Wikipedia talk:Proposed mergers

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[edit] General comments and ideas

[edit] Capitalization scanning wanted!

I've noted some examples where 'Some Article' and 'Some article' both exist and are different. Is there a way to automatically scan for things like this? Also, for instance, 'Phantom islands' is different from 'Category:Phantom islands'. Probably requires merging?

The above statement was probably written a long time ago. I like the idea! What do others think? — Sebastian 07:59, 2005 Mar 24 (UTC)

[edit] Naming criteria (kinda unclear)

For merged articles, I prefer the most international and general name possible. I.e. Islands of the North Atlantic better British Isles. Perhaps a redirection from Islands of the North Atlantic to British Isles Mac 12:02 Mar 9, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Bot idea

Removal of accomplished mergers could be automated with the following pseudocode:

For (each element of a list)

  1. Make a stack of each link in the list element
  2. Remove any links in the User: or User talk: namespaces from the stack
  3. Check to see if they all redirect to the same article
  4. If so, delete the list element from the page

If this has consensus I'll copy it over to WP:Bot requests Alba 16:43, 9 February 2006 (UTC)


For pacifism and Non-violent resistance and Non-violence, I prefer Non-violence because it´s the most general. From there links to pacifism and Non-violent resistance, if the articles have enough content, specially, indicating the differences between they both. More than duplicated (in this case, triplicated) articles, we can talk about non-jerarquiced articles or structured article sequence Mac 12:06 Mar 9, 2003 (UTC) Mac 12:06 Mar 9, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Specific Cases

[edit] Gaia Theory

Taku added:

Gaia Theory says in the first line "Gaia Theory of Lynn Margulis and others is one among other Gaia theories" ("Gaia theories" links to Gaia theory). Likewise, the capitalised article is linked to in the lower case article. Possibly there is a better way to distinguish between these two articles, but they clearly are not talking about the same thing. --Camembert

Sorry my comment was not good enough. I meant I don't think many people distinguish them well. We really shouldn't differenciate articles by upper or lower cases. Yes, they are not identical theories but they are apparently closely related. I think it is a better idea to merge them to one article and discuss the difference between Gaia Theory and Gaia theory. -- Taku 02:44 Apr 27, 2003 (UTC)

OK, it's been added back - I won't remove it again right away, though I don't think it belongs on this page. This page is to alert people to articles which need to be merged into one, and it looks to me that that would be inappropriate in this case. The "theory" and the "Theory" are not the same thing - one is a subset of the other (just as the Gaia hypothesis is a subset of Gaia theory, and pop music is a subset of music). As I say, I won't remove them again immediately, but it seems to me that they shouldn't be merged into one page. --Camembert

I am sorry. I don't mean Gaia theory, Gaia Theory and Gaia hypothesis are some stuff. But I really don't think we need a separate article for each closely related topic. Maybe it is my preference but I think one article should discuss Gaia theory like Gaia hypothesis. See for example, call-by-something. Yes, there is not thing called "call by something but it seems appreciate that one article discusses call by name, call by reference and call by name. Remeber we need an article that makes sense not make an article for each topic. Articles that are not talking about the same thing but closely related should be placed in one place for the sake of contributers and readers. -- Taku 02:50 Apr 27, 2003 (UTC)

You may have a point, but looking at the length of those articles, it seems that enough can be written on each to warrant separate articles. But in any case, this is a matter for the talk pages of the relevant articles, rather than here. --Camembert

True. I think we can agree with the current comment. -- Taku 03:04 Apr 27, 2003 (UTC)

Yep - looks good to me. --Camembert

[edit] Non-duplicates that have been labelled duplicates

[edit] Blood-Chemistry Crises

These are three different things, not duplicates. Diabetic coma is ususally taken to mean hypoglycemic coma, ketoacidosis need not involve coma at all, and the last need not be connected to DKA either. DKA can cause coma in diabetics, but they are not synonyms. -- Someone else 04:12, 2 Aug 2003 (UTC) added comments here by ww 23:36, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Southern Denmark (?)

