When Gammas Get Names

[Edmund Schweppe]

I see what could flare up into a wiki-war brewing over the "Mrs. Chow" Wiki page, and would like to nip it in the bud.

There are a number of gammas listed in the Wiki whose real names we (the readers) don't know yet.  Sometimes we've seen them mentioned in passing on LiveJournal, other times we've seen references to them in episodes or DVD extras. As Season 2 has progressed, we've learned some of their names. As we update the Wiki with this new information, though, the question arises of what to do with the old Wiki pages.

The way we've been handling this recently (as in, since Season 2 started) has been to use MediaWiki's "move" function to move all the content to a new page (with the actual gamma's name). This also changes the old page to be a redirect to the new page, which I don't see as a big deal for names that were just a month and year. However, for those gammas who actually had a name of sorts (such as La Befana), I think it makes a lot of sense to leave some explanatory content on the original page (along, of course, with a link to the new one), and that's what I've been doing.

Other thoughts?

[Elizabeth Bear]

I think this is an excellent solution.

[YuriPup]

I think the nick name is still the same person and keeping 2 pages properly synchronized, linked and updated is a bit much to expect.

I agree that seeing a character develop in the wiki is good, but keeping 2 entries is going to be tough on anyone updating and can allow users to miss information if they don't read both sources carefully.

As a resource I would only rather have to check in one place.

[jimsmyth]

Listing the Gamma by their true name shows respect.  Reyes would approve.  Irregarless, I think it's also the right thing to do.

For come of the more famous names (say, Mrs Chow), it takes very little space to have a small page saying something like "A nickname for the excessively-carnivorous Mrs Cho" and link back to her real page.

[Jim T]

The way we've been handling this recently (as in, since Season 2 started) has been to use MediaWiki's "move" function to move all the content to a new page (with the actual gamma's name). This also changes the old page to be a redirect to the new page, which I don't see as a big deal for names that were just a month and year. However, for those gammas who actually had a name of sorts (such as La Befana), I think it makes a lot of sense to leave some explanatory content on the original page (along, of course, with a link to the new one), and that's what I've been doing.

Having the "Category:Nicknames" page autopopulated is a nice side effect I like.  I'm undecided on whether removing the other categories is a good idea or not -- we have nicknames that aren't for gammas as well-- but YuriPup is right that it's not good that they appear twice in the other Category pages.

I didn't mean it to be an edit war -- I did say that I thought it was a misunderstanding.  (I still think it is).

[Elizabeth Bear]

I think it's nice to have a stub with a brief explanation and a link to the main page. That allows the category:nicknames function to work. Yuripup's solution of removing the other category names from the nickname also prevents the couble-bookkeeping problem.

[YuriPup]

Hey is it possible to have a redirect to go an anchor somewhere on the redirected page?

So that we could create a nickname section and jump to it while still having a single entry + a redirect with category:nickname on it?

[Elizabeth Bear]

Hey is it possible to have a redirect to go an anchor somewhere on the redirected page?

So that we could create a nickname section and jump to it while still having a single entry + a redirect with category:nickname on it?

Maybe we should sort out what we're doing before we do any more editing? It will save on reverts in the long run.

I leave the actual final solution in the capable hands of the Wiki mods, with (of course) appropriate consideration of all input.

[YuriPup]

Heh I wasn't going to run out and do it, but seeing if that is a 1) possible and 2) acceptable answer.

Supposedly you can, but I am not sure I can penetrate the syntax here:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Redirect

One method is the following syntax "start with 2 '[' ", "target_page", "#", "section_title" "end with 2 '] " using a "#" rather than a ":".

Or maybe reading it the 7th time is the charm? [[Eileen Cho#Mrs Chow]]?

[Edmund Schweppe]

Redirecting to a section may work, depending on server configuration. I know we don't have all the MediaWiki bells and whistles installed, so it might not work here. OTOH, I don't think it's the right solution.

I'm still in favor of leaving a brief stub description on the old page rather than the raw redirect. I also really like having the stub have Category:Nicknames and Category:Characters set - Nicknames because that's what the old name really was, and Characters to ensure the name shows up on the main characters list. (I'm presuming that someone new to Shadow Unit who comes across a weird name like La Befana will either look first on the Characters page or use the search box; in either case, I'd like them to have a real page to land on.)

[Jim T]

I'm not sure if we were formally voting, but here are the votes so far, as I count them:

For nickname stubs:
Edmund Schweppe
Elizabeth Bear
Jim T
txanne
jimsmyth
jeffy

For redirects (to an anchor):
YuriPup
Mattador
jennygadget
MadGastronomer
Cole
Ada
kayjayoh

[Mattador]

I'd vote for the redirect option, and anchor it to a nickname section of the main article.

[jennygadget]

(I'm presuming that someone new to Shadow Unit who comes across a weird name like La Befana will either look first on the Characters page or use the search box; in either case, I'd like them to have a real page to land on.)

I'm not sure I'm getting all the tech speak - but I do very much agree with this.

I know that a search is exactly what I would do first.  Being sent to a page that just starts talking about what we know now about the gamma/character in question rather than first explaining to me that the name I'm looking for is an old nickname, and then telling me that what I really want is "X"....yeah, simply directing me to the current information would confuse me.

Although Mattador's solution would solve that problem as well.

[MadGastronomer]

I'm with Mattador.

[txanne]

I'm with Ed, but I could live with the other solution.