Image Database:Naming Conventions

Foreword
The Project contains tens of thousands of articles and images. In order to keep the site organized we use a uniform set of rules when naming articles. These conventions cover the vast majority of situations, although excepts may arise. The conventions are not optional as several, often unseen aspects of the site's inner workings depend heavily on consistency.

(Thanks!)

Page Names

 * Page names always begin with a capital letter. No matter what the circumstance or word that may start the article title. (This is a software requirement.)


 * Spaces in the title of your page. If you are creating an page with more than one word in the title, using an underscore between the words is the same as a space. (This is a software requirement.) (eg. Image_Comics = Image Comics)


 * The following words should not be capitalized in a page name unless they are the first word: (see above)
 * and
 * at
 * by
 * for
 * from
 * in
 * of
 * on
 * or
 * the
 * to
 * with
 * von
 * de
 * van


 * Capitalize every word in the title (except as above). The convention prevents the confusion of whether certain words should be capitalized or not. (eg. Mark Grayson_for_President, not Mark Grayson_for_president)


 * Do not use a pound symbol (#) in page names. The # symbol is reserved in html code to signify links to a specific area of a page. For more information on this subject, please refer to our help file on how to edit. (This is a technological restriction.)


 * Do not begin a top-level page name with a slash (/ or \). Using the / symbol at the beginning of a page name can cause unexpected behaviour. (This is a software requirement.) Using a slash inside a page name is acceptable. If a page called 'foo' already exists, you can use a forward slash to create sub-pages of 'foo'. (eg. 'foo/bar') In this case, the forward slash symbol (/) is reserved in our software code to signify a separation between sub-pages. If 'foo' does not yet exist, the page will be called 'foo/bar' and no sub-page will be created.


 * Avoid using a period (aka full-stop) (.) at the end of an page name. In certain cases having a period at the end of your page name can cause some very unexpected and unwanted results. This is not a requirement as this only occurs when the page is viewed with certain web-browsers.

Characters

 * Character Entries. Character entries should be listed by the real name and earth-designation of the character if possible.
 * If real name is given:
 * Real Name consists of: "First name" "Used name" (if not the same as first name) "Surname" "Jr" (if applicable). None of the names should be shortened in any way. Albert Francis Simmons, Thomas John McCall (instead of Tom), etc.
 * Surnames must be the birth name, unless specifically legally changed. Luke Cage instead of Carl Lucas, Lois Lane instead of Susan Kent.
 * No degrees or titles (unless the full name is unknown or is too generic.
 * Characters use the naming convention of their own culture. The Chinese list their surname first, etc.
 * If the real name is not given:
 * Any titles in the codename will be written completely. Doctor, Mister.
 * Most well known codename is better than the latest, and the real name is better than the alias, even if it should be more complete. Invincible (Slade) instead of Deathstroke (Slade Wilson).
 * Earth-designation is given: The Earth-designation is listed after the real name in parenthesis. (Earth-One), (Earth-22).
 * Earth-designation is not given:
 * Universe receives either the popular name used of it, or the name of the comic book that universe first appeared in. ''Wildstorm, (ABC) for America's Best Comics, (TCM) for Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.
 * As long as a character has a specific universe of origin, that Earth-designation is given to him/her/it.


 * Multiple Articles of the same name.
 * Articles receive additional parenthesis before the Earth-designation to specify the difference between two or more articles with the same name (and Earth-designation). Robert Long (Infant) (New Earth).

Disambiguation Pages

 * Disambig pages will be created for both, the codename most well known, and the real name of the character.
 * Additional lines will be put under the entries that will tell the universe name. (Albert Simmons (Movieverse) will have Spawn of (Movieverse) under his entry in both, the Spawn and Albert Francis disambig pages.)

Categories

 * Categories. All Categories should be a sub-category (or a sub-sub-category) of the 'Category:' category.

Page Names
'x Vol y z' where x is the comic title, y is the volume number and z is the issue number. (eg. Spawn Vol 1 3)
 * Naming Comic Articles. All comics should be named according to the following format where possible:
 * Please Note: There are no # or . symbols in the title (see above).

