Wiki Placename Problem

Most place names (toponyms) are a single word and so require tricks to make Wiki Names out of them. This results in a lack of consensus, for example: Belgium Europe vs IcelandCountry.

This is a special case of the Wiki Single Word Problem.

Space below reserved for proposals & discussion.


Consider that most place names do not need a Wiki Page. Hence, this page is a Deletion Candidate.


It would be nice to have a format which 'reads' naturally. Perhaps TheCountryofIceland, which works well in sentences ("I've just come back from holiday in TheCountryofIceland"), but the problem with this is that it requires typing.


I'm really sorry for having caused all this fuss by removing the comma in Stockholm, Sweden (back in Swedish Xp Community). The easiest way out would be to remove the entry on Iceland and Category City all together. It is a whole different issue, though, that Java or C++ have to be rebaptized Java Language and Cee Plus Plus just because of the primitiveness of this wiki system. In my opinion (oh no, here we go again, I'm starting another Holy War...), this is a typical example of people having to adapt to a stupid design of a software system. Now for something radical: if the running source code for this wiki were kept in a Wiki page (hello, John Von Neumann!), anybody could improve it, and we could soon have support for the {{Java}} and {{C++}} notation of other wikis. -- Lars Aronsson

... And the system could quickly lose all its consistency as a result of being "designed" by a dozen different people all adding and removing features to suit their whims.

The restrictions on page names may not please you, but they aren't "stupid" either. The strict format is there for a reason.

It seems fair to say that the software is stupid. If it had an AI engine then it could use intelligence to identify links. But it's not AI, hence it's stupid. An intelligent design decision was to make a system that is not.

No one was arguing about whether the system is stupid. Lars said the design is stupid. The design is not stupid.


On everything2.com every word or phrase is a link if that page exists. This inverts the Wiki Name approach. Instead of clicking on the question mark, you have to explicitly create a new page. That is much more flexible.

This would instantly make me want to create pages for 'a', 'and', 'the', 'this' and 'that' :-)

And the problem with that would be ... ??


Lars, you have quite a number of intelligent possibilities:

you could talk Ward Cunningham into changing the scripts

you could let users vote about your suggestion

you could add content without caring too much about page names

you could create your own intelligent wiki clone and start your own wiki community


Actually, a "reflective" Wiki which could be used to alter its own source code would be a very worthwhile thing. On the other hand, it is also most definitely and absolutely certainly a stupid idea and one that couldn't possibly work, ever ever.

Actually I find the idea of a Reflective Wiki so fascinating I think it merits some discussion. -- Matthew Astley


Possible comprehensive solution using backticks has been moved to a page called Free Link -- Anonymous On Purpose

See original on c2.com