Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Magazines/Archive 1

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This page is an Archive of the discussions from WikiProject Magazines talk page (Discussion page). (2008) - Please Do not edit!

Query re: 944 magazine

When I came upon a reference to a magazine called "944", I turned to Wikipedia for information, but we have no article. (The 944 article is about the year, with a hatnote to Porsche 944.) Does this publication merit an article? In a bit of research, I found this source describing 944 as a lifestyle magazine that publishes seven regional editions. JamesMLane t c 00:29, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Naming conventions

It seems to me the first task of this WikiProject should be to agree on naming conventions for magazine article titles and then sort out the inconsistencies. There are two main issues; capitalisation, and the use of the word 'magazine'. For example, Time magazine is styled 'TIME' on its cover but its article is entitled 'Time (magazine)'. This seems the best approach to me, but there are a lot of article titles that aren't set up that way; CHESS magazine's name is in caps on its cover and that's preserved in its article title. The article for PONY Magazine doesn't have a cover shot so I don't know whether it's in caps, or whether the word 'magazine' is present on the cover. It seems to me the convention should be to spell the magazine's title in mixed case (except for abbreviations of course, as in PC Magazine), and to only include the word 'Magazine' where this is an intrinsic part of the title, such as The New York Times Magazine; where disambiguation is needed, the suffix (magazine) should be added. There are a few trickier questions that need discussion too - for example, does the frequency of publication constitute part of the title? Clearly it does in the case of Publishers Weekly, but what about Mangalam Weekly, just described as Mangalam in the article or Justice Magazine, aka Justice Weekly? Colonies Chris (talk) 12:44, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Some good questions (some of which have bothered me in the past, too). To give my opinions in order:

1. Capitals: Unless the magazine uses initials, or the use of capitals has some official standing, I would assume that the magazine's title is only represented that way on the cover for effect. TIME ought to be Time in English, but as far as I can tell, the official TIME site always calls it TIME (though copyright "Time Inc.").
2. Magazine: This one really bugs me, but IMO "Magazine" should only be added if the official title includes the word, and "(magazine)" otherwise if disambiguation is required. Thus, TIME (magazine) would be correct.
3. Frequency: Again, only included if the official title includes it. For that, some external referencing might be required.

Of course, all of these answers depend on what the magazine publisher deems: Again, PONY probably ought to be Pony, but the cover and description here suggests PONY Magazine is correct.

So, I think I'm in broad agreement with you (except TIME/Time, though I haven't checked the discussion page of that article to see whether this has come up before!) Stephenb (Talk) 13:27, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

It's a slightly deceptive issue but easy to clarify: A common noun is lower case. A proper noun is capitalized. A title is capitalized and italicized. The fact that Cat Fancy has a cover logo of all caps might simply be the result of a designer's decision, and it doesn't change the rule of how a title appears in print. The fact that Cat Fancy is given in all caps on the publication's web site is a promotional usage akin to ad copy, and that still does not change the simple rule that the title is presented as Cat Fancy in conventional writing. Pepso2 (talk) 23:17, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I think you misunderstood - we're not talking typography, or grammar, but the correct title of a magazine. For instance, TIME is almost universally represented in capitals, and whether or not the correct way (in English) would be to write Time is immaterial: the publisher and copyright holder of the title can specify any use of lower case or capitals they like. Stephenb (Talk) 09:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks) where Time is given as one of the examples. Pepso2 (talk) 18:03, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Interesting, but it's not followed everywhere (otherwise, iPod ought to be Ipod). There are plenty of examples where this guideline is broken, and the manufacturer's trademark lettering is used, and I personally think it is currently incorrect in the case of TIME Stephenb (Talk) 22:33, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

In the talk archives of Time (magazine) there's a discussion on how to name the article. Back in Jan 2006 a proposal to change it to "TIME" had some support, but not enough to succeed. Colonies Chris (talk) 10:32, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

To Be

I just realised that now I'm a part of this WP, I want to ask a question. I've been watching this article about a magazine (To Be) for a while, and it is stub status. If anyone has any information about it, please contribute. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Be_(magazine) --Flashflash; —Preceding undated comment was added at 15:54, 17 December 2008 (UTC).