Last modified: 2012-07-07 18:32:26 UTC
The normalization of lables and aliases does not include uppercasing of first letter. This is configurable for titles on normal wikipages and should (?) be the same for labels and aliases, but I'm more uncertain if it should be done for descriptions. That is if the labels and aliases can be used in url's they should be treated the same as ordinary titles.
Keep them "as is".
For the record, because there seems to be confusion about this quite often: Aliases and titles CAN NOT be used in URLs (except as parameters for a search page). Labels and aliases are not identifiers, are not unique and can not be used to address things. They are in no way like titles, and should thus not be treated like titles. Upper casing may still be nice, but it's in no way necessary, and I currently don't think it's a good idea. Other normalization (Unicode, whitespace) of labels and aliases is mainly useful for the search, and to avoid duplicates on the same item, and to avoid faulty entry (e.g. multiple spaces).
I think you are answaring something other than this was about, which is the upper casing of first letter in aliases, labels and descriptions. As long as they may appear in URLs it is important to treat them as all other strings the user may (or may not) add to an URL, and that he may (or may not) add to some wikitext. The URL created may (or may not) be an unique identifier but that is not really an issue in this bug. See for example whats happens in the link http://wikidata-test-repo.wikimedia.de/wiki/Special:ItemByLabel/en/Hydrogen As it was said in a private conversation, not all wikis uses uppercasing of first letter (or neglects it in links), so I think it should be left untouched until there is a clear usecase where it is necessary to handle it in a specific way.
