Talk:Mercury

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Contents 1 Astronomy magazine 2 Why we have disambig pages 3 Watery silver 4 Requested move 4.1 Survey 4.2 Discussion 5 Revamp of the lead section 6 Reorganisation

[edit] Astronomy magazine

• Mercury (magazine), a popular astronomy magazine published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/mercury.html

[edit] Why we have disambig pages

The primary (some would say sole) purpose of a disambig page is to direct persons to the correct page. Additional links do not help (in most cases--there may be some exceptions). Excess verbiage simply takes longer for a reader to parse and unless it is necessary to help distinguish between the entries should be avoided. older≠wiser 16:53, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Additional links always help. Context is not excess verbage and is the first thing the reader is looking for, so should be placed first. Bensaccount 17:24, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Certainly not; additional links distract from the purpose of a disambiguation page. It is not for exploration. It is a workaround for the failure of a link to take the reader directly to an article. As such, it should help the reader find that one article as quickly as possible, and not offer links to things which cannot possibly be that article. —Michael Z. 2006-01-2 17:44 Z

Apparently you are another user who has seen this new format of disambiguation but never used or created one yourself. Disambiguation is not "a workaround for the failure of a link". You aren't supposed to link to disambiguation pages. They are a starting point for users who are looking for a term that has multiple meanings. Often the user does not know which meaning they want, so the context helps. Providing hyperlinks within the context enables the user to quickly find the context they are looking for without trial and error. Bensaccount 17:50, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Apparently you are another user who has seen this new format of disambiguation but never used or created one yourself. That's rather absurdly presumptuous of you. I've both created and used countless disambig pages. I suspect the same is true of most of the regulars at WikiProject:Disambiguation. Disambiguation is not "a workaround for the failure of a link". You aren't supposed to link to disambiguation pages. But that is exactly the point. Because a link to a disambig page is almost by definition a bad link, the disambig page should enable users to identify the correct link as expeditiously as possible. Providing hyperlinks within the context enables the user to quickly find the context they are looking for without trial and error. Can you explain exactly how this works? I mean if there links to the properly disambiguated pages, optionally with a brief description, how is clicking around in tangentially related topics going to help the user to quickly find the context they are looking for? That seems almost contradictory on the face of it. older≠wiser 18:02, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Apparently you are another user who doesn't understand how Wikipedia works, Bensaccount. MOS:DP didn't just spring up while you were sleeping last night. By suggesting that we simply delete the policy at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)#Parallel policy, and then actively working against it here, you are ignoring consensus and wasting all of our time. —Michael Z. 2006-01-2 18:23 Z

Bensaccount says above that "Additional links always help", whereas WP:D specifies the exact opposite. Take a look at the entry for Freddie Mercury. I followed the link to "pianist" and found that it's a person who plays the piano. This knowledge will be valuable to me at my next cocktail party, but it did not help me find Freddie, because Bensaccount had piped Freddie away, also in direct conflict with MoS:DP, for which I now have even more respect. Thanks, Bensaccount, for showing how valuable MoS:DP really is. Now please try to use it instead of destroying it. It may not immediately make you feel better, but it will help the readers. Chris the speller 03:09, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Watery silver

Was or was it not mercury in which was called watery silver by the Greeks --151.196.41.61 00:51, 25 January 2006 (UTC)[www.nick.com]

The first sentence of Mercury (element) explains it. If a question remains, please use the Reference desk WP:RD. This page is for discussion about how to maintain the disambiguation page for Mercury.   Chris the speller 03:18, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

[edit] Revamp of the lead section

Following up on one of the comments in the most recent move discussion, I have revamped the lead section to reflect the fact that there are three common references for the name "Mercury". While the planet and the element were named after the Roman deity, that does not mean that the deity is the primary definition. Arguably, in this day and age, the planet and the element are far more common references. As it was before, the links to the planet and the element were buried in amongst the other science terms, which are far less common. (Another argument in favour of the rewrite is evident in earlier move discussions; the most common argument for not moving the planet article was the significance of the element, with the deity as a secondary mention.) ---Ckatz^chat_spy 07:05, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Good. --Apoc2400 09:40, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reorganisation

I've reorganised some of the links. Still to be done to conform to the Manual of Style:

• Biographical links should get their birth/death years attached.
• All of those links about the Ford cars should get their own list page.
• Possibly a link to Wiktionary?

-- De Guerre (talk) 00:55, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Scratch that, there was a list of Ford models. I also redid the Project Mercury links while I was there. --De Guerre (talk) 01:10, 21 May 2008 (UTC)