Talk:Speedball (disambiguation)

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It figures that the online world would be more familiar with the video game than with the field game with this name. -- robgood@bestweb.net

Contents 1 Speed paintball --> Speedball 2 Speedball is not exclusively Speed paintball 3 Requested move 3.1 Survey 3.2 Discussion

[edit] Speed paintball --> Speedball

One of the items addressed in the disambigulation page called Speedball is speed paintball, the official name of which is also speedball. Previously, speed paintball had to have an article entitled "speed paintball", which isn't completely correct. For the sake of accuracy, Speed paintball needs to be relocated. Options like Speedball (paintball) have been considered; however, this title has the repeated sound "ball" which does not sound professional and is unbecoming to Wikipedia's sought-after high standards, as well as a few other difficulties. Hence, with my authority as assistant coordinator of the Paintball WikiProject and the backing of a number of key project members, here is the project's wish to assume the title "Speedball" for the Speed paintball article.

Our rationale for the assumption of this page runs thus: Speed paintball, called speedball by most players, is a multi-million dollar international sport, of approximately two million players. Its professional tournaments (i.e. those of the NPPL, NXL, PSP, et cetera), are routinely televised on national US telivision by such well-known networks as ESPN and ABC.

One of the ways in which speed paintball's gravity may be seen is by a simple set of Google searches. Here are the results for each item listed on the disambigulation page, each search performed with two terms: "speedball", and a single descriptor term (unless otherwise noted).

• Speedball. Terms used: speedball, paintball. Hits: approximately 333,000.
• Speedball (sport). Terms used: speedball, jumpball; speedball, crease. Combined hits: approx. 1402.
• Speed-ball. Terms used: speedball, racket; speedball, racquet. Combined hits: approx. 23,094.
• Speedball (American). Terms used: speedball, football. Hits: approx. 287,000. (It should also be noted that apparently about half the hits on the first page alone were references to speed paintball.)
• Speedball (drug). Terms used: speedball, drug. Hits: approx. 96,200. (Once all hits containing "paintball" was removed, the count was reduced to approximately 86,600.)
• Speedball (video game). Terms used: speedball, video game, -paintball. (Paintball was removed from the hits, due to a number of platform video games, such as those for Xbox and PS2, related to speed paintball). Hits: approx. 139,000.
• Speedball (comics). Terms used: speedball, comics. Hits: approx. 144,000.

The remaining items in the disambigulation page either are not yet created, or their titles are different enough from the term "Speedball" to not be a factor.

Speed paintball is not only the item with greatest public knowledge (inferred from its repeated instances in mass media), but it is also the one with the most hits in a fair and neutral Internet search. For these reasons, and those listed above, the Paintball WikiProject will relocate this disambigulation page to Speedball (disambigulation). Thank you. ~ Maximilli, Assistant Coordinator of Wikiproject Paintball, 02:06, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't think I've never heard of "speedball" referring to paintball. The use I'm most familiar with is the heroin/cocaine mix, & I've never used heroin in my life. I find this decision both bizarre & plainly based on subjective familiarity. Ventifax 07:23, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Speedball is not exclusively Speed paintball

You're right Ventifax, it is completely bizzare. Amiga computers were phenomenally popular in the 1980's - I don't think an aggregate counting of google search results is a valid way to compare the significane or 'gravity' of the different meanings of 'speedball'. How can this be wholly neutral when other uses of the term were coined well before the era of mass internet media? Just because something is on ESPN does not mean the general community ascribes that particular meaning to the term either. One could argue that the google results are only skewed in favour of the paintball version because of the amount of money and advertising exposure that it generates and the fact that it is more recent than the game or the drug mix. The paintball community might like to claim this term for their own but it does not belong to them. I think this landgrab over the disambiguation page is wholly innapropriate for a term like speedball that has common divergent meanings. It is the kind of behaviour that treats the encyclopedia as a mere promotional vehicle for special interest groups and just doesn't seem like a good precedent to be setting.

125.239.14.65 09:24, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move