User:Zeal/Proposals/Format

About
Basically, i want to propose a complete revision of the naming, categorizing, and namespace policies.

Wiki's are poor when it comes to content duplication, especially in terms of displaying lists. Currently, we maintain static lists, and transclude them, then also repeat the lists as categories (poorly). That’s a static list for display purposes, being duplicated, and then a dynamic list for navigation purposes, rarely every being looked at. Clearly this isn't ideal from a contributor or user stand point.

The beauty of the category changes, is that no content is ever duplicated, all content is correctly categorized, and it adds a feature that mediawiki lacks as standard, navigation. We all know people search for what they want on a wiki, but you don't learn new things by searching, you learn them by off linking and browsing to and from what you were looking for through related links of interest on the topic you want. Sure, we could make our own navigations, but then you're back to maintain static lists, duplicating them etc. Even wikipedia only does high level navigation. Through categories however, the wiki can navigate through siblings, parents and children, without ever having to maintain a static list, without transcluding, and without duplicating. The categories can be off linked, and articles added to the lists just through creation.

Along with the categories, i'm proposing new namespaces. You might be concerned by the amount of namespaces, and ask where the line should be drawn. Well consider the namespaces as wow relevant article types, some fit into others, some stand alone, but they are all down to their basic forms so that it’s easy to draw a line of namespaces. You'll notice lore is absent, that is because lore is merely things like definitions, history, biographies, and descriptions. All of these things are already a part of each article. All articles without a type are considered terminology, essentially making their namespace a glossary. This is generally what a wiki is, but as you can see, many things (especially when it concerns wikis limited to one topic) aren't merely terminology, but contain a lot of data specific to that type of article.

The last part of the proposal is a new format for naming conventions, for categories and articles alike. Previously, forward slashes have been used to show a generational relationship, ending with the actual article name you want right at the end of the title, and convoluting the title of the article. Clearly this isn't desirable, and with categories, it makes no sense for generational relationships to be shown in the page's title. This leaves forward slashes to be used in the rare cases of a article that needs to be split up, due to one of it's sections becoming too large. This is most likely something like a history section of an article. This leaves the article you want still as the prevalent and first part of the title, while the section is added to the end, much the same as you would for a link to a section of the page. In categories, the forward slash is used to show a relationship between two different namespaces, this is essentially what makes the dynamic list and navigation possible. In the userspace, categories really shouldn't be used to create a generational relationship and thus navigation, because the userspace is used for local testing, and could contain an infinite amount of generations, and will contain user determined section sizes. Simply grouping all of a user's pages into one category and thus creating a list of that user's pages is enough, with forward slashes remaining as use for generational relationships between pages. I am open to extending the naming conventions to the userspace if people see fit, but it is a daunting, and near fruitless task to attempt for the userspace. Thus user pages, and their categories, will always contain any number of forward slahes, while still remaning logical.

Disambiguation is very different from a split, and due to article types, should be few and far between, even rarer than splits. But when it is needed, it should show a new form of naming to differentiate it from splits. A common idea, is to rename the article, applying an adjective to the beginning of the title. This changes the article's title drastically, and makes it harder to logically find for a user, one again moving the real title of the article to the end of the article's title. One option is to use a hyphen instead, but this looks confusing as an article title, and could cause issues with article titles that already contain hyphens. The best option is to simply use brackets to contain a type designation for the article. This is different to an article type as a namespace, as it doesn't change the type of data you are dealing with, but still shows it's merely a different set of data of the same name. Concerns surely arise over the url encoding of brackets, but this is of very minor concern, as all browsers translate them while typing (thus no usability impact), and they will still display correctly on wiki pages (thus cosmetic concerns are irrelevant). Granted, in a browser's address bar they will appear in their url encoded forms, but this has no impact on the wiki any more than space->underscore translation.

Yes, these changes will take a lot of work, but that's the beauty of wiki's, everyone can do it, and i suggest we take on one namespace at a time with the community. I know we can't currently add these as namespaces, but realy, the main benefit of the use for namespaces is for templates and the and  use, which can be worked around for now.

Feedback
Please feel free to leave feedback on the ideas expressed here. I'm especially open to a need for more UI related namespaces, i don't know enough to know if the/what need(s) exist.

