Talk:Manual of Style/basic

Special Characters (2017)

Thomas, how could we get the two words in a heading?

What is allowed by the wiki rules?

- Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 13:23, 12 May 2017 (EDT)

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Why?

I recall, vaguely, your explanation of why the titles needed the synonyms. But can't find the original discussion. Can you repeat it here or point me at it if you can find it?

The reason for fewer, better chosen, words in the titles is for two reasons: The titles can be used as direct links to the sections of the article and using long, complex, wordy titles makes creating these links difficult. This is also why we don't want to use links in the titles. The Table Of Contents (generated at the top of the article) is easier to read too.

The Dynamic Page List section transclusion library, which allows automatically including sections (by title) of one article in another has a problem with ampersands and parentheses, which is why I've removed them.

Tjoneslo (talk) 16:51, 12 May 2017 (EDT)

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Does Dynamic Page List allow for a slash or a hyphen, please?

Same reason as you. Stylstic preference. Arbitrary. Subjective. And from long experience with the other wikis.

There are other reasons as well.

Thanks for the response.

- Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 16:54, 12 May 2017 (EDT)

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Slashes could be used, except we use them for the sub-pages, so they have an implied meaning that you may not want for your titles. The best suggestion I would have would be either a comma or a semi-colon. E.g. History and Background; Dossier

I still think this is excessively wordy.

Tjoneslo (talk) 23:10, 12 May 2017 (EDT)

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Thanks, Thomas. Appreciate your input.

- Maksim-Smelchak (talk) 09:16, 13 May 2017 (EDT)