CarlWiki talk:Style guide
Class years
Q: What's the rational for your 1950 cutoff for naming people's pages? I think that every entry for a person should just have their full class year: Thorstein Veblen 1880, Pamela Dean 1975, Matthew Strait 2003. Or, I'd say, if someone graduated less than 100 years ago, use two digits, otherwise 4. Matthew Strait '03
- I thought about that, but one problem is that "less than 100 years ago" would change over time, so come New Year's we'd have to change all of the '06s to 1906. More importantly, '06 would seem to suggest 2006, a current student rather than someone who has long since died. You could make the cut-off be the current freshman class year; currently that's 2008 ('08), so '09 could safely be used to refer to those who graduated in 1909, but only until the incoming class becomes relevant. '10 would be a safe cut-off currently, so one could say 95 years, but this isn't obvious to people; one wouldn't immediately know, by seeing '10, whether this person is very young or very old. So, that's why I'd like some lee-way. As for whether historical figures like Thorstein should have their class year appended to their article name, I don't see any reason to; they're unlikely to show up to a class reunion any time soon. The main reason for using class years in article names in the first place is for consistency with the journalistic style, which, when first referring to a student or alum, appends the class year using the 'XX style. But if the Carletonian refers to Thorstein Veblen, it's not going to say "Thorstein Veblen 1880." That would look odd to people. Having said that, perhaps 80 years would be a better cut-off than 50 years. --Trevor Burnham '07 07:25, 30 Mar 2005 (PST)
- Update:I've changed the cutoff to 1920. I still think that full class years, as in "Thorstein Veblen 1880," look unusual. Anyone else have an opinion? --Trevor Burnham '07 16:47, 31 Mar 2005 (PST)
- I've moved the article back to Thorstein Veblen, because as a general rule of thumb, article names should correspond to link names (user pages are the exception). Few people are likely to link to Thorstein Veblen 1880. --Trevor Burnham '07 17:31, 9 Apr 2005 (PDT)
Q: I'm confused about why we use two-digit graduation years in the first place. Either you have to implement a rolling date system, in which case you end up with broken links and four-digit dates for users graduating more than a certain number of years ago, or you run into name collisions, or have problems when the next century comes around. Is there a reason why we aren't using full-length graduations years for all users? Kyle Kingsbury 2009 19:46, 16 April 2006 (PDT)
Q: What is the policy on capitalizing department names and majors? I think that department names should be capitalized because they refer to specific groups, but I think that the name of majors should not be capitalized unless the word is a proper noun. Thus, the Physics and Astronomy Department is home to the physics major, and the Asian Languages and Literature Department is home to the Japanese and Chinese majors. Sarah Vigeland '06 17:12, 27 April 2006 (PDT)
