Talk:MLS supplemental draft

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On 17 March 2024, it was proposed that this article be moved from MLS Supplemental Draft to MLS supplemental draft. The result of the discussion was moved.

Requested move 17 March 2024[edit]

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. – robertsky (talk) 17:02, 24 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

– Per MOS:CAPS and WP:NCCAPS, reserve caps for proper names. These are often lowercase in sources. Dicklyon (talk) 10:29, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Neutral - Either version (uppercase/lowercase) is acceptable. GoodDay (talk) 13:32, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
If "either version is acceptable", i.e. as found inconsistently in sources, that means automatically that only one version is acceptable on Wikipedia, the lower-case one, because per MOS:CAPS: only words and phrases that are consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent, reliable sources are capitalized in Wikipedia. (Emphasis in original.) — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 11:21, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Same as in the other RM on "supplemental draft" articles (I don't know why these weren't in the same RM.). Lower-case per MOS:CAPS (these are not "consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent reliable sources", but found in very mixed results across the sources with capitalization be frequently association with non-independendent publications (league and team websites, incl. the funny redundant named MLSSoccer.com, and sites of St. Louis City SC, FC Dallas, Chicago Fire FC, FC Montréal, etc.; fansites for leagues or teams (e.g. PresidioSports.com a fansite for U. of California at Santa Barbara teams); ticket sellers; city/state websites (e.g. SportingKC.com of Kanasas City, KS) promoting events they are hosting; etc. (exception; AL.com run by state of Alabama was inconsistent in the same article), or are student publications (and there are exceptions, e.g. The Harvard Crimson is consistently lower-case on this), or otherwise unreliable. (This capitalization-as-promotion pattern turns out to be in play across pretty much all "sports over-capitalization" matters of this sort). But even the "official" sites are not all consistent (e.g. TorontoFC.ca and SoudersFC.com weren't consistently capitalizing in the same article; neither was the GoPSUSports.com site for Penn State U., operated by Ticketmaster; meawhile the official site of the St. Louis Bilikens was actually lower-case on this). Usage outside of sports news prefers lower-case ([1] about 60% LC; for WUSA [2] 100% LC). Let's go over the news results [3][4][5]: The Equalizer uses lower-case in running text, capitalizes (everything) in headings; Times Herald-Record (RecordOnline.com, Middletown, NY), WECT 6 News (Wilmington, N. Carolina, NBC affiliate), The Washington Post, and WUSA 9 (Washington, DC, affiliate of CBS) all use lower case consistently. Various student/fandom publications capitalize as do the "official"/promotional sites covered above, but not just this phrase – they capitalize all sorts of things that are not proper names like "second team", "all-star", "college draft", etc. (very typical of amateur and promotional-leaning writing, though I also found it consistently at TopDrawerSoccer.com which appears to be a professionally staffed publication, just one that really, really loves to capitalize everything connected with sports). But even the first of those (JMU) uses lower-case "supplemental draft" in other articles, so it seems to have been a one-off overcapitalization by a particular writer. As noted in the related concurrent RM along the same lines (about expansion drafts), CBS Sports is consistent lower-case or upper-case within an article but not consistent across all articles. The Athletic has been pretty consistently lower case, though I found an exception (pertaining to the NFL, not soccer) in which which it was inconsistent within the same article; same with EqualizerSoccer.com. Fox Sports is not 100% consistent, but a narrowed search across just their content shows their usage to be about 95% lower-case for this [6]. Yahoo!Sports was lower-case, but we know from NFL-debate sourcing that they are not entirely consistent on such matters because they often syndicate content from outside their editorial control.
In short, it is not possible that this "is" a capitalized proper name that WP must capitalize, when the external sources mostly don't capitalize it except when they are writing promotional, fandom, or amateur material. No one writes "the himalayas" or "nigeria", because they are treated as capitalized proper names (in a "substantial majority" of sources and then some); meanwhile "MLS supplemental draft" (same with other leagues) is very often given with "supplemental draft" lower-case, especially in the work of independent and professional writers. So the capitalization fails MOS:CAPS / WP:NCCAPS. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 11:59, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.