There are a whole bunch of reasons for using article titles that are the most commonly known name. The search function is very important - and some search engines rank redirects differently (i.e., much lower) or don't even include them, so using the title that is most likely to come up on a search means the article will almost always come up in the first page of results. From the movement perspective, it is a *good* thing that most searches will lead to Wikipedia.
Secondly, redirects are expensive - not to those in the Western world with fast computers and high speed internet, but to those who are on dial-up or have comparatively high lag times because of distance (lots of people at Wikimania had difficulty getting good access to Wikipedia during their stay in Hong Kong, for example). A redirect means that the reader must first load up the "redirect" page and then follow the redirect instruction and wind up on the intended page. I don't think we pay nearly enough attention to the comparatively poor performance from WMF that our Asian, African, and South American colleagues experience; we're terribly spoiled. I'll let someone else cover the logic behind the policy. Risker/Anne On 5 September 2013 18:16, Valerie Aurora <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 5:50 AM, Jane Darnell <[email protected]> wrote: > > Actually you would be surprised at the nature of some of the renaming > > debates on Wikipedia in the area of artists like the one you mention, > > but also artists from the 17th-century. One could probably write a > > funny book about renaming debates on Wikipedia. I do think the Shirley > > Temple article should be named Shirley Temple for the notability > > issue. In the second screen effect, during a Shirley Temple movie, > > people will google Shirley Temple and not Shirley Temple Black. > > Okay, I've been wondering about this argument for a while - "It's what > people search for so we have to keep that as the name of the article." > As far as I can tell, that's what redirects are for: search for > "Shirley Temple" and you can get a page named "Shirley Temple Black" > with a little note at the top that says "Redirected from Shirley > Temple." > > Can someone with more WP experience explain why redirects aren't > sufficient for the "what people search for" argument? > > (FYI I'm on the "call people what they want to be called, including > pronouns" side of the question.) > > -VAL > > -- > You can help increase the participation of women in open technology and > culture! > Donate today at http://adainitiative.org/donate/ > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap >
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