Talk:Spartan

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[edit] Purpose of dab page

Please read WP:MOSDAB for more info on the purpose of a dab page and how one should be formatted. --Kmsiever 19:25, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

I would have the same advice for you, as why did you remove the definition of "Spartan" as an adjective when you could've cross-linked it to Wiktionary as per WP:MOSDAB?

Also, why did you remove all of the red links, as the guidelines found in WP:MOSDAB don't mention that none should be present?

You can't just subjectively, and unilaterally for that matter, decide what guidelines to apply and which not to.

I won't initiate a revert war with you, but I will add back "spartan" as an apple as this is mentioned in the List of apple cultivars. — Dorvaq (talk) 21:37, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Good point on the definition. I added a Wiktionary template. MOSDAB guidelines suggest using red links only when an editor is confident a separate article could be written on it. Were there ones that were deleted that you feel are strong candidates for their own articles? Regarding the apple, WP:DAB states "Only include related subject articles as long as the term in question is actually described on the target article." I am not convinced that an entry in a table counts as being described. --Kmsiever 22:22, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, upon doing a little research, I suppose you are right that none of those red links were strong contenders. However, I am still sticking with my apple. I do believe the entry is enough as 50% of the entries found in the table have their own articles, which means that the red-linked "spartan" apple has the potential to have its own article as well. In addition, there are plenty of resources on the web concerning the Spartan apple unlike the other red links. — Dorvaq (talk) 01:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. If it's still a red link this time next year, I'm deleting it. :) --Kmsiever 19:27, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Seeing as I was so adamant about adding the apple, I took it upon myself to create the article. What's currently there is short, but I will expand the article. — Dorvaq (talk) 15:56, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Here's where the article can be found: Spartan (apple) — Dorvaq (talk) 15:57, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Cool. I didn't know it was Canadian. You'd think we could make better tasting apples. --Kmsiever 18:22, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mascot meaning of Spartan disambig

Not that I disagree with the removal of my addition,[1] but just figured I'd explain why I added it. I was doing disambiguation clean-up for this page and a large number of the links were from mascots for schools and/or sports teams. I was initially linking them to Sparta, but that didn't seem to be appropriate as the reference was not to just anyone in Spartan society, but rather a hoplite in the Spartan Army. I did word it poorly, but didn't want to provide a link to[hoplite as that word is used to describe all Greek foot soldiers, not just Spartan foot soldiers and to use hoplite without linking to the word would cause issues as most people aren't going to know what a hoplite is. DAB articles should include the most common reasons why a person is coming to the page and considering how popular it is for mascots to be Spartans, a direct link to Spartan Army should be included, IMHO. Perhaps a different wording could be used? --Bobblehead ^(rants) 16:22, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

My suggestion is to take out the word "mascot" entirely and make an entry along the lines of Spartan hoplite, which wikilinks to Spartan Army, and/or add entries of specific Spartan hoplite mascots instead of using Spartan mascot in the general sense. — Dorvaq (talk) 17:38, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Good idea on the use of [[Spartan Army|Spartan hoplite]], but I'm not sure doing away with the word mascot is a good idea as the use of Spartan to mean a hoplite is uniquely that of mascots. Perhaps something along the lines of "Spartan hoplite, particularly when used as the name of a sports team or school mascot."--Bobblehead ^(rants) 18:09, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

I can honestly fathom someone typing in Spartan in the search field unknowingly looking for a Spartan hoplite and not thinking of any mascot in particular. As far as the Spartan hoplite mascot (in general), again, I believe the best course of action is to list specific mascots individually or do something similar to how the Tiger disambiguation page deals with tiger mascots. — Dorvaq (talk) 19:27, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

It's also important to note that this is a disambig page, and as such should point to existing articles. Since there currently is no article specifically discussing the use of the Spartan hoplite as a mascot, I'm not sure it needs to even be mentioned on here. --Kmsiever 19:40, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Which, oddly enough is why I linked to Spartan Army and added the explanation here. Wasn't worth me creating a List of Spartan mascots article with an explanation as to what is meant when a school or team used a Spartan and add an extremely long list of schools and teams with that mascot. I'm not a fan of list articles, so I'd rather not be the creator of such a page. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 20:03, 23 July 2007 (UTC)