Talk:Columbus

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[edit] Redirect

I believe that this page should redirect to Columbus, Ohio. It is by far the largest city with that name, having more than five times the population of the next largest city of the same name (Columbus, Georgia). Further, those searching for Christopher Columbus almost certainly know his first name. Thus it is unlikely that they would end up here by accident.

Like all redirects, there should be a disambiguation link at the top of the page. It would read as follows: "This article is about the state capital of Ohio. For other uses, see Columbus (disambiguation)"

This kind of redirect has precident on Wikipedia. For an example, see Topeka.

If no adverse comments are received, I will make the change in a week or so.

Bcirker 22:43, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Um, ever hear of someone named Christopher Columbus, often referred to as simply "Columbus"? older ≠ wiser 01:58, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

It is true that Christopher Columbus is sometimes refered to by only his last name, but this is hardly unique to him. For example, if I type Love into wikipedia, I don't expect Courtney Love to show up, yet the media and people frequently refer to her simply as "Love". This is true of many other well known people. Perhaps you could elaborate on your point a bit more. Bcirker 13:04, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

In a general context, no one (at least not with half an ounce of warm gray matter) would link to Love and expect the link to go to the relatively insignificant musician. In contrast, it would not at all be unusual for someone creating a link to Columbus to expect the link to go to the world-famous explorer. But because they could also very well expect the link to go to the city in Ohio, disambiguation is appropriate. In order to claim primary topic status, you need to demonstrate (provide evidence, not merely make an unsupported claim) that one use of a term is predominant over all the others. older ≠ wiser 13:25, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Let's try and have a civil discussion here and not use insults. Your responses come off as really demeaning. Disambiguation by default for Columbus is in fact inappropriate, as the use of google will show. Using their advanced search feature, we can be specific about excluding certain things. It provides interesting insight. First, try searching for [|Columbus + Ohio and excluding Christopher]. Here we see there are 75,900,000 hits recorded. Now searching for [Christopher Columbus and excluding Ohio], we find there are 8,430,000 hits. Furthermore, this isn't excluding other Columbus city references, such as those in Georgia and Indiana. Thus there is clearly more interest in the city rather than the explorer. Bcirker 13:15, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, my comment about gray matter was not directed toward you personally. Google should only be taken as a very, very rough gauge of notability. There is considerable systemic bias inherent in Google web searches. If you think you have a reasonable case for renaming the articles, then go ahead and make the proposal at Wikipedia:Requested moves. However, I'd be very surprised if it garnered even a modicum of support. older ≠ wiser 17:16, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Please elaborate more about the bias at Google. I'm not aware of any as such. Bcirker 00:19, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Search engine test and Wikipedia:Systemic bias. older ≠ wiser 12:22, 2 August 2006 (UTC)