User blog:FishTank/Names, Titles, and Redirects

Naming things is hard.

Naming is one important component to SEO, in addition to content. Names establish strong signals.

SEO is important because X.

Naming is also important for organization, because wikis are based on links.

Naming the wiki
The strongest signal to a reader about whether or not they are on the right community is the title or name of that wiki. If it is an obvious title, like "", this is immediately obvious. Slightly more Wikipedia-centric names like Lostpedia and Survivorpedia are slightly dated but sure callouts to the subject matter. Brickipedia and Munkopedia are a little bit of a stretch, unless you know instantly that LEGO is associated with bricks, and Alvin is a chipmunk. This is not always straightforward, though. Wookieepedia may not be instantly recognizable as Star Wars if the reader's only exposure is through The Mandolorian (which has no Wookies). Knowing that Memory Alpha is the master library of Star Trek means a familiarity with a 50 year old single episode of the original series. The community name for Archiepedia is less relevant when the reader is only interested in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. So while more whimsical community names are not discouraged, they're also not particularly helpful.

Regarding spinoff wikis
https://discordapp.com/channels/563020189604773888/630820735719571456/727140477756768368

When talking about how to name new and existing wikis well, it's also appropriate to talk about when new wikis should and shouldn't be created. Launching a new wiki when a larger wiki for the same franchise exists can have particular challenges, and is often a path that can hurt both communities. These spinoff wikis are like a planet's moons — they need to have sufficient mass and be of a different enough composition to escape the planet's gravity to reach a stable orbit. Once in place, the two communities will consistently have an effect on each other.

You should not spin off a wiki under these conditions.

A new wiki should be spun off if these conditions are met.

There is no one universal set of rules to determine a spinoff. However,

URL domains
Dashes and complete words

International concerns

Page Names
https://discordapp.com/channels/563020189604773888/630820735719571456/715175881261318187

Content Entities

Subpages and qualifiers

Disallowed characters

works.

International concerns

Disambiguation
There is some ambiguity about disambiguation pages, and what they are and are not is sometimes misunderstood. Tying in to page naming, understanding disambiguation and how it impacts a wiki is good to understand. https://discordapp.com/channels/563020189604773888/630820735719571456/697586795625316393

Image Pages
International concerns. Shared image repos.

Redirects
https://discordapp.com/channels/563020189604773888/630820735719571456/700436366206566490

Syntax sugar links
Is it better to link to a known page redirect title (like RAM) for cleaner wikitext, or to RAM ?