Star City 

I guess the reason I've been encountering you a lot lately is because I started editing articles to do with Russia (via the Soviet space program), and you seem to be the top contributor at WikiProject Russia. By the way, have you read Sue's recent message? 

I'm not sure what the big deal with Star City is, and why it's causing such big discussions.. but I think it might be related to the Korolev / Korolyov issue we're also discussing. That is, I believe there should be a preference to use usual English names, while you appear to have a preference for the default romanization. It seems to me, that "Star City" is the English name for this region - whether incorporated or not. Notice on other language Wikipedias, including the Russian Wikipedia, they don't have two articles on the area.. after all, the Russian names are the same. Maybe there's a dispute here on English Wikipedia because the English name (the one originally used by NASA) is different from the default transliteration (just like Korolev / Korolyov).  

Basically, I think the definition of "conventional English name" in WP:RUS isn't quite compatible with the usage in WP:COMMONNAME. In particular, WP:COMMONNAME doesn't require the sources to be "dictionaries". But WP:RUS does require the sources to be dictionaries, and I believe this difference is causing problems. WP:RUS is not a key Policy or Guideline (maybe it's more like a WikiProject advice page, that achieved wide support in 2007); as such it should elaborate on the key policies, not change them. I think the "dictionary" requirement should be reworded, to allow for situations where the place name doesn't occur in a dictionary, but can still has a conventional English name.

I'm generally not a fan of lengthy discussions over relatively insignificant issues, like the organization of "Star City" articles, or what Korolyov (city) is named (I don't actually care very much). One of the reasons I've engaged in discussions with you, is because you are an experienced editor, who apparently oversees a huge number of Russian-related articles. I'd like to change your mind regarding WP:RUS - that we shouldn't be insisting on "dictionaries".