Wikipedia's Manual of Style contains some conventions that differ from those in some other, well-known style guides and from what is often taught in schools. Wikipedia's editors have discussed these conventions in great detail and have reached consensus that these conventions serve our purposes best. New contributors are advised to check the FAQ and the archives to see if their concern has already been discussed.
Why does the Manual of Style recommend straight (keyboard-style) instead of curly (typographic) quotation marks and apostrophes (i.e., the characters " and ', instead of “, ”, ‘, and ’)?
Users may only know how to type in straight quotes (such as " and ') when searching for text within a page or when editing. Not all Web browsers find curly quotes when users type straight quotes in search strings.
This system is preferred because Wikipedia, as an international and electronic encyclopedia, has specific needs better addressed by logical quotation than by the other styles, despite the tendency of externally published style guides to recommend the latter. These include the distinct typesetters' style (often called American, though not limited to the US), and the various British/Commonwealth styles, which are superficially similar to logical quotation but have some characteristics of typesetters' style. Logical quotation is more in keeping with the principle of minimal change to quotations, and is less prone to misquotation, ambiguity, and the introduction of errors in subsequent editing, than the alternatives. Logical quotation was adopted in 2005, and has been the subject of perennial debate that has not changed this consensus.
Why does the Manual of Style differentiate the hyphen (-), en dash (–), em dash (—), and minus sign (−)?
Appropriate use of hyphens and dashes is as much a part of literate, easy-to-read writing as are correct spelling and capitalization. The "Insert" editing tools directly below the Wikipedia editing window provide immediate access to all these characters.
Why does the Manual of Style recommend apostrophe+s for singular possessive of names ending in s?
Most modern style guides treat names ending with s just like other singular nouns when forming the possessive. The few that do not propose mutually contradictory alternatives. Numerous discussions have led to the current MoS guidance (see discussions of 2004, 2005, 2005, 2006, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2008, 2008, 2009, 2009, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2017, 2017, 2018, 2018, 2019, 2021,
2022).
Why doesn't the Manual of Style always follow specialized practice?
Although Wikipedia contains some highly technical content, it is written for a general audience. While specialized publications in a field, such as academic journals, are excellent sources for facts, they are not always the best sources for or examples of how to present those facts to non-experts. When adopting style recommendations from external sources, the Manual of Style incorporates a substantial number of practices from technical standards and field-specific academic style guides; however, Wikipedia defaults to preferring general-audience sources on style, especially when a specialized preference may conflict with most readers' expectations, and when different disciplines use conflicting styles.
This page falls within the scope of the Wikipedia:Manual of Style, a collaborative effort focused on enhancing clarity, consistency, and cohesiveness across the Manual of Style (MoS) guidelines by addressing inconsistencies, refining language, and integrating guidance effectively.Manual of StyleWikipedia:WikiProject Manual of StyleTemplate:WikiProject Manual of StyleManual of Style articles
This page falls under the contentious topics procedure and is given additional attention, as it closely associated to the English Wikipedia Manual of Style, and the article titles policy. Both areas are subjects of debate. Contributors are urged to review the awareness criteria carefully and exercise caution when editing.
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Add a link to new discussions at top of list and indicate what kind of discussion it is (move request, RfC, open discussion, deletion discussion, etc.). Follow the links to participate, if interested. Move to Concluded when decided, and summarize conclusion. Please keep this section at the top of the page.
Help talk:Table#Indenting tables – Help page is conflicting with MOS:DLIST and MOS:ACCESS on a technical point. No objection to fixing it, and a suggestion to just do it WP:BOLDly, but the work actually has to be done. (Aug. 2023 –Jan. 2024)
Talk:Popverse#Redirect templates – Should the "avoided double redirect" tag to applied on a correctly capitalized redirect when there's a similar but miscapitalized redirect? Or should only the miscapitalized one be so tagged?
Talk:Julian (emperor) – should "emperor" by capped when referring to a specific person?
Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Trademarks#Minor consolidation merge – To merge a line-item (about stylization of stage/pen names) out of MOS:INITIALS (where the one of the examples is only semi-pertinent anyway) and into MOS:TM, leaving behind a cross-reference to MOS:TM from MOS:NAMES. Because of some things that apply to personal not corporate names, this ended up not being practical; intead the MOS:BIO material was cleaned up and cross-references between the two MOS sections was improved; description at: Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biography#Minor overhauling. No objections or other issues have come up. (Nov.–Dec. 2023)
Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#MOS style for odds – About changing MOS:RATIOS to specify a format (new or otherwise) for betting-odds ratios. Result: No formal closure, but apparent general agreement that the : style for ratios in general applies to odds ratio in particular like the rest, and MOS:RATIOS updated to say this. (Oct.–Dec. 2023)
Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 187#Proposed change MOS:TERRORIST – On how WP uses terms like "terrorist/terrorism" and "freedom fighter", specifically to add a requirement "these words should only be used in quotations or referencing third-party use of the term". Result: "nearly unanimously opposed". (Oct. 2023)
Talk:2023 Hawaii wildfires/Archive 2#Use of Hawaiian symbols in names – Involves MOS:HAWAII and could have implications for what the guideline says due to wildfire news bringing many more editorial eyes to that page than to WT:MOSHAWAII. Result: Archived without closure or any clear consensus; the general gist seems to be that the state of Hawaii is named Hawaii, the island is named Hawaiʻi, and diacritics (ʻokina and kahakō) should not be suppressed in the more localized names (and the US Geological Survey, which sets official placenames, along with the Hawaiʻi Board on Geographic Names, which basically tells USGS what to do in Hawaii/Hawaiʻi, both agree). (Aug.–Sep. 2023)
Talk:Bayes' theorem#Requested move 23 August 2023 – MOS:POSS stuff. Result: Not moved. Lots of invalid arguments, and confused attempt to pit WP:COMMONAME against MoS (COMMONNAME is not a style policy, never has been one, and never will be; every proposal to incorporate a style matter into a policy has failed). (Aug. 2023)
Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 August 5#Hyphen vs. En dash usage (Wikidata)? and d:Wikidata:Project chat/Archive/2023/08#Hyphen vs. En dash to separate years of birth/death? – Relating to concordance between wikidata descriptions and enwiki "short description". Result: Good summary: "as long as you choose a comprehensible form, your edits are fine. However, you should not change existing descriptions for stylistic reasons, and also not to unify desriptions for a given set of items"; also observations that various languages, e.g. Spanish, do not use an en dash for this purpose. So, Wikidata will not be changing away from hyphen as default, and any desire to have WD material, like automatically provided short descriptions, will have to do that change on our end. (Aug. 2023)
Talk:SAG-AFTRA#Requested move 20 July 2023 – move to SAG–AFTRA like AFL–CIO, or is there a reason to hyphenate as SAG-AFTRA? Result: Not moved. The closer actually misunderstood the guideline wording badly, and this has created a WP:CONSISTENT policy failure with titles of other such entities including AFL–CIO, and the Famous Players-Lasky decision covered just below. This probably needs to be re-done. (July 2023)
Talk:Famous Players-Lasky#Requested move 24 June 2023 – proposal to use dash instead of hyphen. Result: Use the dash per MOS:DASH; a followup RM to add "Corporation" to the title rejected that idea despite WP:NCCORP supporting it, one of several recent RM incidents suggesting that at least some portions of the page do not enjoy consensus. (June–July 2023)
Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 182#RFC: MOS:GENDERID and the deadnames of deceased trans and nonbinary persons – Primarily about "When should Wikipedia articles include the former name of a deceased trans or nonbinary person who was not notable prior to transitioning?" Result: "there is a consensus against using the former names of transgender or non-binary people, living or dead, except when of encyclopedic interest or when necessary to avoid confusion. Also, there is clear consensus that a former name is not automatically of encyclopedic interest. Where, exactly, the lines of encyclopedic interest and avoiding confusion are is not simple or clear and will likely need discussion on individual articles, although there is definitely space for more guidance in the MOS". This has let to a lot of follow-on discussion and dispute. (May–June 2023)
Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biography#2022_archive#Neopronouns RfC (moved) – several options were under discussion, including singular they, using neo-pronouns like xie, always referring to subject by surname, etc. Result: strong consensus to use singular they for subjects who use neopronouns. (Oct.–Nov. 2022)
Talk:Winston-Salem, North Carolina#RfC about Info Box – involves MOS:INFOBOX and MOS:ICONS and should be a broader discussion than just about this single article. Summary: about 50% of our US city articles include highway signs in the infobox, which is very inconsistent. Result: Near-unanimous agreement to remove them, though this does not appear to have resulted in changes at other articles and probably should. (June–Sep. 2022)
Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Linking#RfC on self-linking within article prose – Result: "There is a consensus that self-links within prose should be allowed and that linking should be based on editorial discretion." This is about linking to one section of an article from another section of the same article. (Nov. 2021 – Jan. 2022)
Talk:Rolling block#Case and hyphen – "rolling block action" vs. "rolling-block action", and "Remington Rolling Block breech" vs. "Remington rolling-block breech". Result: inconclusive discussion (May–Dec. 2021).
