Capitalization
In general, topic names should be capitalized the same way a title would. Always capitalize the first and last word of a topic name, and capitalize all other words except for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions less than five letters. Clarifying terms in parentheses do not follow this rule.
Here are some examples:
- New York City (capitalize all words)
- Apples (fruit) (don't capitalize fruit because it's a clarifying term)
- Topics on Quora (don't capitalize on because it's a preposition)
- The Future (capitalize the because it's the first word)
- Into the Wild (don't capitalize the because it's an article)
Prefer Nouns
In general, nouns should be preferred as topic names, rather than verbs, adjectives or questions. For example, use Running instead of Run, and use Safety instead of Safe. Occasionally, some concepts are too difficult to express as a noun, and so a question template, like What Does it Feel Like To Do or Be X? is acceptable, but where possible, a noun form is preferred.
Use Plural
Topics that are nouns should be named as the plural form of the noun, unless the noun is a mass noun[1]. For example:
- Grapes (plural)
- Cats (plural)
- Cities in the United States (plural)
- Facebook (proper noun)
- Computer Science (mass noun)
Avoid Ambiguity
Topic names need to be unambiguous. There can only be a single topic on Quora for each name; the system does not allow duplicates.
Topics names that would otherwise be ambiguous should be followed by a clarifying term in parentheses. For example: the film called Pi would be named "Pi (movie)" whereas the number pi could be "Pi" if it's the most common usage, or "Pi (number)". The clarifying term should be lowercased unless it should normally be capitalized, such as if it's a proper noun.
For the case where a clarifying term is left off because the topic is the most common usage of the particular name, the topic description should make it clear what the topic is.
Name Length
Topic names should be just long enough to be unambiguous but no longer.
Neutrality
Topic names should be phrased in a way that isn't controversial, or inflammatory, and that would be agreed upon by people on both sides of an issue. Avoid slang.
Wikipedia
When there is controversy over a topic's name, we generally prefer Wikipedia's conventions.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun
Topics with Time/Date
- Timely topics should include a date to avoid ambiguity.
- This should be in Month Year format (e.g., "January 2017"). Do not include the specific day.