Community Suggestion: Better Organization & Location Linking
Better Organization & Location Linking
User Interface (UI) / User Experience (UX) · Articles & templates · Created by seidrmagus
accepted
location -linking article-linking referencing
The last time this feature was requested, the development team chose to deny it on grounds that 'organizations are never physical locations' despite the fact that The Louvre, The Vatican, and The Library of Congress, to name a few famous examples, are geographical locations (buildings) named identically as the organizations that inhabit the buildings. Even if this rejection was hyperbolic, or if such examples didn't exist in the "real world", and the semantics of geography vs hierarchy are non-negotiable when it comes to feature changes, there was no alternative solution provided, meaning that the following problem has still gone unfixed and unaddressed.
THE PROBLEM:
The difficulty lies in the fact that the problem is twofold:
- locations of characters or events MUST be linked to an article classed as a "location" type (and cannot be linked to articles classed as an "organization" type) BUT
- using the @ referencing system in-articles does not differentiate between article type, so it is literally impossible to tell which article you're linking when they share an identical name
-
Option 1:My proposed/preferred solution is to simply allow fields that currently only permit the user to select from articles tagged as 'location' to also permit selection from articles tagged 'organization'. This would literally cut the number of location-related articles in half (using less server space and requiring less time for creators!) and streamline the article linking process while reducing errors when trying to link page references. This would not force users who prefer the dual-article method to change, it would merely provide an additional alternate option for users who think/create/organize differently.
-
Option 2:Should the semantics of location/organization prove to be an insurmountable hurdle, the alternate solution I present is to provide some minor formatting difference to the system's dropdowns, so that when linking to the in-articles the user can see which of these is the location and which is the organization. This could take the form of any of the following (though these are ideas, not limited to these)
- italicizing or bolding
- a parenthetical to show article type
- a color change of lettering This would still require duplicate/dummy copies of pages to be created, but would reduce the confusion and errors in the linking process. I'm sure other users/voters have valueable suggestions as to how this difference could be demarcated. Potentially the change could extend to all the base article categories (location, character, organization, item, etc) and provide a more robust linking system.
Follow up
Updated to add: a third option could be a redirect system so that the empty (but necessary) location pages can just redirect to the organization page
Update follow up: A user pointed out a drop-down distinction in the mention system (for identically named articles) that doesn't exist/function for me (which is why I made this suggestion) so perhaps there is a streamlining alteration that needs to be made?
The Team's Response
Thanks for the suggestion! Organizations are groups of people, locations are places. While organizations can have strong ties to a place (and often do), they are not the same thing. To use your examples, the Holy See is an organization and Vatican City is a settlement. The Louvre Museum is a building, but the group of people managing it are an organization. This is important because even if the building/location is destroyed, or even if the organization loses access/control over their location, an organization can keep existing for a long time. Similarly, after an organization disappear, the location it occupied might keep existing—there are plenty of historical examples for both cases. That said, we're accepting specifically your option 2: there will be some kind of indicator of the type of article you're linking to in article drop-downs.
Current score
31/300 Votes · +8000 points
Votes Cast
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-1
by A Adorable Mlem
on 2024-11-06 08:04I honestly struggle to understand the reasoning of using an organization as a location, since the character, item, whatnot would always be in a physical location, no? Even a country has certain cities, landmarks, places that would be the exact location of a character.
However, I like the idea of being able to set redirects. I can see many areas, where I would find that helpful, so I would probably support that over making organizations another option on the location field. -
+1
by Blossom Tree Art
on 2024-11-05 22:49 -
+300
by wu.jin.yu
on 2024-11-04 21:33 -
+300
by HunterChristmas1247
on 2024-11-03 20:14 -
+300
by WoR StoryTeller
on 2024-10-30 18:45 -
+300
by A Enfeebled Bananafolk
on 2024-10-30 17:06 -
+300
by Alishahr
on 2024-10-29 12:28I am all for Option 1 in this and definitely agree that there are cases where it makes sense to use the "organization" such as a country as the location.
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+300
by LittleRaider
on 2024-10-26 15:30 -
+300
by A Uncontrollable Dryad
on 2024-10-26 14:47 -
+300
-
+300
by man1984man
on 2024-10-25 01:55 -
+300
by TempyTheCleric
on 2024-10-24 07:35 -
+100
by SebGreg732
on 2024-10-24 05:18 -
+300
-
+300
by Those2Nerds
on 2024-10-22 23:22There are numerous occasions in which an organization makes sense to also be a location. Colleges are often strongly linked to their campuses, for instance. Or countries - they're part of how we address letters and packages, and of our mental hierarchy of where someone or something is. Having org charts go directly from Town to Continent is... jarring. Option 1 would be helpful, or some way to indicate within an organization's article that it's intrinsically tied to its location and should serve as one wherever relevant.
-
+300
by DemonDC
on 2024-10-21 05:11 -
+300
by A Frightened Goblin
on 2024-10-20 22:52 -
+300
by MrGunn
on 2024-10-19 03:58Interesting request. I would like the option of entering a location WITHOUT an article to link to, just words, so that later I can develop an article if I don't want get that specific.
-
+300
by Fizzybrat
on 2024-10-18 19:52 -
+100
by WeStanNikolai
on 2024-10-18 12:10I feel option 1 is a good idea that could be useful at other places as well, however I do want to mention that the dropdown menu in the -mention system does show the article-type behind the title, so "Kingdom " and "Kingdom (organization)"
-
+300
by A Beloved Devil
on 2024-10-18 11:01 -
+300
by PoppaeaSabina
on 2024-10-17 01:34I'd like to add my voice to this, even if it is eventually declined. Option 1 is completely in line with my ideal solution, and the reasoning behind the described "problem" is perfectly captured. I have now learned to work around this limitation, but it took a very long time and a lot of frustration, and I imagine it is the same for many newer users.
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+300
by morganarcher
on 2024-10-17 01:33I am all for this, especially option 1. It would get rid of the headache of duplicate article titles, and it would give a little more creative freedom to those who don't prefer to organize things the way the template allows currently.
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+300
by Fociño
on 2024-10-16 13:51I totally agree with this, specially with Option 1. The problem I usually find is whenever a geopolitical organization controls a territory that's not definable by geographic features in any satisfying way. Let's say, a whole planet, which is culturally uniform in all aspects and uses internet for communication, is divided in 4 mathematical quarters for political-administrative purposes, totally ignoring the landscape features. Let's say that something like a movement or cultural/political event happened in that territory exclusively. How do I get around it? Supposedly, by creating a new article for the whole territory (whose parts have literally zero relation or meaning beyond the organization of people there) and adding all the geographic features of it into the "Gazette" list. It makes no sense. And the staff is so certain about this, when there seem to be so many cases where this is not satisfactory at all.
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+100
by DesNordlund
on 2024-10-14 13:50 -
+300
by Scalenex
on 2024-10-13 16:28 -
+300
by A Beloved Velociraptor
on 2024-10-13 13:54 -
+300
by JetpackMonkey
on 2024-10-13 12:53 -
+100
by Maz_Cat
on 2024-10-12 07:26 -
+100
by DepressedDM466
on 2024-10-12 05:12 -
+300
by Ratha
on 2024-10-12 04:07 -
+300
by seidrmagus
on 2024-10-11 22:30
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