Talk:2021 West Sulawesi earthquake

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A news item involving 2021 West Sulawesi earthquake was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 15 January 2021.

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Merge?

There is a draft at Draft:2021 West Sulawesi earthquake. I think it should be merged here. Hanif Al Husaini (talk) 06:57, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have merged it. Hanif Al Husaini (talk) 07:18, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much! PaPa PaPaRoony (talk) 07:29, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Renaming the article

I think this shouldn't be named as Sulawesi earthquake, but rather 2021 West Sulawesi earthquake. It did not affect any other provinces in the area. PaPa PaPaRoony (talk) 07:29, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with that, effects seems to be localized.--Dora the Axe-plorer (talk) 07:44, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

True, yet it will make the title longitating. BallisticVacuum (talk) 18:21, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

it could be a matter of yes or no, the earthquake situated on west sulawesi province, but no major earthquake happened in 2021, in sulawesi, only minors. it’s a matter of the majority. BallisticVacuum (talk) 18:25, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Now that another significant earthquake has occured in North Sulawesi just now, I think we should rename the article. HiChrisBoyleHere (talk) 13:57, 21 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Figures for fatalities

I'm seeing very different figures for the number of dead. News sources are claiming that 8-7, 27, or 34 people have been killed. Here are some sources for 34:

--Dora the Axe-plorer (talk) 15:03, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The death toll currently stands at 35. Previously, all Indonesian media stated 8-27, so I don't get how foreign media immediately stated that 34 have been killed. We should stick no other than the local media. PaPa PaPaRoony (talk) 08:19, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The OCHA's first update [1] gives 34, quoting BNPB. Mikenorton (talk) 14:07, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

CNN, quoting Jan Gelfand of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in Indonesia [2], gives a much bigger death toll - 67 people. It's not been repeated by other news outlets, so perhaps best to just wait for confirmation. Mikenorton (talk) 21:53, 15 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The latest AHA update on ReliefWeb gives 46 fatalities and 826 injured. Mikenorton (talk) 12:21, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 16 January 2021

This edit request to 2021 Sulawesi earthquake has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Please change wording of this article and removing much comma for the sentence from:

"An earthquake struck the Majene Regency, in the province of West Sulawesi, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on 15 January, 2021"

