Board Thread:Wiki discussion/@comment-18014300-20170420064223

The Wikia Editor and I discussed this issue briefly once before when I created the article Assassin cell at the singular as opposed to the pre-existing article Assassin Guilds in the plural.

We have an awkward inconsistent practice of having the article titles of some subjects in singular and some in plural. For example, mercenaries, swords, bombs, Mentor, Grand Master, Generals of the Cross, Hidden Blade, Staves of Eden, Pieces of Eden, Hidden Gun, Assassins, Templars, etc. In general, it seems that we do prefer it to be in the plural, but I find this decision odd grammatically. While it's not necessarily grammatically incorrect, normally the title of an entry in an encyclopedia or dictionary should be its base form, not a modified one.

I think it's quite obvious that this development is the result of taking directly from whatever form of the word is encountered in Assassin's Creed sources, a policy I don't disagree with in and of itself. It makes sense to use whatever is preferred by the sources, and hence that is how we wound up with the singular "Hidden Blade" and the plural "swords", I'm assuming. (I actually am not sure that the plural "swords" is used in sources).

However, at the same time, as I said, it's inconsistent and also awkward, at least to me because by default, the title of an entry for a subject should generally be in the base form. I think you guys should take a look at Wikipedia's policy on this for reference. I'm not saying that we have to follow Wikipedia's guide, but it might shed some insight on the matter.

Related to this issue is disambiguating articles by using the plural form, an issue we first encountered with Generals of the Cross, the title, as opposed to General of the Cross, the—as yet unnamed—individual. It is inconsistent with Mentor the title vs. the individual Mentor (2000). Also, I just realized it's furthermore incorrect because the title is "General of the Cross", not "Generals of the Cross". However, I just noticed we have done the same with Staves of Eden and Apples of Eden as opposed to Apple of Eden 2, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

What are your thoughts?<ac_metadata title="Plural vs. Singular naming convention"> </ac_metadata>