Talk:Gordon H. Smith

message: I suggested prior to the move that the page should be at Gordon H. Smith instead of Gordon Smith (politician). Unfortunately, I lost track of was AFK for the rest of the discussion, and didn't respond to the baseless objections to Gordon H. Smith. The two objections basically amount to, "there is no evidence he was known by that name. A simple search for "Gordon H. Smith" disproves that. Of the first page, all but one of the hits are about the Senator. More to the point, the New York Times's page about him is called "Gordon H. Smith". In addition, the last time Smith was elected to the Senate, his credentials were in the name "Gordon H. Smith". Smith's election page on facebook was in the name "Gordon H. Smith". Smith put out a statement while on the Aging Committee using the name "Gordon H. Smith". Smith's letters reveal that his Senate letterhead, printed closing, and signature use the "H" (the first two being "Gordon H. Smith" and the signature being either the same or "G H Smith". So not only is "Gordon H. Smith" a common way of referring to Jeff Merkely's predecessor, but it seems to be the way he refers to himself. Since a non-parenthetical disambiguator is available, it should be used. It is therefore my intention to move the page there. Discussion? -Rrius (talk) 18:51, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not a big fan of parenthetical disambiguation either, but in this case, I can't remember a single reference to him as "Gordon H. Smith" in the media. Clearly that's his name and he uses it in official situations, but he campaigned as "Gordon Smith" and most people would find him as Gordon Smith and go from the disambiguation page. A redirect to the parenthetical disambiguation device seems most appropriate to me in this instance since someone who only typed "Gordon Smith" would learn immediately of his profession and have more confidence they had the right page than if they saw the middle initial and had to read further to determine if it was the right person. So I'd say leave it as is. --Esprqii (talk) 23:28, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  I don't really care much one way or the other. Rrius, if you are really convinced that's the better way to go, and if you need administrator buttons to accomplish it, please feel free to let me know, an (as long as there isn't strong opposition to the change) I'll do it for you. -Pete (talk) 00:04, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

text: Well, he did use "Gordon H. Smith" for his facebook page, which seems to have solely been used for campaigning, and he is referred to by the "H" in several media reports. And while he is probably more often referred to as "Gordon Smith" than as "Gordon H. Smith", that isn't the question. The question is whether a parenthetical or an initial is preferable for disambiguation. Even the section on parenthetical disambiguation says middle initials and qualifiers such as "Jr.", "II", and the like are better than parenthetical descriptors. -Rrius (talk) 00:25, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  Also Rrius, thanks very much for all your AWB dab work. I just logged in to take a crack at that, but I'm not so good with automated tools…so I was very pleased to see that the bulk of it has been taken care of! -Pete (talk) 00:17, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: No problem. I'm starting to get the hang of AWB, but I am not terribly good yet, either. -Rrius (talk) 00:25, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: My only point was what would be make the page more usable for the reader: his profession (presumably why they have heard of him) or his middle initial. I think the first rule of disambiguation is picking the most common name he is known by. His Facebook page and a smattering of news articles seem less convincing than just using the parenthetical disambiguator in this case (which I just love typing, by the way). It's not as pretty but it seems more functional. Just my two cents. --Esprqii (talk) 01:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I guess I just disagree. Someone searching for the senator is going to type "Gordon Smith", "Gordon H. Smith", or "Gordon Harold Smith", not "Gordon Smith (politician)". Thus, in terms of searching, "Gordon H. Smith" is more functional than "Gordon Smith (politician)". Also, having done the disambiguation work, there are many articles that use "Gordon H. Smith" as the display text. As such, those articles would be able to link directly to this article without a piped link. By contrast, the only pages in the article namespace likely to display "Gordon Smith (politician)" are "Gordon Smith" (the disambiguation article) and perhaps other Gordon Smith articles, where editors think this Gordon Smith is worthy of a hatnote. And, yes, it is I really enjoy "parenthetical disambiguator" (and "non-parenthetical disambiguator") too.-Rrius (talk) 01:50, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: In my opinion, no one is going to arrive at the article any way but through a link on another article, a search, or the dab page, so it really doesn't matter what we make the actual article. If we don't get another opinion, I'm fine with whatever you think is best. --Esprqii (talk) 04:02, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gordon H. Smith 

message: Gordon Smith has now been the head of the National Assocation of Broadcasters (NAB) for almost a year, and today is a very important day in his new job - he has summoned the heads of all the radio owners in the United States to discuss negotation of the so-called "Peformance Tax".  This has the potential to break him into a visible figure on the news over this issue.
Would it be appropriate now to rewrite the lead to say "Gordon H Smith is the President of the National Association of Broadcasters,  [blah blah].[paragraph].  Previously, he had served as a U.S. Senator from Oregon [blah] [blah].?69.37.68.72 (talk) 11:15, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Should lead paragraph describe current occupation and role? 

message: Does anyone else think this article is up to GA status?--Bigpoliticsfan (talk) 00:41, 14 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Looking for someone to nominate this article for GA status 

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