Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Naming conventions/Redraft1: Difference between revisions

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In order to maintain some consistency in the naming of stub templates, several guidelines are used by [[WP:WSS]] when naming new templates. The following is a list of several of the most important guidelines to take into consideration when naming a stub template. for a full list of stub types in use, see [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types|The WP:WSS Stub type list]].
 
In order to maintain some consistency in the naming of stub templates and their corresponding stub categories, several conventions for stub naming are used in [[Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion|stub deletion/merging/renaming]], for [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals|new stub proposals]], and by ''[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting|WikiProject Stub sorting]]'' while cleaning up stub organization. The following is a list of the most important conventions to take into consideration when naming a stub template and its stub category.
==Brief summary of the main highlights==
:''For a full list of stub types in use, see the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types|Stub types list]].''
#Stub template and redirect names should be in the form xx-stub or xx-xx-stub, with the parts separated by hyphens
#Capital letters should be used where they are normally used - i.e., for proper nouns like personal or place-names, but nowhere else
#Where a place-name is part of the stub, this name is normally (but not always) written in full (exceptions are listed below)
#Stub template and redirect names with three parts (xx-xx-stub) are normally used only when an existing category is divided into subcategories (e.g., dividing biography stubs by nationality)
#Stub category names should be in the form {{cl|Foo stubs}} - not {{cl|Foo-related stubs}} or {{cl|Fooian stubs}}
#These are only guidelines, and can have exceptions where necessary, but the fewer exceptions there are, the better
#Many existing categories do not follow these guidelines, but some of these may later be changed by [[WP:WSS]] to names which are more appropriate
 
==TemplatesSummary==
*Stub template names should be in the form xx-stub (or xx-xx-stub, etc.), with the parts separated by hyphens not spaces
*Capital letters should be used where (and only where) they are normally used - i.e., for proper nouns like personal or place names
*Where a place name is part of the stub, this name is normally (but not always) written in full (exceptions are [[#Current abbreviated subdivisional components|listed below]])
*Stub template names with three parts (xx-xx-stub) or more are normally used only when an existing Wikipedia article category is divided into subcategories e.g., dividing biography stubs by nationality)
*Stub category names should be in the form {{cl|England stubs}}, {{cl|Politics stubs}} &mdash; not {{cl|England-related stubs}}, {{cl|English stubs}}, {{cl|Politics-related stubs}}, {{cl|Political stubs}}
*These are only conventions, and may have exceptions where warranted, but the fewer exceptions there are, the better
*Many existing stubs and their categories do not follow these guidelines, but some of these may be [[Wikipedia:Stub types for deletion|changed]] to names which more closely follow these conventions
 
===xx-stub=Stub templates==
All stub templates should have names ending in "-stub". Note two things here:
#there is a hyphen, not a space, prior to the word "stub".
#the word "stub" is entirely in lower-case letters.
 
===xx-xx-stubComponents===
====Order and form====
When the name has three or more parts, hyphens are used between all sections. This is particularly notable with Hybrid/complex/composite/compound stubs (see below), although they also occasionally occur when the subject matter of the stub has more than one word in its name (e.g., DC-Comics-stub, Opera-singer-stub). The latter type should be avoided, however, if necessary by running words together. This allows for more consistent creation of complex stubs later.
Very high-level stubs are formed by combining a ''subdivisional'' component '''or''' a ''major'' component and the ''stub'' component (''e.g.'', {{tl|Germany-stub}}, {{tl|hist-stub}}, respectively). Most stubs are ''compound'' stubs, formed by combining one ''subdivisional'' and one or more ''major'' components (or no subdivisional but just two or more major components), and the ''stub'' component, in that order.<!--Later on, we should strongly discourage the creation of new high-level stubs! But NOT NOW.-->
 
When the name has three or more parts (xx-xx-stub, etc.), ''hyphens'' not spaces are used between all sections. This usually happens in two cases:
===Use of lower case===
#When a ''compound'' "child" stub type is created by the intersection of two (or more) "parent" stub sorting topics (''e.g.'' {{tl|France-geo-stub}}, which is the intersection of {{tl|France-stub}} and {{tl|geo-stub}}).
In general, stub names use lower case letters (although the first letter of any template name is not case sensitive, so this may be upper or lower case). The main exceptions to this rule are cases where Proper nouns are used - the names of people or places which get capital letters when written normally. The following are some of the exceptions:
#When the subject of a stub has two or more parts to its name (''e.g.'' {{tl|DC-Comics-stub}}, {{tl|opera-singer-stub}}; the latter type should be avoided, by running words together<!--, as in EXAMPLE HERE-->, since this allows creation of shorter compound stubs<!--, e.g. EXAMPLE HERE-->.
*US-stub and its children (e.g., US-geo-stub)
*UK-stub and its children (e.g., UK-bio-stub)
*NZ-stub
 
