Topic on User talk:Harakoni

I've seen several articles here that use plural nouns as their title, and while by itself such an article name may cause no confusion, when linking it becomes a different issue. (And some other confusion may arise, situationally.) The worst culprit may be the pila, which is plural (Latin) for the Roman "pilum", which is the weapon (an iron-age throwing spear) - but there are others. In DF, there was a policy along the lines of "All Titles are Singular unless the article is discussing all varieties in a group (exceptions are when in-game terms are plural)" - so, "Revolver" or "Grenade" or "Greenhouse", but (possibly!) "Weapons" (a comparative guide) or "Crops" or "Farming Tips". Might be helpful here? (And I'd like to change Pila to Pilum, but at this point it's almost as if it's a different, fantasy weapon - the dreaded Rimworld Pila!) \o/ Albedo (talk) 10:40, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

Pila is called "pila" primarily because that is the name of the item in game. Name in game > All other factors. That is what people will look for, and that is whats correct for this circumstance even if it'd be wrong in the real world. This is why its the biosculpter pod and not biosculptor or biosculpture pod for example, and why Template: Sic exists. Secondly, just like frag grenades, and like the description says "This weapon represents a bundle of pila". It is plural "in-universe" even if its treated as a single item mechanically

As for general rules, the DFwiki example is mostly followed. Psycasts, weapons, titles are what they are because they're discussing classes of things with many things in them. There are likely things that break that rule though, some might have reason to (e.g. pila, frag grenades etc), some might not. If you have specific example you'd like addressed, let me know.

Yeah, I had realized that even as I posted that comment (the dreaded RW pila). It's just jarring to my ears, one plural in a sea of singular weapons, but... it's not my game! ;D Albedo (talk) 13:13, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

We "discussed" pila/pilum, which is RimWorld-specific. But the general use of singular/plural with more common terms is useful when editing. It's a pain to have to refer to "throwing a [frag grenades|frag grenade]...", as opposed to "... a [frag grenade]]..." - that's why the Wiki code was set up that way, to easily pluralize the singular article name. Yes, they're ~plural~ in-game, but I think that's more a nod to the "unlimited ammo" concept; it's still one item, not a discussion of a class of items. (But if you disagree, be sure to revert "EMP grenade" too.)Albedo (talk) 22:49, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

They're all RimWorld specific. The building in game isn't singular "sandbag" its "sandbags", its not 1x Marble Block its 1x Marble Blocks. Meanwhile if you want to be able to link directly to frag grenade, just make a redirect. It'll also catch searches

As a general policy, sure - but... meh, it still bothers me. (And isn't that asking for a double-redirect down the road?) Sandbag/s - yeah, I can see that one, that is appropriate in the plural, no one uses "a sandbag" as a defensive position.Albedo (talk) 23:04, 20 January 2022 (UTC)