User:Inktog/Naming conventions
This is a proposed expansion of MTG Wiki's guidelines on naming articles.
Wikipedia guidelines
When naming an article, default to the conventions of Wikipedia:Article titles. Choose a title that is recognizable, natural, precise, concise, and consistent. Favor the average Magic player over the heavily enfranchised. Titles should be singular nouns, except for articles about groups or sets of things (as in Nine Titans) or where there is no singular form (see WP:PLURAL for details). Use sentence case: only the first letter should be capitalized (Oil counter, not Oil Counter), except for proper nouns (Kaya Cassir). Don't start a title with a definite or indefinite article ("A", "An", or "The") unless that word would be capitalized in running text (as in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan; see WP:THE for details).
Specific guidance exists for certain types of articles. See WP:NCBIO for real people, WP:NCBOOKS for books, and WP:NCGAMES for video games.
Subpages
Subsidiary articles, or subpages, are an accepted tool for controlling article size. This is a departure from Wikipedia's guidelines. Subpages are titled "Parent article name/Subpage name", as in March of the Machine/Card comparisons, a subpage of March of the Machine. The first letter following the slash (/) is capitalized.
Use Template:SubTabs to provide navigation across a parent article to all of its subpages. For ease of use, the template should be identical on all related pages, and the parent article should be listed first. For an example, see March of the Machine. If there too many subpages for tabs to be feasible, as with List of secondary characters, the pages can be linked by a different means.
If a user might search directly for the subject of a subpage, then a redirect should be made to that page. For example, Aetherdrift Commander redirects to Aetherdrift/Commander decks.
Products
Use the full, official names (including subtitles) of sets and other Magic products. (Note that this only applies to article titles. In the article body, using the full set name every single time is unnecessary.)
- ❌Strixhaven
- ✅Strixhaven: School of Mages
- ❌Foundations
- ✅Magic: The Gathering Foundations
Tie-in products for premier or tentpole releases—such as bonus sheets and tie-in Commander decks—should be subpages of the main product article.
- ✅March of the Machine/Commander decks
- ❌March of the Machine Commander
For Universes Beyond product names, exclude the words "Magic: The Gathering" and ignore stylized trademarks.
- ❌Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel's Spider-Man
- ❌Magic: The Gathering® — FINAL FANTASY
- ✅Marvel's Spider-Man
- ❌FINAL FANTASY
- ✅Final Fantasy
Secret Lair drops and superdrops are prepended with "Secret Lair Drop Series:", as in Secret Lair Drop Series: Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary Superdrop.
Plane-product name collisions
For the many cases in which a set shares its name with a plane, the article named Shared Name should describe the set. The article for the plane should be named Shared Name (plane). These articles should be connected by use of Template:About at the top of each.
Fictional characters
The main article for a fictional character should use the name by which that character is best known. Titles, honorifics, epithets, and "of location" descriptors should not be included in the article's name, unless they would help to disambiguate between characters that otherwise share a name. Redirects should be created from other names by which readers are likely to search for articles.
Decks
Historically, decks have been titled "FORMAT DECK_NAME deck", as in Modern Zoo deck. This convention is under discussion at MTG Wiki:WikiProject Tournament deck articles.