User:SmokeyJoe/Article titles

Article titles described primarily by the Article titles policy. The policy lists 5 criteria:
 * 1) recognizable,
 * 2) natural,
 * 3) precise,
 * 4) concise,
 * 5) consistent.

This set of five criteria appears to be stable, well supported by consensus, without any one being rejected by some, and without any other criteria being suggested for inclusion. The weightings and definitions of the criteria are subject to occasional discussion.

On placenames, a longstanding question is whether to add the region (usually state, province or nation if small) name by default, called the "placename comma convention". Titling according the the short city name is called the "short placename convention".

Significant factors include:
 * Whether the place is technically ambiguous at the short name
 * The size of the place, whether settlement, suburb, surburban city, town, independent city, historic internationally significant city.

Table: Article titles Naming Criteria

Thoughts November 2018

 * Precise: unambiguously defines the scope of the article.
 * Under-precise: the title reasonably* applies to topics outside the scope of the article. *reasonably.  Allowance for primarytopic, narrow-persepcive readers
 * Over-precise: The title implies a scope more narrow than the article actually is.
 * Concise: Efficient use of words to convey essential information
 * Over-concise? Not easily understood.  Terse.  Perhaps relying onn unfamiliar technical words.
 * Under-concise. Wordy.  Use of extraneous wording superfluous to conveying the essential information.
 * Brevity: Less information, not synonymous with concise.

Feb 2019
titles hardly matter to readers?!