On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Charles Matthews
<charles.r.matthews(a)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