Talk:Brown-dwarf desert

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 March 2020 and 30 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jomoeberhard. Peer reviewers: Jfields7.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 16:20, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. 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 move request was moved -- Aervanath (talk) 07:26, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

The most frequent usage of this term is without the hyphen. For example a search of the ADS abstracts service for the term "brown-dwarf desert" (in quotes) results in 7 abstracts being retrieved whereas a search for "brown dwarf desert" (in quotes) results in 71 abstracts being retrieved. A similar pattern is obtained from a Google search: about 5,830 for "brown-dwarf desert" (in quotes) but about 17,500 for "brown dwarf desert" (in quotes). Icalanise (talk) 12:18, 28 March 2009 (UTC)


 * It's true that it is very common in English to ignore the rules and use ambiguous or incorrect typography. I usually take 10% correct as sufficient evidence that the rules apply.  In English grammar, "brown dwarf desert" is a dwarf desert that is brown, while "brown-dwarf desert" is a relative lack of brown dwarfs.  Since some 10% of editors go to the trouble to get it right, we should, too. Dicklyon (talk) 14:55, 28 March 2009 (UTC)


 * On the other hand Wikipedia guidelines state that the most common name should be used, not the most correct. Icalanise (talk) 16:02, 28 March 2009 (UTC)


 * The guidelines also talk about choosing titles that are precise, rather than ambiguous. With the hyphen it's precise; without, it's ambiguous. Dicklyon (talk) 00:08, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * There's only an ambiguity if the term "dwarf desert" actually exists. The first page of Google hits for such a term returns references to the brown dwarf desert, and a dwarf desert hamster. Icalanise (talk) 00:29, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, there it is; the brown dwarf desert hamster is the garden path you'd be on if you left out the hyphen. By the time you wonder what a "dwarf desert" is, you're way past the misleading mis-hyphenation. Dicklyon (talk) 02:27, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Are you suggesting that someone could come across this article and think of hamsters? Really? Icalanise (talk) 12:30, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * No, not really. Just suggesting that correct punctuation makes the title easier to read and understand. Dicklyon (talk) 16:07, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Support – There seems to be very little likelihood of confusing this term with a dwarf desert that is brown, or with a hamster species.&mdash;RJH (talk) 18:17, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. 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.