Talk:Love On Top#Requested move 25 April 2021 – Revisiting whether to capitalize the first word of a compound preposition even when that word is a short preposition; MOS:5LETTER might need a revision. Result: No consensus, not moved.
Talk:Woman on Top#Requested move 6 April 2021 – Multiple proposals like "Receiving partner on top", "On top (sex)", etc., motivated by gender and language-reform advocacy views. Result: essentially a WP:SNOW: "not moved, and with a reception likely to strongly discourage near-future requests. ... Consensus in this discussion is strongly in the direction that any such move would be OR/SYNTH violating article title policies."
Talk:Pied-Noir#Lowercase – Lowercase "Pied-Noir" (or use "Pied-noir" or "Pieds-Noirs" or "Pieds-noirs" or "pieds-noirs")? Result: Lowercase "noirs", leaning lowercase for "pieds" as well.
Talk:Toy boy#Requested move 17 December 2023 – Should lowercase indicate a boy that is a toy rather than the title of some published works? Result: Yes; disambiguation moved to uppercase.
WT:WikiProject Freemasonry#Capitalization – Where do we draw the line of capitalization of offices and such in Freemasonry? Result: Some say just follow MOS:OFFICE, others want to follow Freemasonry's conventions. No clear consensus.
Talk:NTV Plus#Requested move 15 September 2023 – Is all-caps an appropriate distinction between Russian and Nepali TV channels? Result: No; use ordinary title case for proper name, not all-caps.
Talk:Sangaku#Capitalization: is the article title just an ordinary Japanese word borrowed into English, or a proper noun? (note - while the discussion was not formally closed, all instances are now in lowercase
Talk:Welsh Revolt#Requested move 30 July 2023 – Initially Welsh Revolt → Glyndŵr Rebellion but subsequently a question of capitalising the second word in any choice. Result: Lowercase "rebellion".
Talk:In Search of...#Requested move 10 October 2022 – Should the "of..." become "Of..." because it is the last word of the title? (a two-article RM) Result: Retain lowercase since truncation of a longer title is implied.
Talk:Lost Decades#Requested move 7 July 2022 – Lowercase "Decades", among other issues? Result: Not moved. The closer commented about primary topic status but did not comment about capitalization.
User talk:Snickers2686#MOS:JOBTITLES – "until [JOBTITLES is] applied consistently, which it isn't in this set of articles, then to me, it doesn't apply at all". – judges generally lowercased
Talk:National Historic Landmark#Requested move 18 January 2022 – Multimove to lowercase for "National Historic [Capitalized singular]", "National [Capitalized plural]", and "List of Historic [Capitalized plural]"? Result: Withdrawn after near-unanimous opposition to the central principle based on the linguistic concept of a proper name, noting consistent capitalization in sources.
Talk:g-force#Requested move 7 January 2022 – "g-force" or "G-force"? Result: RM procedurally closed (made no difference) and usage in article prose already changed to "g-force".
2021
RMs on capitalization of "Attorneys" and "Ambassadors" (or rephrasing to avoid the plural formal title): – all downcased
WT:AT#RFC on dash-separated titles for sports events 2 January 2022 – Capping of "Men's Singles" and "women's doubles"? Result: No consensus to ban dashes, no consensus on capitalization; consensus that capitalization should be worked out at WikiProject Tennis.
Support for … (unicode ellipsis, U+2026) is widespread now. The decision to prefer ... over …[1] was made 15-20 years ago when unicode support was nascent.[2]
Benefits of … (unicode ellipsis)
More accessible — screen readers can read "ellipsis" properly
more compact & readable. Better line breaks
renders with better fidelity using font glyph
scales better when zooming & with high-DPI devices like mobile phones
easier to parse (distinct unicode representation for character)
Eh, I'm not so sure about that. Curly quotes have drawbacks (e.g. being 'keyed', being more frequent to the degree where I would argue the extra byte substantially increases page sizes on average) that U+2026…HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS does not. Remsense诉18:36, 16 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Gawaon's 1st sentiment that curly quotation marks/apostrophes should be discussed in the same vein as ellipses. Both deal with the distinction of ASCII representation vs. extended character maps. I don't think that their multi-byte effect on increased page size is of any concern. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 04:49, 17 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The big BIG advantage of requiring straight quotes and period ... ellipses is that it doesn't allow yet another gratuitous style variation for gnomes to slow-war over. It looks fine, it works, it contributes to having a clean readable style instead of a fussy special-character-elaborated one. Why get rid of those advantages? —David Eppstein (talk) 06:57, 17 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Though I said the opposite above, I think it might indeed make most sense to limit this to the ellipsis issue for now, since it would be a relatively small change – much smaller than changing the rules for quotes and apostrophes. So if this is changed now, the quote issue could possibly be reconsidered in a year or two, then taking into account the experience with the ellipsis change.
