Talk:Simmons

Why on earth would we delete this page? Clearly it should take us to a redirect for the name Simmons.--Jimsorenson 11:20, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

Because A) We avoid titles in character article names and B) There's nothing else with the exact name of "Simmons". That article was fine remaining here with a disambig pointing readers to other Simmonses. That's what it's for. —Interrobang 11:25, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

We sometimes avoid it, but not always. Major Bludd. Major Tungsten. Professor Gō. Private Dedcliff. Professor Arkeville. In this case, by far the most common Simmons is Seymour Simmons. Odds are about 10:1 that anyone typing in Simmons wants him. I don't think that the name Simmons should therefor go to him, but why make him two steps away when he could be one step away. It's much smarter and more efficient to make Simmons go to the disambiguation page, especially since Captain Simmons is never ever called anything other than Captain Simmons. To let our inconsistently applied mild aversion to titles in article names (Need I bring up Ultra Magnus (Animated), Optimus Prime (Animated), and Sentinel Prime (Animated)?) get in the way of clearly and efficiently conveying information is suboptimal.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."--Jimsorenson 11:34, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

Yea, you may want to consider an exception here. Think about it. Someone types in "Simmons" and it takes you to that guy who was in one of the short stories in the Legends book. It seems unhelpful. - Starfield 11:40, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

Put another vote down in Jim's favor, for exactly the reasons he and Starfield covered. --Khajidha 11:42, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

Another vote for Jim's stance. --M Sipher 12:58, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

If you guys are really that concerned about what readers will be looking for, wouldn't you just have "Simmons" redirect to Seymour Simmons? Honestly, I'm getting tired of the "readers will be looking for this" argument. It's a vague claim that doesn't actually say anything factual and it wasn't something we took into consideration when we created our disambiguation system. Should Hot Shot now redirect to Hot Shot (Armada) because I can claim most people are looking for that character? —Interrobang 14:40, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

At the risk of being premature, I commented out the deletion, lest some overzealous admin actually delete it. If the discussion goes the other way, we can always uncomment the deletion.--Jimsorenson 13:57, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

There are other similar cases we should consider as well. Such as Jake. --Khajidha 14:15, 23 September 2011 (EDT)

I'm not sure this specific case necessarily applies to the abstract cases. What makes this so compelling is that you have one really really prominent Simmons and a bunch of much less prominent Simmons. Also, Captain Simmons had, well, a title, and therefor a convenient place to live other than Simmons (G1) or Simmons (Legends). If you want to consider other cases, I think the community portal is the appropriate venue.--Jimsorenson 14:31, 23 September 2011 (EDT)