Warcraft Wiki:Renaming guideline

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This page is considered a guideline on Warcraft Wiki. It illustrates standards of conduct, which many editors agree with in principle. However, it is not policy. Feel free to update the page as needed, but please use the voting process and put the vote on the discussion page to propose any major changes. See the Guidelines home page for an overview of Warcraft Wiki guidelines. See Category:Guidelines for a list of proposed and accepted guideline articles.

The Warcraft Wiki renaming guideline (WCW:RENAME) summarizes Warcraft Wiki editor practices whenever there is a name change inside World of Warcraft.

This guideline can be overridden where circumstances warrant it -- it is a general practice that will not match every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example in similar circumstances.

This guideline should be read alongside the Warcraft Wiki Naming Policy which, unlike this guideline, is an accepted policy.

To move or not to move

Deciding whether to move an existing page to a new name or to make a new page often comes down to different factors relevant to the topic. Is the name the only thing that's changed? Or are there differences between the old and new that suggest the two names refer to different things?

A new page is appropriate if:

• Establishing something new in lore (not just a retcon)
• Accompanying a notable change in purpose/function
• Diverging between Classic and retail (not just waiting for the next hotfix/patch)
• Diverging between World of Warcraft and other media (games, books, etc.)

When considering a move on a highly-linked or high-traffic page, it may be best to start a discussion on the talk page to get input from other editors.

If a page is linked to by so many other pages that it would take a long time to manually updated them all, you can put in a bot request. When doing this be sure the "Leave a redirect behind" box is checked when moving the page, so the links will continue to work before they've been updated.

Patch changes

Regardless if moving or making a new page, readers should understand the old and new names through patch changes:

A content page that has been moved:

{{Patch 9.1.5|note=Renamed from '''xxx'''.}}
{{Patch 2.0.1|note=Added.}}

An API page that has been moved:

{{Patch 9.1.5|note=Renamed to {{api|C_Namespace.xxx}}().}}
{{Patch 2.0.1|note=Added as <code>xxx()</code>.}}

A page left orphaned, while a new one is made:

{{Patch 9.1.5|note=Removed, replaced with [[xxx]].}}

A new page:

{{Patch 9.1.5|note=Added, replacing [[xxx]].}}

Examples

General

The following may be suitable for a simple move:

• Items
• Objects
• UI panels

However, if the purpose or function changes then a new page may be more appropriate. For example, if a user interface panel changes name and function simultaneously then it is a new page.

NPCs

Factors to consider for NPCs include:

• Appearance
• Behavior and purpose
• Location
• NPC ID

Abilities

Factors to consider for abilities include:

• Effect/functionality
• Icon
• Type (e.g. baseline ability, talent, PvP talent, etc.)
• Spell ID

Whether to move an ability page may not be as clear as with other type of pages, since abilities are frequently redesigned even outside of name changes. The spell ID can often act as a "tiebreaker"; if you're not sure, look to whether the renamed ability uses the same spell ID as before, or uses a new ID. A new ID can suggest it should be considered a new ability and should get a new page.

Zones

Patch 9.1.5 renamed the entire zone of Mac'Aree to Eredath. While the patch was in the Public Test Realm, it was recognized that this highly-linked article would require coordinated edits to many pages, templates and categories. For a time, there was even an Ambox on the page to discourage enthusiastic editors:

API

Renamed functions and tables, particularly to the new C_Namespace format, may be suitable for a move. However, if the old name is likely to endure in Classic (example: the old auction house API) then a new page is necessary to retain the old documentation.