Discussion on merging South Jutland and Northern Schleswig deleted.
Can be found in the history, if someone is curious. :-)

[edit] Qualifications on "World"

See: Talk:World, which maybe is the appropriate place to discuss New World, Old World, First World, Second World, Third World,

[edit] Crime and Punishment (not the novel)

Criminal law is about the law of crime and punishment. Penal law may have at one time been no more than that, but is now mostly about English and Irish history and the laws that were enacted to punish Roman Catholics and non-conformists. -- IHCOYC 19:14, 18 Aug 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Wayne, New Jersey and Wayne Township, New Jersey

  • Wayne, New Jersey and Wayne Township, New Jersey apparently the same content. (also other places in Passaic County, New Jersey are duplicated, and also Salem County, New Jersey and who knows how many other counties?)
    • I'll be looking into these in the future since I am the one who made them! One will probably just need to be redirected. If someone from New Jersey knows how these work, that would be helpful. -- RM
      • In NJ many townships have the name of the town that is at the center of the township structure; Princeton/Princeton Township, Freehold/Freehold Township, Jackson/Jackson Township. In some places there are small villages inside the township that are not the same as the township, but still part of it; an example in Jackson NJ. If you use this web site: [1] and put in Jackson as the municipality (Ocean County) you get the following results (the State Forest is repeated in the original list, which is why only 29 names are listed here): Archers Corner, Bennetts Mills, Burksville, Butterfly Bridge, Cassville, Colliers Mills, DeBow Corner, Francis Mills, Grayville, Harmony, Holmansville, Hyson, Jackson Mills, Jackson Township, Jackson Twp. State Forest, Kapps Corner, Leesville, Legler, Maryland, Midwood, New Prospect, Pleasant Grove, Ridgeway, Success, The Alligator, Vanhiseville, Webbsville, Whitesbridge, Whitesville. In Princeton Township' there is the town proper of Princeton (borough), and also Cedar Grove. In some places there have been divisions, Freehold Township was one of the original three townships in Monmonth County, one town that I know was granted its own township was Manalapan in the 1848. There are actually 23 place names within Upper Freehold Township: Cooleys Corner, Coxs Corner, Cream Ridge, Davis, Ellisdale, Fillmore, Hayti, Holmes Mills, Hornerstown, Imlaystown, Kirbys Mills, Nelsonville, New Canton, New Sharon, Polhemustown, Prospertown, Pullentown, Red Valley, Robinsville, Sharon, Shrewsbury, Walnford, Wrightsville. For Wayne Township you get the following names: beside (Wayne and Wayne Township): Barbours Mills, Barbours Pond, Camp Christmas Seal, Hope Dell, Lower Preakness, Mountain View, Packanack Lake, Pines Lake, Point View, Pompton Falls, Preakness, Preakness Valley Park, Two Bridges. I think before merges are done someone needs to confirm if a place name is different than a township, borough or other type of municipality in New Jersey. The history of municipal government in New Jersey is very complicated [2]. Alex756 07:38, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)
    • As a New Jerseyan, I feel your pain. In the specific instance of Wayne, since there's no other Wayne in the state, I vote for keeping Wayne and deleting Wayne Township. If anyone wants to tell me to turn the latter into a redirect, I'll gladly do it. Better yet, someone else take me up on it if that's the consensus. CharlieZeb 22:50, 3 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Pi discussion

  • A simple proof that 22/7 exceeds pi should be merged into pi. Neutrality 23:14, 22 Jul 2004 (UTC)
    • Neutrality: The merge tag is intended for duplicate articles, in order to eliminate redundency. These articles are not duplicates, and contain no redundent material. So I think the merge tag should be removed. If what you mean is that the article about the proof, should be incorporated into the article pi, perhaps discussing this on the talk pages for the two articles would be best? Paul August 20:13, Jul 23, 2004 (UTC)
    • I cannot agree that the article should be incorporated into pi. One should not have to read everything about pi in order to read something like this. There can and should be lots of articles about various aspects of pi. Michael Hardy 22:09, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
      • ... note added later: There are lots of articles about different aspects of π; see in particular list of topics related to pi. To put these all into one article would be absurd. Michael Hardy 23:35, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
    • I agree with Michael Hardy and Paul August. These two articles should not be merged. Rossumcapek 16:35, 25 Jul 2004 (UTC)
    • In my view A simple proof ... is a legitimately separate article and should not be merged into pi. Gandalf61 16:05, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

After over a month: Three votes against, one for, one neutral. --Rossumcapek 19:05, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Macclesfield

I just merged Macclesfield (borough) into Macclesfield. Please could someone check my sanity? Did I do something sensible, if so I will continue in the same vein. Diz 07:31, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Digital audio

Digital Audio Broadcast and digital audio broadcasting don't seem like the same thing. Digital Audio Broadcast refers to a specific protocol of digital audio broadcasting, which is a broader topic. However I believe it should be merged with EUREKA 147. JoaoRicardo 18:11, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Connecticut River, etc.

