Help:Names

This page deals with conventions for page names on Lotro-Wiki. And also how to disambiguate (resolve) naming conflicts.

Spelling and Style

Follow in-game spelling, capitalization, and hyphenation as far as possible. For details on that topic, see see Help:Spelling and Punctuation.

Lotro makes heavy use of special characters (diacritics), especially so in names. Some keyboards do not have those characters. However, the wiki-editor provides two helpful features, see our tips.

Now follows guidelines and rules for page names, as well as some exceptions from the rules. Tips and examples follow further down, to keep the important bullets short and crisp.

Be careful when creating and naming a page!!!

While fixing a typo within a page is simple, renaming (moving) a page requires quite some work. All links to the page must be updated, etc. Avoid that need, please.

• Page names must always be in singularis, also so called summary pages
• Unless the in-game name so requires:
  • Use British spelling and grammar
  • Do not begin a page name with "the"
• A page name with special characters should have a redirect
• For page names with leading "the" or special characters, add {{DEFAULTSORT:X}} to the page, where X is the page name in common letters, and without leading "the"

Exceptions

At Lotro-Wiki we usually "correct" in-game mistakes:

• For names with dashes, always use lower-case after the dash, as in Rune-inscribed Brass Earring instead of "Rune-Inscribed Brass Earring"
• NPC surnames should have both components capitalized, as in Sackville-Baggins
• The first and last words should be capitalized, plus all nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.
• Functors (and, at, in, of, the, to, etc.) within a name must always be lower-case, regardless of the game

Historically, page naming has never been consistent, neither in-game nor at Lotro-Wiki. When finding an odd-ball page, read its talk-page to find clues, if any. Feel free to chat with other editors about these topics.

Singular or Plural

A page name should always be singular, while a category always is pluralis. A page is about one entity, or one kind of entities.

For an editor it is much easier to add an extra "s" to a link than it is to remove pluralis. Compare one [[Rangers|Ranger]] versus several [[Ranger]]s.

Sindarin Pluralis

If plural Sindarin is in the page name, see Help:Spelling and Punctuation for more detail.

Plural or Possessive

Make certain the page name is correct in regards of plural and possessive forms. A common mistake is to write for example "Nathan Hodge's Farm" when in-game it reads "Nathan Hodges' Farm". So, watch out for possessive forms and words ending in 's'.

Exceptions

A historical note about a discontinued exception: Once we used to name so called 'summary pages' in plural, to avoid naming conflicts. But such conflicts are avoided by using name specifiers (see about disambiguity below). So nowadays Wolf is the summary page for that kind of species, while the creature named "Wolf" in-game has its page named Wolf (The Shire). (Those older pages are slowly being renamed to singularis; and each such fix reveals numerous links in error.)

Disambiguation

Quite often two or more entities have the same name. How to resolve such cases is called "disambiguation" (removing ambiguity).

First off, which use cases are there? What can be done about them? More fleshed out comments and examples follow further down.

A particular NPC appears in many locations

Create one page without "name specifier" (see below), but create sections for the locations where the NPC appears. Links would look like: [[Halbarad#Halbarad (Eregion)|Halbarad]] which results in Halbarad, which is a good example page.

A particular NPC is unnamed and has just a title

Create a page such as Stable-master (Galtrev), for "page name specifiers", see below

All other use cases are about two or more same-name subjects that each deserve their own page.

Two or more NPCs share the same name

Create separate pages using page name specifiers, such as Wíli (Twenty-first hall)

A creature appears in different regions or with reasonably different stats

Create a separate page for each location or level (or what specifies the creature) using "page name specifiers"

An "instance boss" appears in different fights with distinct loot, tactics, etc.

Create a separate page for each appearance (quest, dungeon, etc.), using "page name specifiers"

A deed and a skill share the same name

Create separate pages using "page name specifiers" and note especially the advice in Deeds, Skills, etc below

Page Name Specifiers

Page name conflicts are handled by appending a "specifier" within parentheses "()" to the page name. The specifier is different from case to case. The correct name is used within the body text, of course.

