Wikipedia:Topic creation: Difference between revisions
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* Generally speaking, the creation of topics should be broadly encouraged. If anyone ever feels discouraged from creating a topic, it should be for a very good, clear, specific reason. |
* Generally speaking, the creation of topics should be broadly encouraged. If anyone ever feels discouraged from creating a topic, it should be for a very good, clear, specific reason. |
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* While there are many exceptions to this, in general, it is better to create a topic described by a noun than by an adjective. For example, we would prefer [[philosophy]] to [[philosophical]]. Of course, if one wanted to link "philosophical," that's easily done, like this: <code>[[philosophy|philosophical]]</code>. The latter code will display like this |
* While there are many exceptions to this, in general, it is better to create a topic described by a noun than by an adjective. For example, we would prefer [[philosophy]] to [[philosophical]]. Of course, if one wanted to link "philosophical," that's easily done, like this: <code>[[philosophy|philosophical]]</code>. The latter code will display like this -- [[philosophy|philosophical]] -- but links to the [[philosophy]] page. Sometimes there is an interest in making terms of ''jargon'' into topics, and jargon sometimes occurs in adjectival form. There's nothing wrong with that; we strongly encourage supplementing articles with explanations of jargon. |
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* One issue that might constrain the choice of topics occurs when there are two or more names for the same topic. For example, "spam" and "spamming"; the first is a kind of e-mail or newsgroup post, and the second is the activity of sending or posting such messages. With such sets of closely-related topics, we have a number of choices: |
* One issue that might constrain the choice of topics occurs when there are two or more names for the same topic. For example, "spam" and "spamming"; the first is a kind of e-mail or newsgroup post, and the second is the activity of sending or posting such messages. With such sets of closely-related topics, we have a number of choices: |
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# Redirect from one topic to another; so, for example, make "spamming" redirect to "spam." |
# Redirect from one topic to another; so, for example, make "spamming" redirect to "spam." |
Revision as of 00:14, 13 April 2001
The question which topics we should create is related to, but definitely distinct from, the question of what naming conventions we should follow. I'd like to start a discussion about this. Here are some places to start:
- Generally speaking, the creation of topics should be broadly encouraged. If anyone ever feels discouraged from creating a topic, it should be for a very good, clear, specific reason.
- While there are many exceptions to this, in general, it is better to create a topic described by a noun than by an adjective. For example, we would prefer philosophy to philosophical. Of course, if one wanted to link "philosophical," that's easily done, like this:
philosophical
. The latter code will display like this -- philosophical -- but links to the philosophy page. Sometimes there is an interest in making terms of jargon into topics, and jargon sometimes occurs in adjectival form. There's nothing wrong with that; we strongly encourage supplementing articles with explanations of jargon. - One issue that might constrain the choice of topics occurs when there are two or more names for the same topic. For example, "spam" and "spamming"; the first is a kind of e-mail or newsgroup post, and the second is the activity of sending or posting such messages. With such sets of closely-related topics, we have a number of choices:
- Redirect from one topic to another; so, for example, make "spamming" redirect to "spam."
- Make one page a very brief definition, followed by a pointer to the other page ("for more information, see spam").
- Develop two separate articles.
There must be other issues. Discussion?
Another issue is that creating topics randomly might lead to collisions. Spam isn't first and foremost a type of post, it is a type of food that rumored to be made of compressed pigs. Thus spamming might be a better name since it has no such ambiguity. People should probably think a little about such things when creating new pages.