Talk:William Spaulding

William Spaulding

1. If there's going to be another William Spaulding article, shouldn't it be created before moving things?
2. Once the new article is created, there's no reason to move the existing one. The disambiguation page can be named "William Spaulding (disambiguation)", as such pages usually are in this situation.
3. If there are only two William Spauldings, there's no need for a disambiguation page. A disambiguation link on the "William Spaulding" article leading to the other one is sufficient.
4. "D.C." should not have a space.
5. Granted, the D.C. William Spaulding isn't that significant, so if the other one is more notable, making that one the main "William Spaulding" article might make sense. There's still no need for a disambiguation page as long as there are only two.

—KCinDC (talk) 16:57, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

• I appreciate your helpful message and immediately corrected the error. In my aspiration to follow Wikipedia's naming conventions for individuals (spaces between initials in main title headers such as W. A. Cleveland and O. A. Hankner), I occasionally misapply the rule to such obvious non-space examples as "D.C." and "U.S.". Regarding your first point, the article on the college coach William Spaulding was created on July 21, 2006, two years before the July 29, 2008 debut of the entry on the Washington, D.C. elected official. Since the main header for the earlier Spaulding gave him a middle initial, without including a redirect to the name without the initial, there was no impediment to your later creation of an entry entitled simply, "William Spaulding". As for the creation of a disambiguation page from the primary target, those, as you know, are the exception rather than the rule, used only when the primary target is a highly prominent individual, such as George Washington or John Ford (a recent disambiguation page controversy on Talk:Jonathan Edwards, is continuing to equate the influential historical figure Jonathan Edwards with a same-named track and field star). Finally, the matter of the two-person disambiguation page. Over my years on Wikipedia, I have been a believer in the efficacy of the hatnote. However, as those brief disambiguation pages proliferated, I decided to join the trend rather than fight it (you can see my February 2008 failed attempt to dismantle the one-person disambiguation page for Myrna Williams in the link at Talk:Myrna Williams). Moreover, some editors apparently feel that there is an implied greater prominence accorded to the earlier-created (usually, although not in the case of William Spaulding) article which then directs the reader, via the hatnote, to the "inferior" or "less-prominent" other individual. The most obvious example of a seemingly-unavoidable two-person disambiguation page presented itself (between June 14, 2003 and August 7, 2004) to readers who, instead of entering George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush, typed simply George Bush, although a number of other, related and unrelated, individuals with that name have since been added.—Roman Spinner (talk) 20:40, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
  • Sorry, I noticed the William H. Spaulding article after I wrote that. If the disambiguation page is the established way, then I guess we're done (it does offer the advantage of making it easy if a third William Spaulding comes along), though the other way seems pretty common and does save some users from having to go through a disamb page. I'll fix the links to the William R. Spaulding. (By the way, I remember trying to find guidance about initial spacing for personal names in the MOS a while back, but I didn't have much luck.) —KCinDC (talk) 21:12, 28 August 2008 (UTC)
    • Numerous editors have used middle initials to disambiguate political figures (and other individuals) who bear frequently-used names, but unless the individual in question is well known by the middle initial (e.g. Harry S. Truman, Richard M. Nixon, Edward G. Robinson), it doesn't appear appropriate to force an unknown or little-known middle initial into the main title header. Political figures, especially, have been traditionally identified by their home states or bases (e.g. John Edwards (Kentucky), John Edwards (New York), John Edwards (Pennsylvania), John Edwards (Arkansas) and the unnecessarily double-disambiguated John S. Edwards (Virginia)). That was the reasoning I used in renaming the article "William Spaulding (Washington, D.C.)", rather than "William R. Spaulding". As for the guideline regarding spacing of initials, it is found at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people)#Middle names - abbreviations of names. For years, the policy was "every abbreviation is followed by a point, and every point is followed by a single space". However, on December 16, 2007, this edit and subsequent edits, made the policy dependent on individual cases. There is also a lengthy discussion on the subject at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (people)#Initials.—Roman Spinner (talk) 23:30, 28 August 2008 (UTC)