Forum:SH:LG:Real-world company articles

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Forums > Senate Hall archive > SH:LG:Real-world company articles

Often, when looking at our real-world companies articles, I'm irritated by the absence of standardized sections naming, and I'd like to do something about it. While I may have a lot on the fire right now, this should be fairly quick to do, so here's the proposal: the addition of a fourth "established layout" under "Sectioning" within Wookieepedia:Layout Guide/Out-of-universe.

The idea is to provide something very similar to "Real-world person articles" with three sections (and the same limitation, like "keep it Star Wars focused"):

  • History
  • Products
  • Awards and nominations

My main interest here is the "Products" section. Contrary to real-world people articles, I do not think we need to include sub-sections. But there is a little caveat to take into consideration: what about companies that don't produce goods, but instead provide services. To illustrate this, see our the only two real-world companies article to ever reach status: Maxis and Full Monty Catering. Maxis produces goods, so the current "Gameography" section should be renamed "Products", but Full Monty Catering is a service (catering) company, and I'm not confident that we should keep that section name at "Works"; why not simply call it "Services"?

If anyone as any other suggestion, now is there time! I'm gonna create a draft within one or two weeks, once I've seen some soft consensus on the topic. NanoLuukeCloning Facility 09:17, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

Draft

Took me longer than expected because it went completely over my head during the holidays, but here it is! I'm also including the draft in relation to the naming update I introduced in an other SH aiming at removing legal entity type from company's names. NanoLuukeCloning Facility 15:20, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Vote 1

New subsection entitled "Real-world companies" to be added at the end of the "Sectioning" section of the Layout Guide/Out-of-universe policy:

Real-World Compagnies Articles
Real-world companies articles are to be organized using the following sections. Each of these sections may be subsectioned as necessary.
  1. History gives a detailed and comprehensive summary of the company's history. With the exception of foundation and dissolution information, this section will limit its focus almost exclusively to the company's relation to the Star Wars franchise. The article may briefly note the highlights of a company, where they are well known for their products or services, and their achievement outside of Star Wars. See Maxis for an example on how brief this should be.
  2. Products or Services gives a tabulated listing of the company's products or services that is focused exclusively on Star Wars. The tables must contain Year and Title columns, with the possible addition of others, including but not limited to Contributions, Platforms, Format, and Notes. It must be organized in chronological order.
    See WP:LG#Tables, Maxis#Products and Full Monty Catering#Services for examples on how to format these tables and headings.
  3. Awards and nominations gives a tabulated listing of a company's nominations and awards, exclusively for their Star Wars works.

Vote 2

New subsection entitled "Real-world companies" to be added to the "Specific rules" section of the Naming policy, right before the "Real-world people" subsection:

Articles for real-world companies shall be titled without the inclusion of their legal status suffix, such as Ltd., Inc., LLC, etc. (examples: Lucasfilm not Lucasfilm Ltd.; Hasbro not Hasbro Inc.).

Discussion

  • I suppose "Services" would technically work for Royal Scottish National Orchestra, though not the best descriptor. But what about groups that are even moreso charities, like the 501st Legion (fan organization)? OOM 224 (he/him/they) 19:25, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
    • I would totally reject the 501st (a "costuming organization") to be considered under that umbrella, even if they participated in movie production, they just don't fit in this discussion. As for the orchestra... I'm not sure: they are commercial company, yes, but having a specific title section for currently 5 articles seems a bit counter productive, when effectively "Services" still works. NanoLuukeCloning Facility 08:54, 3 December 2024 (UTC)
  • Works for me.—spookywillowwtalk 19:26, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
  • Draft included. Note that I did not include specific definitions on Product vs Services, because while researching this I went into a pit of economic theory definition and I arrived at the conclusion that there was a lot of contradiction depending on the authors and ressources (is entertainment a service or a product), but still for our purpose, it seems sensible to focus on tangibility (is this something we can possess/consume) versus intangibility. NanoLuukeCloning Facility 15:20, 20 January 2025 (UTC)
    • Could we just go with "Works"? The purposal looks good to me, just am alternative name suggestion ThePedantry (talk) 03:12, 22 January 2025 (UTC)
      • I personally prefer Products/Services, but if enough people show up here to tell me they want a Works option in the vote, I will make a work option. NanoLuukeCloning Facility 07:19, 22 January 2025 (UTC)
        • I'll be honest, using 'Works' but then not using subheaders would get confusing super fast for many people, IMO, since 'Works' is what is used on RWP pages (and used with subheaders on company pages until now). So it makes sense to have it be distinctly named, whatever that may be.—spookywillowwtalk 15:33, 22 January 2025 (UTC)
  • Would the Gameography, Bibliography, Discography, etc. be applicable still like RWP articles? Bonzane10 Bonzane10-Sig 12:12, 21 January 2025 (UTC)
    • I don't think like we should. Creators can produce on all kind of works, and statistically, we often need to account for that on their articles, but company usually stick to a specialized activity. Like Lucasfilm main production is movies and series production, with other companies or internal division working on other products type. NanoLuukeCloning Facility 12:34, 21 January 2025 (UTC)