Compound stubs, which make use of the major ''and'' subdivisional components, are formed by subdividing a subdivisional stub sorting topic into smaller, more specific, child subtopics of the original topics, most often by ___location. Thus, the majority of compound stubs are formed by a combination of a geographical ___location subdivisional topic and one major topic, ''e.g.'' {{tl|Australia-bio-stub}}, or {{Kansas-geo-stub)). Other intersections of two topics result in non-geographical compound stubs of the same form, such as {{tl|sports-bio-stub}}. As topics (which usually but not universally coincide with [[Wikipedia:Category|categories]]) further subdivide, additional disambiguating major components may be added, as in {{tl|India-sport-bio-stub}}.
===Use of abbreviations===
Abbreviations are acceptable in the name of stub templates - they are for the benefit of the editor, not the reader, and the template names do not appear on screen in articles. Ambiguous abbreviations should be avoided however.
 
Regardless, a standardized format should be used for the major component, and a (different) standardized format for the subdivisional component(s) if any, along with the fixed-format stub component. These formats are as listed below:
For this reason, names like football-stub (which could refer to any of several sports) are not appropriate. Similarly, ISO codes for country names are generally regarded as inappropriate, since geography stub templates can refer to either countries or regions (many of which share two letter abbreviations - Gabon and the US state of Georgia both use GA, for example) and non-geography stubs can refer to things other than country names (for instance, UA could refer to Ukraine or United Artists, and AI to Anguilla or artificial intelligence).
 
====The ''stub'' component====
Of current stub categories, the most ambiguous are probably bio-stub (biography, not biology) and geo-stub (geography, not geology).
''All'' stub templates should have names ending in "-stub". Please note that there is a ''hyphen'' not space before the word "stub", and that it is entirely ''lower-case'' and ''singular'' (not "stubs").
 
====The ''major'' component====
===Hybrid/complex/composite/compound stubs===
Below is a list of some of the available major component general topic areas<!--complete it later and change language here, but NOT NOW-->, used for the middle component(s) of compound stub names. Each major component refers to a very high-level, ''general'' Wikipedia article [[Wikipedia:Category|category]] which has been split, with a specific subdivisional component (and sometimes with other major components), to make the new child topic. Major components are used to create the most general high-level stub templates, such as {{tl|bio-stub}}.<!--Later we should strongly discourage creation of random new major components/stubs. But NOT NOW.-->
These terms are four names for the same thing. When a stub type is created by the intersection of two large categories, the form xx-xx-stub should be used. Examples of these stubs are things like {{tl|UK-geo-stub}}, which is the intersection of {{tl|UK-stub}} and {{tl|geo-stub}}, and {{tl|France-bio-stub}}, which is the intersection of {{tl|France-stub}} and {{tl|bio-stub}}. These stubs are often referred to as the "children" of the larger categories of which they are the intersections
 
''All'' major components are entirely lower-case (and, as shown, are separated from other components with hypens.) Many of them are abbreviated, to avoid having to use long words like "geography" in thousands of stub templates, at the expense of some clarity &mdash; of current stub topics, the most ambiguous are probably bio-stub (biography, not biology) and geo-stub (geography, not geology) &mdash; but their number is limited so this is not seen as problematic.
====Order and usual form====
In general, composite stubs are formed by subdividing a major category into smaller sections, often by ___location. Thus, the vast majority composite stubs are formed by a combination of a geographical ___location and one other type of stub. We have UK-hist-stubs, Australia-bio-stubs, and Canada-geo-stubs, to give just three examples. In each case, a standard form should be used for the subdivisional component, and a standard form for the major component. These forms are as listed below:
 
=====The subdivisional component=====
Subdivision of existing categories is most commonly done by ___location, either by country or region. With most countries and regions, the common name of the area is used as the geographical component. Stubs about Argentina receive Argentina-stub, those about India receive India-stub, and so on. For some countries, however, an abbreviated form of the name is used. If a country has a two-word name, then occasionally this name will be written in full and concatenated (e.g., HongKong-geo-stub)The following are the abbreviations or alternatives currently in use. Note that those cases in italics may soon be deprecated, replaced by more acceptable alternatives:
 
