User talk:Rancke

Alien Races 5?

In your edits to Minor Race, you reference a book: Alien Races 5. Is this GURPS Traveller: Humaniti, or is there another Alien Races book I'm not aware of. Tjoneslo 19:51, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it's _Humaniti_. I'll change the references.

BTW, I want to put the taxonomic terms in italics, but I don't know how to do that. Can anyone tell me? Short of browsing through the articles until I find one with something in italics (which is how I found out how to put things in boldface), I can't find any page that provides that sort of information.

Use two 's for example. See also Help Introduction on the wika page. It contains a quick guide to formatting and editing. Use 4 ~ to sign your posts. Tjoneslo 14:20, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Article Naming style for People names

Can you tell me why name articles are (or should be) titled "Last name, First name" rather than "First name Last name"? For example, Dulinor Astrin Ilethian vs. Ilethian, Dulinor Astrin. I used the former because it followed the Wikipedia naming style. Tjoneslo 03:57, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I was unaware that this was the Wikipedia naming style, and I wonder why it is. The advantage of indexing people by family name seems obvious to me: It groups people of the same family together. Though to be perfectly honest, I guess I'm more affected by the fact that this is the way we tend to do it in our society. At least Danish phone books and similar listings all list people by familiy name, personal name. Are American and British phone books organized the other way round? Rancke 14:07, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

First Name Last Name was used with the first entries as they were Nobles, who tend to be known by their first name, e.g. Prince Charles, Queen Margrethe, etc. So people would look for Strephon not under the A's ... Dcorrin 16:52, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Absolutely. Royalty is a special case. I don't think that Queen Margrethe has a last name in the technical sense (just a House). (Unlike the Imperial emperors who do have family names BTW.) Nobility is a complicated case. Some nobles are known by their first names and their titles, some are known by their title alone. Very few are known by their last name. But for indexing purposes I still think that grouping family members together is the way to go. Rancke 16:59, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Regardless of the article name, one can still index the article by last name. Look at the people category Category:People and you see Strephon is located under the A's Dcorrin 17:52, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, and if you look at the same category, you'll note that we contributors appear to find it pretty confusing. Strephon is under A, even though, as you pointed out above, people would look for him under S. Princess Ciencia Iphegenia is under C, not A. Gege Anderson is under A but so is Andrew Harbin and Ashak Moroyanga. Bennett Lai da Santos is under B, etc., etc. It's pretty mixed up at the moment. Rancke 18:06, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I've been thinking it over, and I do have something more than my personal prejudice to lean on. [Family Name, Personal Name) is the indexing format of the Third Imperium. Look at the library data in Leviathan: "Ashley, Sir Gildemar Tomas", "Beauregard, Captain Argon Kevin", "Da Santos, Bennet Lai". Look at the index in Nobles: "Aledon, Duke Norris Aella", "Alkhalikoi, Duke Dresden Paulo", "Alkhalikoi, Emperor Strephon Aella", "Alkhalikoi, Grand Princess Ciencia Iphegenia Guuibataashullibaa" (Quite a mouthful, that ;-). Look at the biography of Alkhalikoi, Arbellatra Khatami on p. 88 of Nobles. Oops, forgot to sign. Rancke 08:16, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

We've all had time to think it over, and it seems to me that we have four options. I'll list them in descendant order of desirability (for me, anyway ;-), and I suggest we vote on it.

1) We do it my way (Family name, personal name), which I think is the most correct format, but which I admit requires more work. The emperors are treated as a special case (Personal name only).

2) We do it the other way (Personal name Family name), which is less correct (though not something to obsess about) but easier. The emperors are treated as a special case (Personal name only).

3) We each keep doing it whatever way we like.

4) We stop entering new People (Which is what I've done pending a resolution).

I'd prefer #1, but I have no trouble living with #2, and I'd much rather #2 than no resolution.

My vote is for #1.

Rancke 13:49, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

I vote for #5. Which is #1 and #2, basically the articles are stored as Family, Personal, but we put in redirect pages for the personal name and/or personal, Family where applicable (e.g. emperors, Dulinor, Maragret, etc) Dcorrin 14:32, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

Just to be complete: The Wikipedia naming conventions for people and Wikipedia naming conventions for titles both have some ideas.

My real point about bring this up was to be consistent. You entered two names in a different style than the other 75 in the Category: People. If we decide to change the naming style, someone need to go through and fix all the other ones.

In any case, I vote for #2. Tjoneslo 02:03, 7 May 2007 (UTC)