For the ellipsis, there are two possibilities:
Allowing both ... and … as equally valid options. Very easy change, but with the disadvantage that usage in any given page could then be mixed, annoying the typographically aware. Though the visible difference between ... and … is small (much smaller than "quotes" vs. “quotes”, I'd say – in fact, in our standard font I can hardly see it), so that shouldn't matter very much. Also, to prevent "slow-warring", we could make the rule that changing ... to … is allowed, but changing in the opposite direction is not. In that way, pages would slowly evolved in the typographically correct direction.
Requiring, from now on, that … is used, and deprecating ..., just like MOS:DASH has deprecated the use of single or double hyphens instead of dashes. This would ensure that there is a single standard all pages are meant to adhere to, so totally eliminating the risk of edit warring. The disadvantage, of course, is that there are 100,000s of pages (at least) that currently don't adhere to that standard. I suppose a bot could help with that change, but it would still be a giant task to bring them in adherence.
Bad idea. The point of an MoS is to be as consistent as possible. And changes would have to be implemented regardless; if you don't do anything, AWB, bots, and other automated tools will just continue changing them. InfiniteNexus (talk) 06:10, 21 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I have no real preference for one or the other, but I oppose the change. It wouldn't be too much work for a bot to change all of one to another. Still I see no reason to mess with what's been working. Actually, I do prefer the three dots. Anyone can type ... and the … requires a bit more effort, and … displays differently depending on the font used, so sometimes looks odd. Mixed use looks sloppy and I really want to avoid that. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 11:48, 21 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm wary of creating yet another challenge for new editors who want to do the right thing – we want to keep them. NebY (talk) 14:26, 21 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I would support mandating the unicode ellipsis. Adding this to the MOS wouldn't create any burden to new users – gnomes would simply bring articles into conformity over time. Graham11 (talk) 03:36, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
More likely some bot operator is going to get it into their head that this must be done immediately!!1! and make our watchlists unusable for several days while they crank through all the Wikipedia articles at a rate of several per second. How about let's don't. —David Eppstein (talk) 07:16, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If the Unicode ellipsis is better for screenreaders, we should go for it. Just add an ellipsis option to the usual dash scripts. —Kusma (talk) 19:28, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Is there any more reason to believe that it is better for screenreaders than to believe that it is worse for screenreaders? One could equally well write, if it is worse for screenreaders, then we should continue to eschew it. —David Eppstein (talk) 20:03, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
On a quick Google, I have found some accessibility blogs that advocate use of the ellipsis character over three dots. I have no idea how important it is in practice. —Kusma (talk) 20:19, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Require semantically/typographically correct ellipsis per accessibility issues. Allow someone to type in three periods for convenience, but keep it deprecated and have semi-automated tools and bots change this as long as they are making other changes as well. Change all page and category titles as well with redirects from three dots. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯23:07, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
As a screen reader user, I've never heard of these accessibility issues ... screen readers can read three dots fine. It really doesn't need a mass change here. Graham87 (talk) 07:54, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
How mean of you. You've just taken away some gnome's purpose in life. (For those playing along at home, we've now got two Graham's Grahams in the conversation.) EEng13:59, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose any change - three dots is fine and easier to write. Then again, if it's not onerous to make a bot that turns every instance of ... into … after every single edit that includes ..., I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. BoldGnome (talk) 02:57, 12 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Notes
^
In some cases the obvious name is already taken, e.g.,
Allow either ... or …. I agree with the (minor) advantages of using the unicode character, but changing it everywhere seems like a huge waste of time and effort. We should just be agnostic about it, IMO. Nosferattus (talk) 18:14, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The problem with "allow either" is that in some fonts they look very different from each other. Having "..." and "…" near each other looks pretty bad to me. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 20:46, 20 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Change "foreign-language" to "non-English language"?[edit]
Of course "foreign-language" is a common adjective to mean "in a language other than English" and that's fine, but it also looks a bit odd in the guidelines of an international internet encyclopedia? "non-English language" is clunkier I'll admit, but it's also more precise in a way that seemingly doesn't cost much. Should we consider changing it on policy and guideline pages?