Following discussion moved here from the main page, since it looks like no merging will take place. RussBlau 20:14, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Portuguese language and related pages

This isn't entirely a request for pages to be merged, but also a request for material at Portuguese language that duplicates material on a related page to be deleted. I tried removing all but the first paragraph of Portuguese language#History on the grounds that it was entirely duplicated at History of the Portuguese language. PedroPVZ reverted, calling it "inadvertent vandalism" (isn't that a contradiction in terms?) and saying "this is an article, not a portal". I re-removed it, pointing out on the talk page that duplication of articles is undesirable and that the main page should just have a brief summary of the contents of the more specific page. He re-reverted, disagreeing with my reasoning. I don't want to start an edit war over this, so I haven't removed it a third time, but I'm hoping some other users can help build up a consensus that (1) Portuguese language is way too long (it's currently 64 kb!), and (2) Wikipedia policy is not to have the same material on two different pages, and that therefore (3) Portuguese language#History should be reduced to a single short paragraph, since everything else is at History of the Portuguese language. There are similar problems with Portuguese language#Dialects, which unnecessarily duplicates material at Portuguese dialects, and Portuguese language#Sounds, which seems to have been written separately from Portuguese phonology, but is certainly way too long considering the existence of the latter. I would like to see Portuguese language#Sounds merged with Portuguese phonology and a brief summary left in its place. Similarly Portuguese language#Grammar could be merged with Portuguese grammar: there's not much direct duplication, but the topic should be discussed all the more specific page, which is still rather short. Portuguese language#Vocabulary duplicates much material at Portuguese vocabulary and much content could be merged there. Some of Portuguese language#Writing system could probably be profitably merged with Portuguese alphabet too. I'd be bold and do it all alone, but I'm afraid of all my work being reverted if I act without consensus. --Angr/tɔk tə mi 20:42, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Procedure

[edit] When done

The page says "After a pair has been merged leave it on the list with a remark DONE." Why is that? What is the argument against just removing pairs from the list after they have been done? Andre Engels 10:14 Sep 27, 2002 (UTC)

None that I can see! I'm all for changing that guideline -- Tarquin
I would be in favor of making a list of fixed issues at the bottom of the article. Good for follow-up purposes. If the list grows too long, it can be moved to an archives page. olivier 12:23 Nov 9, 2002 (UTC)


[edit] Ordering

Wouldn't it be nice to have a new duplicates section ? --User:Docu

Actually I liked the previous order, time-based order. What happened?? -- Taku

[edit] Changing opening.

In general, what's the etiquette for changing policy pages?

More specifically, in the opening couple of paragraphs, I think we should distinguish another valid fix for duplicate pages: leaving the two pages as distinct, but rewriting the pages so they no longer duplicate information.

-- Walt Pohl 16:33, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Policy Edit

I took a leap, since I couldn't find any info on the etiquette of changing policy headings/pages, and went ahead and did a rewrite. I hope this doesn't ruffle any feathers. Basically, I just felt that a new wording would be clearer for newbies -- and since there seems to be some evidence that the Wikipedia community likes having newbies test out their skills on these kinds of tasks, it's only logical that these types of pages be as user-friendly as possible.

I also wanted to make clear the agreed-upon policy of having folks remove their "Fixed!" taglines. As previously stated, this is superfluous, so it should be clear in the introduction to Duplicates that we want people to remove the information once the task has been accomplished.

Finally, I incorporated the suggestion of the user above that Duplicates can be edited so that both reflect appropriate content.

--Wolf530 02:03, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Special pages table

Wolf530 added a table for special pages, which I removed today. While I can understand his intention, I don't think it is such a good idea. If you frequence those pages, then you should use the bookmarks or just create some shortcut at your user page as many people do. Since people would prefer a different list of shortcut links, it is impossible to have a table everyone likes. -- Taku 08:59, Mar 26, 2004 (UTC)

I really see no justification for removing it, to be honest. It doesn't "harm" the page at all. And, in turn, it allows new folks to see what other pages need help. I know when I first started helping with problem articles the table was useful as it allowed me to see all of the pages of the same type that needed to be worked on. In short: there's no reason NOT to have it. --Wolf530 17:00, Mar 26, 2004 (UTC)

It, in my view, clutters the page. I understand that such sortcuts are useful and helpful to some people. But my point is that it is irrelevant. Only those who are interested in information about where are duplicate articles and how to clean up them. There is already enough page that navigates newbies. And again you can always have a list of shortcuts customized in the way you like. -- Taku 02:55, Mar 27, 2004 (UTC)

