Help:Names
This article deals with conventions for naming pages on LotRO-wiki and how to resolve naming conflict that arise when multiple articles should have the same title.
Spelling and Punctuation
Follow in-game capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation whenever possible.
Spelling especially applies to the use of "special characters" (accents and other diacritics) that are not common in English, but appear in in-game languages like Sindarin. If you do not have an the appropriate input method for these characters, there is a panel below the editing window where various scrips can be selected and for quick access to non-ASCII letters. See Help:Spelling and Punctuation for more information.
Exceptions
While we use spelling and capitalization of names as they appear in-game, there are some exceptions where we "correct" in-game mistakes:
- For names with dashes, we never capitalize the first letter after a dash. Example: We write Rune-inscribed Brass Earring for the item which in-game reads Rune-Inscribed Brass Earring.
- NPC surnames, as in Lotho Sackville-Baggins, have both components capitalized.
- For location names with or without "The" we try to follow in-game practice. However, the developers occasionally change their mind and either add and remove "The" from a placename. These names can also differ by where you are located. We try to add Redirect pages to handle those with or without "The."
- For interiors we always use the indoor version. If a sign on the outside reads "Some Cool Name" but the interior map reads "Any Other Name," we use the indoor name. For example, The Ivy Bush's outdoor sign reads "The Ivy Bush Inn."
- For words in the English language; such as a, an, the; of, etc., in regards to articles created (or previously created) here in the wiki SHOULD follow proper English by always being Lower-case, regardless of how they are presented in-game.
- Example: In-game shows "The Legacy Of Durin And The Trials Of The Dwarves" Vs. Lotro-wiki shows "The Legacy of Durin and the Trials of the Dwarves"
In-game naming has not been consistent over the years, hence you will surely find odd-balls. If so, read those articles' Discussion (talk) pages to find clues, if any, or use it to ask for advice. Feel free to use the Discussion page of this article for general questions.
Singular or Plural
When creating a new page its name should always be singular, with some rare exceptions. This is because a page is about one entity, even if several of the same could exist. It is much easier to add an extra "s" to a link than it is to remove it. Compare the following: one [[Rangers|Ranger]] versus several [[Ranger]]s.
Exceptions
Creature species sometimes have summary pages and they are in plural. Chiefly it is this way to avoid nasty naming conflicts. For examples, there is a wolf species in the Shire named Wolf, compare Warg with Wargs, compare Craban with Crebain, etc. Sometimes it is a judgement call whether a page is a summary page which possibly could be in plural or not, but if you are uncertain you'd better use singular to start with.
Plural or Possessive
When creating an article, be certain to correctly specify the English possessive spelling vs the plural spelling for words ending in "s".
Sindarin Plurals
Many names in the game are in Sindarin, which has its own plural form. See the Tolkien Gateway for a chart of how to pluralize in Sindarin. Some examples:
- Morroval -> Merrevail
- Grodbog -> Gredbyg
- Dúnadan -> Dúnedain
- Orch -> Yrch
Make sure it's actually Sindarin. 'Urug' is, and its plural is 'yryg'. 'Uruk', its Black Speech equivalent, is commonly given the Common Speech plural 'Uruks'. 'Yryk' is not a proper plural. Also, a few English plurals have come into common use, such as 'Balrogs' instead of 'Belryg'.
Disambiguation
Occasionally two or more subjects (NPCs, creatures, deeds, etc.) will have the same name. We use a few rules of thumb to determine if these deserve separate pages or should be combined together. This is referred to as "disambiguation" (removing ambiguity).
- If the name conflict arises from one NPC who appears in several locations, we use one page and create sections for the locations where he or she appears. If needed, redirect pages can be created to point to those specific sections. Halbarad is an example of this approach.
- Distinct NPCs who are only identified by a title (Stable-master (Galtrev) and Stable-master (Edoras)) or who merely happen to have the same name (Wíli and Wíli (Twenty-first hall)) are separate entities and warrant separate pages.
- If a creature appears at different locations and with reasonably different statistics, we consider these as distinct "sub-species" and create a separate page for each, distinguished as below. They are often linked to different quests, etc. Use common sense.
- If an instance boss appears in multiple fights with distinct loot, tactics, and so on, we create a separate page for each such appearance.
The rest of this article addresses how to handle cases where separate pages are warranted.
Page Naming
Duplicate names are handled by appending a specifier within parentheses "()" to the name; the specifier is different from case to case.
- Always capitalize the specifier: "Swift and True (Deed)" instead of "Swift and True (deed)."
- Always add a single space between the name and the embraced specifier: "Stable-master (Galtrev)" instead of "Stable-master(Galtrev)."
Unless stated otherwise in the subsections below, the oldest page can generally keep the unspecified title (without the parenthetical) and newly added pages are relegated to separate pages. For example, Wili existed in the game and the wiki long before Wíli (Twenty-first Hall), so the former can remain at the original page location (but see #Special Case for a caveat).
Creatures and NPCs
Use (Location) as the specifier. Usually the location is the name of the Region. For name-clashes within a region, use Area, or the name of the most precise location or dungeon if that is required. In the end of the day, use something that makes sense. See Help:NPCs and Help:Creatures for more information.
Examples: Wíli versus Wíli (Twenty-first Hall), Dourhand Miner (Forochel) versus Dourhand Miner (North Downs)
Deeds, Skills, etc
It is not unusual for the same name to apply to a Skill, an Effect, a Trait, Title, and even a Deed. In cases where a name clash occurs between one or more of these five types of articles, we assign priority as follows:
Skill > Effect > Deed > Trait > Title
This means that if a Skill and an Effect have the same name, the Skill article is named without a specifier and the Effect is moved to "<name> (Effect)." Similarly for a Deed and a Title, or a Skill, Effect, and Deed. In each case, the highest-priority article occupies the default name and all following articles are specified. If no higher-priority page exists, then a Deed, Trait, or Title page should take the unspecified title.
Example: Call to the Valar and Call to the Valar (Effect)
Locations
Naming has always been a topic of contention, here on Lotro-wiki we strive to be consistent (which does not always follow the game) and we do our best to keep things easy to find and organized.
Naming convention guidelines are as follows:
- Map name - if a location has a map use the name on that map.
- Mini-map - if a location does not have a map use the name shown under the mini-map
- Pop up text - when in doubt check the name text size and color when entering the location
- Large, beige text = Region
- Medium yellow text = Area
- Small white text = Landmark
- Note: when labeling settlements use the description in the settlement section based on if it shows area or landmark text, or both.
Items
Use (Level X) as the specifier, where X is a number. In cases where items share a minimum level, use either the quality ("Uncommon", "Incomparable") or item level (Item Level Y) to distinguish the pages.
Example: Item:Shoulders of the Aurochs (Item Level 50) versus Item:Shoulders of the Aurochs (Level 60)
Cross-linking Duplicate Pages
Duplicate pages must link to each other to help visitors navigate to the correct page. Use the Template:Other which is put at the top of each of the duplicate pages. The result is that all of them link to each other. See the template documentation for suggestions and examples.
Special Case
If there are more than three duplicate pages with specifiers (more than four pages total), it may be helpful to create a separate disambiguation page with the original article title and link from there to the appropriately-specified pages. It may also be necessary to use this strategy if the text generated from the {{Other}} template becomes unwieldy or difficult to read.
In this scenario, the disambiguation page serves as a simple list of links and should be added to the category Category:Disambiguation Pages, and each specified page links back to the disambiguation page rather than to all of its siblings. See Angmarim Scout and the {{Other}} documentation examples.
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