Talk:John Conway

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I think it would be better to redirect this to John Horton Conway, and just have a note on that page about John B. The asymmetry is quite big.

Charles Matthews 19:37, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree. John Horton Conway used to be here at John Conway and is the John Conway intended by nearly all links that used to link here. It is unfortunate that there are two mathematicians with similar names, but primary topic disambiguation should still apply. -- Solipsist 20:11, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

I have no real objection to the current situation, except to say that it is really inconvenient and liable to cause confusion not avoid it. I've already ran into this a couple times and I know who John B. is! (even had a chat with him at an NSF thing) --C S (Talk) 15:02, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

As I said on Charles Matthews' talk page, it's OK with me if people want to put a dab line at the top of John Horton Conway and make John Conway a redirect. I'd raise a little note of caution, though; would someone writing an article on functional analysis, and needing to reference one of John B's contributions, think of John H when writing? If not, then maybe the disambig page is the best solution—it shouldn't usually be hard to figure out which one is being referenced. I have to admit I don't know much about John B's contributions, not being a functional analyst myself. But he has a very extensive publication list (check it out on MathSciNet), so I assume the issue could come up. --Trovatore 18:26, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

John B is a real mathematician; John H has a high profile with the non-mathematical public (readers of Martin Gardner, games theorists, and so on). That settles it for me - lay persons are probably looking for John H. Charles Matthews 19:10, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Mike, I know where you are coming from, since I also had similar thoughts myself. But it's important to take into account: 1) John Conway is a very common name, so any mathematician with that name or looking for someone with such a common name would usually make sure to get his full name. 2) John H. initially wrote papers under "J. H. Conway", I'm sure partially because of point #1. However, the only hits given on MathSciNet for "John Conway" are in fact for John H., since he has recently started publishing papers under that name. 3) John B. has always been careful to write his papers under "John B. Conway". I suspect this is partly because of disambiguation reasons but also partly because he is well aware of the other John Conway. 4) I'm sure mathematicians in general, including functional analysts, know of John H. Those that don't, will probably because of points #1 and #3, look for John B. 5) Amusingly enough, there is now a John T. on the scene. It may be his fame will surpass John H. Who knows? But at this point in time, John H. is undoubtedly the most famous by far and I'm certain almost (if not all) searches for John Conway on Wikipedia are for John H. --C S (Talk) 07:38, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Anyway, since I think everyone is in agreement here, I will do as suggested and make the main page on John H. with a dab note at the top. C S (Talk) 07:44, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Bravery Keyboardist

Hmm... There's no mention here of the keyboardist from the band The Bravery, who is also called John Conway. Beno1000 17:58, 21 May 2006 (UTC)