Africa:
*AfricaC - Central Africa
*AfricaE - East Africa
*AfricaN - North Africa
*AfricaS - Southern Africa
*AfricaW - West Africa
 
Americas:
*CentralAm - Central America
*''Salvador'' - El Salvador
*SouthAm - South America
*US - United States
**NYC - New York City
 
Asia:
*CAsia - Central Asia
*Kyrg - Kyrgizstan
*MEast - Middle East
*SAsia - South Asia
*SEAsia - Southeast Asia
*Taiwan, or ROC (''or Roc'') - Republic of China (Taiwan)
 
Europe:
*BiH - Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Czech (''or Cz'') - Czech Republic/Czechia
*Euro - Europe
**EU - European Union
*UK (''or Uk'') - United Kingdom
**NI - Northern Ireland
**BritOT - British overseas territories
 
Oceania:
*NZ (''or Kiwi'') - New Zealand
*PNG - Papua New Guinea
 
Non-geographic subdivisions:
*
* reli - Religious/Religion
* tv - Television
 
=====The major component=====
The following terms are used for the middle component of three-part stub names, and usually refer to the category which has been split to make the new subdivision:
*-actor- (actor)
*-album- (album)
*-bcast- (broadcasting)
*-bio- (biographical articlebiography)
*-book- (book)
*-compu- (computer)
Line 106 ⟶ 57:
*-poli- (politics)
*-politician- (politician)
*-reli- (religion)
*-road- (road)
*-school- (non-university schoolsschool)
*-sci- (science)
*-struct- (building or structure)
*-theat- (theater/theatre)
*-tv- (television)
*-university- (universitiesuniversity)
*-writer- (writer)
 
====MixThe and''subdivisional'' matchcomponent====
The subdivision component is used to to create fairly high-level (and mostly geographical) ''simple stubs'', like {{tl|China-stub}} and {{tl|Euro-stub}}, and to combine with major stubs to create ''compound stubs'' that split up the high-level, very general topics into more specific ones. Subdivisional component mostly correspond to specific Wikipedia article categories.<!--This whole section needs a major update because this "mostly geographical" bit isn't entirely true any more. But NOT NOW.-->
From the above lists and from the actual names of countries not listed) a large number of potential stub categories can be created which fit into a standard pattern. A few examples of non-existent but plausible stub categories should demonstrate:
*MEast-poli-stub (Middle East politics)
*NZ-tv-stub (New Zealand television)
*Canada-myth-stub (Canadian mythology)
*SouthAm-actor-stub (South American actors)
*Reli-hist-stub (Religious history)
 
Subdivision of existing categories is most commonly done by ___location, either by country or region. With most countries and regions, the common name of the area is used as the geographical component. Stubs about Argentina receive {{tl|Argentina-stub}}, those about India receive {{tl|India-stub}}, and so on. For some countries, however, an abbreviated form of the name is used (as detailed below). If a country has a two-word name, then occasionally this name will be written in full and concatenated (e.g., HongKong-geo-stub)<!--We should clarify whether abbreviation, acronymization, "squishing" and/or cominbations thereof are generally encouraged or deprecated. But NOT NOW.-->
===Exceptions===
There are, of course, many exceptions to these rules. Some of these are due to the stub template being made by someone from outside the WP:WSS project. Others are for convenience of editors, or because the name was the most logical one. WP:WSS is actively pursuing the renaming of some of these stubs, although many of them "work well enough" that this may not be necessary. The following are some of the most common (this is not an exhaustive list):
 
=====Character case=====
====Children of {{tl|Compu-stub}} and {{tl|Music-stub}}, {{tl|Geo-term-stub}}====
Subdivisional components use lower-case letters, except that proper nouns such as the names of people or places and acronyms are capitalized as they would be normally, as in {{tl|IledeFrance-geo-stub}} (note "de" not "De"), and {{tl|UK-stub}}. Note that as with other templates, the first character is not case-sensitive, so {{tl|Japan-stub}} and {{tl|japan-stub}} are equivalent.<!--We should clarify that diacritics are (usally?) dropped. But NOT NOW.-->
These groups seem to work backwards to the normal system, with the main parent category appearing first. These make sense, however, since in common speech phrases like "computer software", "musical instruments", and "geographical terms" are named in this way.
 
=====Abbreviations=====
Abbreviations are acceptable in the names of subdivisional components, since the templates are for the benefit of editors, not readers, and the template names do not appear on-screen in articles. Abbreviations can help in keeping the length of compound stubs to a minimum.
 
