Talk:PNG (disambiguation)

This should point to Papua New Guinea

• Hi, I think that on the basis of common usage "PNG" should point initially to Papua New Guinea rather than Portable Network Graphics.

Google searches:

"Papua New Guinea" PNG: about 62,000,000 hits.

"Portable Network Graphics" PNG: about 415,000 hits.

That's a pretty overwhelming result. Can anyone come up with a convincing argument to the contrary? Cheers, Wantok (toktok) 12:31, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes. PNG is the primary name for "Portable Network Graphics". Your results show the opposite of what you think they do. There are many more references for the file format as "PNG" than as "Portable Network Graphics". You're getting so few matches for the file format because "Portable Network Graphics" is so rarely used;. Thus someone is far more likely to be looking for the file format as "PNG" than "Portable Network Graphics".

Indeed, someone looking up the PNG format often won't even know what the expansion is. Whereas someone looking for Papua New Guinea will know perfectly well what it's proper name is, and is unlikely to expect a search for the abbreviation "PNG" to necessarily come up with the country as opposed to any other use of "PNG".

There may be an argument for PNG going straight to the disambiguation page, but no way should it go straight to Papua New Guinea over the file format. "PNG" is the format's preferred name, and the expansion was an after-the-fact construction on the grounds that acronyms have to expand to something. "PNG" is just a short-hand for the country, and is definitely not the preferred form of its name.

Indeed, until about a month ago, the "Portable Network Graphics" article was called "PNG", and previous votes to move it failed. But someone recently moved it regardless... --KJBracey 12:55, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

• I take your point; and agree that going to a dab page is better than going direct to Papua New Guinea, in that case. My main reasoning for it going to a dab page rather than direct to Portable Network Graphics is that clearly a large proportion of the total usage of the term "PNG" refers to Papua New Guinea. A search for just PNG returns 105 million hits; so the result above shows that a majority (62m) of those hits also includes the phrase "Papua New Guinea". Personally I have nothing but respect for the PNG format (as a graphic designer, I create PNG files daily), and I think going to a dab page is a sensible result. Cheers, Wantok (toktok) 13:21, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
  • I've now made that change (now redirecting to the dab page). Cheers, Wantok (toktok) 06:29, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

This should be straight to PNG, ie Papua New Guinea with a stand-alone disambiguation out there.Londo06 22:55, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean it should redirect to Papua New Guinea, with another page called "PNG (disambiguation)"? This is discussed above, and rejected for good reason. Personally, I'm surprised this dab page is here at all - I thought the PNG would just be about the Portable Network Graphics file format. Certainly this page should not redirect to an article other than that. leevclarke (talk) 10:30, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry but that is quite laughable. The disambiguation page should remain the same if there is to be no move for the country, we all know the file format, but in no way is it more prevalent than the country.Londo06 12:25, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

I've never heard of Papua New Guinea referred to as PNG - perhaps it is a geographical locality thing (I'm in England). A search of Google UK for "PNG" (ignoring Wikipedia itself) shows that the top six websites are about the file format. The seventh result is the BBC's profile of Papua New Guinea. Doing the same thing on Google US gives only the top two results for the file format, and the third for Papua New Guinea.

In any case, PNG should not forward to Papua New Guinea, but the evidence is not overwhelming. I guess the dab page is a fair enough compromise, so I will be content to leave it as it is.  :-) leevclarke (talk) 19:06, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Laughable? The country of Papua New Guinea probably is more prevalent than the image format, but the actual acronym PNG itself refers to the image format way more than the country. 69.15.61.130 (talk) 17:52, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

PNG means Papua New Guinea

In Australia their are 21 million people

and google reports 658m results about Australian people.
Thats 21.3 per person. 

If you took that and times it by 6 million people (population of PNG)

you would get 188m results. 

Compeared to the 'Portable Network Graphics' 171 million results

ATM 'Papua New Guinea' its self has 77m results.

Since the fact that PNG is not a country of people that don't use the internet that shouldn't be less important. Also on top of this is the fact that in google search australia for png (avoiding wiki it self) The first 6 results are for Pupua New Guinea. Ray-Rays 19:03, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't even know what you're trying to prove here.  :-S leevclarke (talk) 20:20, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Media (My View)

The media in Australia ofteren calls Papua New Guinea 'PNG' on tv which gives it strong support to take it directly to the Papua New Guinea page.

Also Papua New Guinea is a nation and is a lot different commpeared to a media file which can just e replaced by a new media file. The meaning of the Papua New Guinea people can not be replaced. Ray-Rays 11:44, 9 July 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raymond88824 (talk • contribs)

To state an obvious point, page naming policies on Wikipedia are not dictated by slang used in the Australian media. If we could do a global survey and ask people what "PNG" means (to get a worldwide view), I am sure that more people would say Portable Network Graphics (or at least know that it is a graphics format), and not Papua New Guinea. I am still amazed that this disambiguation page has been allowed to stand, but there you go. I am sure you will never achieve consensus to say that PNG should redirect to Papua New Guinea (which I assume is what you're trying to achieve). leevclarke (talk) 20:19, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Since you and I know how to edit a wiki page, we are a bit biased. Most viewers are not tech savvy, and I know a great deal of folks that have never heard of the file format. Come on. Papua New Guinea is a country of 6.7 million people. Certainly a country has more precedence than a file format in the greater scope of encyclopedic issuesre. +mt 06:54, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

It doesn't matter how many people there are in Papua New Guinea as compared with how many people know the technicalities about the Portable Network Graphics format. We're talking about the acronym PNG - if it had no context, what would you think PNG refers to? More importantly, what would most people in the world think of? I cannot believe that most people would think of Papua New Guinea, or even that more people would think of that than Portable Network Graphics (at least until some kind of survey is performed to demonstrate otherwise). Most people have heard of Papua New Guinea, but surely use its full name rather than calling it PNG (unless they are very familiar with it, or refer to it so often that they want to abbreviate its name), whereas Portable Network Graphics is routinely called PNG (and many people may not even know what PNG stands for in this context). I am surprised that there is so much resistance to the idea that PNG means Portable Network Graphics, as compared with Papua New Guinea, which is surely more often called by its full name. Despite the fact that I still think PNG should redirect to Portable Network Graphics, there are clearly people who think it should redirect to Papua New Guinea. With this in mind, a disambiguation page may be the best compromise, so I am content enough for the status quo to remain. leevclarke (talk) 15:50, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

I have a solution that should satisfy everyone. Some Wikipedian who has a lot of money should move there and build an international airport! Then get the International Air Transport Association airport code "PNG" for it.. Then you have a "reasonable reason" to have "PNG" direct to the geographic-reason-page on a dab page.. Problem solved. (And PNG - er.. Papua New Guinea) might get some additional tourism because of it.

This seems like a "mountainous molehill" to me. (Though if "USA" referred to a file format - perhaps Universal Squabbling Agreement - and not the country, I supposed I'd be pissed too.) Jimw338 (talk) 19:50, 24 September 2016 (UTC)

Bj 42.108.26.243 (talk) 10:25, 4 May 2024 (UTC)