Some general tidy up

[Aerozol]

No description provided.

[reosarevok]

Why? :( I mean, dashes are ok, but I really don't like this obsession with it being a replacement for everything somehow. https://thenarrativearc.org/blog/2020/2/4/epic-grammar-battle-semicolon-versus-em-dash for example. Sometimes text just flows better with a colon or a semicolon.

[Aerozol]

Short sentences are always better, particularly for people who might be reading in a second language, or have other reading difficulties. Though I am a chronic long sentencer-er... I try and keep myself in check. So I think it's a good reminder that a colon/dash could often just be two sentences instead. I stand behind that bit.

Otherwise I don't think it's about never using a colon or a semi colon, just being consistent when you are choosing between the two. We could easily swap this to be 'avoid dashes'?

For me it is quite noticeable if someone is writing with a lot of dashes - it's pretty distinct - or if they're using a lot of semicolons; also very distinct. So either way it's nice to offer guidance if someone is wondering which to go with.

[reosarevok]

Yeah, trying to have shorter sentences is not a bad idea. Maybe this should be "Colons, semicolons and dashes": "If it makes sense, write two shorter sentences rather than using these" then?

[Aerozol]

Do we want to gently encourage one of these three over the others 'colons, semicolons and dashes'.
Not because I hate any of them, but for consistency across different authors.

[mwiencek]

I was taught that em dashes are for interruptions of thought, not a replacement for the semicolon, though I suppose it's a matter of style. :) If I'm presenting a list of items, I'd usually use a colon. (As this document does several times.)

This part I agree with: "when possible we’ll write 2 sentences instead." But I'm not sure I'd encourage dashes as a catch-all replacement for colons and semicolons. I'd just say to avoid all three unless two separate sentences sounds clunky. (That's probably not often.)

[jesus2099]

In French, dashes are apposition, that can also be written with (round) parenthesis or even with comma (but it's more oral style, then).
It is very different from colons and semi-colons.

[reosarevok]

Why not just always use double quotation marks?

[Aerozol]

If you write "technical term" with double guotes I assume you're quoting a line from someone else or from a specific source, which wouldn't be the case with these. Perhaps that's just what I learnt in school? But that makes sense to me

[reosarevok]

Sure, I guess my idea was "drop those two, use double quotes for titles". But if single quotes for that is a generally accepted convention, then fine by me.

[mwiencek]

Hmm, I was taught to use single quotation marks for quotes-inside-quotes, but I don't remember them having special meaning otherwise. Is there an existing style guide that recommends this usage?

[reosarevok]

Even if it's "you have two options" or "you can pick up to three"?

[Aerozol]

I was very curious about this too! I always learned to write out the number in words up until... 8? or 10?

I do like the point here about helping to scan content. Makes it very easy to pick out numbers in a paragraph if you're looking for them. But happy to replace with 'use words up until x, then use numbers', if you think that's better.

[mwiencek]

I think "use words from 0-9" and "use digits for 10 and up" seems reasonable. I learned something similar (though I don't remember the exact cutoff). One situation where I think digits look odd (especially for small numbers) is at the beginning of a sentence: "Two options are available." vs. "2 options are available."

[Aerozol]

Updates based on feedback/discussion with Reo and Rob

[reosarevok]

You now made this into two sentences, but these lists are not supposed to be of full sentences ;) It also does not follow from "we" 😛 Maybe split into two points? We: open links inside [...] to avoid disrupting [...] / We: "don't set links [...] in most other circumstances" ?

[reosarevok]

I generally think this looks fine now - do get @mwiencek and @yvanzo to take a look though ideally :)

[mwiencek]

I was taught that em dashes are for interruptions of thought, not a replacement for the semicolon, though I suppose it's a matter of style. :) If I'm presenting a list of items, I'd usually use a colon. (As this document does several times.)

This part I agree with: "when possible we’ll write 2 sentences instead." But I'm not sure I'd encourage dashes as a catch-all replacement for colons and semicolons. I'd just say to avoid all three unless two separate sentences sounds clunky. (That's probably not often.)

[mwiencek]

We use sentence case so only the first letter is upper case.

An exception would be where the heading itself is a title, like entity names that use title case, but maybe not worth mentioning.

We never use links in headings.

I'd guess MusicBrainz violates this quite a lot, but most notably on entity pages, where the h1 is the entity name and also a link to the entity. I know I'm used to being able to copy the link from there, but this suggests it needs a rethink. You can also copy it from the "Overview" tab, but I'm not sure that's obviously a link to most people. :( (Copying from the address bar only works if you're already on the overview tab and don't have any unwanted query parameters related to filtering.)

[mwiencek]

I think "use words from 0-9" and "use digits for 10 and up" seems reasonable. I learned something similar (though I don't remember the exact cutoff). One situation where I think digits look odd (especially for small numbers) is at the beginning of a sentence: "Two options are available." vs. "2 options are available."