Halopedia talk:Manual of Style: Difference between revisions

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Comming from Wookiepedia myself, I have a huge problem with the way the pages on this site are formatted. I know this is only the voice of one person, but i find all of these in-article references to real world sources appalling. I beleive we should format a Manual of Style that holds all references towards the end of the article, with the in-universe information staying as such. For example, compare the [[Master Chief]] to [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Anakin_Skywalker Anakin Skywalker] (sorry for such a long page to link to). Notice how the article is well written, the pictures are scattered and alternate from left to right as the article continues. There is no reference to sources or the real world until the "Behind the Scenes" section. From here, look at the ''Chief'' article. There is great disorder, the pictures are all on the right side and out of chronological order. There is even a book cover in the middle of the article. If you refer to [[Johnson|Johnson's page]], there are references to sources in inappropriate ways:
{{Archived}}


{{quote|Johnson mowing down Grunts in Halo: Combat Evolved.|Picture quote from the [[Sergeant Major Avery Johnson]] article}}
== Proposal: an end to the obfuscation of article titles ==


We should save all references to the real world for the end of the articles.
A while ago, I brought up an issue regarding the use of [[:Template:Title]] on [[:Template talk:Title#Regarding usage|said template's talk page]]. I'll just repost a modified version of my original proposal here since one of my core points hasn't changed and neither has our practice. If no one has any massively strong objections to this I'll go and add the instructions regarding the use of the template to the MOS title section.


Also, we need a new naming system here. While Anakin and Darth Vader are different names for the same character, Wookieepedia takes this into account and puts all biographical information under the one true name: Anakin Skywalker. Here we have Covenant names mislabeled, with the true name [[Unggoy]] being redirected to the human slang term: [[Grunt]]. Instead of [[Avery J. Johnson]], we have [[Sergeant Major Avery Johnson]], rank and all. Personally, i believe that ranks should follow and be '''bolded''' in the introduction paragraph (e.g. '''Sergeant Major Avery Johnson''' was a dear ally to [[Master Chief]]).  
Currently, our pages use the Title template to hide bracketed disambiguation addenda (see [[Forward Unto Dawn (poem)]], [[Bradley (commander)]]) in article titles. However, this is problematic for a number of reasons. The template is useful for italicizing media titles and so forth, but the addition or omission of parts of the title itself is something I believe we should get rid of. Hiding the addenda can easily lead to confusion as to what the actual title of the page is since it's not very conspicuously visible aside from the URL bar. While looking at the address is hardly a colossal task, it's not something that's immediately obvious to a lot of people. That, and hiding the disambiguation serves no real purpose aside making the title itself slightly prettier, but I might again stress that the purpose of the article title isn't, ultimately, to be pretty or even be the most technically correct or all-encompassing name of the subject. The full title should always be readily available in the introductory paragraph (and in many cases the infobox), while the article title can almost be thought of as a shortcut.


While i may just be one person griping, I'm a devoted Halo fan and have come to this site often. That being said, i am dissapointed at the formatting of the articles here and wish for a revolution for the better. I say this only to improve the site, not to bash it or flame it in any way. I hope the administrators take this into consideraton. I have a busy school schedule, and i won't be able to help out that much, but nevertheless i would be glad to contibute to any reformatting if it does indeed take place. Thank you for reading. [[User:Dude984|Dude984]] 18:03, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
This type of standard is also in place over at Wikipedia: for example, the titles of [[Wikipedia:Joker (comics)|Joker (comics)]] or [[Wikipedia:Flood (Halo)|Flood (Halo)]] aren't rendered as "Joker" or "Flood" even though this would be possible with the title template. I defer to Wikipedia's conventions in this case since while a wiki such as ours obviously differs when it comes to content inclusion policies and the like, their formatting is generally a reliable precedent. --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 11:42, 23 April 2014 (EDT)


:You know what, while I had never thought about this before, I completely agree. To start reformatting and making everything better, we should start with rewriting all the articles that are written poorly, re-captioning images, general stuff like that, and I'll put a poll on the main page talk, since more people look at that than this, I think, about renaming articles. If we get enough votes, I'll start changing all the articles like Master Chief and Sergeant Major Avery Johnson to either redirects or disambiguation pages, and all that. Thanks for coming by and pointing all this out, and contratulations on writing what I think is quite possibly the longest talk page comment I have ever seen. ;D '''[[User:Guesty-Persony-Thingy|<font color="red">g<sup>u</sup>e<sub>s</sub>t<sup>y</sup></font>]]-[[User talk:Guesty-Persony-Thingy|<font color="blue">p<sub>e</sub>r<sup>s</sup>o<sub>n</sub>y</font>]]-[[Special:Contributions/Guesty-Persony-Thingy|<font color="green"><sup>t</sup>h<sub>i</sub>n<sup>g</sup>y</font>]]'''<font color="purple"><sup>I too have an AI... his name is [[User:RelentlessRecusant|Supreme Honcho.]]</sup></font> 21:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
:{{Support}} — <span style="font-size:14px; font-family:Arial;">[[User:Subtank|<span style="color:#FF4F00;">subtank</span>]]</span>  14:42, 23 April 2014 (EDT)
 
