Talk:Portland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Disambiguation This page is part of WikiProject Disambiguation, an attempt to structure and organize all disambiguation pages on Wikipedia. If you wish to help, you can edit the page attached to this talk page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

[edit] Proposed move

I think en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland should bring people directly to Portland, Oregon. When 'Portland' is mentioned, this city is the first thing that springs to mind for most people. In cases like this, where a word has multiple meanings but is used mainly for one thing, a link to the word's most common meaning with a disambiguation page is the best way to handle it. The current setup appears clumsy and inelegant.

--128.205.3.147 20:03, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree, and would support such a move, especially if we could determine that Portland, Oregon received a significantly higher amount of page hits than the other Portlands listed on the page.

--Danreitz 20:04, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I disagree, I like the disambig as is. Isoxyl 20:55, 12 June 2006 (UTC) To be more explicit, with the many, many meanings of Portland, I suspect people may be looking to find out what other Portlands there are and where the name appears other than in place-names too. That's what brought me here. And as an aside, being a New Englander meant that when I think of Portland, I always think of Portland, Maine. So, not everybody thinks of Portland, Oregon! Isoxyl 13:35, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

And let's not forget the UK, where Portland existed long before. :-) - Ballista 14:19, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

~~Points well taken. I still don't like this page as is, but do not have strong feelings about it. In reviewing the buffalo disambiguation page, i noticed that it is mostly limited to things that are actually called Buffalo. The Portland page has a lot of references (e.g. Portland Trailblazers and Portland Castle) that are features of places called Portland. Take a look at the New York disambiguation page -- there is no mention of the New York Knicks or the New York Stock Exchange or the New York State Park System, etc. I think this page could either be cut back or made otherwise less verbose. --Danreitz 15:27, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Could be making progress here. Maybe there's no proper place for sports teams on this list. Otherwise, every town name in Wikipedia will have a list of sports teams tagged on (and, where does it stop? - Portland Tiddlywinks Club? Why not the Womens Institute, etc.?). However, place names, important people names and other significant encyclopedic topics that are tied into the 'Portland' name probably do have a place. Maybe we could alter the heading hierarchy, to make it a clearer layout? - Ballista 15:47, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
Agreed. Let's trim out some of the fat, and maybe put all the 'most important' links at the top -- Portland, Oregon and Maine, as it is now, as well as Isle of Portland and perhaps Portland Cement or some of the others. No clubs, etc., as stated, unless they are VERY prominent... Portland Trailblazers is the only one that comes to mind for me, but there may be others of special note. I'm not attached to whether or not they are listed, but I agree the sheer number of places named Portland, some described as "small towns" of almost no note is excessive or at least distracting, and with no current wikipedia page the traffic about those places must be small.... I invite somebody to give this all a try! Isoxyl 16:10, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
I've cut a lot of the crap out, but I left the sports teams, 'cos I know sports teams are often abbreviated to just the name of the city. If anybody actually knows anything about these teams, could they clean up that section? Thanks, Joe D (t) 12:52, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I see the debate has petered out. But, really, why shouldn't this page be moved?

  • Portland, OR has a population over eight times as large as the next-largest Portland, in Maine. And, with a population over 100,000, it is the only one present in the List of United States cities by population.
  • Over half of the sports teams on the disamb page hail from Oregon.
  • Unlike Buffalo, Portland does not share its name with a common noun.
  • Google-searches for "Portland" clearly favor the city in Oregon.[1] The only other "Portland" on the results summary is Portland, ME, which could be mentioned in a disambiguation phrase. I.e.: "Portland" redirects here. For the city in Maine see Portland, ME. For other uses, see Portland (disambiguation).

Not to beat a dead horse, but has anyone had a change of heart and agree with me on this? Shall we propose a move?
Ulmanor (talk) 00:52, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

I disagree with the move, but support wholeheartedly further fat-trimming on this page. I would cut ALL the sports teams out, based on the precedent set by New York. I also think Portland Project and Portland (sheep) should have far more prominent billing here, and Grand Theft Auto shouldn't be mentioned at all, as the fact that the name Portland was used in that game isn't notable or encyclopedic at all (IMO). The defunct town in Colorado, seeing as how it's a redlink, should also go. eae (talk) 07:06, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I really disagree with this. Portland ME isn't the only other google search page, why do you keep forgetting Portland (UK) which is where the actual name originated!! Sorry but this really pisses the hell out of me! Just because it isn't American and doesn't have a population of several million doesn't mean it isn't just as important! And also Portland Harbour is about to become the host of the 2012 Olympic Sailing Events and is likely to recieve a lot more views during that time. And Portland Stone which comes from Portland, and Portland Sheep which come from Portland (UK).

Being from the UK and Portland I would like to see the latter featured slightly more highly than Portland Oregan, don't steal our name and our recognition too!! MasterOfHisOwnDomain (talk) 17:22, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I can see no reason for the move. Portland, Oregon may be the most populous place with this name, but it has no claim to be the "real" Portland, nor even the most important. Neither, for that matter, does the original Portland – neither size nor age are relevant here.
This is a disambiguation page. It is for people who are looking up the word Portland, not just those who are looking for the biggest or most famous settlement. They may be looking for Portland, Oregon, but they are just as likely to be looking for the sheep, the Isle, the stone or the cement (actually I see the last one is not in). Personally I can't see much wrong with the page as it is, apart from extra links on many lines. There are indeed some links which are of low value – but if these have articles, they do need to appear here – or where else would they be? Prune the articles if necessary, but not the disambig page. New York is not a good model, as it's so huge and so has far more associated articles than almost all other cities. As that and almost all other cities are built of Portland cement mortar and concrete, I think even that has a better claim than just one city in Oregon...
I think the suggested move is a very bad idea. --Richard New Forest (talk) 20:41, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
One further point for clarification. The discussion about whether this page has too many low-value links is wholly independent of any name change – it applies to the disambig page content whatever title it has. --Richard New Forest (talk) 09:53, 29 January 2008 (UTC)