Pikipedia:Proposals

Archived proposals can be found at Pikipedia:Policy/past proposals.

This page is used to propose policy to be put into place at Pikipedia. To make a proposal, create a new section with an appropriate title, followed by a summary of the proposal and your reasons. Next, create 'support', 'oppose' and 'comments' subsections and sign your name under 'support'. Other users can then sign their support or opposition, optionally making extra comments, and the policy will be implemented if it gets enough support.

As well as new policy, you may propose changes to or removal of existing policy in the same manner.

Capitalization

"egg" and "Egg"; "blue Pikmin" and "Blue Pikmin"; "lithopod" and "Lithopod". The games aren't consistent with capitalizations, but neither are we. For instance, some games have no problem naming a Pikmin color in lowercase while others write them in title case every time, as if their life depended on it. After thinking about it for a bit, I realized why this is. And I've figured we should be consistent about the way we capitalize the names. I've cooked up the following policy sketch, and I need everybody to say whether they agree or not. Please don't be biased and go like "but I've always written X in a Y style, so it must be correct!". Let's move forward and try to perfect the global capitalization style!

In the Pikmin series, normal capitalization for some subjects' names is sometimes inconsistent. As a result, Pikipedia capitalizes these names using some community-decided rules. The general rule of thumb is that in-game, when names are presented in titles (the lock-on HUD, a Piklopedia entry name, etc.), they are written in a title case style, regardless of that being the case in normal text or not. This can also be the case for when a keyword needs to be highlighted, as the capitalization helps bring out attention. Because some names are not seen in normal text, and because of the aforementioned inconsistency, it is unknown whether the "normal" capitalization is in title case or lowercase, for most names. Hence, the following rules were created based on common sense, text style and community agreements:

Proper nouns

Title case. Proper nouns are to always be written in title case. It should be clear what things are given proper names, like areas, caves, and characters.

Species

Title case. This applies to Pikmin type names and enemy species names (e.g. "Yellow Pikmin", "Beady Long Legs"). These names are of the most glaring examples of incosistency in the series. Although in the real world, species names are commonly written in lowercase, fans of the series are accostumed to seeing them written in title case; this is more accentuated because of bosses, in which their uniqueness almost makes it look like their species name is their proper name.

Families

Lowercase. The names of families should be written in lowercase, as is the case in the real world. This capitalization is normally seen in the games as well.

Objects

Lowercase. As written above, the name of most plain objects is sometimes written in title case because they are commonly named in a title setting. For objects that are common throughout a game and do not have a major impact on gameplay, their names should be in lowercase. This mirrors the way it is in the real world – humans don't capitalize the word "egg" or gate" for no reason. This includes, but is not limited to: hazards, obstacles, sprays, nectar eggs, nectar, rubble, bomb rocks and geysers.

Important objects

Title case. Objects that are clearly of high importance should be written in title case. Common sense can and should be employed in these cases. For instance, ship parts, treasures and fruits are all of great importance, and it is clear that they are given proper names by Olimar, the Hocotate ship and the Koppaites.

Simple words

Lowercase. For words that do not deserve or need any specific capitalization, they should be written in lowercase like any normal text. This means that words like "leader" (and "captain"), "day", "area", "cave", etc. should not be needlessly written in title case.

Special cases

• The words "Onion" and "Pikmin", whether it's referring to a game or the Pikmin family, must always be written in title case.

For the purpose of clarity, "title case" refers to names in which the first letter of each "non-minor" word is capitalized (e.g. "This Text is Written in Title Case Style"), and "lowercase" means that the words all start with a lowercase letter. Naturally, the names of subjects at the start of sentences, headers, etc. always start with an uppercase letter, with very few exceptions. Although the rules above exist for cases where the games cannot clearly label whether something should be written in title case or not, the community may create exception cases. These exceptions and their reasoning can normally be found in the subject's talk page.

Those are my thoughts. What do you think? Also, what should we do about Pikpik carrots? Same thing as the Pikmin color names; sometimes lowercase, sometimes title case. — {Espyo^T} 12:17, 18 December 2014 (EST)

Support

• — {Espyo^T} Proposer.
• GP - I think this is mostly what we do anyway, and consistency is more important than what we choose.

Comments

For the whole lowercase thing when referring to objects like gates, does this apply to those that have an official name, like for example, the Dirt Wall? Would that be lowercase or uppercase? ^Talk 19:11, 18 December 2014 (EST)

Lowercase. Precisely because they're kind of plain objects. You wouldn't really normally call an electric gate "Electric Gate", as if it were a person's name. — {Espyo^T} 06:14, 19 December 2014 (EST)

Well like the game (notably Pikmin 3) addresses them as proper nouns. Even then, do we keep them lowercase? ^Talk 16:34, 19 December 2014 (EST)