DDO wiki:Naming policy

This article discusses the current Naming Policy and guidelines for DDOWiki articles. For the DDO Naming Policy for Characters and Guilds, see DDO Character Naming Policy.

Overview

This article is intended to help standardize our naming conventions across this wiki. Most of this policy has already been discussed and accepted by many editors, and is 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, 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 officially 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.

Most simply, this wiki uses "sentence case" rules for naming pages and files; that is, only the first word is capitalized, except for proper nouns and other words which are generally capitalized by a more specific rule.
For section headings (the stuffs in between ==... ...==) it is solely up to the individual editor. Per wikiquette, it is also inappropriate to make changes to a page solely to change the case of the section headings.

Naming Conventions for Specific Article Types

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 {{Disambig}}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 with more standardized capitalization and redirect it to the proper article with the in-game naming. This should improve searches, which are semi-case sensitive.

Quest Articles

Use the exact in-game name of the adventure name of the said quest - including any strange capitalization it may use.
- This is a commonly confused subject as quests have no less than 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 to quests' names as.)

Note: Although we use the Adventure name, we always refer to quests as "quests" not "adventures".

Example: The Shroud:

Story-arc name: The Thirteenth Eclipse
Quest name: The Thirteenth Eclipse (Though its flagging has several parts, it has no sub naming)
Dungeon name: The Shroud
Adventure name: The Shroud

Thus we use The Shroud as the quest article's name.

NPC/Monster/other game content related articles

Use exact in-game naming/capitalization for any of the following:
- Feats, Skills, Enhancements, Enchantments, Spells and anything else game related. If there is a conflict set up a disambiguation page and add the type of article as a suffix in parentheses - lowercase.
  - EG: Rage is just named plain Rage in-game for both the spell and the Barbarian Class feat. So we have: Rage (spell) and Rage (feat).
For names use the exact in-game name of the monster or NPC as it appears in the focus orb. Omit any titles it may have.
- If the name conflicts with another page, consider adding it's title as a suffix in parentheses.

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 Spaces

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

Personal Player Character Pages

These should be placed as a sub-page of your username in your personal space:
- URL Should read: https://ddowiki.com/page/User:(YourUserName)/Characters/(Character Name) of (Server Name)

Category Naming

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.
Category names should be as short and to the point as possible. Trim any and all unnecessary prefixes such as "named" or "unique" or "special". We use a complex category tree here, so long category names can cause the tree to get way too long and unorganized.

File Naming

Shortcuts: DDO:File naming policy DDO:Image policy

In general it should match the above rules except obviously end with an appropriate lowercase extension.
The wiki IS case sensitive, and files cannot be moved easily, so it's important to be careful when typing in a file name.
File names on the site do not need to match the name of the file you're actually uploading, so the easiest way to ensure you get it right is to link the file first, before it exists on the wiki, then click the red link and the upload prompt will automatically fill-in the correct file destination.
Permitted file types: png, jpg, gif. Large file threshold: 300kB. Maximum file size: 2MB.
- Most desired file type usage: .png for small images, .jpg for large ones.
No .PNG, .JPG, .JPEG, or .jpeg file extension! Use .png or .jpg - lowercase. It's the windows standard, which is what DDO runs on. And what most good image editors default to.
We often ignore 300kB recommendation; please don't do something crazy like a hotlinked 1.5M byte jpg for a simple shown weapon shot. (How to crop/compress images? Watch the videos!)
No externally-hosted images.
- Though for quick posts on talk pages they are permitted. All images outside talk pages should be uploaded to the wiki.

File Naming - Item Pages

While not required to follow any 1 pattern, it would make updating and maintaining our item images a lot easier if we all follow one pattern:
- Preferred pattern for description images: Page name (which should match the exact item name).png.
  - - EG: Carnifex.png for the Carnifex Great Axe description image.
- Preferred pattern for main worn/action shots of weapons/armor/helmet/goggles equipped: Page name (which should match the exact item name) shown.jpg.
  - EG: Carnifex shown.jpg for the Carnifex Great Axe description image.
- Preferred pattern for anything else in the main image box (focus orb shot preferably): Page name (which should match the exact item name) orb.png.
Also acceptable for focus orbs is to crop the item name, and only show the orb - this allows it to be used for multiple item pages.
- Current naming for such focus orb images is Type generic description.png. EG: Necklace generic gold.png or Trinket generic bauble.png.
Preferred description image cropping resolution: width: 420 by height: X (Usually round it to the nearest 10th while maintain the items border). 420 pixels is the exact value all of our templates use, and thus exactly how you should crop it if you want your image to look it's best on the wiki. Any other width will automatically be re sized and look worse, as the wiki's image re size function is efficient, but not the best quality.
- Do not crop the items border. The border color is a game-play-impacting detail that should be maintained. You should clip the wings of the border to get to 420px, but not the border itself.
Preferred worn/action shots resolution: as-high-as possible. While the wiki will re-size the shot to 420px in the templates, users can click through to see the full resolution, and the more detail the better to help people determine if they like it or not. Though you should go for 420px wide as a minimum, and height shouldn't be too much higher than the width, as it will stretch the template.

Tip: Certain places offer either a completely black or a completely white solid backdrop. Take screen shots of items/orbs against one of those backdrops. It makes cropping images much easier. Some of those places are:

the dark corners in the damaged Lordsmarch Bank during The Chronoscope, black and very easily framing you from head to toes
the shadows on the ground just around the Tower of Kol Korran in the north-eastern part of House Kundarak Enclave, black and possibly framing you from head to toes
the entrance doors to the Heyton Family Crypt in the western part of Korthos Village, black when viewed from the outside
the entrance doors to the Crafting Hall in House Kundarak Enclave, black from the outside
the entrance doors to the Airship Showroom in the Harbor, black from the outside, white from the inside
the entrance doors to the Tower of the Twelve in The Twelve, white from the inside
the skylight in the Tower of the Twelve tavern (west), white (you need to look upwards)
the skylight in the Tower of the Twelve vendor area (north-east), white

Additional Naming Rules

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 actual character enhancements, a very complex part of the game deserving of its 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 necessary: 99.999% of the item pages on the wiki are "named" items regardless. The few "basic" items are put into the "Basic items" category, and we obviously do not have pages for random items.
- 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"
- SSG / DDO uses "Collectables"; therefore, so do we.
- Yes, we know spell-checker thinks it's wrong
"Helm" vs. "Helmet"
- SSG / DDO uses "Helm"; therefore, so do we.
  - Related discussion page

Other Conflicts

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