Forum:The Names of Articles

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Eternal Nothingness XIII If you remain bound by the chain of memories and refuse to believe what is truly found inside your heart...then throw it away. You are not a Keyblade master—just a slave to twisted memories. — 03:23, 3 January 2015 (UTC) So one of the topics discussed during today's Roundtable was the rule we were to adapt and utilize when naming our articles here on the Wiki. Right now, the Manual of Style (which is extremely outdated, but that's another story...) states the following (my commentary/explanations are in italics below each point): New articles should be named according to the subject's official name. If the official name of a subject has been changed in later episodes of Kingdom Hearts, please use the first name. However, redirects can be made using the later names. This refers to articles such as the Heartless in 358/2 Days that first appeared in Kingdom Hearts II. For instance, we still have an article called "Surveillance Robot," rather than "Watcher." The definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles except if they are used in an official title/name. For instance, we should have an article called "The Mayor" to inform readers on the guy from Halloween Town, not "Mayor." "The Prince" to describe the guy from Dwarf Woodlands, not "Prince." Even if the definite article feels pointless, it should still be used because it's what the games use. Likewise, character names are referred to the same way they are in the Kingdom Hearts series; for example, surnames of characters from existing works are usually dropped (e.g. Cloud instead of Cloud Strife, Mulan instead of Fa Mulan). Even if a character calls someone by his or her full name or by other names, only the one prominent in Kingodm Hearts should be used. "Beat," not "Daisukenojo Bito," "Leon," not "Squall Leonhart," "Will Turner," not "William Turner, Jr.", "Dr. Jumba," not "Jumba Jookiba," and "Flynn," not "Kevin Flynn." Now, my personal opinion has technically already been stated by both the rules in the MoS and my commentary on those rules, as shown above. I feel that we should always name our articles in accordance with what the games use; in the case of characters and such, we should use what the Journal uses. For characters who appear in multiple games, sometimes experiencing a minor change in name (Smee vs. Mr. Smee), the name used in the Journal of the game that served as that character's FIRST APPEARANCE should be used, in my opinion. If a character has a title, such as Master Eraqus, the title of that character's article should include it ONLY IF THE JOURNAL DOES ("Master Eraqus," not "Eraqus"). In the end, this is all about recognizability, which is why I am not against keeping "Mickey Mouse" instead of "The King" or "King Mickey." As a general rule of thumb, cutscenes should not be a valid source for article titles. Just because Yuffie calls Leon "Squall" at one point does not mean his article should be titled "Squall Leonhart," even though this is (and everyone knows it is) his full name. In my opinion, we should be thinking about what is best for our readers, not what we think is best as a community. If I were just the average Joe who loved Kingdom Hearts but had never heard of The World Ends With You, not once would I think of searching for "Daisukenojo Bito" if I wanted to read about a character called "Beat." I understand there are redirects and such, but because we are a Kingdom Hearts Wiki, Kingdom Hearts material takes precedence over stuff that is "common knowledge" or "just plain true." Again, this is why we have "Mulan," not "Fa Mulan." If a character has a different name other than the one in the title, I feel like we should either make note of this in the article header ("Beat, full name Daisukenojo Bito, is a character who appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance), or we should, perhaps, include this alternate name in the character's origin section (Daisukenojo Bito is a originally appeared in the Square Enix video game franchise The World Ends With You, etc.). It was requested that I create this forum based on what was discussed during the Roundtable; it was decided a forum was the best place to continue this discussion. I have used this message to also state my opinion on this matter. What does everyone else think we should do? Let's either agree to actually adhere to what the MoS says or decide on a new, concrete rule together based on what the MAJORITY feels is right, and abide by that. What I said about using "Master Eraqus" and not "Eraqus," thus "Master Xehanort" and not "Xehanort," creates a problem: what do we do when two characters who logic says are the same are treated as separate entities by the Journal, which I'd like to adhere to when naming our articles (Master Xehanort vs. Young Xehanort)? This is a separate discussion for another day, but I just thought I would make mention of it before I forget...

I like what we have so far with the manual of style [MoS]. I'm also liking the whole "Master Eraqus" > "Eraqus;" "Mickey Mouse" > "The King"/"King Mickey." What specific articles are we having a problem with? Are they just the characters from KH3D? Xion4ever Who am I? — 04:25, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Eternal Nothingness XIII If you don't believe the words I say...then you had best see the truth with your own eyes. — 04:48, 3 January 2015 (UTC) I'd say that whatever we decide to implement here should apply to all articles, not just the ones from KH3D...

TheSilentHero Prepare yourself! — 13:04, 3 January 2015 (UTC) You forgot to mention we use the most recurring name for things that have different names in the series. Only when two names are used the same number of times, the first name is used.

Eternal Nothingness XIII Talk about blank with a capital B. Man, oh, man. Not even the Dusks are gonna crack this one... Nowhere in the Manual of Style does it state that, but, um, ok?

TheSilentHero — 13:12, 3 January 2015 (UTC) <<<<<<<<<< We decided this yesterday at the RT, didn't we?

Eternal Nothingness XIII Cast away your useless fear. Open your heart. Embrace the darkness. — 13:31, 3 January 2015 (UTC) That was the general direction everyone seemed to be going in, but it was not a final decision. For now, until and unless it is updated, the Manual of Style takes precedence here. That "stable" rule took us right back to the standard naming issue we started with, anyways. We still have more to discuss before we can implement that.

TheFifteenthMember Yes. You're creepy. I can't say we'll miss you while you're gone, so it'd be best if you did go. We all win that way. — TheFifteenthMember 15:21, 3 January 2015 (UTC) The MoS is not an immovable format set in stone. If we deem it unsatisfactory, we are certainly allowed to change and improve it, which is what we are doing here. Hence, I propose that we do include the majority rule. I disagree with using the oldest name, regardless of what has been released after. If a subject has one name in an old game and the name was changed for all other games, it would be odd if we titled the article the first name, which only appeared once, when the other name was used for multiple games. Also, just a note, "Fa Mulan" is KH-canon and is found in the journal and cutscenes.