Talk:Ben

message: I propose eliminating the entire section of Ben. The section does not add anything to the article and seems to necessitate the application of a notability test, which is arbitrary at best. I am unaware as to whether similar situations occur on each article with a first name, but it seems a waste of time for editors, given the changing popularity of individuals and the high incidence of vandalism. Gobonobo T C 00:57, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: ''People'' section

message: I know a Ben, being originated from Bangladesh. His full name I don't remember, but it's quite different from Benedict and Benjamin.
One could at the name here, if one knew it ..  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.227.243.42 (talk) 21:53, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: other origins

message: If you have to have Ben Cohen here, could you at least disambiguate the link, or note that there is more than one (wikipedia-style famous) person with said name? Thanks 86.130.122.126 (talk)  —Preceding comment was added at 18:18, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ben Cohen... 

message: Benjamin Bratt (actor) Scrawlspacer (talk) 04:20, 1 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Benjamins who should be added (but cannot be because the article is locked) 

message: who added this? why can't it be cut?
if means son of it doesn't read well or make sense.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.231.160.185 (talk) 10:01, 28 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: girl name ben

message: I could be wrong, but I am fairly certain that Ben is commonly used as short form for Bernard, but Bernard isn't mentioned alongside Benjamin, Benedict, etc.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.137.207.13 (talk) 23:16, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: It is, sometimes anyway, although other abbreviations may be more common in the case of "Bernard" - changed text to mention "other names" as we probably couldn't list them all anyway. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 04:46, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bernard? 

message: People who normally use(d) the UNshortened form of "Benjamin" (or one of the other names for which "Ben" can stand) and only used "Ben" as an occasional familiar abbreviation don't belong in this list, if only because we'd end up with ALL the Benjamins etc. (NOT a very useful list, far too long and diffuse). A good rule of thumb here would be to only include people with their own Wikipedia articles, and then only if "Ben" is the form of their name used in the article heading. It may even need further editing on these grounds. on the other hand, if someone wants to reinstate Ben Franklin I wouldn't worry too much, mainly because he is so notable(!), but even this seems to me to be leaving a door ajar that is best kept firmly closed, in the interests of a fairly succinct and relevant list. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 04:46, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of prominent "Ben's" 

message: I'm not a coder, but others are. There is a dilemma here: any DAB page on very common first names, or even surnames, has the problem that it is NEVER complete. It can't be. Also, updating the details (such as death year when it occurs) is a Sisyphean task, which will also never catch up with events.
The second option would be to only use the template  for displaying "All pages with titles containing search word". The problem there is that it leads to endless lists of hits, which are not organised alphabetically (can't figure out how they are organised), split into pages of 50, so totally non-user-friendly and almost useless.
We need a bot here, which would transform the template, so the result would still be
* an automatically created list, but one
* ordered alphabetically,
* displaying the "short description" next to the name and being
* as updated as the Wikidata file is,
* at best with the option of getting fixed manually (because there are more editors who know how to do that than such who know how to fix "short descriptions" and Wikidata files),
* ideally with a mechanism pinging interested editors when such manual changes happen, so that they can adopt the change, if they see fit, to the "short description" and Wikidata file.
* Adding headings for each letter of the alphabet, like at Müller (surname), is also helpful.
* The option of giving priority to manual fixes: if the name stems from, say, a biblical character or a few ancient saints, those should be set first, at the top, in their own sub-section, preferably in a chronological order, which should be stated in a short sentence (intro) under the sub-heading. That's the job of an experienced editor, not a bot, and the bot should not mess it up.
Repetitive work is typically best fit for bots, and this is a clear case of such work. Is anyone interested & able to create the mechanism?
I guess there are Wiki special pages better suited for such general proposals. Who can point me to them? I have found and posted on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals), but maybe there are better venues. Thank you, Arminden (talk) 08:28, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Try Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation -- Wire723 (talk) 14:44, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  DABs on very common names: how to improve