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This page documents the Manual of Style guidelines of the GTA Wiki.
In short: Article names must use Title Case and should be named according the first appearance of the subject.
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This page documents the Official GTA Wiki Manual of Style on article naming conventions.

Formatting

General principles

Page names should:

  1. Be clear and unambiguous.
  2. Follow established patterns and conventions for similar types of articles.
  3. Be relevant to the subject and widely accepted.
  4. Follow Title Case (see capitalization).

Capitalization

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Titles for main content articles should follow Title Case:

  1. Always capitalize the first and last words of the title.
  2. Always capitalize proper nouns (such as names of places, people, entities, etc).
  3. Do not capitalize definitive or indefinite articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor), and prepositions of four letters or fewer (e.g., in, on, at, by, with).

Exceptions:

  • Do not change the capitalization of official titles (such as the official name for a character, vehicle or weapon).

Official vs unofficial names

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Choosing the most suitable name for a page may sometimes result in going against the rules in order to preserve one or many of the general naming convention principles. One such example includes the choice between the "official" name given to a subject and a popularized but otherwise "unofficial" name.

An official name refers to the title given to a subject by Rockstar Games in or outside of a Grand Theft Auto game. This may be via in-game dialogue, media, or HUD text.

An unofficial name refers to a title or label used by the GTA community to refer to a character, location, item, or concept within a game. This is often done to bridge the ambiguity of official title, or to label something that is never named in-game.

The choice of an official or unofficial name should be made in the following priority:

  1. Where possible, articles should be named after their first official in-game name, regardless of whether they have unofficial titles (see recurring content).
  2. In situations where there is ambiguity, an unofficial title may be used in a disambiguous page name (see disambiguous names).

Conflicting names

Content may sometimes be given multiple common names which conflict with one another. In such situations, it may be difficult to determine what name to choose for the page's title.

Where possible, the most clear and concise name for a subject should be used as the page title. In situations where other, existing content may easily be confused (or even clash) with the new page, the specific instance of a subject name should be used (for example, Staunton Island City Hall rather than City Hall. Conflicting names may require disambiguation pages and consideration for disambiguous page names (see disambiguous names).

Subjects with multiple conflicting names should always make it clear where each name is mentioned, be it in-game or via other official sources. This may include mentioning them in parenthesis in the lead section and/or listing them in the "also known as" section of an infobox.

Disambiguous names

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A disambiguous name refers to a page title which is appended a piece of information within parentheses to differentiate it from another piece of conflicting material. This is not to be confused with a conflicting name which is when a single subject is given multiple names.

Page names containing official titles which conflict with other page names should should be appended a concise piece of disambiguous information, in the following priority:

  1. A concise description (one or two words), if the subjects are entirely different types of content (for example, Dukes (car)),
  2. An abbreviated game title, if separate subjects of the same type (i.e, a character, location or mission) appear in different games - this can only be true if the subjects each appear in only one game (for example, Chinatown (GTA IV) and Chinatown (GTA San Andreas), two entirely separate locations in different games).
    1. A game universe, if separate subjects appear in multiple games within different universes (for example, Los Santos (3D Universe) and Los Santos (HD Universe)).
  3. A relevant official title, such as a mission (for example, Mule (Short Trips), a vehicle which is only used during Short Trips and its disambiguous name is used to differentiate it from other models).
  4. A widely accepted unofficial title (see official vs unofficial names) (for example, Police Cruiser (interceptor), which is used to differentiate it from two other police cars of the same name; "interceptor" is a widely accepted name given to this particular vehicle).

In cases where there is a clear bias towards a more notable page (such as the Rogue - a plane in GTA Online, clearly more significant than the magazine of the same name), it may be necessary to move or rename one or more pages so the most notable page holds the non-disambiguous name.

Pages with disambiguous pages are generally grouped at a disambiguation page. This is only necessary if there are three or more pages affected by disambiguation, or if the pages refer to the same subject but in separate universes (such as Admiral or Vice City).

Chinatown (Liberty City)
Conflicting with Chinatown (GTA San Andreas); "Liberty City" does not work as a disambiguous title because it may conflict with Liberty City in other titles (such as Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories). Using a game title is always preferred over using another subject title.
Vortex (GTA Online)
Conflicting with Vortex; "GTA Online" does not work as a disambiguous title because it does not clearly differentiate the two subjects. Using a concise description is always preferred over using a game title.

