Talk:Beauvoir (Biloxi, Mississippi)

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Contents 1 About Katrina and "Demise" 2 New York Times report 3 Apostrophes 4 Redirection from Beauvoir 5 Beauvoir misdirected

[edit] About Katrina and "Demise"

Thanks for changing that Katrina note. I've just added the fulltext of the ALA description of the damage. It seems garbled, but interpreting it looks to me like the house is OK altho lost a lot but the library "first floor" is gone and so the building may be. Don't want to say "for sure" yet -- "destroyed" -- not until structural engineers say so.

The house will be repaired, certainly -- they'll rebuild that entirely "as was" if they have to -- not so the library, tho, but which probably needed upgrading anyway and now will qualify for funds for a rebuild. So "damaged and possibly destroyed" seems to fit here, now.

Lots of interest on the "library" lists and "Southern" lists and "rare book" lists, about this, so I thought the article ought to be uptodate & complete & accurate but also cautious.

--Kessler 21:35, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New York Times report

We now have a more detailed report from the New York Times. Looks like the news is much better than what the Jackson Clarion-Ledger first repoerted. Realkyhick 16:13, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Apostrophes

I corrected throughout the improper use of "it's" to indicate the possessive, and other grammar problems in the section on the damage from Katrina. The substance remains the same.

[edit] Redirection from Beauvoir

I really don't think "Beauvoir" should redirect to this page, but instead should go to the disambiguation page. Is this page really more important than Simone de Beauvoir for example? Fayefox 17:07, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Beauvoir misdirected

I am moving name "Beauvoir" (in the English Wikipedia) back to the famous American home of Jefferson Davis, built in 1848, the U.S. National Historic Landmark discussed in recent news, which is being restored after Hurricane Katrina. The American home continues to be the intended target for all but one existing wikilink to "Beauvoir" (the other link was for a place in France), so the decision was obvious: redirect to the article intended by over 90% of article links. That redirection will resolve the majority of those article links, leaving just 1 to disambiguation, from Beauvoir (Biloxi, Mississippi).

Three-month trial: In November 2006, the name "Beauvoir" had been redirected to "Simone de Beauvoir" even though no Wikipedia articles at all linked that usage, and 94% of all WP references to "Beauvoir" mentioned the Jefferson Davis home, 6% mention a place in France, and no articles mention any person, living or dead, as "Beauvoir" in a link. After 3 months, the problem was still the same: absolutely no wikilinks intended "Beauvoir" as the name of a person.

POV push? - For most of 2006, the term "Beauvoir" was logically redirected to the home of that name, the famous home of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, built in 1848, predating the 1911 Britannica. Several articles all linked to "Beauvoir" as meaning that same mansion built in the 19th century.

Then, according to some unknown agenda, in November 2006, the term was redirected to "Simone de Beauvoir" (born 1908) for the author who gained fame 100 years after the Beauvoir mansion was built, even though there were no Wikipedia articles linked to "Beauvoir" as meaning that person. In the past 3 months, no articles yet have been linked to "Beauvoir" as meaning any person, just places (one as a region in France, and the rest meaning the Davis mansion).

Perhaps someone wanted "Beauvoir" to have the impact of "Einstein" (201 wikilinks) as an iconic name for the person, but Wikipedia usage has favored the home (named exactly "Beauvoir") as the link intended. All progress has come full circle: the use of a specified name tends to be linked to an object of that exact name, as is the case for articles linking the Beauvoir mansion. Meanwhile, after 3 more months, the author is still considered and linked by name "Simone de Beauvoir" rather than by an iconic last name (such as "Einstein").

Lessons learned:

• Redirect a name to the object most likely to be mentioned by that exact name.
• Also, give precedence to a name used 60-100 years earlier in mainstream history.
• Beware of anyone redirecting a term to an article that has no absolutely no links, whatsoever, using that term, in any manner in any article, anywhere, at any time.
• If an article does get redirected through a name that is never used, check the links 3 months later to confirm the long-term mistake and correct it before the problem spreads further.

Hopefully, the lessons learned will help focus WP efforts in the future, to avoid many hours of potential problems for other articles. --Wikid77 20:29, 5 February 2007 (UTC)