(I'm fairly sure it shouldn't be non–English language or non-English-language even as an adjective, right? Those both look ridiculous.)Remsense诉05:28, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My concern is that "non-English" might exclude the English-based creoles like Nigerian Pidgin; we should treat these creoles as we would treat any other non-English language, as English speakers tend to be unable to understand them. BilledMammal (talk) 08:28, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think it is fairly safe to say that no one would have this as their public definition of "English language", right? Remsense诉08:37, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Right, so how does "foreign language" do better with that ambiguity? I would think it does worse. There's no definite boundaries between any two lects you can define. Remsense诉08:54, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I would agree if it were a big deal to fix. Plus, it is a little bit broken—we all know what a lot of words *should* mean, but that doesn't mean we can't seek to further improve our word choices. Remsense诉08:50, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Agree. 'Foreign' is not necessarily the same as non-English even when you assume the reader/editor is in a country where English is the most commonly spoken language. Many countries where English is the norm were colonised and had/have indigenous languages of their own, which would be odd to call 'foreign'. FropFrop (talk) 09:04, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You aren't wrong. We can simplify most of this, avoiding "non-English language". In this main MoS page, nearly all uses of "foreign" are either to qualify a noun other than "language" ("foreign words", "foreign text") or in the adjectival "foreign-language" to qualify a noun. In the former cases, just replace "foreign" with "non-English". In the latter, replace "foreign-language" with "non-English", omitting "language". A couple of cases are tricky because they link to sections currently titled "Foreign languages" on other MoS pages. Those can be dealt with in turn but is there anything objectionable about my proposal to make the first round of substitutions forthwith? Even to the extent that I could argue that, pragmatically, readers will know what we mean, "non-English" is better.
Finally, for the noun phrase "foreign language(s)", "language(s) other than English" seems more natural than "non-English language(s)". Largoplazo (talk) 11:43, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
"was" vs "is" for Wikipedia articles about human remains[edit]
I previously opened a thread about this topic here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Archaeology#"was"_vs_"is"_for_individual_ancient_human_skeletons, but I think here is more appropriate. Looking at the articles listed at Category:Homo sapiens fossils (which is misleadingly titled, including remains from the last few thousand years which definitely aren't fossils), it seems to be the standard for Wikipedia articles about individual human skeletons, mummies and the like to describe them as human remains in the present tense, rather than as deceased humans in the past tense. Examples of this include for example, Cheddar Man, Ötzi, and The Younger Lady. Is this correct according to the MOS? As noted in the WT:ARCHAEOLOGY discussion the idea of describing Native American remains in the present tense like this has received pushback. I don't have a strong opinion about which way should be preferred, but I think there should be consistency regarding the way the remains of all deceased humans should be described. Hemiauchenia (talk) 22:37, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Arlington Springs Man is on my watchlist, and there's been some recent back-and-forth in the edit history around that question. Currently, it reads:
Arlington Springs Man was a Paleo-Indian whose remains were found in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island...
The alternate version that's been proposed (via edits) is:
Arlington Springs Man is the skeleton of a Paleo-Indian which was found in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island
I found @GreenC:'s edit summary thought-provoking and convincing: "They are the remains of an individual human being and needs to be treated as such. This is not an article about a dinosaur, rock, or woolly mammoth. This is why NAGPRA exists to deal with the dehumanizing of Indian ancestors as merely relics or old bones stored in a warehouse."Schazjmd(talk)22:45, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My point is that the remains of Native Americans shouldn't be treated any different than those of other humans. If we are going to have a standard of describing Native American humans remains as "was a person" rather than "is skeleton/mummy" then this should be broadly applied to all articles about human remains. As far as I can tell, this "was a person" has so far only been inconsistently applied to Native American articles, for example the Incan mummy articles Aconcagua mummy, Mummy Juanita and Plomo Mummy are all in the present tense. Hemiauchenia (talk) 22:54, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with all human remains being treated consistently in article leads. I just found the edit summary persuasive that it's more respectful to recognize that they were a person. Schazjmd(talk)23:09, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The difference is some old remains nobody claims/cares anymore as an ancestor or relative, and some do. Personally I think all these articles should be framed foremost as about a person because it makes for a better and more accurate article, given that perspective. Many of these articles are poorly written they get confused on this moving back and forth about bones or person sort of willy nilly with no compass. Sometimes a sentence might concern the remains, sometimes not, you need to know when to use which. The lead sentence framing concerns a person is the main compass direction, because that is why remains are studied, to learn about the person and their culture. The remains are only one aspect of the person. This is borne out when you read these articles, they concern much more than the remains. The articles concern the life of the individual, as learned through the remains. -- GreenC23:12, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think consistency is very important here. If Native Americans prefer that their ancestors be talked about a certain way (I have no idea), then why wouldn't we respect that? On the other hand, that doesn't mean we should talk about remains like Cheddar Man or Ötzi—that don't come from an Indigenous/settler-colonial context—in the same way.
