This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments or questions on this topic should be made in a new Senate Hall page rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. JocastaBot (talk) 14:43, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
Forums > Senate Hall archive > SH:Alternate names in the infobox
Hello everyone,
On the Discord server, there has recently been a discussion about including alternate names in the infoboxes' titles. While some articles include it—such as CT-5555, Mitth'raw'nuruodo, and C1-10P—there are many status articles precedents not to list them, such as S-R6, Mitth'ras'safis, Rikel.
Another point worth considering is that, for characters that have multiple names, it would be difficult to choose which alternate names are "worthy" to be in the infobox. While our naming policy regulates the pages' titles, it makes no reference to "additional names." It would be possible to create a new parameter in the infobox for the aliases that characters have, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki does (Example). However, this would be redundant to the first lines of the article's intro, which includes, written in bold, all the aliases.
In my opinion, the infobox should exclusively list the article's title, and the possible alternate names should be provided in the intro and the article's body. Before bringing this to the CT, I wanted to hear the community's thoughts. LucaRoR 
(Talk) 09:49, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
Discussion
- Absolutely agree, plus what the MCU wiki does with those "aliases" there is actually a pretty good example of what not to do. :P Keep it simple and stick to the article title in the infobox and let the intro and/or the article body deal with the rest. Imperators II(Talk) 09:57, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Yeah, we shouldn't pick and choose, which means we need to go all or nothing. And as Imp said, that looks terrible and fills the infobox with superfluous information that can be noted in the body. Manoof (he/him/his) (talk) 09:58, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Per Imp and Manoof. NanoLuukeCloning facility 10:43, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- I think we do a huge disservice to clones (and slightly Droids) by listing them by their designations. As far as I know no Clone has 2 nicknames so I don't think it would be unreasonable to list their nicknames with their designation in their infobox. Droids can be a little fuzzy on one nickname, like 0-0-0 having "Triple-Zero" and "Trip" and C1-10P having "Chopper" and "Chop." But I could argue the second nicknames are built off the firsts. I don't think we should list every (or any) nicknames for characters like Krrsantan. I don't see why our policy can't be specific on who does and doesn't get alternate names listed. NBDani (talk) 11:50, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- I don't think we should treat clones or droids differently from the other articles. Certainly, their nickname is used more than their designation names, but so are Chiss. In my opinion, the "name" option in the infobox should only be used to "repeat" the article's title and, in some cases, provide an explanation for the infobox image. (Example) LucaRoR
(Talk) 12:04, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- I don't think we should treat clones or droids differently from the other articles. Certainly, their nickname is used more than their designation names, but so are Chiss. In my opinion, the "name" option in the infobox should only be used to "repeat" the article's title and, in some cases, provide an explanation for the infobox image. (Example) LucaRoR
- I’m with Dani. Also, Chiss core names absolutely should be in the infobox as they are used far more often than the full name. — YakovChaimTzvi (he/him/his)
(talk) 12:21, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- I'll reply to both you and Dani with a single comment :P
What I'm suggesting with this SH is that we make the name consistent between the page's title and the name field in the infobox. Thrawn is used more than Mitth'raw'nuruodo, but per Naming Policy, the page's title is the most formal name. It would be strange to have a name in the page's title and a different name (or more than one name) in the infobox. LucaRoR
(Talk) 12:53, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- I'll argue that the page title and the name field should be what they are referred by most and not their most formal name. I think the page should be Thrawn. The intro should be Thrawn, whose formal name is Mitth'raw'nuruodo, blah blah blah. Or Fives, formal designation CT-5555, was a clone trooper... And the name field in the infobox should match their most commonly used name. When people come to the Wook to find info on these characters, they are going to be looking for Thrawn and Fives, not Mitth'raw'nuruodo and CT-5555, names that the casual Star Wars fan probably has never even heard of. And yes, I know we have redirects, but I think those redirects should be reversed. - JMAS Hey, it's me! 13:12, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Let's keep this discussion on-point please, though. This is not about amending the Naming policy, this is about whether or not we list alternate names in the infobox name field. Imperators II(Talk) 13:17, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Amen to everything JMAS said, and I would love to see discussion of this in an appropriate thread. Asithol (talk) 00:03, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
- I'll argue that the page title and the name field should be what they are referred by most and not their most formal name. I think the page should be Thrawn. The intro should be Thrawn, whose formal name is Mitth'raw'nuruodo, blah blah blah. Or Fives, formal designation CT-5555, was a clone trooper... And the name field in the infobox should match their most commonly used name. When people come to the Wook to find info on these characters, they are going to be looking for Thrawn and Fives, not Mitth'raw'nuruodo and CT-5555, names that the casual Star Wars fan probably has never even heard of. And yes, I know we have redirects, but I think those redirects should be reversed. - JMAS
- I'll reply to both you and Dani with a single comment :P
