Talk:Washington (disambiguation)

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Talk:Washington - I propose that the Washington State article be moved from Washington to Washington (U.S. state) and that Washington (disambiguation) be moved and redirected to Washington. This would be in line with Lincoln and other similar precedents. Nothing personal against the state - it's a very beautiful place, but having Washington be a disambig would be the best way for readers and linkers to effectively navigate. "Washington" has a lot common of uses - as a person's name (including the first American president), as the name of a university, and of course as the name of Washington, DC. Outside the United States, "Washington" as a place name almost always refers to the U.S. capital. Even within the United states (with the exception of the northwestern U.S.), when someone says they're gonna "go to Washington," it's generally assumed that they mean Washington, D.C. Blackcats 01:24, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

• Oppose. The primary meaning is the U.S. state, unlike Lincoln, which has no primary meaning. Georgia guy 01:26, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
  • The discussion of this move is taking place at Talk:Washington, as listed above. Voting in more than one place doesn't accomplish anything. Blackcats 02:10, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

That discussion seems to have died. I think I can almost see both sides. The only place or person corresponding exactly with the name 'Washington' is the state (if it's understood that you mean the state). However the media exclusively uses 'Washington' to refer to D.C. (or the U.S. Gov). Washington in a search box would invariably be placed there with the intention of finding a similar result. Meanwhile Washington State is rarely referenced in the media, and only in the form of words 'Washington State' or 'the state of Washington' by way of clarification. On the other hand in an encyclopedic sense, as I ramble about below, Washington is principally a name, adopted by or applied to various things. There are many examples of disambig pages extrapolating from a name and then directing readers to people and places.

I'd go for either:

D.C. as the default with pointers to George Washington, Washington State, and disambig with Washington (name) or

Disambig as the default with top level pointers to the big names, and the rest lower down.

atm the default page is Washington State (which to me was a genuine surprise) and the disambig headlines you straight back to Washington State. I don't get it, I mean, you've just come from there :/ Hakluyt bean 04:48, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Washington (footballer)

Can this be replaced with Washington Stecanelo Cerqueira? While the article doesn't exist yet, it makes more sense to have the title be the person's full name, rather than his nickname and occupation. Ytny 15:08, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] George

As practically everything named Washington is named after George, a link to him would probably be in order at the top of the article. 70.16.1.166 05:02, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

sort of done that by setting out Washington as a name (place, people), which is how I imagined a disambig page would look anyway. What do people think?Hakluyt bean 04:55, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

That's not really how disambiguation pages work. See WP:MOSDAB for more. To address the original concern of the poster, most articles on places named after General Washington mention it near the top. He also has (in addition to his own page) George Washington (disambiguation) and List of places named for George Washington. This article should work despite of the General's influence to help readers find articles. Getting to the article George Washington is pretty straightforward. -Acjelen 19:40, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Ok. As there already is an article on Washington State, does this article need to reference it at the top? This is Washington disambig. Also if I'm interested in Washington in an encyclopedic way, ie in isolation, where would I go to find that info? Or where can I put the info that I assembled as it was what I was expecting to find here? In essence Washington is a personal and place name and tbh I don't see a reason why you wiped it. I'll revert it, but you may want to come back so I'll wait in case you do(?) - edit: nm, made Washington (name) page, which fixes my knowledge gap. Let me know if you object. There may be a reason there hasn't been a name page to date? Also there's the question of what goes where. So far I've just copied over personal names. Seemed to make sense ;) Hakluyt bean 01:41, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

While you rarely see a usage summary at the top of an article or a disambiguation page, I don't see why that wouldn't fly on Washington (name). You might want to emphasize the origins of the place- and surname rather than repeat the list of nameholders from this page. That is a worthwhile subject.

I'm going to respond here to your comments earlier about Washington state versus Washington seat-of-government. WP is under no obligation to follow U.S. press style. Indeed, many aspects of WP style direct and actively work against U.S. press style. Since Washington is about the state, this page will continue to list the state at the top, If you'd like to go to Talk:Washington and suggest changing that article title to Washington State, you're welcome to, but I'd be ready for the reaction. -Acjelen 18:29, 10 December 2006 (UTC)