Help:Article types and titles

In article/page naming, broadly, we include disambiguation qualifiers only when such qualifiers are needed. (See Disambiguation.) Additionally, we retroactively refer to the original Transformers franchise by the name "Generation 1", as is nearly universal throughout the fandom and even among official entities.

Unless a page's title refers to the title of a work, such as "The Ultimate Doom", leading articles (i.e. "the", "a") are to be avoided in page names. Thus, the Void's page should be at "Void", not "The Void".

The title of an article should never be plural unless it is the title of a story, franchise, etc. which is officially pluralized (cf. Alternators). The article about the Generation 1 Constructicons, for example, is Constructicon. The title of a category, however, should usually be plural. Basically, if you can pluralize the name of a category you are making, do it. ("Generation 1" for example can't be pluralized, but "pirate" can be.)

There is a relatively small number of "article types" that will encompass the majority of articles on this wiki. These types, and the naming conventions for them, are:

• Character
  • On dealing with multiple iterations of a character: Even if a particular character appears in many continuities or franchises, only one character page is needed. For example, the character Ravage, who was introduced in the very first Transformers stories, appeared in many G1 continuities, and also in the Beast Wars cartoon and in some Universe fiction. Although there were variations in his portrayal in these stories, all of those appearances are merely different interpretations of a single character. Sentinel Maximus, birthed in the BW-descended Wreckers comics crossed over into the UT-based comics published by Fun Publications in their fan club newsletter. Despite existing in two distinct continuities, he is a single character. UT Starscream and G1 Starscream, however, are different characters who have some similar traits. Thus these two Starscreams have separate articles.
  • Naming: Character article names should be the character name followed by a qualifier if one is needed to disambiguate that character from others with the same name. In almost all cases, the character's franchise of origin is sufficient for this purpose. Character articles about humans should use the human's full name if known. Characters with multiple names (as in the case of alter-egos) should have their article listed under their most prominent name, even if that means a human is listed under a code name instead of their real full name. For more detail on these complications, see Disambiguation.
    • If a character has different names in different languages, their English name is used as the article name, if one is available. If no English name is available, then the article name is the character's name from their language of origin. The exception to this rule is that the Omni Productions dub is not a valid source for English names, because, frankly, it is just too weird.
  • Character biography/history: A single character may have multiple histories in various continuities. These should be broken out by continuity, ordered by date of release/publication. Character histories are written in the past tense.
    • Characters that have been especially active may have portions of their histories separated onto dedicated pages when their character page becomes too large. Examples of this include Optimus Prime (G1)/Marvel Comics continuity and Soundwave (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity.

• Franchise
  • Contents: A franchise is a toyline plus all its associated products and properties, including cartoons, comic books, sleeping bags, electric toothbrushes, TV commercials, etc.. Franchise pages should provide an overview of this whole package and provide links to articles with more detailed information. For "small" franchises such as Robot Masters or Machine Wars, it is acceptable to place all information on the franchise page instead of linking to separate pages for the toyline, fiction, etc..
  • Naming: Simply the name of the franchise. Examples: Beast Wars: Transformers, Transformers: Robots in Disguise, and Transformers: Generation 2. If disambiguation is needed, franchise pages should end with "(franchise)".

• Toyline
  • Contents: The toys only. If a particular toyline has sub-lines within it (like the Deployers line under Beast Machines) they should be mentioned in the main toyline article, but may also have their own article.
  • Naming: The name of the toyline, with the qualifier "(toyline)" when needed for disambiguation. This applies to both "main" toylines and sidelines, even in the cases of things like the Transformers Attacktix and Titanium Series.

• Toy
  • Contents: Toy pages are created when a character page has grown too large. When pages get to a certain bandwidth, a warning will display on the edit screen. It is at this point that we will split off the toy information into its own article, linked from the original article.
  • Naming: Add "/toys" to the name of the original article. For example, Optimus Prime (G1)/toys and Ravage (G1)/toys.

• Comic series
  • Contents: Every comic series should have its own article. The article for a comic series should provide an overview of the series with story and continuity information as well as links to the articles for individual issues. See The Transformers (Marvel Comics) for an example, complete with a table that links to every issue.
  • Naming: As above, the title of the comic series, with a "(comic)" qualifier if one is needed for disambiguation. Additional clarification may be needed (several series have been named simply "Transformers", for example), but usually the comic's publisher will be enough when "comic" isn't by itself, as in Transformers: Armada (Dreamwave) versus Transformers: Armada (Panini).

• Comic issue
  • Contents: Issue articles summarize a particular comic book issue and provide other useful information such as character appearances, notes on continuity or trivia, etc..
  • Naming: Names for issue articles should be the same as the issue's title. For example, "Warrior School!". Occasionally disambiguation may be needed. In that case, a "(comic issue)" qualifier should usually suffice. If the comic issue has no title — as with many of Dreamwave's comics — an article title such as Dreamwave Armada issue 13 will suffice.

• Cartoon series and cartoon episode
  • Contents: The functions of these types of articles are essentially identical to the comic series and comic issue types.
  • Naming: Naming conventions for these article types are, again, quite similar to those for comic series and comic issue articles, except that "(cartoon)" and "(episode)" are the recommended parentheticals when one is needed. In instances where two different shows have episodes with the same title, use the series as the parenthetical (e.g. Primal (Cybertron) and Primal (POTP)).

• List
  • Contents: Lists of items from the Transformers multiverse have some limited uses. In general, category pages are preferred to straight lists because they are generated automatically. However, there are limitations to the software's category system, such as clumsy mechanisms for sorting by anything other than spelling. A list also allows items to be included even if they do not have (or justify) articles of their own.
  • Naming: Names for list pages should start with "List of...". (And, of course, the pages themselves should be put in the lists category.

• Creator
  • Contents: An article about a real-world person who has worked on the Transformers brand in some capacity. Writers, actors, designers, etc..
  • Naming: The person's current preferred name, be it birth name or chosen name. Articles and links containing names should be updated in instances of change; use of prior names within the creator's article text should be handled on a case-by-case basis, and may be excised completely (save for redirects) at the creator's wishes. Where relevant, names should be given in the traditional Western order: given name first, family name second. Hence Simon Furman and Hirofumi Ichikawa.