Bhamwiki:Style

This is an ad hoc page to collect thoughts on project style (until such time as a "style guide" is feasible). When in doubt, use Wikipedia guidelines or discuss on the talk page. Additions or changes to this guide can be discussed at Bhamwiki talk:Style or Bhamwiki talk:Messageboard.

Abbreviations

• I prefer to omit the dot after abbreviations that end with the last letter of the word (St, Mr, Dr, Rd, Mt, Jr, Bros, etc.)
• It's best not to use abbreviations like "18th St S" or "5th Av SW". (see Style#Streets)

Chronologies

• Typically, lists of dates or events will follow chronological order. Mature, lengthy articles will forego lists in favor of more qualitative divisions (early years, peak years, decline, etc). See discussion at Messageboard#Chronological_order

Disambiguation

• Article titles should be disambiguated only when necessary (i.e. 19th Street Bessemer, but not Dolonah Road Bessemer).
• When disambiguating between something in Birmingham and something in another city, the Birmingham version can keep the primary name (i. e. Triangle Park and Triangle Park (Pinson)). However, if the other one is by far the best known, then it would be the primary (I can't think of an example).
• Some titles work better with the disambiguation in parentheses, others are OK without.

Image naming

• Uploaded images should be named so that the subject is clearly indicated (i.e. "Denny Chimes 2003.jpg" rather than IMG_1075.JPG".

Names of people

• Article titles for people should generally use the most familiar name, whether it is their given name, initials, or a nickname.
• Suffixes, middle names and initials should only be used in article titles where they are familiar or where needed to disambiguate.
• Honorifics and formal titles generally should be left off, except in the introduction of an article or where needed for clarification.
• When used, multiple initials should have a space between them. (i. e. T. C. Cannon)

Capitalization

• Only the first word in article names and section headings should be capitalized unless it is a proper name or referring to the title of a work (e. g. [{Cahaba lily]]; Stay Hungry)
• In citations, I generally follow the source, except where the source places a title in ALL CAPS, I tend to use sentence case (like modern newspaper headings). This isn't terribly important.

Names of streets

• The names of numbered streets use the ordinal number and spell everything else out. For example, use 1st Avenue North, 7th Court South, 8th Street Southwest, and 20th Street Ensley. Where the context is evident, they can be "piped" to appear shorter (i. e. [[18th Street South Homewood|18th Street South]] produces 18th Street South.) It's best not to use abbreviations like "18th St S" or "5th Av SW".

Verb tense

• Descriptions of historical events should typically use the past tense. Descriptions of current and lasting conditions should use the present.