Talk:Haringey

Redirect or disambiguation
I made this a redirect again and was swiftly reverted. However, there is only one clear WP:PRIMARYTOPIC here. There is only ambiguity in the event of error and misunderstanding of the spelling difference, and it seems odd to structure the pathway to the two pages around accommodating an error. In addition, with this as a disambiguation page, no one gets where they're going first time round. With "Haringey" as a redirect to the borough, those using the correct spelling get to the correct page straightaway, while those following a mis-spelling and looking for Harringay get there – and are apprised of their spelling error – just as quickly as they would be via a disambiguation page by the hatnote at the borough page. Isn't that a net improvement in efficiency?  N-HH   talk / edits  10:21, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

More on Redirect or Disamabiguation
We're talking here about spellings. 'Haringey' is properly used to denote the borough and 'Harringay' a neighbourhood within the borough. Up till today a search on Haringey has led to a disambiguation page. This is because there is great confusion between the two spellings and few people know the difference.

Looking at the WP for disambiguation, it seems that this topic is one of those that will need to be decided by consensus. The WP offers two key criteria for deciding which topic is the primary one. Determining this will lead to an answer to the disambiguation/reversion question. If the answer is not clear, WP advises that the issue should be determined by consensus.

The first criterion is which topic is the primary one for a term, with respect to usage - I imagine that stats will tell us whether the Harringay page and it's related ones are more used than the Haringey ones. I imagine that it may be the case that Haringey has higher usage by UK. users. I'm less certain about the global results as I suspect that many non-UK based users may well be searching for references to the stadium and arena, olympics, Horse of the Year Show etc, all of which are related to the neighbourhood since they predate the creation of the borough.

The second criterion is long-term significance. The borough was only created on 1965 and the neighbourhood has been in existence since Victorian times. For much of it's history it has had global significance since it has been the home of the UK's most important boxing venue, part of the 1948 Olympics, the Horse of the Year Show, the start of Alicia Markova's career etc. There seems little doubt that Harringay is primary in terms of long-term significance.

Judged by the WP criteria, I can see no standout primary topic. So, leaving this page as it was prior to N-HH's suggested edits, pending the reaching of a consensus on this question.

hjuk (talk) 15:24, 15 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Assuming this is in response to my post above and my bid to turn this page into a simple redirect to the Haringey borough page, it doesn't address the basic, practical point. We know there are two different things here that nonetheless have the same etymology and that people are often confused between them; the detail doesn't matter so much, although I agree that stats might be interesting. The simple point is that one is correctly spelt "Harringay" – not "Haringey" – and one is correctly spelt "Haringey". My invoking PRIMARYTOPIC was probably an error: there is only ONETOPIC. People hitting "Haringey" should immediately be taken to the page about the one thing called and spelt "Haringey", which is the wider borough. If they are confused and are actually looking for the smaller sub-district, there is a hatnote there, right at the top of the Haringey borough page, to put them right and send them to "Harringay" in a click. As I said, with the disambiguation set-up, people who have the correct spelling and know what they are trying to do are diverted and delayed on their way to the correct page, while it offers no advantage over or greater speed than the redirect and hatnote option to confused people trying to get to a page about what is actually called and spelt "Harringay". Not only is there no benefit, there's a net disbenefit. We don't hobble people trying to get the page on "England" by creating a first-stop disambiguation page for it with the UK, just because many people in the wider world don't know the difference. Nor, currently, do we disambiguate "Harringay" although the logic being marshaled here suggests we should add that extra confusing layer too.  N-HH   talk / edits  17:33, 15 April 2014 (UTC)
 * ps: plus of course, if anything, this redirect, with its bald assertion that "Haringey may refer to ... Harringay - a neighbourhood within the ... Borough", perpetuates the error and confusion by appearing to give explicit validation to it.  N-HH   talk / edits  18:28, 15 April 2014 (UTC)


 * You assume correctly (but given the ease of the challenge get no prizes). I do understand your point of view. However, even though it's spelling that underpins the ambiguity around this issue, it's still ambiguity and we'll need to find a solution that 's in line with WP. That's about the only way to go. I imagine that the WP is designed to make the tool as usable as possible for as many people as possible. They chose the two tests I highlighted in my last comment as benchmarks for that usability. For me the tests seem about right. hjuk (talk) 18:39, 15 April 2014 (UTC)


 * I should add that variant spelling is expressly included as a reason for creating a disambiguation page. hjuk (talk) 18:45, 15 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, the spelling point does not cover this kind of example, where there are only two different things and the different spelling entirely defines the difference between those two options, such that when the terms/spellings are applied correctly there is no ambiguity. That part of WP:DISAMBIG is talking about where disambiguation is required because there are multiple options to start with, regardless of spelling, and where there could then arguably be more than one disambiguation page given the different spellings across all those options; not whether there needs to be one at all based simply on spelling. And the tests you cite are for deciding between two or more uses of the same written term. As pointed out, we do not have two uses of the same term: we have "Haringey" for the borough and "Harringay" for the sub-area. People using those terms correctly should be taken immediately to the corresponding correct page (as they are for Harringay but, oddly, not for Haringey currently).


 * Plus you still haven't addressed the points a) that the redirect-hatnote option both addresses the confusion issue and makes navigation easier for those who do know the difference to start with (and no harder for those who don't) and b) that this disambiguation page, if anything, perpetuates the confusion. Why are we making it harder for people who do know the terms to get to the page they need while simultaneously not providing any benefit for those who don't?  N-HH   talk / edits  19:08, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

A lot of words have been expended on this but the basic point seems to not have been responded to or understood, nor do you seem to understand what disambiguation is ultimately for. Disambiguation pages are not some kind of mandatory instructional poster that have to be set up for when there might, arguably, be some arcane confusion around a word or place. They are practical tools to help people navigate to the pages they want to get to. This page does nothing more than add an unnecessary hurdle for people trying to get to the page on "Haringey" who have used the correct spelling for it. Enlightenment and navigation for those actually searching for the different place, with its different spelling – "Harringay" – is, as noted, at the top of that page in a hatnote. I'm restoring the redirect.  N-HH   talk / edits  17:30, 20 April 2014 (UTC)