User:Atanamir/Proposal

Official DOT-given Name X (State Name)

The article itself will be located at the official name given by the DOT. If the Official name leads to ambiguities, e.g. leaves out the name of the state in question, it will be disambiguated after the article title using parentheical disambiguation. Ther will be redirects to this article at all the common names people would generally call the route in question by. For example:

• State Route 85 (California) - the article itself
  • Redirects:
    • California 85
    • California State Highway 85
    • California Highway 85
    • California Route 85
    • California State Route 85
    • CA 85
    • CA/SR 85
    • etc... depending on what is common in the locale
  • Disamb pages:
    • Highway 85
    • Route 85
    • State Route 85

Although one may bring up the idea that this is against the common names policy, this method will ensure the most proper naming scheme. Weathered readers of wikipedia naturally realise that parenthesis are simply disambiguation elements if they occur at the end of an article title; people know that the title of the magazine is called "Time," not Time (magazine), where the actual article is located. The Apollo Program, as it is commonly called, is located at Project Apollo -- its official name too. An unexpected advantage to this naming scheme is that people are not misguided in that they will know what the official name is. Although everyone calls it USPS, few people believe this is the official name; everyone knows it's the United States Postal Service (which happens to be where the article is located). By knowing both common and official names, readers will increase knowlege of the subject at hand, and will also aid in their research on other sites (by giving them a greater vocabulary of which to structure their search queries). Furthermore, the concept of a common name is also very locale-based, and while the people in the state may call it Highway 85 or (less common) California State Highway 85, a reader from another state (such as Florida), would probably try to search for the highway under what he/she knows the local state highways as -- such as California State Road 85. If all the articles are at their proper DOT-given names, it will help to further educate the reader.

Summary

• Pros
  • Resolves multiple common names by offering one definitive name
  • Educates reader about official name; greater search vocabulary when researching elsewhere
  • A structured and consistent system that can be applied to all states
  • Easier cross-locale searching
• Cons
  • Arguably doesn't follow the Common Names guideline.
  • A lot of work to create the common names redirects and disambiguation pages
  • The naming scheme that more or less started this whole schpeal

Further Examples

• Provincial Highways of Ontario
  • Highway 406 (Ontario)
    • Ontario Provincial Highway 406
• AOL Instant Messenger
  • AIM -> common name
  • AOL IM
  • etc.

Examples of Proposed Scheme

If a fictional state, Zoogot, has DOT-assigned state highways called Zoogot Motorway X, articles will be like:

• Zoogot Motorway 10 -- article
  • Zoogot 10 -- a common name as 10 is called in the municipality of Rootom in Zoogot.
  • M-10 -- there is another motorway called M-10 in the other state of Gaazok, so this will be a disambiguation page.
  • Zoogot M-10 -- a common name as it is called in the city of P'Xalz in Zoogot.

Another state, Wazlak, has routes officially designated as Roadway X:

• Roadway 10 (Wazlak) -- article
  • Wazlak Roadway 10 -- common name because people call it this in the citiy of Z'Xknmir.
  • Wazlak 10 -- another common name
  • etc.