Namespaces (Article Types)

 * 1) (no name space is implied as a Term:)
 * 2) Wiki: - Development of the wiki, styling, policies, main page.
 * 3) Special: - Hard coded pages.
 * 4) Image: - Hard coded image pages.
 * 5) Talk: - Discussion on any article. eg. Talk:User:Zeal. This overrides User: restrictions (due to the hard coded software, this isn't happening)
 * 6) Category: - Category listings.
 * 7) Template: - Templates.
 * 8) Groups: - Wiki community groups, eg. RC Patrol, Bookkeepers, Admins.
 * 9) User: - User pages only editable by the user and those with rights (due to the hard coded software, this isn't happening).
 * 10) Source: - Sources for the wiki, eg. games, books, novels, people, websites etc.
 * UI: - WoW API, lua scripting, frames etc.
 * 1) Mod: - Addons.
 * 2) Skill: - Skills, spells abilities etc.
 * 3) Items: - WoW items.
 * 4) Quest: - WoW Quests.
 * 5) Zone: - Areas, from Azeroth to Zandalar.
 * 6) Instance: - Dungeons, battlegrounds and any instanced zone.
 * 7) NPC: - Characters in Warcraft.
 * PC: - Player created characters.
 * 1) Race: - Races.
 * 2) Class: - Classes.
 * 3) Faction: - Factions, organizations etc.
 * 4) Profesion: - Professions.
 * 5) Realm: - WoW realms.
 * 6) Battlegroup: - WoW battlegroups.
 * 7) Set: - TCG Sets.
 * 8) Card: - TCG Cards.

Categories
Categories are actually a sort of ying and yang when displaying relationships, when they're not balanced, there's probably not a need for them to be used. You will notice cases, where you may need to add a page to multiples of the same namespace category, yet it would only be referenced to once. This if very inefficient, and it would be best to keep a static version. A good example of this is with profession trainers. It would be inefficient to categorize a profession page to all profession trainers, only to have the NPC's page have one result in that category to reference, it's profession. In this case, just write the NPC's profession on the NPC's page and not bother declaring the categories. This is also good way of determining where static content should reside, as the page with the theoretically least items in the category to display, should be the page that contains the static content.

Category naming follows the following format: The following is a list of probable category add declarations and links for a page within its corresponding namespace. Add declarations will make their own links as is normal for Categories.
 * Category: /


