Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Terristrial

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was redirected to Terrestrial by User:Cobaltbluetony. Robert ^{T | @ | C} 01:08, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Terristrial

Misspelling of Terrestrial article CobaltBlueTony 17:44, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

• Redirect. Although you could have done it without listing it here first. Bjelleklang - talk 17:47, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
• speedy redirect to terrestrial. — brighterorange (talk) 17:57, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
• Delete. WP:NOT a spell-checker. At least it shouldn't be. --Stephen Deken 18:26, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
• Delete, per above statement. PJM 18:44, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
• Speedy redirect to terrestrial. We are told that redirects are cheap, and I think it is usually considered that if a user creates a misspelled entry, it's evidence that the misspelling is plausible. Our naming convention calls for placing articles under their most common name, not their most technically correct name, because our intention is that our readers should find what they seek. We don't insist that people know that Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Clemens, and we should not insist that people know how to spell "terrestrial." Dpbsmith (talk) 23:56, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Then you would advocate creating redirects for Tarrestrial, Terestrial, Tirrestrial, Tarestreal, Terrestreal, and so on, ad nauseum? ♠DanMS 01:55, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

I actually created nearly that many for Alexander P. De Seversky: Alexander de Seversky, Alexander De Seversky, Alexander P. De Seversky, Alexander DeSeversky, Alexander P. DeSeversky, DeSeversky, De Seversky, Alexander Procofieff de Seversky, Alexander Prokofieff de Seversky. Of course these are not misspellings, but valid variant spellings, every single one of which has actually been used in print. Personally, I think difficulty in finding articles is one of Wikipedia's weakest points, and the dozens of accidental duplicates we get (differing from existing articles only in case, for example) prove it. I wish there were a way to type in a list of titles and have them all created as redirects to a single target article. I think we need some kind of fuzzy or Soundex search, and no, I don't really think we will solve the problem by creating lots of redirects.

Now, you're talking about hypothetical misspellings, whereas we know "Terristrial" is a real one. I wouldn't exactly advocate creating redirects for all the misspellings on your list, but if someone felt like creating them I would certainly not advocate deleting them.

Terristrial, however, has already been created. It's a separate case, not a parallel issue. :-) As long as it's here, and doesn't interfere with anything else, I say redirect it rather than delete it.

Which action—redirect to the right spelling, or delete—do you think will be more helpful to our readership? Dpbsmith (talk) 02:36, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

I was not actually advocating any particular position, pro or con. I just find the lack of spelling ability these days appalling (don’t they teach spelling in school anymore?). It troubles me that we have to accommodate it. I doubt that you’d find redirects in Britannica. But no, I don’t vote for deletion—I will abstain. ♠DanMS 03:00, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

"These days?" :-) Yeah, I remember the good old days, when gas cost so much less, and we had lovely music, not this modern stuff, it's noise, I tell you, just noise, and the language in movies these days, my goodness... and everyone was civil to their elders, and knew how to read and spell. And extract square roots with paper and pencil. Dpbsmith (talk) 16:53, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

• Redirect, misspellings used to be one of the explicit examples of things worth redirecting (don't know what the current policy says, that was a long time ago). Bryan 00:58, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
• Delete. Terestrial, Terrestreal and Terestreal may be common misspellings, but just because one person didn't check their typing before submitting doesn't mean this misspelling is common (which as far as I remember was part of the redirect recommendation). - Mgm|^(talk) 11:20, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Well, it's certainly no great loss in any case. Dpbsmith (talk) 13:05, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
• Delete — An unlikely search term. — RJH 15:43, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.