• Always add a single space between the name and the specifier: "Stable-master (Galtrev)" instead of "Stable-master(Galtrev)"
• Always capitalize the specifier: "Swift and True (Deed)" instead of "Swift and True (deed)"

See also cross-linking duplicate pages below!

Conflicting Old Page Names

To avoid a very common linking mistake when creating a new same-name page with a specifier, the following applies:

• The old page must be moved (renamed) so it gets a page name specifier as well. Thereafter, nothing should use the old non-specified name, meaning any same-name page must have a page name specifier. Consequently, editors must find and link to the correct page name, and chances for correctness increases dramatically.

Directives: An old page should be moved to have a page name specifier. Walk over and update all links to the old page name; watch out for links that erroneously link to the old page and fix those. Upon move, a redirect may be left behind, for googling purposes only. If a redirect was left behind it must be deleted after a few weeks. After the page move or redirect deletion, the remainder (the red stuff) must be "protected" so that only admins can handle it, together with an exact summary text so that future editors understand why it must not be revived. Hence, without a "generic name" editors must find and link to the page name with a specifier, and the risk for mistakes is almost cancelled. (Without permissions to "move" and "protect": Chat with admins or add a {{Move}} tag on the old page, and fix erratic links while waiting.)

Note: This policy about "Conflicting Old Page Names" is new (Feb. 2022), so there are many old pages breaching it. And consequently many erratic links exist. Hopefully we will be able to remedy this over time. Currently there is no active project to fix this but every time somebody stumbles over a link in error, please follow the directives above or tag the page for "move", also mentioned above.

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 that a name consists of just one or two common words, most often for skills, effects, deeds, traits or titles. For such names it is forethoughtful to add a specifier right away, and leave the common words unused. Consider it disambiguation in advance. And it would prevent linking to the wrong page, a quite common error. Example: Camp (Effect).

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 pages, 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 page 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 page occupies the default name and all following pages 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 colour 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.

Use as short text as possible--counting each letter--to keep the result one-line and readable. Remember that the links are informative in themselves.

See the template documentation for suggestions and examples.

Special Case

If there are four or more (see why 4) duplicate pages with specifiers it may be helpful to create a separate disambiguation page with the original page 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 very 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 must link back to the disambiguation page only, using the {{Other}} template, rather than to all of its siblings. See Angmarim Scout and the {{Other}} documentation examples.

Tools for Editors

Lotro-Wiki Manual of Style Creating Images and Icons for upload Extended Image Syntax How to use the Article Creation section Naming issues Categorization guidelines Documentation: HTML Color Codes Documentation: Quality - Colors used by LOTRO to designate Item Quality Advanced Editing Links Help -- links to editing information on this Wiki; a direct link to the Help page can be found in the side-menu. Basic Editing Information Advanced Editing I: Definitions and pointers Advanced Editing II: Techniques Technique: How to create Citations Technique: Disambiguation - Other pages with the same name but different content Advanced Editing III: CSS and Tables Documentation: Category Tree Extension on Mediawiki Editing Guidelines Creating Crafting pages Creating Item pages Creating Quest pages Creating Creature pages Creating NPC pages Standard Operating Procedures for Editors Category: Things to do Patrolling Wiki Statistics -- Statistics about the Wiki, page counts and the like Contribution Scores - Statistics about the editing in the past 30 days Projects Projects are also itemized in Help Editor: Information. Major Lotro-Wiki Projects Categorization • Character • Crafting • Creatures • Deeds • Documentation • Effects • Game Guides • Images • Instances • Lore • LOTRO Store • Monster Play • NPCs • Quests • Skirmishes • System Tools • World Expansion projects: Mordor Using Article Management Tags Category:Article Management Tags Category:Stubs