: Re: Capitalization of category names -- Chuckhoffmann 00:21, 17 February 2012 (EST)

 * That was me that made the change, because I use title case when I organize categories on my own wiki. I vote that we use the wiki conventions as they're outlined on Wikipedia, though, so if you want to change them back, Joshdoe, I am totally fine with that and I'll stick to that convention in the future.--Chuckhoffmann 00:21, 17 February 2012 (EST)