== Character middle names ==
 
I'd like to bring to light an issue about our current unwritten policy of titling character pages. The rule is ostensibly to use First name+Last name only, but this wasn't the case in [[Forum:Human middle names|the proposal that cemented our supposedly current standard]]. The idea was to use a format similar to Wikipedia in that the use of middle names or initials is decided on a case-by-case basis rather than using one single standardized format based on the way a particular character is commonly referenced in canon, and I still find myself in agreement with this.
 
For example, [[William Arthur Iqbal]] would stay the way it is because it's his first and only introduction, plus it seems his middle name is important given its inclusion in the story's title. [[Marcus Stacker]] might become "Marcus P. Stacker" because of the [[Pete Stacker|meta-significance]] of the middle initial as well as the fact it's his first full-name introduction. [[Preston Cole]] would be "Preston J. Cole" as detailed in the proposal's original example. Based on what we'll see in ''Nightfall'' and the Halo Channel encyclopedia, we might also include the full names of [[Gregory Aio Ramos]], [[Alistair Bov Estrin]] and [[Michael Bradley Horrigan]] in their article titles as the producers saw fit to include them in the casting sheets while leaving them out for other characters. --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 06:02, 17 October 2014 (EDT)
 
== Error ==
There is a small mistake, but an ironic one. The "heretic" page linked to in the article claims to refer to the heretics that "offend the Covenant religion" but in truth it links to the Heretic multiplayer map. [[User:Pecanurdu|Pecanurdu]] ([[User talk:Pecanurdu|talk]]) 04:08, July 17, 2021 (EDT)

Latest revision as of 04:08, July 17, 2021

Proposal: an end to the obfuscation of article titles[edit]

A while ago, I brought up an issue regarding the use of Template:Title on said template's talk page. I'll just repost a modified version of my original proposal here since one of my core points hasn't changed and neither has our practice. If no one has any massively strong objections to this I'll go and add the instructions regarding the use of the template to the MOS title section.

Currently, our pages use the Title template to hide bracketed disambiguation addenda (see Forward Unto Dawn (poem), Bradley (commander)) in article titles. However, this is problematic for a number of reasons. The template is useful for italicizing media titles and so forth, but the addition or omission of parts of the title itself is something I believe we should get rid of. Hiding the addenda can easily lead to confusion as to what the actual title of the page is since it's not very conspicuously visible aside from the URL bar. While looking at the address is hardly a colossal task, it's not something that's immediately obvious to a lot of people. That, and hiding the disambiguation serves no real purpose aside making the title itself slightly prettier, but I might again stress that the purpose of the article title isn't, ultimately, to be pretty or even be the most technically correct or all-encompassing name of the subject. The full title should always be readily available in the introductory paragraph (and in many cases the infobox), while the article title can almost be thought of as a shortcut.

This type of standard is also in place over at Wikipedia: for example, the titles of Joker (comics) or Flood (Halo) aren't rendered as "Joker" or "Flood" even though this would be possible with the title template. I defer to Wikipedia's conventions in this case since while a wiki such as ours obviously differs when it comes to content inclusion policies and the like, their formatting is generally a reliable precedent. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 11:42, 23 April 2014 (EDT)

Support.svg Supportsubtank 14:42, 23 April 2014 (EDT)

Character middle names[edit]

I'd like to bring to light an issue about our current unwritten policy of titling character pages. The rule is ostensibly to use First name+Last name only, but this wasn't the case in the proposal that cemented our supposedly current standard. The idea was to use a format similar to Wikipedia in that the use of middle names or initials is decided on a case-by-case basis rather than using one single standardized format based on the way a particular character is commonly referenced in canon, and I still find myself in agreement with this.

For example, William Arthur Iqbal would stay the way it is because it's his first and only introduction, plus it seems his middle name is important given its inclusion in the story's title. Marcus Stacker might become "Marcus P. Stacker" because of the meta-significance of the middle initial as well as the fact it's his first full-name introduction. Preston Cole would be "Preston J. Cole" as detailed in the proposal's original example. Based on what we'll see in Nightfall and the Halo Channel encyclopedia, we might also include the full names of Gregory Aio Ramos, Alistair Bov Estrin and Michael Bradley Horrigan in their article titles as the producers saw fit to include them in the casting sheets while leaving them out for other characters. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 06:02, 17 October 2014 (EDT)

Error[edit]

There is a small mistake, but an ironic one. The "heretic" page linked to in the article claims to refer to the heretics that "offend the Covenant religion" but in truth it links to the Heretic multiplayer map. Pecanurdu (talk) 04:08, July 17, 2021 (EDT)