Help:Naming conventions
From Ballotpedia
| User Help |
|---|
|
| Editing guide |
| Cheatsheet |
| Visual standards |
| Textual standards |
| Glossary of terms |
| Wiki training |
Naming conventions are a list of guidelines on how to appropriately create and name articles on Ballotpedia. If you disagree with the guidelines or have some suggested guidelines you prefer, please use the Ballotpedia Naming Convention's Talk Page to start a discussion.
Naming ballot measure articles
Each title should have 3 things:
- The state.
- A descriptive title for the measure (even if you come up with it yourself).
- The year. (Parentheses) for statewide measures, commas for local measures.
Note: Titles should be in title case.
Step 1:Start with the name of the state; for example: "Missouri".
Step 2:Describe the ballot measure.
- Use the phrase by which the ballot measure is most well-known.
- Most ballot measures are known by both a name and a number. Decide if yours is more well-known under a name, such as Washington Taxpayer Protection Amendment or a number, like as California Proposition 13.
- If different people refer to the ballot measure by different names, include those in the first few sentences of the article. For example, "Proposition 29, also known by its supporters as the Save the World Initiative, and by its opponents as The Worst Initiative Ever..."
Step 3:Conclude the title with the year that the ballot measure was (or will be) on the ballot.
Make it as easy as possible for a general reader, who doesn't know the technical terms a ballot initiative specialist or scholar might use, to understand your article on Ballotpedia.
Example: Oshkosh Area School District Construction Referendum (2009)
Ballot measure changes
- Sometimes, ballot measure proponents circulate petitions to put a ballot measure on the ballot in a specific year, but for various reasons, such as legal challenges, opponents of the measure succeed in keeping off the ballot that year.
- However, as the legal challenges wind their way through the courts, a judge may eventually order that the measure be placed on the ballot in a future year.
- When this happens, a Ballotpedian should simply rename the article to reflect the actual year that the measure appears on the ballot.
Updating article titles
Typically, a state government does not give a ballot number to an initiative until the measure has qualified for the ballot. That means that during the period when the initiative has been proposed and is collecting signatures, the Ballotpedia article about the measure will be a descriptive phrase--often, the descriptive phrase that the measure's supporters use to refer to it.
However, once a measure has been certified for the ballot and given a number, it is often a good idea to re-name the article by its now-official ballot number.
General conventions
Lowercase subsequent words
Convention: Do not capitalize second and subsequent words unless the title is a proper noun (such as a name) or is otherwise almost always capitalized.
Prefer singular nouns
Convention: In general only create page titles that are in the singular, unless that noun is always in a plural form in English. For example, a page should be named "Ballot" rather than "Ballots".
Duplicate names
Convention: When two people have the same name, add their state to the end of their article title (like John Barnes, Indiana) and then create a disambiguation page that lists the two names (like John Barnes). Add {{disambig}} to the page so that it shows up in the Special:Disambiguations page.
Use common names
Convention: Use the most common name of a person or thing that does not conflict with the names of other people or things.
Be precise
Convention: Please, do not write or put an article on a page with an ambiguously named title as though that title had no other meanings. If all possible words have multiple meanings, go with the rule of thumb of naming guidelines and use the more popular term.
Avoid abbreviations
Convention: Avoid the use of abbreviations, including acronyms, in page naming unless the term you are naming is almost exclusively known only by its abbreviation and is widely known and used in that form. An article on an Alaskan ballot measure should start with "Alaska", not "AK".
Use of "and"
Sometimes two or more closely-related or complementary concepts are most sensibly discussed on a common page rather than a page each. Where an overarching name is not practicable, use each individual name in the article title, joined by "and". Example: Donors and ballot measures.
Other specific conventions
Books and other publications
Convention: Use the title of the work as the article's title.
Categories
See: Categories.
Government departments
See: Ballotpedia:Naming conventions (government departments)
Naming lists
Convention: For a page that's a list of something, title your article as [[list of Xs]], rather than [[Xs]], [[famous Xs]], [[listing of important Xs]], [[list of noted Xs]], [[list of all Xs]], etc.
People
Ballotpedia:Naming conventions (people) starts from the idea that names in the format <First name> <Last name> are usually the least problematic as page name for an article on a single person.
