Talk:Hoffman

message: From the current version of this disambiguation page:
Hoffman may refer to:
* Albert Hofmann, Swiss scientist
* E.T.A. Hoffmann, German Writer
* Felix Hoffmann, German Chemist
Three people, but not a single Hoffman among them! I'm going to remove them all.
We'll need four disambiguation pages of course:
*Hofman
*Hoffman
*Hofmann
*Hoffmann
<KF> 03:10, Jan 10, 2005 (UTC)
The above three people have been added back. --Tokek 05:30, 29 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: What were you thinking when you merged the disambiguation pages entitled Hoffman, Hofmann and Hoffmann? It took me many hours to carefully distinguish between these spellings, with many Wikipedia articles being redirects themselves because people had spelled names wrongly. What kind of improvement is that? Just because some people cannot spell, does that mean they have to force their inability on those who can? <KF> 21:58, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The merger can help some users to navigate Wikipedia better, as you already seem to allude to a bit, and the same kind of mergers were already done with the Japanese and German versions. Forcing one's inability on others sounds bad, but I'm not sure what that means or if it is as bad as it sounds like. People don't have perfect memory or they don't know how to spell a name they just heard. Redirects and disambigs on Wikipedia are meant to help these people as well.--Tokek 07:45, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, if people really prefer this kind of muddle I'm not going to interfere. I notice there are even some Huffmans thrown in for variety. To me the whole thing is an example of inconsistency (other pages very well distinguish between, say, Miller and Muller or Reed and Reid) and of working against each other. I'll think twice before creating a disambiguation page again. <KF> 13:35, 15 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The "muddle" makes sense.  My grandfather was born as "Hoffmann."  This changed to "Hoffman" when he moved to the States.  His daughter was then born with "Hoffmann" on the birth certificate but raised as a "Hoffman."  Since the spelling was so often changed, I'd say that the various spellings go on one page. Calbaer 22:39, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Variations 

message: It's one thing to merge the Hoffmans with one or more f's and one or more n's, but Huffman is a distinct name, It doesn't help me to navigate Wikipedia easier to come looking for Huffman (it turns out David A. Huffman) and be faced with a page full of, what, 30 names? I've split Huffman out into its own article.--Prosfilaes 07:04, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Huffman

message: Who is Heinrich Hoffmann? Hitler's photographer? A 19th century German painter? A 19th century German psychiatrist who wrote Der Struwwelpeter?
Why can the article on the Nazi photographer be found under "Heinrich Hoffmann" while the article on the psychiatrist is "Heinrich Hoffmann (author)"?
And what would be the correct alphabetical order on the "Hoffman" page? Would people have to be listed according to their first names or according to the spelling of "Hof(f)man(n)" (i e all Hoffman(n)s before the Hofman(n)s)?
There are already duplicate articles on the German painter, one at Heinrich Hofmann, another one at Heinrich Hoffmann (painter), and a third one at Heinrich Hoffman (painter). Would that fact call for redirects or the deletion of the pages with the misspelled name? <KF> 21:35, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The muddle continues 

message: This page is a mess, no way to get reliable links: Hofmann is by definition not equal to Hoffmann, etc. - Do we want to get to a reliable base or not? --RPD 23:44, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hofmann - Hoffmann & others