On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com wrote:
David Goodman wrote:
I would very much liketo take Wps redirect and disam system and rationalize it. the first step would be to change the policy so the full form of the name, including middle names, are always used when available. The second is to add geographic designators for all local events and places and organizations below the national level.
Well, I suppose adding a category to redirects from names "in standard form" could definitely be done now; and it would be possible (?) to make it a "Preferences" option to display standard form names as article titles.
A perfect solution. The trick is to get people aware of it and to get it accepted by the wider community and to get the technical bits working.
As for rationalisation of dab pages, the MOSDAB people constantly work on this. I have reservations, certainly, because (unlike the redirect case) the idea that a dab page is solely for shunting people on to another page strikes me as ideological rather than in the best interests of the encyclopedia.
I call these "pure" and "hybrid" disambiguation pages.
Hybrid ones generally show the germ of an idea for an article, struggling to be allowed free from the grip of the dab page, but needing to be mature enough not to be cut down by those who see it as not needing a separate article.
A good example is the distinction between name pages and dab pages.
A really good historical dab page of different people in history with the same name can turn into an article on the name itself. Its etymology and history. Ditto for any thematic reorganisation of a dab page that is more informative than the prescribed style.
Carcharoth