I usually use the present tense for purely pedantic reasons, i.e. to avoid anachronisms. Sentences like Arlington Springs Man was a Paleo-Indian [...] are factually incorrect: there was nobody called "Arlington Springs Man" in the past and nobody who considered themselves "Paleo-Indian". In my experience this overwhelmingly how archaeologists and other scientists that study human remains talk about them, for what that's worth.
If the concern is dehumanisation, an (admittedly quite awkward) compromise could be something like Arlington Springs Man is the name given to a Native American man [...]. I do disagree with GreenC above: these articles are first and foremost about the remains of a person, not the person. We can infer some things about the latter from the former but it is not accurate, and potentially offensive, to write as if we can narrate a person's life from their bones. – Joe (talk) 09:14, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Arlington Springs Man has the Note after his name in the lead sentence: "His historical name is unknown. A moniker was invented as a means of identification." You could say "Arlington Springs Man is a moniker for a Native American man .. " but this is overly fussy and already obvious to 99% of readers, a Note serves that purpose fine. There is some guideline somewhere that advises against this sort of thing, say what it is sufficiently for understanding, don't qualify too much in the lead sentence, we are writing for a general audience. See WP:LEAD for the purpose of the lead and how to write a good lead section. -- GreenC15:46, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If we're talking about a person who has died, it's past tense. If we're talking about remains that still exist its present tense. Am I missing some nuance here? I don't see why it's different to anything or anyone else. For most people we don't talk about their still existing remains once they die, but in these cases we are. Canterbury Tailtalk11:43, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It concerns the framing and topic creation of the lead sentence:
"Ötzi is the natural mummy of a man" (lead sentence)
This is incorrect. The article frames the name "Ötzi" as the remains, and not a moniker for the once-living man. Nevertheless, throughout the rest of the article, it refers to "him" and "he". The article is thus confused as to what the name Ötzi refers to, indeed what the topic of the article is: a person, or human remains. The lead sentence could more accurately say "Ötzi was a Bronze-age man whose mummified remains.."
"Kennewick Man was an ancient Indigenous American man whose skeletal remains were found .." (lead sentence)
This is correct. The primary topic of the article concerns a man, his life, environment, culture .. of which the remains are an aspect of that man's life and death.
What do you mean by "correct" and "incorrect" here? Looking through the first couple of pages of Google Scholar results for "Ötzi", almost all of them primarily discuss a "mummy", "corpse", or "iceman", rather than a person. Are they incorrect? – Joe (talk) 08:07, 5 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Well, of course both are "correct", but we need to choose the best option for a general purpose general reader encyclopedia. We are not writing a journal article. Wikipedia articles cover all aspects of the person including their remains but not limited to their remains. -- GreenC15:11, 5 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It seems that the particular constructions referred to as "parenthetical plurals" by style guides—e.g. when posting thread(s),—have never been discussed here before, which is a bit shocking. Here's a quick pitch for why we should consider explicitly deprecating their use in article(s):
They are almost entirely useless, and usually do not clarify any ambiguity. This is the case for WP:AND/OR but stronger. Use of a plural form to indicate "any number of" is usually completely fine, and when it's not there's usually a broader problem with the structure of your sentence.
Something something, brackets can create problems for wikitext, somehow.
While neither AMA nor Chicago explicitly disallow parenthetical plurals, they both firmly suggest that you should never have to use them.
WP:MOSBLOAT. Have you found yourself wasting time debating this point with other editors -- time that would be saved by a new MOS provision? EEng16:07, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I see it considerably often, but you're totally right in that no one's ever actually insisted as to require a guideline enshrining consensus. Remsense诉16:17, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. I have been seeing editors removing former from short descriptions on corporate articles, using the essay WP:SDAVOID as the reasoning. I wonder if other editors believe the same as me as this madness, as leaving defunct companies with short descriptions without it is inaccurate. For example Cavenham Foods or Tudor Crisps who have been defunct for quite some time. Davidstewartharvey (talk) 05:31, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Short descriptions are supposed to give extremely brief descriptions for the purpose of disambiguation. I don't see time-specific descriptors as critical for that, so I'm in favor of keeping them out. It's not misleading to omit the information. Popcornfud (talk) 06:16, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, leaving it out seems fine (and indeed preferable) to me too. That there is an article about a company doesn't imply it still exists, so there is no need for such qualifiers. Gawaon (talk) 06:42, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The short description for Canaan reads "Region in the ancient Near East". It isn't implying that Canaan exists now, it's just identifying it as what it was when it was. The same goes for products and corporations. Just understand the SD to be explaining not what the topic is but what it is-or-was. Largoplazo (talk) 09:39, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This is a bit confusing, so let me try to give an example.