- Specifically referring to the inclusion of a nickname in the "title" infobox field in addition to the "formal" name, I agree that certain types of nicknames are too notable to exclude. All articles that I have seen with that are either for clone troopers and a minority of droids, whose nickname is not only an integral part of their identity but also what they are referred to as vastly more often than their designation; and Chiss, who have their own article about why they have nicknames. I would also recommend extending this precedent to Sith Lords, whose "Darth" titles are just as integral to their identity as the aforementioned examples. SorcererSupreme21 (talk) 13:20, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- As Yakov said, I think clones and Chiss especially benefit from having two names in the infobox. VergenceScatter (talk) 14:32, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- I would be okay with listing a nickname for clones and droids (and similar types of article, I guess), where the formal designation is kind of awkward and usually not what they go as. However, I wouldn't support listing alternate/former names (like Dooku and Darth Tyranus, or Kylo Ren and Ben Solo). 1358 (Talk) 14:55, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Cool, I guess that the nicknames of clones and Chiss are fine. I disagree with the droids part, though, since they can have multiple nicknames (for example, R2-D2), and the nicknames are mostly only the "pronunciation" of the official names. LucaRoR (Talk) 17:04, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- What nickname does R2-D2 have other than Artoo? If we did codify it to allow Clones/Chiss to have their alternate names in the infobox, could it be codified to allow Droids with one nickname the same treatment? NBDani (talk) 17:13, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Would it be Artoo or Artoo-Detoo? I don't think we should list droids' nicknames, but I don't have strong feelings, to be honest. LucaRoR (Talk) 17:29, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Perhaps we don't list nicknames that are literally phonetical pronunciations. That would leave R2-D2, L3-37, and C-3PO without nicknames but let R1-J5 "Bucket," C1-10P "Chopper," and even G1-7CH "Glitch" display their
properalternate names.- Makes sense, but it would be difficult to generalize: "Exception made for clones, Chiss with a core name, and droids whose nickname is not their name's phonetical pronunciation?" LucaRoR (Talk) 17:59, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- How about: Exceptions include clones, Chiss with core names, and droids whose nicknames are not the phonetic pronunciation of their name (e.g. C1-10P "Chopper"). Examples are always helpful in these instances. SilverSunbird (talk) 18:13, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Makes sense, but it would be difficult to generalize: "Exception made for clones, Chiss with a core name, and droids whose nickname is not their name's phonetical pronunciation?" LucaRoR
- Perhaps we don't list nicknames that are literally phonetical pronunciations. That would leave R2-D2, L3-37, and C-3PO without nicknames but let R1-J5 "Bucket," C1-10P "Chopper," and even G1-7CH "Glitch" display their
- Would it be Artoo or Artoo-Detoo? I don't think we should list droids' nicknames, but I don't have strong feelings, to be honest. LucaRoR
- What nickname does R2-D2 have other than Artoo? If we did codify it to allow Clones/Chiss to have their alternate names in the infobox, could it be codified to allow Droids with one nickname the same treatment? NBDani (talk) 17:13, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Cool, I guess that the nicknames of clones and Chiss are fine. I disagree with the droids part, though, since they can have multiple nicknames (for example, R2-D2), and the nicknames are mostly only the "pronunciation" of the official names. LucaRoR
- We should absolutely be listing nicknames in the infobox for clones and Chiss. I already think that titling articles after clones' designation numbers is disrespectful anyway, so... yeah. SilverSunbird (talk) 17:18, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
- Throwing my two credits in, I honestly don't see the benefit to having more than the basic article title in the infobox, even in special cases like clone nicknames and Chiss core names, since all of the names would ideally be right there in the first few sentences of the intro. Fan26 (Talk) 02:55, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
- This argument I'm seeing in this thread doesn't make much sense to me because the exact same thing can be said about everything else in an infobox. Clone trooper/non-phonetic droid nicknames and Chiss core names are just as important to list there as their species, gender, homeworld, affiliations, etc., in addition to mentioning them in the lead section. SorcererSupreme21 (talk) 11:28, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
- Realistically its kind of silly that the name Darth Vader doesn't appear anywhere in Anakin Skywalker's infobox, but then again having "Ani" listed in thre sounds aesthetically horrendous. So I think Sith titles or birth names would be another reasonable use for exceptions Commander Code-8 Hello There! 05:37, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
- Yeah, personally I'd be fine with it if we ended up adding specific things like droid and clone names, core names, Sith titles, etc. But please, please let's not go down the MCU wiki path. Imperators II(Talk) 07:28, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
- I am generally in support of this, but I would like to echo the sentiment above and say that we need to create some sort of standards to make sure that this doesn't get reckless and everything is kept smooth. There are already a number of examples across multiple articles on this Wiki where people take a silly nickname stated by one character in some comic as a valid source to say that the individual or organization was also known by that name, as opposed to it simply being a slight comment made by one individual. Just become someone called Sidious "Siddy" once does not mean he was "also known as Siddy," and it doesn't mean that should be added to the infobox (as an analogy). Nonetheless, I am in support of this proposal. Reddyredcp (talk) 00:46, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