To

"An earthquake struck the Majene Regency, in the province of West Sulawesi, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on 15 January 2021" 118.96.188.169 (talk) 11:17, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Done - although I added another later in that sentence. Mikenorton (talk) 12:00, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 16 January 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved (non-admin closure) Iffy★Chat -- 18:09, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2021 Sulawesi earthquake → 2021 West Sulawesi earthquake – This earthquake is localized in around West Sulawesi province, so it is don't necessary to have title just as "Sulawesi earthquake", implying that the earthquake is also occured in other parts of Sulawesi. 118.96.188.169 (talk) 11:20, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Support per nominator stance. Gerald WL 13:45, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Very weak support. Although, as I said above, that the nominator's stance makes sense to me, I'd note that similarly-themed articles like 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami and more (see See also section) has it only titled "Sulawesi" and not specifically. I also think that, considering this is the first earthquake in Sulawesi in 2021, it does not need a more specific titling, until there's another 2021 Sulawesi earthquake. Gerald WL 13:51, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Weak oppose - The change wouldn't be a terrible idea, but seems unnecessary to me. If there is an obvious common name for the earthquake, then we should go with that. Otherwise we tend to try and disambiguate them to some extent, so if a second earthquake comes along in the same year, but in the same area, then we often use the month to make it clear which event we're talking about. If the damage is concentrated in one city (e.g. the 2020 Zagreb earthquake), then that will often be the name used and is likely anyway to be the one used in news stories. If there is no one place, then we tend to use the country, assuming it's relatively small, like in the 2019 Albania earthquake or state/province like the 2001 Gujarat earthquake. Other Sulawesi earthquakes are all, as far as I know, "year Sulawesi earthquake", like this one. Having said all that, naming of such events is not that consistent across the encyclopaedia, so WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS also applies. Mikenorton (talk) 17:15, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose - only move this article if another significant earthquake occurs in Sulawesi this year. Jim Michael (talk) 17:32, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support - So far, the damage of the earthquake didn't extend far and seems to be localized in Mamuju and Majene Regency. As of now, I don't see any reports of damage outside West Sulawesi. Every Indonesian media and officials referred the earthquake as the West Sulawesi earthquake (Gempa Sulbar), not Sulawesi earthquake. West Sulawesi itself is not a very large place in terms of area, contrary to Central Sulawesi, which was struck by an earthquake in 2018. PaPa PaPaRoony (talk) 11:31, 17 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose - per Jim Michael's reason.--Garmin21 (talk) 16:46, 17 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Weak support - per Gerald Waldo Luis's reason. YoungstownToast (talk) 02:45, 19 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support - per WP:COMMONTITLE: a quick search with the keyword Gempa Sulbar or Gempa Sulawesi Barat (West Sulawesi Earthquake) shows that MSMs refer to the earthquake as such. Meanwhile, search with Gempa Sulawesi and you'll see that Google would show the searches with "Gempa Sulawesi Barat". Regards, Jeromi Mikhael 15:36, 19 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note, the page that you linked to says "as determined by its prevalence in a significant majority of independent, reliable English-language sources" (my bolding for emphasis), so you would need to restate your argument on that basis - I doubt that you will have much trouble in doing that, at a quick glance. Mikenorton (talk) 17:57, 19 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A quick survey of English-language reporting shows most articles referring to "Sulawesi" or "Sulawesi island" early in the article, before later referencing "West Sulawesi" - see [3][4][5]. A handful of articles use "West Sulawesi" exclusively, see [6][7]Sauzer (talk) 22:05, 19 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Changed to weak support per Sauzer. Regards, Jeromi Mikhael 00:00, 20 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Weak support - seems an appropriate clarification considering West Sulawesi is a defined area, and the impact seems confined there. However, as noted in the discussion under Jeromi Mikhael's entry above, english-language WP:COMMONTITLE is ambiguous.Sauzer (talk) 22:05, 19 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Very strong support - initially I had no stance, but less than an hour ago a new earthquake has occurred in North Sulawesi, around a week after this West Sulawesi one. (I haven't found an English language source yet, since this is very new--less than an hour ago--but as an Indonesian, I must say that Google Translate translates the article quite well. Also, WIB is UTC+7, and WITA is UTC+8.) So yeah, since another earthquake has happened at a considerably later date (a week later) on the same (large) island but in a different specific area--and both on January 2021, the same month and year!--I am sure that at this point this name change should undoubtedly be made. Just my two cents though, I'm no expert. --Bismabrj (talk | contribs) 13:18, 21 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That earthquake was not in Sulawesi, even if it was felt there, as the map in that source shows it was off southern Phillippines. Again I'm not particularly against the proposed change, but this shouldn't be the reason. 14:45, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

"That earthquake was not in Sulawesi"?? It happened right across Talaud Islands Regency, which is a part of Sulawesi. Technically, it does happen in Sulawesi. PaPa PaPaRoony (talk) 12:50, 22 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Mikenorton: This is the earthquake epicentrum, while this is the border point between Indonesia and Philipines. Regards, Jeromi Mikhael 05:59, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

You learn something new every day, I was unaware of the Talaud Islands. However, as it was right on the border, this earthquake is highly unlikely to be named "2021 Sulawesi earthquake". It is moot anyway as the event was insufficiently notable to get its own article - the original creator has redirected it to the list of earthquakes in the Philippines. Mikenorton (talk) 11:12, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Another significant earthquake has just occured in North Sulawesi. The rest has been said by those who agree. HiChrisBoyleHere (talk) 13:54, 21 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See my response above. Mikenorton (talk) 14:45, 21 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Support - There is a new stub for the 7.0 Jan 21 event in Sulawesi and although it doesn't adopt the "(North) Sulawesi" or "Talaud Islands" earthquake as its title, the move will distinguish both events.--Dora the Axe-plorer (talk) 14:21, 22 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Now a redirect. Mikenorton (talk) 11:12, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Support as there was another one in/near North Sulawesi. Super Ψ Dro 11:54, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support per the quickly-progressing situation, as elaborated by above supporters. Gerald WL 17:47, 29 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.