Suppose we have a book, A Great Book by Joe Sixpack, that says something like this:
The sky is blue.[15]
Then at the end of the book is a list of sources, including one for footnote 15. Let's call this "The Original Source". So we have a book by Sixpack that cites "The Original Source".
Now we want to quote from A Great Book in a Wikipedia article. And we do so like this, preserving not just the quote, but Sixpack's source citation too:
In his book A Great Book, Sixpack says that "The sky is blue.[1]"[2]
I find this awkward and unnecessary. I would leave out the citation to "The Original Source". Verifiability is still preserved, because a curious reader can look up Sixpack and from there find The Original Source. Does this seem right?
Redrose64 is right, of course, but it's also true that (a) you might as well look at Original Source to see if it meets our own standards (it usually will, if A Great Book is published by a good publisher), and (b) if it's easy to access Original Source it's worth taking a look at that too. At least once that I recall I've found that Joe Sixpack misinterpreted Original Source. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 20:57, 12 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think it has to depend on the history of the orthographies in question. For one particular case, MOS:ZH says that alternate/historical romanizations of Chinese place names generally shouldn't be used, even if they appear as a part of other proper names: e.g. Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. is located in Qingdao, Shandong.Remsense诉07:22, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It's not historical but it isn't commonly used outside of a minority group essentially. It's Pokeno, which instead of using a macron is sometimes spelt as Pookeno but I can't find any reliable source that actually uses this spelling. Mayhap it is more akin to dialectal variations. Traumnovelle (talk) 07:30, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This week I took a long time to learn how to enable a first-line indentation and I would like to float the possibility of improving the sentence under 'Indentation' which cites two templates to enable other editors to learn how to use them more quickly. Would anyone be willing to mentor me if I tried to improve it to achieve this objective? For the record, I should disclose that I am new to templates.John Desmond (talk) 15:09, 20 June 2024 (UTC) .[reply]
To find out how many inlinks there are to the old section title and what articles have them, you can execute this advanced searchthis advanced search, changing article to the name of the article, and oldsection to the old section title. If there are only a small number of links to the old section title, it's better to just update them..
I recently noticed that a bunch of users have added unneeded embedded section anchors after renaming a section header, presumably because they don't know how to find out if there are any articles that link to the old section title or not, and if so, how many of them there are. Imho, embedded section anchors should only be added when necessary, as they create squirrely wikicode which may mystify other editors, or discourage them from making further changes to the section header which may be warranted. To reduce the scope of this issue, increase transparency about section inlinks, and limit the number of unneeded embedded anchors being created especially when there are no incoming links at all (a good proportion of them), I added the note. (A secondary problem, much less serious imho, is users using the problematic, unsubsted version identified at MOS:SECTIONANCHOR as resulting in undesirable behavior.)
I would appreciate additional eyeballs on this note, both the wording as well as any comments on the generic advanced search terms. I am aware that the search doesn't include everything (notably, will not find links from articles using {{slink}} to target it) or exclude (nowiki's, html comments) but I am trying to keep the input search term field simple-looking enough that a user unfamiliar with advanced search won't be afraid to try it, so it's kind of a balancing act how complex to make it. That said, if there's anything egregiously missing or wrong with it, or if it can be significantly improved without degrading usability, please do comment, or just adjust it. Adding @PrimeHunter, Sdkb, Trialpears, Qwerfjkl, Colin M, Quiddity, and Rjjiii:. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 23:13, 26 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for adding this tip! Marginally related, is there some way to find all broken section anchors pointing to some article? I would find that extremely helpful in order to improve the integration of a page that has underdone a lot of reorganization over time so that this method of looking for broken section links by name is not practical. Gawaon (talk) 06:08, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Mathglot: If you go to the link and then change the terms to what you want before clicking search it finds all links to that section in articles, but if you edit the link and go to it directly, it searches in all pages. Is that fine? – 2804:F1...A9:64C1 (talk) 03:51, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Not entirely sure I understand; are you trying to draw a distinction between searching only articles (i.e., main space) and searching all namespaces (articles, Talk pages, User pages, Wikipedia project pages and so on)? If so, we can do that by adding search term :all and perhaps we should. I've updated the search link in the explanatory note to search all namespaces, pending any objections or other comments on this aspect of it. Mathglot (talk) 04:07, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I meant that the link included profile=all, so editing the link itself would result in searching all pages (any namespace), but going to the link and then editing the terms and clicking search would result in searching only in articles.
