DDO wiki:Naming policy

=Overview= This article is intended to help standard our naming conventions across the wiki. Most of these policy have already been discussed and accepted by many editors, and thus considered a standard that all users should follow.

Feel free to propose any changes to this policy, but please make sure that changes you make are first discussed on the discussion page before you put them into practice. Any big changes need to be Adopted or Decreed to be enforced as policy.

The title may simply be the name (or a name) of the subject of the article, or it may be a description of the topic. Since no two articles can have the same title,[2] it is sometimes necessary to add distinguishing information, often in the form of a description in parentheses after the name. Generally, article titles are based on what the subject is called official in the game itself. When this offers multiple possibilities, editors choose among them by considering several principles: the ideal article title will resemble titles for similar articles, precisely identify the subject, be short, be natural, and be recognizable.

Item articles

 * Use the exact in game name of the item - including any strange capitalization it may use.
 * If said name conflicts with another filled out and useful article - say a spell page, instead create a disambiguation page (Use and add the (item) suffix after the name of the item page and the (spell) suffix after the name of the spell page.
 * If the capitalization is particularly strange, consider creating another page which more standardize capitalization, and redirect it to the proper article with the in game naming. This should improve searches, which are semi-case sensitive.

Quest articles
Note: Although we use the Adventure name. We always refer to quests as "quests" not "adventures".
 * Use the exact in game name of the adventure name of the said quest - including any strange capitalization it may use.
 * This is commonly confused subject as quests have no less then 4 in-game names:
 * Story-arc name (As it shows in your quest journal)
 * Quest name (As it shows in your quest journal - may differ for quests where there are several parts to it.)
 * Dungeon name (As it shows in your quest journal/adventure compendium. Rarely matches the adventure name.)
 * Adventure name (As it shows in the adventure compendium/LFM Panel - This is what we use, and what most players in-game will most commonly refer quests names as.)

Example: The Shroud: Thus we use The Shroud as the quest articles name.
 * Story-arc name: The Thirteenth Eclipse
 * Quest name: The Thirteenth Eclipse (Though it's flagging has several parts, it has no sub naming)
 * Dungeon name: The Shroud
 * Adventure name: The Shroud

Character/Monster/NPC articles

 * Use the exact in game name of the monster, NPC or character in quest. Omit any titles it may have.
 * If the name conflicts with another page, consider adding it's title in parentheses as a suffix.

Guild pages

 * Notice: We do not allow guild pages on the wiki. Please use a service like Guild Launch, Guild Portal, or Google a host (here) for this.

Personal articles

 * You are allowed a reasonable number of personal articles, stored under your user name.
 * URL Should read: http://ddowiki.com/page/User:YourUserName/Article_Name
 * The main difference in personal articles is other users are discouraged (but still allowed) from editing your articles.

Player characters

 * Like personal articles these should be placed as a sub-page of your username:
 * URL Should read: http://ddowiki.com/page/User:YourUserName/Characters/Character_Name

Category naming

 * Unlike most other page names, Categories use standard English capitalization rules. Thus only proper names are capitalized as in-game, not much else.
 * Lower case example: Category:Items by minimum level - only the first letter of the category name is capitalized in this case.
 * Partial uppercase example: Category:An Offering of Blood loot - Certain words have an uppercase letter as it's the proper name of a quest, followed by loot, as it's loot found in said quest.

Terminology conflicts

 * "Quest" vs "Adventure"
 * Use "Quest". See quest article for its definition. However keep in mind we use the "Adventure name" for article naming purposes only.
 * "Enchantment" vs "Enhancement"
 * For something written on items to describe its effect, we take "Enchantment". Not "Enhancements", "Weapon specs", nor "Item properties"!
 * Enhancements are only used for actually character enhancements, a very complex part of the game deserving of it's own unique naming.
 * "Unique" vs. "Named" vs None
 * In the case of Category names: Use no prefix. Items are a big enough part of the wiki that no such prefix is neccesary.
 * In the case of item indexes or other pages that refer to them, use "Named". Unique implies it's one of a kind, yet named items certainly are not that, they are a big part of the game and for many end game players, the only type of item they equip. Discussion here.
 * "Collectables" vs. "Collectibles"
 * Turbine / DDO uses "Collectables"; therefore, so do we.
 * Yes, we know spell-checker thinks it's wrong

Other conflicts

 * We will examine other conflicts on a case by case basis. Post them in the naming policy talk page for discussion.