Forum:CT:Punctuation in image captions

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This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made in the Senate Hall or new Consensus Track pages rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. The result was punctuation of image captions is to be determined by whether a complete sentence is used. jSarek 11:13, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

This caption is not punctuated

This caption is not punctuated

This caption is.

This caption is.

It was recently made known to me that punctuating image captions has no basis in policy or consensus. Hence this CT. My objective with this thread is not to create or amend a policy, but rather to see where consensus lies.

I personally feel captions look far better when punctuated (more "professional," in a way). It is also widely used on Wikipedia, although I am aware that We Are Not Wikipedia.

This is not a very complicated issue, so let us skip directly to the vote/debate. --Imperialles 11:27, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Punctuate image captions

  1. Per my reasoning above. --Imperialles 11:27, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  2. Sentences end with periods. -- Riffsyphon1024 11:33, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    I agree. It looks much better. * Cylka * 11:48, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  3. Even if many image captions aren't sentences, this looks better. -- AdmirableAckbar (Talk) 12:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    See comments. - JMAS Hey, it's me! 13:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  4. Yay for standardization. -- Darth Culator (Talk) 13:35, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    Graestan(Talk) 14:19, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    Grand Moff Tranner Imperial Department of Military Research (Comlink) 15:09, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  5. A sentence is a sentence, no matter how. short. it. is. While very short captions do look slightly better to me with full stops, I find consistency the biggest issue here. Better to stop a dispute before it starts. SoresuMakashi(Everything I tell you is a lie) 06:28, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
  6. In response to the middle option, it's better that images have proper caption anyway, explaining why they are there, and why they illustrate the text. It better reflects fairuse. --Eyrezer 07:02, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
  7. Thefourdotelipsis 23:13, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
  8. Just punctuate it. It looks much sharper in all cases. Havac 06:40, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
  9. Per Havac. jSarek 22:07, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Do not punctuate image captions

  1. I know, I have now wrought the ire of the AC and the Inqery. Hear me out: I am not opposed to this in 99% of cases. I agree with JMAS, however, that if there is simply a "name" and nothing else, then it should not be succeeded by punctuation. Personal preference. Otherwise, I am wholly behind punctuation. — Fiolli {Alpheridies University ComNet} 16:20, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    There's at least one Inq whose ire is un-wrought. Per Fiolli. Green Tentacle (Talk) 16:23, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    See comment below and per above. - JMAS Hey, it's me! 16:31, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Punctuation determined by use of complete sentence

  1. I hope Imp doesn't mind that I'm taking some liberty here and creating a new option. I believe punctuation, i.e., the use of a complete stop (period), should be determined by whether or not the caption is a complete sentence. For ex, "Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight" should not have a period, whereas "Luke Skywalker defeated Jabba the Hutt in 4 ABY." should. This shouldn't be such a cut and dry issue, but instead should be up to normal grammatical guidelines. Toprawa and Ralltiir 16:53, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  2. Yay for proper punctuation! But no, seriously, this makes most sense. DarthDragon164BlackdragonDragon's Lair 18:17, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  3. Per Tope. JorrelWiki-shrinkableFraajic 19:01, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  4. Chack Jadson (Talk) 02:20, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
  5. Punctuation makes the wiki go 'round. Or it at least makes captions containing complete sentences look more professional and less like so much Internet grammar nowadays. Trak Nar Ramble on 07:10, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
  6. None of this "Luke in his landspeeder." business. People are putting periods after captions even if it's just the guy's name. FEH! Enochf 23:40, 25 December 2008 (UTC)
  7. This one's smelling better to me. Graestan(Talk) 00:43, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  8. MadclawShyriiwook! 01:14, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  9. Although I'd probably put a period behind something like JMAS's example below. Wildyoda 02:07, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  10. The more I think on it, the more this makes more sense. - JMAS Hey, it's me! 18:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  11. Sentences end with periods, sure, but not all image captions are sentences. In fact, lots of them aren't. This makes sense. Atarumaster88 Jedi Order (Talk page) 19:06, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  12. Per JMAS and Ataru. Cylka-talk- 19:12, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  13. Grand Moff Tranner Imperial Department of Military Research (Comlink) 19:55, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  14. IFYLOFD (And now, young Skywalker, you will die.) 19:55, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  15. Pretty much what the option 2 votes were for anyway. Green Tentacle (Talk) 13:27, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
  16. This makes much more sense. CC-2054Talk 17:26, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
  17. This makes more sense, but I almost voted for option 2. —Xwing328(Talk) 18:54, 31 December 2008 (UTC)
  18. Don't we default to the English Wikipedia's manual of style when there is doubt on something like this? This option represents Wikipedia's approach, and it is the most sensible for us to follow as well. --SavageBob 01:28, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
  19. I've always thought it should be done this way. And to respond to Tope's comment, few things in English grammar are as cut and dry as what constitutes a sentence and what does not. So everybody wins. Gonk (Gonk!) 21:38, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
  20. DC 02:08, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
  21. —Tommy9281Dark Side Master TotG (Peace is a lie) 02:26, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
  22. NaruHina Talk Anakinsolo 02:48, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Comments