Anyways, now the :all is not* doing anything, try for example, searching for :all linksto:"Banana" insource:/[[|]Banana\#/ vs without the :all (but with all namespaces selected).
(edit conflict) The problem is not in the link, but in your example. If you choose an article name which has no links outside mainspace, like Banana, then the correct behavior is that there is no difference with or without the :all search term. Try an example like "Vichy France" which has some inlinks from mainspace, as well as other namespaces.
Secondly, although that will actually work correctly, even without a section name, this whole issue is part of the clarification of section § Section headings in the MOS, so really applies more to that case. For that, you can try examples like "Vichy France#Collaborationnistes". (ec) Mathglot (talk) 04:42, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that; I must've been assuming the wrong functionality for :all; I need to look at that again. Your workaround works, but should be doable without it, assuming there is a search prefix or pseudo-term that activates that; let me check. If you know what it is, please post it. Mathglot (talk) 04:51, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Adding that sentence about searching redirects as well looks like an improvement to me. Even if there's a way to do that via advanced search (instead of What links here), Cirrus doesn't support alternation, so you can't have the union of two searches in one query, afaik; plus, that might get into "too complex" territory even if we could, so I think your approach is the right one, here. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 21:17, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
"By default, write articles in the present tense..." and "Generally, use past tense only for past events, and for subjects that are dead or no longer meaningfully exist."
The page gives an example: "The PDP-10 is a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1966 into the 1980s."
There is a big discrepancy concerning tense in articles about old computers (Vintage computer). One issue is if they "meaningfully exist". Consider some one-of-a-kind computers:
The IAS machine is intact and exists in the collection of the Smithsonian (I saw it on display in 1967), but it is no longer on display and doesn't work.
ENIAC - all (or almost all) of the parts of ENIAC exist, but they are spread out among several museums and displays (I've seem most of the parts.)
BINAC - I don't think any of this computer still exists.
Then there are computers of which many were made. There are several non-working examples (e.g. UNIVAC I) in museums (Computer History Museum and others). There are even a few working examples. The Living Computers: Museum + Labs had quite a few computers that were made decades ago and are still working.
If there's even one existing working example the guidance is pretty clear. Use present tense. There's even a strong case for non-working examples if their historic value is "meaningful" enough, but that's not so cut and dry. Primergrey (talk) 18:17, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And regarding the automobile articles, the Ford ones are about models that do exist. The others are about companies that do not. Primergrey (talk) 18:21, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
For computers, I'd say that "no longer meaningfully exist" should be interpreted as "no working exemplars exist". If a running computer exists somewhere, its article should be in present tense, otherwise past tense. Indefatigable (talk) 18:18, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It isn't always easy to tell if there is a running example somewhere. And when there is, they are usually in a collection to demonstrate it - it is not doing productive work anymore. Bubba73You talkin' to me?21:33, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Does it have to be doing productive work? Various sorts of steam engines are lovingly restored, maintained and displayed in all their gleaming, puffing glory; each one definitely exists though few are doing anything productive. NebY (talk) 00:59, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And, as an example, the page uses present tense for the family of PDP-10 computers manufactured from 1966 to the 1980s. It is very unlikely that any particular one of them is still running and doing productive work, but the recently closed Living Computer Museum had five working ones. Bubba73You talkin' to me?00:51, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Size and power costs make it unlikely that historical computers are doing productive work. But if I can go to a museum and see a complete one, even in a non-working state then I would definitely say that computer "is". Same for mostly complete (say 80-90%) machines. Less than that gets murky. Parts spread over different locations is probably "was" but may be gathered back into a (near) whole machine again. But there isn't any real consequence of getting this wrong. So, I'd just say that any machine physically near complete (say 80% or better) in a single location, working or not is a computer still in existence and anything else is no longer in existence. For the borderline cases, flip a coin and move on with life. Stepho talk02:07, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Most often the name of a computer refers to the definition of its architecture. There are no "PDP-10" computers, but there are the KA-10, KI-10, etc. But there are books that describe the architecture of the PDP-10, and those books exist. Some architectures never existed. The general rule is that events (in the past) are past tense. Computers were designed, introduced, sold, rented, and such, in the past. Note, for example, that Shakespeare's plays are present tense, even though he is dead, and even though one might not be being performed. Since the written form exists, they should be present tense. And if the documentation for a computer architecture exists, it should be present tense. If no processors exist, and no documentation exists, it could be less obvious. But best then to just write in terms of an event. The Burroughs B5500 was designed and sold by the Burroughs corporation. That works even if none exist. Gah4 (talk) 02:39, 29 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]