Typographical errors

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The name of a subject may sometimes be mistyped in-game. If the typographical error is obvious, the page name should use a corrected version of the subject name (for example, Edgar Carlos, whose name is misspelled "Edgar Claros" in-game). A redirect using the mistyped name should be created and directed to the (correct) page name and the mistyped name should be mentioned in the lead section.

Plurals

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The use of singular and plural titles depends on the context of the article's subject and its purpose.

  1. Subjects which refer to groups and classes of specific things should have plural titles (for example, Vehicles, not Vehicle).
  2. A subject which is generally referred to in its plural form can have a plural title (for example, Cats and Dogs, not Cat and Dog).
  3. Subjects with an official name should have a singular title (for example, Tow Truck).
  4. Subjects which include a plural in their official name should also have a plural title (for example, the GTA V mission Carbine Rifles).

Any page which uses a plural title should have a singular title equivalent created as a redirect, unless it already exists, in which case a disambiguation page may be required.

Recurring content

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Recurring content refers to a subject which makes appearances in multiple Grand Theft Auto titles. The choice of page name for recurring content can be particular difficult, especially when the page is not written immediately after the subject's first appearance, or when the subject has been given multiple, alternating names throughout the series.

  1. If the subject has an official name, the page title should reflect the subject's name in its first release (for example, the Jetmax, which was known as the Cuban Jetmax in its first appearance).
  2. If the subject does not have an official name, but is later given one, the page should be named (or moved) to the official name. The page should also document that the subject was not given an official name until later on.
  3. Recurring content should always use the name given in its latest chronological appearance as the display title. This is achieved by adding {{DISPLAYTITLE:Your text here}} to the bottom of an article. This chronology should also be applied to the article's infobox image and lead section subject name.

Non-article naming conventions

Capitalization

Titles for non-article content such as templates, categories, GTA Wiki Policy and Manual of Style pages, should use Sentence case:

  1. Only capitalize the first word of the title (For example, Category:Public transportation, not Category:Public Transportation).
  2. Always capitalize proper names (such as names of places, people, entities, etc) (for example, Category:Members of the Epsilon Program, not Category:Members of the Epsilon program).

File uploads

Any media uploaded to GTA Wiki must be named appropriately and conventionally:

  1. Use TitleCase and avoid spaces.
  2. Follow a naming convention of SubjectName-GTAgame-Description.png.
  3. Use hyphens (-) to separate the subject, game and description.
  4. Do not use full or brief game titles (for example, Adder-GrandTheftAutoV.jpg or CarlJohnson-SA.png)
  5. Do not use meaningless or broad file names (for example, Screenshot1234.jpg or IMG_20220513_215214.png).
  6. Prepending the "File:" namespace manually should not be required as this is automatically included when uploading using Special:Upload or uploading/adding media directly inside the Visual Editor.
File:HUNTERGTAVCFRONT.JPG
File:Hunter-GTAVC-Front.jpg
File:Sprunk-vending-machine-in-GTAV.jpg
File:Sprunk-GTAV-VendingMachine.jpg
File:LIOTTA, RAY.jpg
File:RayLiotta-VoiceActor.jpg

Navigation templates

Main article: Manual of Style:Navigation boxes

Navigation box templates should generally follow a naming convention of Navbox name.

Infobox templates

Infobox templates should generally follow a naming convention of Infobox name.

Category pages


Navigation

[ ve ]GTA Wiki Manual of Style
General practices
Article contentHeadings and subheadings | Naming conventions | Lead sections | Body content | Trivia | What didn't happen | References
Writing practicesTone and narrative | Punctuation | Spelling and grammar
FormattingText formatting | Dates and numbers | Internal and external links | Lists and tables | Table of contents | Censorship
Non-article contentDisambiguation pages | Navigation boxes | Infoboxes | Tophats | File uploads | Categories
Article layoutsAnimals | Buildings | Businesses | Vehicles
Other practicesWe're not Wikipedia | Ignore the rules | What needs a Manual of Style
Category:Manual of Style (shortcuts) • Category:PolicyCategory:GTA Wiki
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