Hoi,
There is no way you can determine what people expect. The only thing you can
be certain off is that you will be wrong for a significant percentage of
users. Disambiguation pages are there ONLY for people who come to Wikipedia
from elsewhere. It is for these people that disambiguation is needed. It can
even be argued that it is beneficial to ALWAYS have disambiguation pages
because it helps people realise how ambiguous a language is.
When you go the route of "the more important/relevant/whatever
whatshallwecallit" you arguable go into a POV dead-end where your
important/relevant/whatever is not the important/relevant/whatever of those
that think different. The fact that these things have to be decided so often
by vote is what condemns this policy in the first place as a fallacy.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 7/16/06, ScottL <scott(a)mu.org> wrote:
Giuseppe DAngelo wrote:
I've decided to ask this question here
because I am interested in a more
international perspective. My query relates to
the use of
disambiguation. Recently a survey was conducted to determine whether
Syracuse should be a disambiguation page or whether it should link directly
to the original Syracuse in Italy (creating a separate Syracuse
disambiguation page for the others, as often happens). Those who were in
favour of it becoming a disambiguation page were overwhelmingly American,
and had in mind the fact that Syracuse, New York is today a significant
city. Indeed, many were putting forward the argument that it should own the
name outright because more google hits were looking for that particular
city.
I think there is an issue here that goes beyond the original
question. Being an
English language encyclopedia (and at the moment, the
most international of all the wikipedias), it has to be asked how much such
issues should end up being determined by the sway held by the largest group
of native speakers (who, as it turns out, have both economic and technical
clout).
As it happens, the survey ended up 15 to 8 in favour of Syracuse
linking
directly to the orginal and more historically significant Syracuse
(after which the modern New York city was named), but a particular ruling
clique managed to maintain it as a disambiguation page.
If you ask a purely American audience, they will clearly vote in
favour of the
link being to the New York city. If an international audience
is asked, my guess is that it would be to the original and historical
one. Making it a disambiguation page might seem the obvious and fairest
solution - but for a serious encyclopedia, is that really the correct
answer?
I finish by noting that Troy currently goes directly to the historical
Troy,
despite the fact that there are about a dozen place names in the US
called Troy (which are dealth with in a separate Troy disambiguation
page). At a minimum, I see a problem of consistency, and I simply wonder
whether there is something else at play here. I hope I have managed
to explain this clearly.
pippu d'a
Chiacchiera con i tuoi amici in tempo reale!
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As someone who use to do a bit of disambiguation link repair, I can
think of at least one factor that you left out that might be useful in
making these decisions. If it is a disambiguation page, of the links
that point to it (or the ones that did point to it before they were
fixed) what percentage went to which article?
If you point it to the historical city is it going to be a case where
the majority of people who link to it (without checking where that link
is going) are sending people to the wrong place? Granted I don't think
these sorts of numbers should in all cases be the deciding factor, but
they should be taken into account.
I try to view the disambiguation pages as technical rather than
editorial. They are navigation aids to the reader and editor, and I
think there function as such should be taken into account. TO me the
question is not "which city is more important" but "what will get people
to the page the intended".
Dalf
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