Talk:Bat phone

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I don't believe that these two articles should be merged: They have little relation between them. GrooveDog 22:13, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

I completely agree. The Batphone needs its own definition. Do not merge the two articles.


 * How so? As Hotline says, "Hotlines are generally employed to allow for immediate assistance with a problem. For example, Governor Howard Dean created a hotline for legislators in Vermont to provide feedback on budget cuts".  Same thing, right?  "Hotline" has two uses.  The older use is about a particluar use of a non dial telephone, while the newer use is the same as a bat phone, or rather a slightly more generalized use of a bat phone.  This article should be a section.  Jim.henderson 21:35, 11 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I disagree, there should be no merge. It's significant enough to merit its own article.  Reswobslc 00:54, 12 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Oh, please. This article should be reduced to one line in the Hotline article: "Occasionally, hotlines have been referred to as "Batphones", a reference to the prop in the 1960s TV series." We have exactly one reference to this usage and that is an example of a single instance, not sufficient to demonstrate widespread usage. The term does not appear to be common enough and not distinctive enough to deserve an article of its own. Jeh (talk) 22:46, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

Regarding Entourage
An anon editor keeps trying to add a mention of the use of "Bat phone" in the HBO series Entourage. This despite a previous short semi-protect and despite that multiple editors have independently concluded that the material doesn't belong here (three just within the last 4 hours, including myself).

I put the following on one of the IP's talk pages, but it was apparently ignored:

Hi. I reverted your addition to Bat phone because it did not appear to me to qualify under our guidelines for "in popular culture" content. Also, you put it in the lede, but the lede is supposed to be a summary of the rest of the article, and Entourage isn't mentioned anywhere else, so it doesn't belong in the lede. What about putting it elsewhere in the article? The apparent fact that the term is not much used in fiction outside of its direct references in DC comics suggests that it doesn't commonly appear "in popular culture"; we're not going to have an "in popular culture" section with one entry.

Re Entourage, I also notice that the term is not mentioned at our article on the series, nor even at the Entourage Wikia. (edit - added: I conclude this from Google searches; I haven't read every page on the wikia in question.) It appears to be something used only in a few throwaway bits of dialog.

Be that as it may, if you wish to propose and/or argue for inclusion of your material, please do so at talk:Bat phone so that others may participate. Thanks. Jeh (talk) 4:28 am, 1 December 2016, last Thursday (6 days ago) (UTC−8)

Beyond that: WP:IPC details that "in popular culture" material needs to be significant. These guidelines boil down to three tests. : Quoting user in Talk:RS-232: "was there a notable real-world impact? Did the subject take notice of the reference? Did secondary sources pick up on the reference?" We use these tests to determine the significance and impact of the "reference".

In its present form, none of those criteria were met by this material, and it shouldn't go back in until that's been remedied. The situation here is perhaps a little less strict because the subject itself is a pop culture term. But there is no marked uptick in the use of "bat phone' due to the Entourage reference, nor has there been any significant commentary about it in secondary sources. (Fancruft pages, like lists of quotes from the series, don't count.) Jeh (talk) 14:07, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

In order to head off additional edit-warring I am requesting that the page again be semi-protected, this time for a longer period. Jeh (talk) 14:23, 7 December 2016 (UTC)