Talk:Dan Patrick

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was move to Dan Patrick, and use a disambig link at top. I'll prod the disambig page.-Andrew c ^[talk] 16:15, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

Dan Patrick (sportscaster) → Dan Patrick

This article was moved a week ago with no discussion to a disambig page, because there is another "Dan Patrick" who is a politician in Texas. I tried to enter into a discussion above, but go no answers on why this move was made. I feel the DP who is a former ESPN sportscaster and national radio host is far more popular than the local politician, and the vast majority of people searching for the name will be looking for the sportscaster.Snowfire51 06:41, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Survey

Feel free to state your position on the renaming proposal by beginning a new line in this section with *'''Support''' or *'''Oppose''', then sign your comment with ~~~~. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's naming conventions.

• Support - Should have been discussed, and should be moved back to just Dan Patrick, with an "other uses" tag for the politician, as Snowfire51 has suggested. --Bongwarrior 07:07, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose - Should have been discussed is not a valid reason to change the article now, as the Survey header states lack of discussion is not one of Wikipedia's naming conventions. More importantly, there is a potential for confusion between the Dan Patrick, the former sportscaster, and Dan Patrick, the politician who is also a radio personality. Both Dan Patrick's were on the radio. Dan Patrick, the politician, is also radio talk show host in Dallas and Houston. The most important reason behind Wikipedia's naming conventions is to easily guide the Wikipedia user to the correct person. Also, there is a third person with a similar name Danica Patrick, the female racecar driver. And finally, there is an article about the cancelled radio show called The Dan Patrick Show, which used to be on ESPN radio, but no longer is. The current set up easily guides the Wikipedia reader to correct use of the name Dan Patrick.--Getaway 23:41, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment - I honestly don't think the potential for confusion is great enough to justify having a disambiguation page. "Danica Patrick" and "The Dan Patrick Show" are distinct enough that a reader wouldn't expect to find those at Dan Patrick. It would be much simpler to put it back the way it was, with a "for the politician, see Dan Patrick (politics)" note at the top, so the majority of readers who are expecting to find information about the sportscaster are delivered to the intended article, rather than a disamb page. --Bongwarrior 04:19, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
• Support - My understanding of the "Deciding to Disambiguate" guidelines is that when one entry for a given name is overwhelmingly more likely to be the one expected by anybody searching for the name, that actual entry (rather than a disambig page) should be landed upon by any such search, and a link to the other, far less likely target entry provided at the top of that first entry's page. In such circumstances, a disambig page is actually discouraged because it inserts an extra, largely unnecessary step in reaching the more likely entry for the overwhelming majority of people who are seeking it. As far as determining whether such an overwhelming majority exists, this page of Wikipedia articles that link to Dan Patrick should be helpful. In this instance I think it's quite clear that the vast majority of people entering "Dan Patrick" would be seeking the national sportscaster rather than the Texas politician/radio host; hence a disambig page is inappropriate, and the link at the top of the sportscaster's article should be sufficient. --Beeeej 04:30, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
• Support - A separate disambiguation page is, according to the guidelines, warranted when there are several possible subjects for a given name to reference. For Dan Patrick, there are really only two. Danica Patrick doesn't go by "Dan" as far as I know, the Dan Patrick Show is already linked from the former ESPN sportscaster's page, and the politician is relatively obscure. As an experiment, I googled "Dan.Patrick ESPN" and got about 178,000 links. In contrast, "Dan.Patrick state.senator" turns up only around 9,600. That would seem to indicate that it's about 18 times as likely that a person who wants to find Dan Patrick quickly is expecting to get the former ESPN sportscaster as the Texas state senator. Therefore, I think the politician should be a link from the top of the this page. Andreac 06:51, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Agreed Forget about googling "Dan Patrick ESPN" or "Dan Patrick state senator" and just google "Dan Patrick" and you get to the 3rd page before a mention of the senator even comes up and pages 5 or 6 before you get his official site and more results come up. Mr mark taylor 13:45, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
• Support - I gotta agree with the notion of putting a disambiguation link at the top of the Dan Patrick page (the sportscaster). I doubt that the general population visiting Wikipedia and searching for Dan Patrick would really not be expecting the sportscaster. This change greatly reduced the simplicity of finding the desired information on Wikipedia, so I support change back to the original article with a disambiguation note.Tommyaquinas 18:26, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

The user Tommyacquinas over half of his edits with Wikipedia concerns supporting this proposition. I hope it is not a sockpuppet.--Getaway 19:46, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

I've been called a lot of things, but a sockpuppet is a new one. I do believe I am my own flesh and blood entity with my own opinions; I apologize for not making more corrections in the past on Wikipedia if that's what's bugging you. I only ended up here because I was poking around Wikipedia looking at Olbermann, Kilborn and the other anchors and came upon the Dan Patrick page and saw the weird disambig page. Frankly, this whole thing seems a little too passionate about a random entry about a sportscaster. Oh, also an unknown politician.Tommyaquinas 13:11, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Oh, Good Lord. It's not a new account, he does have an edit history. It looks like Tommyacquinas made one edit on this page, and then fixed his own edit. I doubt he's a sockpuppet. Snowfire51 20:32, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Oh, for Goodness Sake. Peter, Paul and ALL the Saints, of course, it is a potential sockpuppet. The account has only made fifteen (15) edits in its whole existence and six (6) of those edits are Dan Patrick focused in the last two days!!! Of course it is a potential sockpuppet!! Suddenly the account comes to life during a survey on where the words Dan Patrick lead the Wikipedia user? If it quacks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, then it is probably a duck.--Getaway 03:51, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Also, I'm not a duck either, that's a fowl thing to call a man.Tommyaquinas 13:11, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Wait, the page is fixed. Why are we still talking about this? Oh, wait, I'm the only one. My Bad.Tommyaquinas 13:12, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

• Support - The disam should be done at Dan Patrick (disambiguation). Dan Patrick should be about the former ESPN personality with an {{otheruses}} tag on the top of the article. In Houston or Dallas, people might be more likely to expect an article about the senator, though even there I'd expect many would be looking for the sportscaster. Around the rest of the world, I think it's obvious that the sportscaster would be the expected topic. --Onorem♠Dil 11:40, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Comment - Not sure what you're trying to "support" here. You give all the usual reasons that there should not be a disambiguation page - that the disambig should occur at the top of the individual pages - but you give all those reasons after saying "The disam should be done at Dan Patrick (disambiguation)." Care to clarify? --Beeeej 18:02, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
    • I believe that there's nothing wrong with having a disambiguation page for the two Dan Patricks, Danica Patrick, and The Dan Patrick Show. I also believe that searching for Dan Patrick should bring you directly to this page, so I Support the move back to Dan Patrick. --Onorem♠Dil 20:40, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion

Any additional comments:

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.