 * 1) Terms:
 * 2) * Add:
 * 3) ** Category:Terms
 * 4) * Link:
 * 5) Wiki:
 * 6) * Add:
 * 7) ** Category:Wiki Development
 * 8) * Link:
 * 9) ** Category:Wiki:
 * 10) Special:
 * 11) * Add:
 * 12) ** Category:Special Pages
 * 13) * Link:
 * 14) Talk:
 * 15) * Add:
 * 16) ** Category:Discussions
 * 17) ** Category:Discussions/
 * 18) ** Category:
 * 19) ** Category: /Discussions
 * 20) * Link:
 * 21) Category:
 * 22) * Add:
 * 23) ** Category:
 * 24) ** Category:
 * 25) ** Category:
 * 26) * Link:
 * 27) Template:
 * 28) * Add:
 * 29) ** Category:Templates
 * 30) ** Category:Templates
 * 31) ** Category:Template: /Templates
 * 32) ** Category:User: /Templates
 * 33) * Link:
 * 34) ** Category:Template: /Templates
 * 35) Group:
 * 36) * Add:
 * 37) ** Category:Groups
 * 38) ** Category:User: /Groups
 * 39) * Link:
 * 40) ** Category:Group:
 * 41) ** Category:Group: /Users
 * 42) User:
 * 43) * Add:
 * 44) ** Category:User Pages
 * 45) ** Category:Users
 * 46) ** Category:Users
 * 47) ** Category:User:
 * 48) ** Category:User: /Users
 * 49) ** Category:Group: /Users
 * 50) * Link:
 * 51) ** Category:User: /Players
 * 52) ** Category:User: /Groups
 * 53) ** Category:User: /Users
 * 54) ** Cateogry:
 * 55) Source:
 * 56) * Add:
 * 57) ** Category:Sources
 * 58) ** Category:Sources
 * 59) * Link:
 * 60) UI:
 * 61) * Add:
 * 62) ** Category:UI Pages
 * 63) ** Category:UI
 * 64) * Link:
 * 65) Addon:
 * 66) * Add:
 * 67) ** Category:Addons
 * 68) ** Category:Addons
 * 69) ** Category:Addon: /Addons
 * 70) * Link:
 * 71) ** Category:Addon:
 * 72) ** Category:Addon: /Addons
 * 73) Skill:
 * 74) * Add:
 * 75) ** Category:Skills
 * 76) ** Category:Skills
 * 77) ** Category:Class: /Skills,
 * 78) ** Category:NPC: /Skills,
 * 79) * Links:
 * 80) ** Category:Skill: /NPCs
 * 81) ** Category:Skill: /Quests
 * 82) Item:
 * 83) * Add:
 * 84) ** Category:Items
 * 85) ** Category:Items
 * 86) ** Category:NPC: /Items (Drop)
 * 87) ** Category:NPC: /Items (Sell)
 * 88) ** Category:Quest: /Items (Reward)
 * 89) ** Category:Quest: /Items (Require)
 * 90) ** Category:Quest: /Items (Start)
 * 91) ** Category:Quest: /Items (End)
 * 92) * Link:
 * 93) ** Category:Item: /Quests (Reward)
 * 94) ** Category:Item: /Quests (Require)
 * 95) ** Category:Item: /Quests (Start)
 * 96) ** Category:Item: /Quests (End)
 * 97) ** Category:Item: /NPCs (Sell)
 * 98) ** Category:Item: /NPCs (Drop)
 * 99) Quest:
 * 100) * Add:
 * 101) ** Category:Quests
 * 102) ** Category:Quests
 * 103) ** Category:Quest: /Quests
 * 104) ** Category:NPC: /Quests (Start)
 * 105) ** Category:NPC: /Quests (End)
 * 106) ** Category:NPC: /Quests (Require)
 * 107) ** Category:Item: /Quests (Start)
 * 108) ** Category:Item: /Quests (End)
 * 109) ** Category:Item: /Quests (Require)
 * 110) ** Category:Item: /Quests (Reward)
 * 111) ** Category:Zone: /Quests
 * 112) ** Category:Zone: /Quests (Require)
 * 113) ** Category:Instance: /Quests
 * 114) ** Category:Instance: /Quests (Require)
 * 115) * Link:
 * 116) ** Category:Quest: /Quests
 * 117) ** Category:Quest: /Items (Reward)
 * 118) ** Category:Quest: /Items (Require)
 * 119) ** Category:Quest: /Items (Start)
 * 120) ** Category:Quest: /Items (End)
 * 121) Zone:
 * 122) * Add:
 * 123) ** Category:Zone
 * 124) ** Category:Zones
 * 125) ** Category:Zone: /Zones
 * 126) ** Category:Instance: /Zones
 * 127) * Link:
 * 128) ** Category:Zone: /Quests
 * 129) ** Category:Zone: /Quests (Require)
 * 130) ** Category:Zone: /NPCs
 * 131) ** Category:Zone: /Factions
 * 132) Instance:
 * 133) * Add:
 * 134) ** Category:Instances
 * 135) ** Category:Instances
 * 136) ** Category:Zone: /Instances
 * 137) * Link:
 * 138) ** Category:Instance: /Zones
 * 139) NPC:
 * 140) * Add:
 * 141) ** Category:NPCs
 * 142) ** Category:NPCs
 * 143) ** Category:Zone: /NPCs
 * 144) ** Category:Instance: /NPCs
 * 145) ** Category:Quest: /NPCs (Require)
 * 146) ** Category:Quest: /NPCs (Start)
 * 147) ** Category:Quest: /NPCs (End)
 * 148) ** Category:Item: /NPCs (Sell)
 * 149) ** Category:Item: /NPCs (Drop)
 * 150) ** Category:Skill: /NPCs
 * 151) ** Category:Race: /NPCs
 * 152) ** Category:Class: /NPCs
 * 153) ** Category:Faction: /NPCs
 * 154) * Link:
 * 155) ** Category:NPC: /Quests (Start)
 * 156) ** Category:NPC: /Quests (End)
 * 157) ** Category:NPC: /Quests (Require)
 * 158) ** Category:NPC: /Items (Sell)
 * 159) ** Category:NPC: /Items (Drop)
 * 160) ** Category:NPC: /Zones
 * 161) ** Category:NPC: /Instances
 * 162) ** Category:NPC: /Factions
 * 163) PC:
 * 164) * Add:
 * 165) ** Category:Players
 * 166) ** Category:Players
 * 167) ** Category:User: /Players
 * 168) ** Category:Realm: /Players
 * 169) ** Category:Race: /Players
 * 170) ** Category:Faction: /Players
 * 171) ** Category:Class: /Players
 * 172) ** Category:Profesion: /Players
 * 173) ** Category:Guild: /Players
 * 174) ** Category:Realm: /Players
 * 175) ** Category:Realm: /Players (Crafters)
 * 176) * Link:
 * 177) Race:
 * 178) * Add:
 * 179) ** Category:Races
 * 180) ** Category:Races
 * 181) * Link:
 * 182) ** Category:Race: /NPCs
 * 183) ** Category:Race: /Players
 * 184) ** Category:Race: /Factions
 * 185) ** Category:Race: /Zones
 * 186) Class:
 * 187) * Add:
 * 188) ** Category:Classes
 * 189) ** Category:Classes
 * 190) ** Category:Race: /Classes
 * 191) * Link:
 * 192) ** Category:Class: /Skills
 * 193) ** Category:Class: /Races
 * 194) ** Category:Class: /NPCs
 * 195) ** Category:Class: /Players
 * 196) Faction:
 * 197) * Add:
 * 198) ** Category:Factions
 * 199) ** Category:Factions
 * 200) ** Category:Faction: /Factions
 * 201) ** Category:Race: /Factions
 * 202) ** Category:Zone: /Factions
 * 203) * Link:
 * 204) ** Category:Faction: /Factions
 * 205) ** Category:Faction: /Races
 * 206) ** Category:Faction: /Zones
 * 207) ** Category:Faction: /Instances
 * 208) ** Category:Faction: /NPCs
 * 209) ** Category:Faction: /Players
 * 210) Profession:
 * 211) * Add:
 * 212) ** Category:Professions
 * 213) ** Category:Professions
 * 214) ** Category:NPC: /Professions
 * 215) ** Category:Skill: /Professions
 * 216) ** Category:Item: /Professions
 * 217) * Link:
 * 218) ** Category:Profession: /NPCs
 * 219) ** Category:Profession: /Skills
 * 220) ** Category:Profession: /Items
 * 221) Realm:
 * 222) * Add:
 * 223) ** Category:Realms
 * 224) ** Category:Realms
 * 225) ** Category:Battlegroup: /Realms
 * 226) ** Category:Realm: /Realms
 * 227) * Link:
 * 228) ** Category:Realm: /Guilds
 * 229) ** Category:Realm: /Players
 * 230) ** Category:Realm: /Realms
 * 231) Battlegroup:
 * 232) * Add:
 * 233) ** Category:Battlegroups
 * 234) ** Category:Battlegroups
 * 235) * Link:
 * 236) ** Category:Battlegroup: /Realms
 * 237) Set:
 * 238) * Add:
 * 239) ** Category:Sets
 * 240) ** Category:Sets
 * 241) * Link:
 * 242) ** Category:Set: /Cards
 * 243) Card:
 * 244) * Add:
 * 245) ** Category:Cards
 * 246) ** Category:Cards
 * 247) ** Category:Set: /Cards
 * 248) * Link:

