Talk:NHS (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Alleged vandalism 2 High School dispute 2.1 Problem with adding *all* High Schools 2.2 Proposed solution

[edit] Alleged vandalism

The claimed reversion of vandalism by user:72.56.118.28 was no such thing, and I take a very dim view of it being called such; see here for the discussion.

To cut a long story short, those schools don't belong in the list for the usual reasons.

Fourohfour 15:27, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] High School dispute

[edit] Problem with adding *all* High Schools

Since disambig pages are navigation aids, I don't believe that adding *individual* High Schools is productive. Does (for example) anyone reasonably expect to type in "NHS" and get a specific (e.g.) "Nonentity High School"? That's the basis for inclusion, and it fails for that reason.

To be fair, if we allow one or two high schools with (e.g.) 500-2000 students on the roll onto this page (or similar), we have to allow them *all*. This is going to be a long list.

If you know the school you're looking for, you don't need the disambig page (or at least, the disambig page will be so long it'll take longer to find and click the entry than it would to just to type it in).

If you *do* need a disambig page (i.e. you don't know the school name), a long list isn't going to help, as there will be so many possible options.

I've suggested a compromise solution to user:72.56.118.28, despite his/her bad faith labelling of my reversion as "vandalism". (I acted in good faith and provided a reasoned explanation of my edits- more than he/she did- so whether you like them or not, this "content dispute" doesn't remotely qualify as "vandalism").

[edit] Proposed solution

The solution is that we have a complete list of high schools in North America, or the United States and Canada (separately) and link to that via the "see also" section of *all* xHS disambig pages (where x could be any letter). Doesn't matter how long it gets, it doesn't need to meet the disambig page criteria.

Fourohfour 17:05, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

This is a solution, in search of a problem. If there's not much on a disambig page, it doesn't matter. As more is added, you put the most sigfnicant items up top. Sometimes, there's only one popular use of a 3-letter abbreviation, and that can go straight to the article. It's hard to argue items in a See Also are ok, but items at the bottom are terribly distracting. Schools that never are referred to by their initials don't need to be on the 3-letter disambig page. --Rob 13:18, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but what is your position on this if a school *is* referred to by its initials- even officially- but the school is nevertheless inconsequential to 99.999% of people outside the area? Fourohfour 14:20, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

When the list grows enough to worry about, I'll worry about it. I have no problem listing school's on a disambig, provided its done in a way, that's not distracting. While more people typing in NHS are probably looking for National Honor Society than Nepean High School; I suspect the vast majority are looking for neither (they're likely looking for the National Health Service or some other thing I haven't heard of, but is common). In fact if I had any fear that the "famous" use of the word was being "buried" in lessor entries (which I don't), I would put a redirect to National Health Service before I bothered removing one out of five entries. Removing one out of five entries was an utter waste of time. Please go look for a larger disambig page, where there's actually something needing to be done. Why is any attention even paid this page. There was no problem. Let's not make one. --Rob 14:43, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I think you have a good point; however, in response to your last point, please bear in mind that this page is serving as a representative sample for all the *HS pages.

FWIW, I think that most schools are being added here for vanity reasons, but if they can be stuck in their own little sub-section where they don't cause any harm, I don't suppose it's that big a deal. Keeps people from cluttering up the more useful parts of the list with them anyway :-) Fourohfour 18:27, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I see no utility in a list to all high schools in North America, as 99.999% are not what the person is looking for. We don't have to adjust our disambig system to accomidate a distinant future situation. Disambig pages are a navigational tool, to be used for finding *existing* articles, and not for crystal ball problems. --Rob 13:18, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm quite happy not to have high schools in at all; it was a compromise suggestion in response to people who *do* want them. However, it's unclear how many are newbies who misunderstand the intended aim of disambig pages.

FWIW, I've been actively removing (most) high schools from the list. If they weren't removed, there would soon be a lot of them here.

The request for comments still applies; should high schools be on a disambig page *if* they can be organised in a satisfactory manner?

Fourohfour 13:29, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Like you, I'd prefer to remove them. If someone is campaigning to keep them in, I'd allow it on the main dab page if there are only a few -- after all, if they're notable they'll stay and if not you or some other editor will remove them a few months or years down the line (after the concerned editor has moved on to other things). If there are enough high schools to make it an issue, move them to a separate disambiguation page at NHS (high school) or NHS (high schools), leaving just the one link on the dab page. My two cents — Catherine\^talk 14:10, 28 February 2006 (UTC)