Talk:William Abney (disambiguation)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was no consensus. Dicklyon's reversion of the redirect is legitimate per BRD, so the base title will remain a redirect to William de Wiveleslie Abney. --BDD (talk) 22:46, 21 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

William Abney (disambiguation) → William Abney – Basename was previously a redirect to William de Wiveleslie Abney but I have retargeted it as I see no evidence that he is the primary topic for the base name, as compared to actor and High Sheriff. Dab page should be at base name. – --Relisted. BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 12:26, 12 April 2014 (UTC) --PamD 13:16, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note: that "retargetting" has been undone since my edit, so the basename currently retargets again to the photographer who is apparently most commonly known as "William de Wiveleslie Abney". There has been some discussion at my talk page. PamD 15:02, 10 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This move was requested at WP:RMTR. Brought here for a discussion as not obvious. De Wiveleslie gets the majority of all the page hits and he was a Fellow of the Royal Society. He could well be the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. The sheriffs could be important but the other guy is just one entry in an article on all the sheriffs, and it says he was a sheriff by proxy, whatever that means. EdJohnston (talk) 05:54, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
There is no indication that William de Wiveleslie Abney is the primary topic for the name "William Abney", although he may have a much-read article. It is not the name by which he is most commonly known (if his article is at the correct title). Googling for the three words William Abney Photography finds plenty of articles where he is named as "William de Wiveleslie Abney", but hardly any where he is called "William Abney". (Perhaps because there had been so many other Williams in his family - two High Sheriffs included). A reader seeking William Abney (actor) should not be sent first to a photographer not known by the name "William Abney", and then to a dab page, before getting to the page they need. PamD 18:37, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose – "I see no evidence" is not a good case for such a change. And here are thousand of books that refer to him as "William Abney" (often with Sir in front). Dicklyon (talk) 06:32, 13 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Support. First off, an article should not be treated as a primary topic by default. Some evidence is needed to give it that status.
I did a Google Books search for "william abney" -wikipedia -"books, llc" (in a private browser window, so no cookies), and found that only 18 out of the first 60 entries related to the Victorian scientist and photographer. That's a long way short of the "more likely than all the other topics combined" criterion of WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 16:19, 21 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.