[WikiEN-l] A plea for sanity in capitalisation from the coalface

Sun Apr 27 05:45:17 UTC 2003

Believe it or not, Mav and I do agree a lot on this. But we disagree on the 
nuances. I agree we need a universal approach (I was the one with the help 
of other people who overhauled our naming conventions on names and titles to 
create a universally - well almost universally - applicable template. )

>I'm also a biologist. So your presumption that we "know
>nothing" is a bit insulting.

The LAST thing I would ever want to suggest is that someone like Mav, Zoe, 
Deb, Michael Harty or others "know nothing". What I meant was that some 
editors don't know enough about a specialist area to be able to know how to 
apply the capitalisation rules there. I'm a historian and political 
scientist (and a few other things thrown in) but I know absolutely nothing 
about biology. (I slept through most biology classes in secondary school!) 
So I would not go near a page on biology for fear of inadvertently mucking 
up content because I would not know what I was doing. It is all double-dutch 
to me. All I am asking is that, if someone edits a political science article 
I wrote, and they themselves don't much about the topic, presume that I know 
what I am doing and that if I write PR.STV, if I write Taoiseach in one 
place and Taoisigh in another there is a reason (the latter is the Irish 
language plural for the former, though I link that to explain) and if I 
write 'King of the Belgians' there is a reason and don't change it to 'King 
of Belgium', 'pr.stv', 'taoiseachs'. Or at least ask me first why I wrote 
that.

But some editors sweep through an article like someone clearing a rain 
forest, cutting down capitals and changing names left right and centre, on 
occasion showing that they don't know what they are doing (someone changed 
an article on the 'Prime Minister' to 'Prime minister' recently, and the 
correct plural 'governors-general' to 'governor-generals', leading to a 
string of expletives and a muttering of 'what the fuck have they done?' when 
you see the sorry mess left of a carefully worded article. (Example: Someone 
keeps changing [[Lord John Russell]] to [[John Russell]] every so often. 
Under the [[naming conventions (names and titles)]], courtesy titles CAN be 
used where the person is universally known with it and unrecognisable 
without it. 100% of history students know Lord John Russell, MP as a British 
prime minister in the 1840s. 0% have ever heard of a pm called John Russell. 
As a courtesy title 'Lord' was treated like part of his name, unlike a 
peerage (like Earl of Ardbraccan) that is separate from someone's name. Even 
worse is the person who occasionally turns it into 'lord John Russell'. Or 
tried to turn [[W. T. Cosgrave]] into [[William Cosgrave]]. NO-ONE ever 
referred to him (bar his wife in the bedroom) as William. 100% of people 
know him as W.T. And Gladstone as W.E, William E. or William Ewart, never 
William Gladstone! And the next person who turns 'Charles 
Mountbatten-Windsor' (as confirmed by Buckingham Palace) into 'Charles 
Windsor' because Google says so (Google, believe it or not, is NOT always 
right!) will get an anonymous phonecall to the White House claiming Saddam 
Hussein is living in their basement: please send in the Marines & some B52s. 
(JOKE!!!)

In other words, if it isn't your are of expertise, be cautious. Don't get 
the chainsaw out and chop down every capital letter you can find if you 
don't KNOW FOR A FACT it is wrong. In many cases, the person who wrote it 
KNEW FOR A FACT it is right. If in doubt, ASK the author 'why 'PR.STV' not 
'pr.stv'? 'Why the T with Cosgrave? Why use the Lord with Russell? Otherwise 
a lot of time is wasted correcting illjudged incorrect 'corrections'. And my 
usual response when something 100% correct is 'corrected' to something 100% 
wrong, 'Oh, not a friggin' again!' and a line of expletives.

JT

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