Annuals
'x Annual Vol y z' where x is the comic title, y is the volume number and z is the issue number.
 * Annual issues should be named according to the following format where possible:
 * The Title field name should match the name of the series, the Volume field should be the same as the series with which the Annual is associated, and the Issue number should contain the number of the Annual (eg. Annual #3)

Categories

 * Categories. All comics should be tagged with the 'Comics' category and, where possible, the appropriate time category. (i.e. 'Category:2005, October' and 'Category:2005') This is usually handled automatically by the comic template.

Miscellaneous

 * Appearances. A character's appearance will be credited by the "realname (universe)" used in that comic book. Albert Francis Simmons|Spawn (Albert Simmons))
 * Special circumstances will be added in parenthesis after the entry, such as appearances as a corpse, in a flashback, etc, although templates exist to help create uniformity among these notes. See Category:Comic Appearance Templates for all existing templates.

Page Names

 * Use descriptive titles. Images should be named following the conventions as set out below.

Comic Images

 * Comic title_Vol_volume number_issue number.jpg (Please use .jpg, .gif or .png format, in lowercase.)
 * Example: The_Walking_Dead_Vol_1_100.jpg
 * Volume number is required, even if it is volume 1, and volume 2 does not yet exist.


 * Example: The_Walking_Dead_Vol_1_100_Variant_1.jpg
 * Variant numbers can be appended in the form Variant_variant number. (Does not apply to textless covers, see below)


 * Example: The_Walking_Dead_Vol_1_100_Textless.jpg
 * Textless covers should be named as in the example above, simply by appending Textless to the end.

Images taken from inside a comic should be named as above, with an appended, incremental number:
 * Example: The_Walking_Dead_Vol_1_100_001.jpg, Whispers_Vol_1_1_002.gif, etc
 * Volume number is required, even if it is volume 1, and volume 2 does not yet exist.

Character / Team Images

 * Primary subject_incremental number.jpg (Please use .jpg, .gif or .png format, in lowercase.)
 * Example: Albert_Simmons_0001.jpg, Albert_Simmons_0002.gif, etc.
 * The incremental number must be 4 digits long to ensure there will be sufficient numbers for future use.

Miscellaneous

 * Avoid Abbreviations. The title of a file for The Walking Dead #30, should not be 'TWD30.jpg', but rather more fully written out like 'The Walking Dead Vol 1 30.jpg'. This helps our search feature more easily locate these images later. It also avoids the possibility of conflicting names. The first example is ambiguous and could be interpreted as either The Walking Dead #30 or The Walking Dead Vol 1 #30


 * Do Not Use Special Characters. Special characters in the title of the image can produce unexpected / unwanted results. Some web-browsers (IE6, Firefox, Opera) may handle names differently and what you see, isn't necessarily what everyone else sees. Avoid: @ # % & * ~ and characters with accents, if possible.

Sub-pages

 * In order to keep related pages grouped together, sub-pages are often utilized. Sub-pages exist in the same namespace as their parent page and can usually be found from automatically generated links in corresponding article templates.


 * Some subpage examples include:
 * Character/Appearances
 * Character/Fan_Art
 * Character/Gallery
 * Character/Quotes
 * Comic/Covers
 * Item/Appearances
 * Location/Appearances
 * Staff/Artist
 * Staff/Colourist
 * Staff/Cover Artist
 * Staff/Editor
 * Staff/Editor-in-Chief
 * Staff/Inker
 * Staff/Penciler
 * Staff/Writer
 * Team/Appearances
 * Team/Fan_Art
 * Team/Gallery
 * User/Blog
 * User/Collection
 * User/Favourites
 * User/Gallery
 * User/News
 * User/Sandbox
 * User/Wishlist

Please submit any questions regarding special circumstances or any other concerns to the wiki editors forum for review and we will either establish a new, relevant convention or direct you to the existing convention that would be applicable in that case.

Thank you again!