Wikipedia talk:Article titles

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In a requested move discussion that was just closed, it was concluded that there is a well-established and widely used naming convention for "subarticles" that cover particular time spans within a larger history topic, using names like History of Foo (1753–1892), with the time span identified inside of parentheses similar to a disambiguation term. This is not about a "Foo" that existed only between 1753 and 1892 that needs to be distinguished from other Foos that existed during other periods of time, but rather about the period of the history of Foo from 1753 to 1892. The time spans look like disambiguation terms, but that's not what they are – instead, they are a fundamental part of the identification of the topic. This is not about a topic called "History of Foo", it is a timespan-based subset of the entire history of Foo. Examples include History of the United States (1776–1789), History of Poland (1918–1939), History of Canada (1960–1981), History of France (1900–present), History of Russia (1894–1917), History of Germany (1945–1990), and History of the People's Republic of China (1989–2002). The RM discussion can be found at Talk:History of the United States (1776–1789)#Requested move 16 June 2024. The suggestion to rename these to remove the parentheses, as in History of Foo from 1753 to 1892, was rejected. There is a substantial number of articles that use this convention, but I am not aware of anywhere that documents it as an accepted article naming convention on Wikipedia. Should this convention be described somewhere in WP:AT or in some other naming convention description? —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 23:01, 30 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This proposal seems sensible to me - maybe Wikipedia:Naming conventions (numbers and dates) would be a good place to include such guidance? ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 13:38, 2 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps in WP:NCDURATION? —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 18:52, 3 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See this diff, inserting "Articles that cover an interval of the history of a longer-duration topic are often entitled as their main overall topic suffixed with a parenthesized indication of the time period, such as History of Canada (1960–1981) and List of One Piece episodes (seasons 15–present)." —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 20:04, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Does caret [^] can be use in titling an article or not? 98𝚃𝙸𝙶𝙴𝚁𝙸𝚄𝚂 ^{[𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙺]} 10:40, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are two possible questions here. First: is it possible to use the caret in an article title? The answer here is yes; it's not one of the characters that the MediaWiki software prohibits from titles. However, the second question is: should a caret be used in an article title? The answer here is, basically, it depends. Generally, titles aim to describe their subject in the plainest English possible: that is to say, non-alphanumeric characters are generally avoided, and stylizations are generally removed (for instance, we use Toys "R" Us instead of Toys "Я" Us). For that reason, there's often not a compelling reason to use a caret in an article title. However, there are occasional exceptions; for instance, if the title of a work uses a caret, and that caret is used in the majority of independent sources discussing the work (see WP:TITLETM), it may be appropriate.

If there's a specific article where you'd like to use a caret in the title, let us know what it is and we can give more specific advice. ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 14:21, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article I want to create with caret is Ar^c, the debut extended play of ARrC, which like you said that it is used in the majority of independent sources. 98𝚃𝙸𝙶𝙴𝚁𝙸𝚄𝚂 ^{[𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙺]} 14:31, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Could you also take a look at this discussion I open first at Wikipedia:Help desk#Caret in article title? 98𝚃𝙸𝙶𝙴𝚁𝙸𝚄𝚂 ^{[𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙺]} 14:47, 20 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a guideline about article titles for foreign works of art: books, films, paintings, etc. Especially in the cases when there is no "official" or commonly used English translation or if there are several English translations. --Altenmann >talk 21:39, 2 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The closest thing to a unified guideline about this topic would probably be Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English) (WP:NCUE), which includes sections on how to approach topics with competing English translations or no common English translation in the first place. However, NCUE is a more general titling guideline that is not about the titles of works specifically. For more topically focused guidance, your best bet is probably to look up the titling guideline for the relevant category of work and identify the most appropriate section therein. For instance, WP:NCBOOKS#Title translations and the following section address titling guidance for foreign books; WP:NCFILM#Non-English language films covers films; and MOS:ART#Article titles features a brief discussion on how to handle non-English names for works of visual art. ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 13:42, 3 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article Chauha‌n contains a zero-width non-joiner character between the second "a" and the "n", the article Chauhan does not. Could somebody knowledgeable please look into resolving this? There is also this redirect. Paradoctor (talk) 22:18, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've taken care of the Chauhan issue (caused by sockpuppet hijinks). As for the redirect ([1]), I guess it's harmless since it's pointing to the right target, but you're welcome to RfD it if you want. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 22:33, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Paradoctor (talk) 22:39, 12 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Should the use of the multiplication sign (×) in article titles be utterly avoided? Given that the guideline clearly points out to avoid the use of characters not found on a standard keyboard, I interpret that it includes the multiplication sign as well. However, and although I know about WP:OTHERCONTENT, I noticed this category with several articles that include the sign in their titles. My doubt about this arises from a discussion I started in the Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka's talk page. Personally I would prefer to keep the sign, but I wanted to know more opinions on the matter.

P.S: I also have another question now with the Ed Sheeran-related articles that include the division symbol in the titles as well. Xexerss (talk) 07:53, 22 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see no practical problem with using a multiplication sign if there's a redirect that uses an ⟨x⟩ instead. Remsense ‥ 论 08:30, 22 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]