''Ambiguous abbreviations should be avoided however.'' For this reason, names like football-stub (which could refer to any of several sports) are not appropriate. Similarly, [[ISO country code|codes]] for country names are generally regarded as inappropriate, since geography stub templates can refer to either countries or regions (many of which share two letter abbreviations - Gabon and the US state of Georgia both use GA, for example) and non-geography stubs can refer to things other than country names (for instance, UA could refer to Ukraine or United Artists, and AI to Anguilla or artificial intelligence).
 
Some acronym subdivisional components (and resulting child templates) do exist, such as for the {{tl|US-stub}} and {{tl|UK-stub}} families.<!-- It is assumed that more of same should be discouraged, but original version did not say so. We should fix this, but NOT NOW.-->
===Redirects===
Redirects are used far less frequently with stub templates, but still exist. Redirects follow the same guidelines as the templates the redirect to, and because the naming guidelines are fairly prescriptive, there is less opportunity for properly named redirects to exist.
 
=====Current abbreviated subdivisional components=====
==Categories==
The following is a possibly incomplete list of the abbreviations, acronyms or alternatives currently in use. Note that those cases in italics may soon be deprecated, replaced by more acceptable alternatives:
 
Africa:
*AfricaC - Central Africa
*AfricaE - East Africa
*AfricaN - North Africa
*AfricaS - Southern Africa
*AfricaW - West Africa
 
Americas:
*CentralAm - Central America
**Salvador - El Salvador
*SouthAm - South America
*US - United States
**NYC - New York City
 
Asia:
*CAsia - Central Asia
**Kyrg - Kyrgizstan
*MEast - Middle East
*SAsia - South Asia
*SEAsia - Southeast Asia
*Taiwan, or ROC (''or'' RoC, ''or'' Roc) - Republic of China (Taiwan, Chinese Taipei)
 
Europe:
*Euro - Europe
**EU - European Union
**BiH - Bosnia and Herzegovina
**Czech (''or'' Cz) - Czech Republic/Czechia
**UK (''or'' Uk) - United Kingdom
***NI - Northern Ireland
***BritOT - British overseas territories
 
Oceania:
*NZ (''or'' Kiwi) - New Zealand
*PNG - Papua New Guinea
 
====Mix and match====
From the above lists and from the actual names of countries (not listed here) a large number of potential stub categories can be created which fit into standardized and rather predictable patterns. A few examples should demonstrate:
*{{tl|Canada-poli-stub}} (Canadian politics)
*{{tl|Mexico-tv-stub}} (Mexican television)
*{{tl|SouthAm-actor-stub}} (South American actors)
*{{tl|Japan-sport-bio-stub}} (Japanese sports biographies) &mdash; an example of a four-component compound stub
*{{tl|sci-hist-stub}} (history of science) &mdash; an example of an all-major-component compound stub
 
===Stub template redirects===
Redirects are used far less frequently with stub templates, but still exist. Redirects follow the same guidelines as the templates they redirect to, and because the naming guidelines are fairly [[Linguistic prescription|prescriptive]], there is less opportunity for properly named redirects to exist.<!--Needs work, but NOT NOW.-->
 
==Stub categories==
===General form===
The general form of stub category names is "Noun stubs" (e.g., {{cl|History stubs}}). Preferably, these ''should be in a similar form to their non-stub parent categories'', although this is not always the case. The format "Adjectival stubs" (e.g., {{cl|Historical stubs}}) is not to be used.
 
===Abbreviations===
Abbreviations should not be used in stub category names. Several are currently used (notably "UK" and "US") but these will hopefully be changed over to new names sometime soon.<!--Ensure this gibes with what WP:CFD has to say on the matter. But NOT NOW.-->
 
===Deprecation of "-related"===
At one time, stub categories often used the form {{cl|Subject-related stubs}}. These have now all been changed over to the consensus-accepted form of {{cl|Subject stubs}}. All new categories should avoid the use of the term "-related".
 
==Exceptions==
===Foo stubs or Foo-related stubs?===
There are, of course, some exceptions to these conventions, and some stub templates and categories that do not follow them. Some of these are due to the stub template being made by someone from outside the WP:WSS project. Others are for the convenience of editors, or because the name was the most logical one. [[WP:WSS]] is actively pursuing the renaming of some of these stubs and stub categories, although many of them "work well enough" that this may not be necessary.
At one time, stub categories used the form "Foo-related stubs". These have now all been changed over to the now accepted form of "Foo stubs". All new categories should avoid the use of the term "-related".
 
<!--[[Category:WikiProject Stub sorting|Naming]]-->