Talk:Make-A-Wish Foundation

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was moved. –Juliancolton | ^Talk 00:09, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Make-a-Wish Foundation → Make-A-Wish Foundation — This organization uses an upper case "A" in its name (see wish.org and guidelines posted on numerous regional Make-A-Wish Foundation websites stating that the "A" must always be capitalized). The Wikipedia article name did contain the capital "A" until it was moved on 27 July 2007, with the reason given as "naming conventions". However, lower case is not mandatory for proper nouns, as per both Wikipedia:Naming conventions (in the section titled Lowercase second and subsequent words in titles) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization), which only mentions using the lower case "a" in "English titles of books, films, and other works". -- Zyxw (talk) 16:40, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's naming conventions.

• Support as per reasons outlined in my request. -- Zyxw (talk) 16:42, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

• Support Proper noun.
  — V = I * R (talk to Ω) 02:10, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
• Oppose Surely this comes within the rules at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks), which states:"Follow standard English text formatting and capitalization rules even if the trademark owner considers nonstandard formatting "official""Skinsmoke (talk) 01:22, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

  To me, WP:CAPS takes precedence over the MOS. It says to keep a proper noun all caps, and that's what we're supposed to do in English regardless, so that's the basis of my opinion above.
  — V = I * R (talk to Ω) 10:47, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

  What about the rest of that quote? The full text is:-

Convention: For page titles, always use lowercase after the first word, and do not capitalize second and subsequent words, unless the title is a proper noun. For multiword page titles, one should leave the second and subsequent words in lowercase unless the title phrase is a proper noun that would always occur capitalized, even in the middle of a sentence.

This convention often also applies within the article body, as there is usually no good reason to use capitals. Outside of Wikipedia, and within certain specific fields (such as medicine), the usage of all-capital terms may be a proper way to feature new or important items. However these cases are typically examples of buzzwords, which by capitalization are (improperly) given featured status.

In general, each word in English titles of books, films, and other works takes an initial capital, except for articles ("a", "an", "the"), the word "to" as part of an infinitive, prepositions and coordinating conjunctions shorter than five letters (e.g., "on", "from", "and", "with"), unless they begin or end a title or subtitle. Examples: A New Kind of Science, Ghost in the Shell, To Be or Not to Be.

Skinsmoke (talk) 15:48, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

In my opinion, that quote from WP:CAPS makes the case in favor of changing the title, not against it. The first paragraph says (not once, but twice): "unless the title is a proper noun". Isn't the name of an organization considered a proper noun? The third paragraph mentions using lowercase for articles ("a", "an", etc.), but specifically states it applies to: "English titles of books, films, and other works". So how does that apply to the name of an organization? -- Zyxw (talk) 00:10, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion

Any additional comments:

• Comment - Seeing an oppose based on Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks) (MOS:TM), I looked at the quoted guideline and found the examples given use all capital letters ("avoid: REALTOR®, TIME, KISS"). Unfortunately, MOS:TM doesn't give any examples of a trademark containing an article such a "A". Other somewhat relevant guidelines include "Capitalize trademarks, as with proper names." and "Trademarks in CamelCase are a judgment call. CamelCase may be used where it reflects general usage and makes the trademark more readable: OxyContin or Oxycontin — editor's choice." In my opinion, the quote from MOS:TM which applies best in this case is "Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions." -- Zyxw (talk) 08:41, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.