If option 2 were to be successful, the whole image caption deal would be left up to the author's preference. --Imperialles 11:27, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

  • I actually have a question. What if someone doesn't write a sentence? For example just writes the name if it's a portrait shot. I know it might be nit-picky, but it's better to settle this now, because eventually someone (there's always a few) will cause problems. * Cylka * 11:42, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    • A caption is a caption, regardless of its length. Thus, if longer captions are punctuated, shorter captions should be as well. That's how I see things, anyway. --Imperialles 11:54, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
      • Works for me. Like I said, better ask now than later. It seems like there's been a lot of policy interpretation issues lately. * Cylka * 12:16, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  • Fwiw, I believe Wikipedia has a policy that captions shouldn't/don't need to be given a full stop if it's not a full sentence. -- AdmirableAckbar (Talk) 12:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  • I agree that even with incomplete sentences, punctuation looks better. The only exception to this is when it's a simple name with no descriptive. For example. "Nahdar Vebb, Mon Calamari Jedi Knight." though still an incomplete sentence, gets punctuation, but a simple "Nahdar Vebb", with no other descriptive, does not. - JMAS Hey, it's me! 13:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
    • You want to be careful making your own additions to the proposal and then supporting it. Per the first option, all image captions are to be punctuated. -- AdmirableAckbar (Talk) 16:11, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  • < Mandatory "Instruction creep!" here. > -- I need a name (Complain here) 18:23, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
  • Erm... not to go a bit off topic, but Eyrezer's comment made me wonder if there's a policy for captioning thumb images? I see a lot that aren't and it would look much better if they were. I know I probably should have gone to the SH and you all can lynch me later, but since we are discussing images and captions... Cylka-talk- 19:12, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
  • Just to straighten things out (for myself), option 3 would want all sentences with periods, and all captions that fall short of a complete sentence without them. So "Luke in his landspeeder" would not have a full stop, just like "An image of Luke in his landspeeder", but "This is an image of Luke in his landspeeder" would have a period. Is this correct? SoresuMakashi(Everything I tell you is a lie) 21:04, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
    • Yeah that's my interpretation of it. DarthDragon164BlackdragonDragon's Lair 21:15, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
      • Which is why I remain to hold on option 2. I have no objection with having punctuation (specifically a full stop) end an incomplete sentence in captions. It looks cleaner, sharper, and more professional; although, some publishers in the United States do and others do not punctuate incomplete sentences in captions. I only felt that names were the only item that needed not punctuation if they appeared by themselves. — Fiolli {Alpheridies University ComNet} 18:50, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
  • Just to be clear, are we considering option 3 a vote for not requiring punctuation at the end of incomplete-sentence captions, or a vote for a policy not to punctuate incomplete-sentence captions? In other words, is it a vote for no policy on incomplete sentences and only mandating punctuation for complete sentences, or is it a policy for mandating no punctuation on incomplete sentences and punctuation on complete ones? Is it a vote for inconsistency, or for going back and removing existing punctuation on image captions? I'm not in favor of either, but I think it's useful to clearly know what we're getting. Havac 02:24, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
    • I don't know about everyone else, but unless the option is "No Policy," I consider anything we're actually voting for to be a policy. I'm going with that option 3 would be voting for a policy of punctuation being determined by a complete sentence. Somebody(s) else chime in here, too, though. Wildyoda 15:15, 29 December 2008 (UTC)
      • Sure looks like it's meant to set up a policy to me. jSarek 22:06, 29 December 2008 (UTC)