Wikispooks:Standardisation

While trying not give users as much freedom as possible, it is nevertheless helpful to follow some standards while composing Wikispooks. The general approach is designed to make pages easy to find and interlink. Although, as a project page, this is only editable by administrators, all users are encouraged to contribute their ideas and comments to the talk page.

Page Names

Naming of pages is obviously important so that links work as expected, but the importance goes deeper still with the use of Semantic Mediawiki since these names become semantic 'anchors' used to connect data items.

Subpages

Subpages are a mediawiki feature that allows easy display of a hierarchy like structure, i.e. A/B. Since January 2014 Wikispooks has been using this, and policy is still evolving as regards subpages, but it is currently recommended to use of subpages whenever a hierarchical (dependent) relationship exists. For example, since the JFK Assassination is an aspect of the man himself, subpages should be used to reflect this fact, so the page is John F Kennedy/Assassination. Similarly, the Warren Commission, which covered up the crime, was a derivative event, so the page is a sub-sub-page: John F Kennedy/Assassination/Cover-up.

Such standardised pagenames fulfill the role of binomial names in biology; existing in parallel with alternative common names, they provide an easily interpreted structure intended to help both software and humans in navigation around the pages, and could be used in conjunction with particular Semantic properties. Common subpage names may include: assassination, cover-up, perpetrators, misc ...

People's Names

For consistency, and to redress credentialism, pages of individuals should generally be devoid of a title. Where people are commonly referred to by their title, a redirect page is fine. e.g. Colonel Gaddafi is a redirect to the main page, Muammar Gaddafi. This can be varied where the title neatly resolves an ambiguity or where it has become integral to the name, e.g. "Dr Rola".

Singular/Plural

For consistency and clarity, page titles which are nouns should generally be given in the singular. So, the article about False Flag Attacks is actually entitled "False Flag Attack" - note that Mediawiki's link syntax means that this plurals can easily still be linked in like this: [[False Flag Attack]]s

Letter Case

Since it affects so many of the pages on this wiki, this is an important choice and all feedback is welcome. Mediawiki automatically capitalizes the first letter of each pagename, but for multiple word titles, there is ambiguity about whether the other words should be capitalized or not. Should it be False Flag Attack or False flag attack?... At the moment, page names across the board are an ungainly mish/mash of singular and plural, so a simple policy is needed.

Using Wikipedia

Wikipedia is often a useful reference point as regards names, and all other factors being equal, provides a simple choice which will generally be understood. It should be noted that all other factors are not necessarily equal pagenames are massaged by interested parties, so blind copying is not advised. Sometimes an event has a single unique name, in which but for multiple word titles, there is ambiguity about whether the other words should be capitalized or not. Should it be False Flag Attack or False flag attack?... At the moment,

Other Names

Although none are as widely used or as important as page names, there are a host of other items for which standards would simplify and improve WikiSpooks.

Properties

Full article: WikiSpooks:Semantic Properties

SMW uses relationships referred to as "Properties", most of which (but not all) have the form "Has something".

Templates

Full article: WikiSpooks:Templates

As with properties, these are mostly used 'behind the scenes', so they don't impinge much on the user experience, but standardisation of template names, structures and parameter names is important to allow more efficient coding and collaboration between those who do use templates.