Talk:Rutherford

Regarding Rutherford (surname)

At 00:28, 19 January 2008, Ken Gallager, removed all links to people with that surname with the summary being: "Daniel and Ernest Rutherford are both listed in the "surname" dab page".

Personally I agree, and my own reasoning is that if those entries are written here, then they are at best pale copies of those in that article, or in other word "duplicate", which is something to be avoided according to wikipedia's policy here: Help:Merging and moving pages.

The best course of action is, I believe, merger, but it's not something I'd rather do myself as I'm not sure that my believe is correct.

Regenlied (talk) 19:11, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Since 2007, persons surnamed "Rutherford" have been listed at the separate article Rutherford (surname). So began a period in which editors wishing to highlight the name Ernest Rutherford continued to add it here at this article (see ., ., ., ., ., ., ., ., ., and .). In 2011, editors took to leaving the name Ernest Rutherford in a hidden comment, so that future editors would see that it had not been forgotten, but then editors highlighting Ernest Rutherford began removing the "comment" wiki notation (un-hiding the name; see here, here, and here). I've again restored the hiding wiki notation (here), but I'd like ideas for resolving this matter. Personally, I suspect merger is the way to go.--AuthorityTam (talk) 17:52, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Regardless of the existence of a separate surname page, people commonly known as Rutherford do belong on this page. older ≠ wiser 20:13, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

To give some perspective on the likelihood that someone searching for "Rutherford" might be looking for Ernest Rutherford, the traffic for that article is greater than all the other entries on the disambiguation page combined (if Rutherford B. Hayes is excluded -- the former U.S. president has traffic statistics roughly similar to that of the physicist). Similarly, the physicist page traffic is greater than all of the other entries on the surname page combined (including the entries on John Rutherford (disambiguation) and Jack Rutherford (disambiguation)). older ≠ wiser 21:25, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

I know who Ernest Rutherford is.
Frankly, I'd have no issue with Rutherford immediately redirecting to Ernest Rutherford (then we'd move the list currently at Rutherford to Rutherford (disambiguation) and put a hatnote at Ernest Rutherford with links to both Rutherford (disambiguation) and Rutherford (surname), of course). Would editors then still object to Ernest being listed only at Rutherford (surname) and not being the only one surnamed Rutherford at Rutherford (disambiguation)? Probably the alternative is to just merge Rutherford (surname) back into Rutherford, like it was before 2007. Both ideas have advantages. Let's sit on this for a bit before implementing either.
--AuthorityTam (talk) 21:57, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

What exactly is the problem with the page as it is now (i.e., include a link to the physicist and the surname page)? The purpose of the disambiguation page is to help readers find topics commonly known as "Rutherford" and the surname page is to provide information about the name and list people with the name. There's not an either or exclusion. older ≠ wiser 23:44, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Rename this to Rutherford (disambiguation)?

I propose renaming this article to Rutherford (disambiguation) so that Rutherford would be free to redirect to Rutherford (surname); I think a person typing "Rutherford" is more likely looking for a person than anything else. Of course, after that Rutherford (surname) would get a hat {{redirect|Rutherford}} back to here ("Rutherford (disambiguation)"). Just wanted to put the idea out there for a bit first. --AuthorityTam (talk) 17:47, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

No. See MOS:DABNAME. It's standard practice for common names to go straight to the disambiguation page, with a link on the disambiguation page to lists of people with that surname. The exception is when a particular individual is so notable that the name directs straight to that person (e.g. Churchill), but there doesn't seem to be any precedent for bypassing the disambiguation page for a common name to redirect to a list of names.--Jeffro77 (talk) 10:47, 15 January 2011 (UTC)