Forum:Proposal to Organize Bracketed Addendums in Titles

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Hello there Halopedia, and addressing you today is none other than Halo-343; you know, that guy. This proposal, as its lengthy title might suggest to an attentive human being, is regarding the largely unneeded usage of bracketed addendums on Halopedia. I made a similar post regarding this several days ago, and in response to agreement from several users, I've decided to formalize my suggestion, which this explanatory introduction now introduces.

On to the purpose of this proposal, I've recently begun to notice a large usage of illogical addendums in a sizable amount of article titles lately, particularly those with a level of the same name. To give examples of this; 343 Guilty Spark, Armory (Room), High Charity (Structure), Cairo Station (Platform), Gravemind (Form), Kizingo Boulevard (Location), Tsavo Highway (Location), Arbiter (Title) and countless others. If several articles share the same name, the bracketed distinction should only follow the titles of those named after the primary subject. For example, there are two instances in the Halo series titled "343 Guilty Spark"; the monitor and the level. The level is named after the monitor, thus should be the only article using bracketed information in its title to distinguish it from the primary subject, with a small note at the top of the page to cover any confusion ("Were you looking for ____?"). In addition to this, real-world subjects such as levels should not hinder the titling of a primary in-canon subject. If there is more than two instances, Gravemind for instance, the same rule should apply, but with a disambiguation page made to organize the other secondarily named pages, again with a note linking to it ("For other uses of "Gravemind", see Gravemind (disambiguation)"). In addition to this, in conjunction with Dragonclaws' proposal regarding capitalization, in instances where bracketed addendums are required, such wording should be lower case, not capitalized. For example, "(level)" is correct, "(Level)" is not.

This was recently, and unofficially, implemented on Cortana, which had previously been titled things like "Cortana (Character)", "Cortana (AI)" and "Cortana (Artificial Intelligence)". All those previous titles were made to distinguish "Cortana" from "Cortana (Level)", ignoring the fact that there was a clearly visible "(Level)" in the latter's title, making the addendum on the former pointless, as the difference had already been outlined in the title of the latter. Now that I've pointed that out, doesn't what I'm proposing make a lot more sense? In further conjunction with a suggestion by Dragonclaws, the current practice of adding "(Level)" to every level title also applies, and the distinction should only follow the titles of levels that share a name with something else, i.e. "High Charity" and "High Charity (level)". Now, I have heard mention that Manticore placed a taboo on the word "disambiguation" in the title of disambiguation pages. Let me stress that, he placed a taboo on the word "disambiguation" in the title of disambiguation pages. Respectfully, that is ludicrous; the term "disambiguation" is needed to maintain consistency on any wiki, and what I'm proposing here further proves that. I haven't full validity on this tale of Manticore's doings, but regardless, it further drives my point.

I hope to have this passed and implemented into the Manual of Style, but as always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, criticisms are not, but I have to say they are to make it look like I know what I'm doing. Cast your votes and post your comments below!

Regards,

Halo-343 (Talk) (Contribs) (Edits) 16:12, July 1, 2010 (UTC)

Support (16/5)

1. Support - As per above proposal. - Halo-343 (Talk) (Contribs) (Edits) 16:12, July 1, 2010 (UTC)
2. Support - As per above. -- Cally99117 16:26, July 1, 2010 (UTC)
3. Support -   General5 7    talk    contribs    email  
4. Support - And I might add, "Covenant" should redirect to Covenant Empire since that's what people will be looking 90% of the time. Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 16:44, July 1, 2010 (UTC)
5. Support - If there's only two possibilities, don't disambiguate them. Just have the monitor's page as "343 Guilty Spark" with a "Did you mean...?" linking to the level. I agree with Jugus, the most obvious one should be the one with the page.-- Forerunner 17:14, July 1, 2010 (UTC)
6. Support - Nìcmávr ^(Tálk) 17:25, July 1, 2010 (UTC)
7. Support - Ultra Force 17:55, July 1, 2010 (UTC)
8. Support - Sounds reasonable. Kougermasters (Talk) (Contribs) (Edits) 22:14, July 1, 2010 (UTC)
9. Support- This is mostly true, but when two things that are completely unrelated have the same name, we have a problem. For example, the two different soldiers Jones (Marine) and Jones (ODST), both of which are ODSTs and Marines, have to have (ha!) different names. If there is no primary, we cannot discard the brackets.--Fluffball Gato 00:31, July 2, 2010 (UTC)

   Indeed, that came to mind when I was writing the proposal, and I made it only apply to titles that are based on a primary subject. Duplicates like Jones and Alpha Base will, for the reasons you stated, go untouched, bar their capitalization. - Halo-343 (Talk) (Contribs) (Edits) 00:41, July 2, 2010 (UTC)

10. Support - Makes perfect sense. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 09:21, July 2, 2010 (UTC)
11. Support - I guess you are right. - JEA13 ^[iTalk] 13:34, July 2, 2010 (UTC)
12. Support - I agree completely. Col. Snipes450 15:12, July 3, 2010 (UTC)
13. Support - Absolutely yes. GySgt. Gonzalez -Comm Open- -Body Count- 01:18, July 5, 2010 (UTC)
14. Support - Fully agree. -DinoBenn says "Fight to the End, Never Give In" 03:21, July 6, 2010 (UTC)
15. Support - God he's good ;) - ShadowBroker44 01:47, July 7, 2010 (UTC)
16. Support - That makes sense - FatalSnipe117 02:59, July 8, 2010 (UTC)

Comments

A couple of things that could be added to the proposal: With the capitalization standard being changed, it should also be noted that the bracketed addendum should always be in lowercase, for the sake of both grammar and convenience in linking. That includes the (level) addendum which has been capitalized in the past. It's hard to think of a case where the word in the parentheses would be a proper noun except for some rare instances like Ghost (Marine); although I'm not really sure if capitalizing the word "marine" is grammatically correct, since I've seen in being done both ways.

Also, as stated by Dragonclaws in a thread on Talk:Main Page, the addendum (level) should only be used if there is another subject that shares the name of the level, such as Crow's Nest (Level), or when there's a level of the same name in another game, like Halo (Halo 3 Level). When the level is the only subject with that name, the (level) addendum becomes pointless.--Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 18:11, July 1, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, good points. I've added them to the proposal. - Halo-343 (Talk) (Contribs) (Edits) 18:52, July 1, 2010 (UTC)

"marine" is used to describe the soldier type in general, and "Marine" is used in reference to a U.S. Marine. I'm not sure on the UNSC version, but I expect it's the same title thing. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 09:18, July 2, 2010 (UTC)

Keep it as "UNSC Marine Corps" (or Marine corps), but when mentioning the troops, just link to "marine", which will be a redirect anyway.-- Forerunner 16:08, July 10, 2010 (UTC)