RationalWiki:Help/Page title
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[edit] Formatting titles
Page titles should be:
- Singular: Philosopher not: Philosophers;
- Capitalised on the First word only:, French philosophy not: French Philosophy;
- Logical and easy to find:, Descartes not: Cogito ergo sum (possibly not a good example, but you get the idea);
- Short: Evolution not: Theory that we're all descended from a blob of life floating in a primordeal ocean;
There are, of course, exceptions to all these rules: people's names should be initially capitalised, but basically, if something would not normally be capitalised, don't do so in an article title.
Since people are also likely to search for related terms such as plurals and common abbreviations, it is a good idea to create redirect pages from these to the article you have created. This could help prevent somebody else creating a duplicate article on the same subject.
[edit] "Special" characters
There are several characters that cannot be used in titles, since they "mean" something to the MediaWiki code that has to interpret them. They include:
- & - ampersand. Can usually have "and" substituted for it.
- ' - apostrophe (also right single quote). If you need a possessive (or something like Qu'ran), use %27 in its place. Better yet, try to figure out a way around it, because people will never remember how to link to it using that syntax. Another solution is to use the "left single quote", which is usually under the tilde key at the top left of your keyboard.
- ? - question mark. Wreaks havoc, try to avoid. %3F should work in its place.
- % - another potential troublemaker.
If you're having trouble with a character, you might want to check how Wikipedia handles it, if it seems likely that they would have an article with the same or similar title.
[edit] Changing titles
Articles will occasionally need to be retitled. If any of the above formats have been incorrectly applied or a change of namespace is required, for instance.
Before renaming or moving be certain that the new page doesn't already exist as moving will overwrite it.
[edit] Method
Click on Relocate (or whatever someone has annoyingly changed it to!). You will then be asked for the new name (the old one is in the form box for easy alteration), type it in and also fill in the reason for the change in its own box. If a talk page exists there is a check box ( checked by default ), which you should leave checked. Another check box is titled watch this page, this is to warn you if the page is recreated; use your judgement.
Now click Move page
Done!
[edit] Ah no, not quite.
What about any links that point to the old name?
- They're safe, the wiki automatically puts a #REDIRECT[[]] instruction on the old page which will bounce views straight to the new page. (there will then be a notification of the redirect at the top of the new page ). See here for more information on this subject.
To find what links to the old page:
- "Go" to the old page or click the old page name in "Recent changes". You will, of course, be redirected to the new page but, at the top of the page is the redirect link, click on it and you will be taken back to the old page, click on "what links here". A list appears - use it and amend the links to point to the new page. The redirect page should be left (unless it's really silly) to avoid it being recreated in the future.
If you're not a sysop you'll need to enlist one to delete the old pages. If you are one - what the hell are you doing reading this elementary wikistuff?
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