I'm not sure how I see how it "cluttering" the page matters? It's not one of the encyclopedia articles -- it's a maintenance page! --Wolf530 04:11, Mar 27, 2004 (UTC)
The same reasons still hold. It is better to have a short compact maintenance page than long one. -- Taku 15:31, Mar 28, 2004 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I just don't think your argument holds any water. The Specialpagelist neither clutters the page nor makes it any longer. It also makes little difference whether or not a maintenance page is "pretty" or not -- its purpose is utilitarian, and not aesthetic. It is better to have the pagelist there, so that new folks can easily find maintenence areas, than to not have it there and have those areas not get attention. We should all be concerned with ensuring that these pages find people to work on them. I am returning the table to the page. --Wolf530 18:23, Mar 28, 2004 (UTC)

I think this is the same argument you seen in software engineering. Having more functionalities doesn't hurt anything. I don't doubt those links might help someone as some obscure functionalities in software might be helpful someday to somebody. But we are talking about the user interface--the consistency, cleanness. The clean interface is preferrable for utilitarianist reasons. A mouse for macs has only one button because having one more does hurt the user experience.
Anyway, you might guess we cannot go anywhere in discussing user interfaces. The preference varies. So I've just added a post at request for comments and possiblily we can go to votes. I am not reverting the table again though I still disagree. No need for wars. -- Taku 18:46, Mar 28, 2004 (UTC)

I guess it's time for voting.

Support Wolf530's table

  1. Well... it's not MY table, but yeah, I support THE table. --Wolf530 03:23, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)

Oppose

  1. Taku 00:42, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)
  2. Ryan_Cable 03:26, 2004 Apr 1 (UTC)
  3. It's not very intuitive, it doesn't list 'duplicate articles' anyway, and if I wanted I'd put the list on my user page Elektron 12:06, 2 May 2004 (UTC)

Don't Care

  1. anthony (this comment is a work in progress and may change without prior notice) 01:00, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] listing new candidates

After inserting the merge tags in each article, do we need to add them to the list on the project page, or are they automagically added? In other words, how is the list updated? --Cfailde 13:58, 2004 Aug 21 (UTC)

Articles need to be added to this page manually. -Sean Curtin 02:18, Aug 22, 2004 (UTC)
Perhaps this should be noted in the "Mark current duplicates" section --Cfailde 17:12, 2004 Aug 26 (UTC)

[edit] Do we need to mearge Duplicate articles

on the page Duplicate articles there are links to Category:Articles to be merged and the template page what links here. my question is, is there any need to retain the duplicate artical page, as it goes out of date quicker than the catigory page.

-- The above was posted by User:Tooto? yes, by me at 17:31:46 (UTC)

Keep. The Category page does not allow us to post comments regarding proposed merger. -- PFHLai 23:48, 2004 Sep 9 (UTC)

actually, i realised that to be a need as i was typing the above comment, shame for the overlap thuough.

[edit] Merge tags being overused?

I'm a bit concerned at the number of tags, including merge tags, that are in articles now. It's a long standing general principle on Wikipedia that comments about articles ("we need more information on xxx" or "this is badly worded") belong on the talk page rather than the article space, and I think the same principle should apply to tags.

I have no problem with using tags where they are genuinely helpful to the reader - for example where we have two articles on the same person, which should clearly be merged. But in many cases, tags are being used where it's not obvious that the pages should be merged at all, and if so what information belongs where. In these cases I think discussion and comments about whether and how to merge articles belongs on the talk page.

Also, duplicate information is not always and everywhere a bad thing - there are many cases in which it is appropriate to describe the same thing differently, for example, with a simple and an advanced presentation of the same topic, or articles aimed at different audiences.

I've edited the article to make it clearer that including tags is a guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule, and that it is OK to remove a tag if you judge that it shouldn't be there.

Comments welcome. Enchanter 11:20, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC).

  • I agree with Enchanter. Robin Patterson 00:25, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • Actually, I think those tags are useful to the reader, because they direct him to another page that has content similar to that on the page he's on. If he stumbles upon the weaker article of the pair, he gets to see the better one easily. Actually, we could maybe update the tags with a message to readers like "Go there for more info" in addition to the message directed at editors. Jules.LT 22:04, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Merging

How long does it take before a pair that gets mentioned on this article can actually be merged?? Feel free to include what it can depend on. 66.245.64.202 19:52, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

It can be merged anytime. It only depends on who is willing to put the effort to merge the articles involved, and that can take time.--Logariasmo 01:01, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Rococo vs. Rococo furniture style

if anyone comes across it there are two articles with the name rococo in them. the one that says Rococo furniture style ought to be merged with Rococo.

[edit] Merged Adbusters Media Foundation with Adbusters

This is my first attempt with working on Wikipedia. I merged Adbusters Media Foundation with Adbusters. Please let me know if I made an error. Thanks.

