Talk:HP/Archive 1

message: I've been trying to disambiguate hp to horsepower, but there's just too many occurances - and every single reference to Hp (hp) is to horsepower. So I'm changing hp (lowercase p) to redirect to horsepower with a link to HP (disambiguation). Other than horsepower and Hewlett-Packard, there don't seem too many common uses on the disambiguation page anyway. If this causes massive problems, let me know.
:Bz2 11:01, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: For guidelines on redirects and the intro paragraph, please read WP:MOSDAB, specifically WP:MOSDAB#Linking to a primary topic and WP:MOSDAB#Piping.  "Some title (disambiguation)" pages should open with a link to "Some title" (even if that is a redirect. Also note that WP:R#Do not change links to redirects that are not broken points out that redirects in general are legitimate links. -- JHunterJ 01:50, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Um, okay. Maybe put into layman terms what you are referring to, J. - Arcayne (cast a spell) 05:40, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What part didn't you understand, A?  WP:MOSDAB#Linking to a primary topic: This is HP (disambiguation).  There is a primary topic for HP.  The disambiguation page should open with that entry separate from the dabbed entries, since people looking for the primary topic are unlikely to get to the dab.  The link to the primary topic should be a link to the base name, even if that's a redirect.  It indicates that that really is the primary topic -- it's linked through the base name.  WP:MOSDAB#Piping: Links to redirects that are named with the dab phrase are preferred to piping those links.  WP:R#Do not change links to redirects that are not broken: Do not change links to redirects that aren't broken, on Wikipedia in general, not specific to dab pages. (And where's my cookie?) -- JHunterJ 10:46, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Redirects in the intro 

message: * HP Baxxter
* HP Lovecraft
are known by the initials "HP", we're told here.
A book by Lovecraft is marked "HP Lovecraft" (or minor typographic variations thereof). "Lovecraft" is there, conspicuously. (Contrast that with a book by "H.D.".) Adding a link to Lovecraft or "Baxxter" doesn't disambiguate anything and it's hard to imagine how it could help anyone. -- Hoary 11:51, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed. Those names don't belong on this particular page. --Tony Sidaway 12:05, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Name holders in general do not "belong" on disambiguation pages, for the reasons you mention.  However, consensus has been that, for short lists, name holders could be lists in a lower "People with" section on the dab page if the length wasn't long enough to warrant a name list article of its own.  See, as ever, Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)#Given names or surnames and Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthroponymy.  If you feel that they do not belong here, the could be moved to HP (name)-type page and that linked from here. -- JHunterJ 11:29, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: "people known by initials"

message: Sorry to wander in and reignite a battle that I now see has been going on since March 2006. (And then I also reignited the issue about positioning "Hewlett Packard" on the page, going on at least since this August.)
To keep newbies like me from messing up your carefully tuned disambiguation pages and causing you guys to waste all this time, isn't there some way to lock them so that only the admins can change them? 
Or can you have a standard note at the start or end of all disambiguation pages that says something like "Because of the key role that disambiguation pages play in helping people find things in the Wikipedia, please click the "Discussion" tab and propose your change there rather than directly editing the page."Cactus2 09:27, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think the latter would prove more helpful than the first. Protection is usually used to prevent vandalism or really bad edit-warring which, for the greatest part, doesn't constitute the changes that have been occurring in these pages. There are two or three reasoned points of view occurring and hashing them out is really what constitutes the best part of Wikipedia's success (I know it doesn't seem like that while you are knee-deep in discussion where tempers are flaring a bit, but trust me that the burning sensation  means it is working - lol). So protection doesn't really apply to this situation. However, I find the idea of setting a no-wiki that asks to discuss additions or changes first to be intriguing. Unfortunately, a lot of folk who are all gussied up to make changes aren't going to pay attention to that, or are so very full of themselves that they don't feel the suggestion applies to their oh-so-obvious choice (again, that hasn't really happened here). Of the two suggestions, I think that your second is the better of the two. You might want to suggest it as an addition to WP:DAB or WP:MOSDAB and get their feedback. - Arcayne (cast a spell) 19:38, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You pointed me to "WP:DAB or WP:MOSDAB" Why are there two articles covering essentially the same material?Cactus2 01:28, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, they're not the same really. Closely related, yes, but one covers what disambiguation is on Wikipedia and the other describes style guidelines for a disambiguation page. The process of disambiguating titles involves more that the simple formatting of a diambiguation page. older ≠ wiser 02:09, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If the admins want newbies to follow the rules, there need to be simple rules... and they need to be easy to find. Rather than many screens of discussion, why didn't someone just post the rule that I found? "Disambiguation pages are solely intended to allow users to choose among several Wikipedia articles, usually when a user searches for an ambiguous term." That is perfectly clear.Cactus2 02:28, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Why not prevent newbie-caused disambiguation hassles in the first place?

message: You want proof? Look at this:  It is the italian cover of the seventh novel and it plainly says on the spine HP.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by ArryStreet (talk • contribs) 21:46, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Uses of HP as Harry Potter