Articles
Article naming follows the following format:
 * ()/
 * note a split is not the same as a child article. Splits should be used very sparingly when sections of a page become too large.

Except when in the userspace where they follow the format:
 * User: / ()/ ()/ ()/

Disambiguation ordering should always go in order of the least likely to ever change. For example Guild: = Guild:Moo (EU)(Broxigar)(Test). Disambiguation should only be appended when needed however, eg. Guild:Moo = disambigation page, with a link to the pages in the category of Guild:Moo. Each disambiguation page should be added to that category for easy navigation by users. This maintains a simple structure and offlinking so people can always find the page, rather than having to guess what level of disambiguation has been used. This is to be used acorss all namespaces, otherwise rules specific a namespace will throw off and confuse users.

Writing
Categories should always be specified. No information should ever be duplicated, instead always link to the articles or category of articles that contain the information, not try to redisplay a category list in the page statically. If you find yourself creating a list of things on a page, you're probably doing it wrong. Child categories should always be linked to.

Examples
Though these are also part of my next proposal about article structing/styiling, you can ignore the structuring and styling, and just focus on the categories, article names, and content for this proposal.
 * User:Zealvurte
 * User:Zealvurte/Sandbox/Realm:Broxigar (EU)
 * User:Zealvurte/Sandbox/Battlegroup:Ruin (EN)(Test)
 * User:Zealvurte/Sandbox/Item:Axe of Brox
 * User:Zealvurte/Sandbox/NPC:Broxxigar
 * User:Zealvurte/Sandbox/Item:Conjured Bread (most up-to-date)