--pgeoff 00:12, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Merged Chewing with Mastication

Mergest these to articles with each other, into one mastication article, figured the better name would be the correct biology name.--Djanvk 04:00, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pacioli

There was a merge request for Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli and Luca Pacioli. These articles were almost exactly the same except slight capitalization differences. I redirected Fra Luca to Luca, since AFAIK Luca Pacioli is the more commonly used name.

[edit] I merged

Simon Amman with Simon Ammann, anyone can see if it's ok? cos its my first merge

[edit] partialmerge

Any template of this kind around? Useful imho, Phlebas 23:13, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Correct Article

The article claims you should make additions to the correct article. What is that supposed to mean? Superm401 | Talk 15:21, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] This page has been double-pasted.

Hi,

It looks as though all the additions to this talk page have been made twice. I assume there has been a mistake with the <PASTE> operation that should be fixed (it isn't a play on the idea of "duplication", surely). Wragge 19:03, 2005 May 31 (UTC)

[edit] Crablogger

I don't think that the merge article Crablogger on Wikipedia:Community_Portal should be there (or anywhere).

Crablogger has too much detail to be merged into the Thunderbirds (TV series) overview, which is already quite long.

The crablogger article could simply be criticized on the grounds of triviality, or on grounds of brevity. However;

  • If this article is too trivial why are the thousands of fictional spacecraft specifications not merged into the Star Wars article?
  • If it is too short why are all stub articles not also under sentence of merger with their main pages?

Anyway, since there is no duplicate information on these two pages (Crablogger, and Thunderbirds (TV series)) I strongly suggest Crablogger be removed from the Wikipedia:Community_Portal page, especially because the "merge-to" page doesn't follow policy and carry a {{mergefrom|Other article}} tag.

Wragge 19:03, 2005 May 31 (UTC)

[edit] Bases as places

Any views on merging Warren AFB, Wyoming with F.E. Warren AFB and Laughlin AFB, Texas with Laughlin Air Force Base one is the census designation of the area the other the actual bas. There are probably others should they be merged or not? MeltBanana 4 July 2005 00:35 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Cities. The Rambot might be able to update these articles more easily in the future if they are not merged, but you'd have to ask Ram Man. -- Beland 01:29, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Depreciating listings on this page

There are over 2,300 articles to be merged, the vast, vast majority of which are not listed here. Template:mergefrom and Template:mergeto and Template:merge point editors to a specific talk page for commenting on the proposal. I don't think there's any need to list articles to be merged on this page any more. It just creates additional work, because editors have to check to see which articles have already been merged. It also splits the discussion between the talk page and the listing here, and potentially creates some duplication in effort and coordination failures as a result. I suggest just using these tags and Category:Articles to be merged instead of putting listings on this page. -- Beland 20:11, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree. --Scott Davis Talk 04:45, 27 August 2005 (UTC)
I agree. Why do by hand what computers can do for us? — ciphergoth 13:15, September 5, 2005 (UTC)
Disagree. I greatly prefer this page. Yes, it requires people to manually list the articles, but in doing so they identify both and provide reasons/comments. I can scan the list and quickly pick out a few which I should be able to update. On the other page I go to an article and find that the merge is disputed or the other page doesn't seem completely related. The automated list is fine, but for me this is MUCH easier to work with. --CBDunkerson 15:14, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
I agree. Reasoning can be put on the article's talk page. --Pamri • Talk • Reply 08:14, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

The way it's used now, it's really a Merge requests page, which can live without being "complete". Why not just rename it accordingly? Jules.LT 22:33, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Merged Regents (Examinations) with New York State Department of Education

Made the most sense to me, seeing as Regents are taken specifically in NYS. --D-Day 23:16, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

-Please note that due to the fact that the New York State Department of Education page is so poorly constructed, Regents (Examinations) now has its own page containing the data cut-and-pasted from the NYSDE page and arranged in a more readable and comprehensive manner. 71.246.77.104 19:58, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The barcid family - a merge?

I don´t know if this the right place to propose a "merge", but here it goes: I propose a merge of all the scatterred articles of the Barcid family into the Barcid Family article with the exception of Hannibal who certainly deserves a single article. All the single articles are scatterred and simply too small. If the single enties expand considerably we could make single articles.

[edit] List cleanup

I've been going through the list & cleaning out stale entries, or doing merges myself. I've also been reclassifying merge-requests that have been approved, but need work, as well as requests that are in limbo or dispute. A few requests seem to also be in states of edit war: pulled those entries as well. Cwolfsheep 19:17, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

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