Template:Rename/doc

Rename/doc is a template for flagging articles whose names aren't quite supported by the text of the article. This template is different from Template:Conjecture, which begins a discussion about subjects that have no solid name within the narrative of a piece of DWU fiction. Rather, it's for articles whose names don't quite match the bolded name given in the first sentence of the article, or whose names don't quite match those given in a particular story.

An example of its most common use

For instance, if the name of an article were "Skiing" but the article is actually specifically about water-skiing, you might use this template to flag the article in order to invite a discussion about why there was that mis-match between the two names.

Of course, one could just be bold and move the article name to water-skiing, but you might want to flag the article if you wanted to discover whether there was a valid reason for hesitating. In this particular instance, maybe the editor who created the article had not yet gotten around to creating a section about snow-skiing and intended for the article to actually encompass both types of skiing.

As alternative to proposing deletion

This template might also be used as an alternative to suggesting that an article be deleted. If you think there shouldn't be an article about a particular topic, but the article as written contains some worthy information, you might consider using this template to encourage discussion about finding a name that encourages discussion to find a title that makes it easier to justify the inclusion of that worthy information.

Usage

Typical

To use, just type

{{rename|reason}}

as the first word of an article. It is vital that the template be the the very first word of the article, prior even to any infobox templates. Be sure to give a reason, otherwise your motion to rename the article can be taken down without further discussion. This usage automatically creates a link to the talk page, where you should immediately go to start a section about the rename proposal. There, you can expound upon your reasons for wanting to change the name and invite further comment.

Advanced

Most discussions about renaming should be held on the talk page of the article, so you should generally use this template as explained above. However, there are times where you'll want to give additional prominence to a renaming discussion, such as when:

• the article is likely to be linked on more than 100 pages — such as a companion, a common location, or a popular species — then it should be discussed in a forum thread, not merely on a talk page
• the article's name has been stable for many years, but is suddenly beset by information from a new source that potentially indicates a name change
• you've made a good faith effort to have a conversation about a name change on a talk page, but 30 days have elapsed without any real resolution to the problem

In these cases, you may start a discussion at The Reference Desk.

You'll want to change your usage of {{rename}} thus:

{{rename|reason|Thread:xxxxx}}

where xxxxx is the the number of the forum thread. This number is not apparent on the page, but is instead found in the URL to the page in your browser's address bar.

This change will make sure the phrase "Talk about it here" will link to the forum thread, not to the talk page.

Then, after you've used {{rename}} in this way, you'll want to make sure you place {{forum|xxxxx}} at the bottom of the rename section on the talk page. That way, if people have gone to the talk page, they, too, will easily see that the discussion has been diverted to The Reference Desk

Sample output

This topic might have a better name.

But the editor who placed this tag here didn't say why.

Talk about it here.