Forums > Senate Hall archive > Template Usage - Capitalization
Many of you may be noticing that there are currently two bots (Q9-X2 and Whistler) who are spamming your Watchlist, changing the first letter of all templates to capital letters. Please do not revert these edits, as it has been decided that we should use a capital letter at the beginning of all templates. It's a minor change, but we want some sort of consistancy. In the future, kindly use capital letters for the first letter in any template that you use. Thank you. —Jaymach Ral'Tir (talk) 13:53, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
- Are they also converting double-spaces after periods to single-spaces? If so . . . why? jSarek 23:48, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
- I don't know if they are, but they should. HTML/XHTML/MediaWiki displays multiple spaces as single spaces anyway (view the source of my comment). I always replace double spaces with single ones whenever I spell-check a page. -- Darth Culator (Talk)(Kills) 00:25, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- Yes, we're replacing double spaces with single spaces. We're also replacing titles like == Title == with ==Title== among other things...it's fun! :) —Jaymach Ral'Tir (talk) 00:33, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- The titles thing is fine by me, and I guess if the software is "correcting" proper grammar to improper, there's not much reason to try and leave it correct in the source, either. :-/ jSarek 00:40, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- Our manual of style (which points to wikipedia's) says either one or two spaces after a sentence is OK. -Fnlayson 00:49, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- Our MOS is out of date to begin with. However, the spacing edit is happening at the same time as the other edits, so we're not doing it just to fix that. —Xwing328(Talk) 00:54, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- I understand. Was addressing the 1 space is right thing. -Fnlayson 00:56, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- Having the bot change the spacing after a period from 2 to 1 space is completely needless. As jSarek said, it's incorrect grammar. But it also doesn't matter, because if you put 2 or 20 spaces after a period, it will still display as a single space. So why bother changing it? - JMAS 19:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- Basically because we want the pages to be consistant, even when it can only be seen when you edit them. If there's no difference between 1 and 20 spaces, then why bother having additional space that only makes the article bigger? Any character, including spaces, adds to the size of the article. —Jaymach Ral'Tir (talk) 21:18, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- OK, to quote Chancellor Valorum, the point in conceded. - JMAS 21:25, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- Basically because we want the pages to be consistant, even when it can only be seen when you edit them. If there's no difference between 1 and 20 spaces, then why bother having additional space that only makes the article bigger? Any character, including spaces, adds to the size of the article. —Jaymach Ral'Tir (talk) 21:18, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- Having the bot change the spacing after a period from 2 to 1 space is completely needless. As jSarek said, it's incorrect grammar. But it also doesn't matter, because if you put 2 or 20 spaces after a period, it will still display as a single space. So why bother changing it? - JMAS 19:24, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
- I understand. Was addressing the 1 space is right thing. -Fnlayson 00:56, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- Our MOS is out of date to begin with. However, the spacing edit is happening at the same time as the other edits, so we're not doing it just to fix that. —Xwing328(Talk) 00:54, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- Yes, we're replacing double spaces with single spaces. We're also replacing titles like == Title == with ==Title== among other things...it's fun! :) —Jaymach Ral'Tir (talk) 00:33, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
- In addition, a single space after a period is not incorrect grammar, although style allows for both. The double space is an anachronism from when we used typewriters and monospace typefaces required the double space for clarity. Modern typefaces, including those you see on your screen, are designed around the em space, which does not require the same spacing for clarity of reading. So while many typing teachers (who were taught on typewriters, mind you) still teach the double space after a full stop, it is slowly fading away. Hooray for technology. — SparqMan Talk 06:58, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- Ack! You caught me doing one of my own pet peeves (using "grammar" when "style" is the correct term). Apologies; I choose to blame it on contamination, since I think I posted the above during the heat of the italics debate. ;-) Anyway, you're right that styles do change, and I can see how this would be one to logically do so. However, I doubt it's going to reprogram nearly twenty years of training and routine in my fingers, especially when it's still a long way from being actually being bad style, so those bots are still going to have to clean up after me. ;-) jSarek 10:22, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- I'm probably not that far behind jSarek in years of typing (feeling old now) but I've always used single spacing cause that's how I was taught. Green Tentacle (Talk) 10:27, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- Really? That surprises me. I guess it's not as universal as I thought, even among people who learned to type before computers were everywhere. Okay, I stand corrected on all grounds, I guess. jSarek 10:31, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- In fairness, I learnt on a computer (an Amstrad I believe), but I was told the same as SparqMan about double spacing on a typewriter. Green Tentacle (Talk) 10:40, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- Well, I was taught on a computer as well (good ol' Apple IIe), but personal computers were hardly ubiquitous enough to have seriously impacted style by that point; it seems it was a matter of instructor style more than anything. jSarek 10:48, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- In fairness, I learnt on a computer (an Amstrad I believe), but I was told the same as SparqMan about double spacing on a typewriter. Green Tentacle (Talk) 10:40, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- Really? That surprises me. I guess it's not as universal as I thought, even among people who learned to type before computers were everywhere. Okay, I stand corrected on all grounds, I guess. jSarek 10:31, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- I'm probably not that far behind jSarek in years of typing (feeling old now) but I've always used single spacing cause that's how I was taught. Green Tentacle (Talk) 10:27, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- Ack! You caught me doing one of my own pet peeves (using "grammar" when "style" is the correct term). Apologies; I choose to blame it on contamination, since I think I posted the above during the heat of the italics debate. ;-) Anyway, you're right that styles do change, and I can see how this would be one to logically do so. However, I doubt it's going to reprogram nearly twenty years of training and routine in my fingers, especially when it's still a long way from being actually being bad style, so those bots are still going to have to clean up after me. ;-) jSarek 10:22, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
- I don't know if they are, but they should. HTML/XHTML/MediaWiki displays multiple spaces as single spaces anyway (view the source of my comment). I always replace double spaces with single ones whenever I spell-check a page. -- Darth Culator (Talk)(Kills) 00:25, 30 January 2007 (UTC)