[Wikipedia-l] Re: Celebrity users

Wed Jan 12 05:14:29 UTC 2005

You made some good points. Yes, I know that many people have the same 
name, even mine. :-) If there were a famous person named Josh Gerdes, 
though, I would want to mention that I am not him, especially if there 
were an article about him. It is true, though, that fame is often 
somewhat localized.

Josh Gerdes
(en:User:JoshG)

Robert Brockway wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Jan 2005, Josh Gerdes wrote:
> 
>> I think this is a pretty unlikely scenario. However, if a person 
>> *were* to
> 
> 
> Actually it isn't.  It is quite common for people to have the same name 
> regardless of how famous they are.  This is the main reason police 
> habitually refer to people using their full name (including middle name) 
> if they have one.
> 
> Type your own name into www.switchboard.com and be disappointed about 
> how many people have your name in the US alone :)
> 
> I used to work with Jim Carey.  The real Jim Carey?  Well the one I knew 
> was real, although he wasn't famous.  I've heard of many other examples 
> of a person having the same name as someone who is famous.
> 
>> on his or her user page that he or she is not the famous person, though.
> 
> 
> If it were me I'd be inclined to let people figure it out for themselves 
> :)  In fact if it were me and someone insisted that I put a marker on my 
> home page indicating I was not the other "famous" Robert Brockway I'd 
> likely be insulted and that'd be the last you'd see of me.
> 
> Besides, who is famous is culturally dependent.  As an Australian I am
> certain I could name people who I consider to be famous but who 
> non-Australians would not.  What if we encounter Bruce Paige or Ray
> Martin?  I may wonder if they are the famous person but you may not 
> (unless you are also Australian).  In the case of Bruce Paige you'd 
> probably need to be from my home state to recognise the name.  I just 
> looked up Ray Martin in Wikipedia.  He's a Canadian politician?  But I 
> thought he was an Australian TV presenter.  Another couple of people 
> with the same name.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Rob
>