Talk:Major

Shorten golf majors?
In the article, the entry for golf major currently reads:


 * A major in golf is one of the four or five most important yearly tournaments. In the United States, the PGA TOUR and LPGA tour have four majors, while the Champions Tour for golfers 50 and over has five. All other top-level men's tours worldwide recognize the same four majors as the PGA TOUR. The LPGA Tour for women also has four majors.

I suggest that this is too much explanation of details for a disambiguation page. I feel the disambiguation page should only contain info useful for directing your request, not info about the topic. Differentiating ideas, not trivia. In that spirit, i would edit thusly:


 * A major in golf is one of the set of most important yearly tournaments. In the United States, the PGA Tour, the LPGA tour and the Champions Tour have their own set of majors.

I feel this helps the reader because it suggests that if you've heard the word major as well as any of those other words near it, this is your link. However, it doesn't tell us the number, location, or the offical rules surrounding them. If we want to know this, we simply click on the link for Majors, or any of the particular golfing leagues. More concise, i feel.

Please comment. – Fudoreaper 09:44, 2 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, shorter is better, less to maintain. In fact, I prefer not to have links in the text except for the one actually being disambiguated, they don't really serve any purpose, but it's almost impossible to keep mindless link-adders from putting them back if you de-link. Stan 12:23, 2 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Interesting you talk about additional links their foolish purpose. see  - a dab page i edited a bit, but was cleaned up to wikipedia style.  Perhaps this page should be changed to follow that format. &mdash; Fudoreaper 19:50, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Shorter, but not accurate. The men's majors are not endorsed solely by the PGA Tour and they aren't all in the States. Scranchuse 03:43, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Major golf and tennis tournaments
Is this page correct about golf? For example, is it correct to say "Woods expects to play all four major championships ..." rather than "... to play all four major tournaments ..."? --P64 (talk) 22:50, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

"Major" in sports: articles, disambiguations, and redirects

2012-07-25, underline identifies redirects to Major (disambiguation) --this page-- which are now listed in the midst of siblings that redirect as stated in each section.

1. GOLF. What redirects to Men's major golf championships? All bluelinks except one anomaly. There are 20 comprising ten with "golf" (i, ii) and ten without (iii, iv).
 * Men's major golf championship
 * ii


 * Major golf tournament, Major golf tournaments, Major Golf Tournament, Major Golf Tournaments
 * Major (golf), Majors (golf)
 * Major championship (golf), Major championships (golf)
 * Major golf championship, Major golf championships
 * Golf major, Golf majors, Golf Major, Golf Majors, and Golfing Major (only one -ing)
 * iii


 * Men's major championship, Men's major championships; Men's major, Men's majors
 * iv


 * Major tournament, Major tournaments, Major Tournament, Major Tournaments
 * Major championship, Major championships, Major Championship, Major Championships, The major championships, The Major Championships

2. TENNIS
 * Major tennis tournament; Major tennis tournaments redirects to List of tennis tournaments but is not currently used anywhere
 * Major tennis championship, Major tennis championships;
 * Major (tennis), Majors (tennis)
 * Tennis major, Tennis Major, Tennis majors, Tennis Majors redirects to Grand slam (tennis) but is not currently used in article space

3. Other sports-related major-terms The latter is a disambiguation page with ten redirects that all incorporate "league".
 * Major win, Major wins
 * Major title, Major titles, Major Title redirects to The Irem Skins Game
 * major college, major conference, major league

Major is about a military rank.

What redirects to Major (disambiguation)''' --this page? This is a complete list except three that incorporate "sport(s)".
 * Majors, The majors, The Majors , The Majors (disambiguation)
 * Major championships, Major championships (disambiguation)

first draft --P64 (talk) 22:50, 14 May 2012 (UTC) update --P64 (talk) 16:46, 6 June 2012 (UTC) expand, consolidate, renumber under bold title "Major" in sports --P64 (talk) 19:59, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Latest revisions -05-26 an -06-02
What do these two sessions by one editor comprehend? Compare versions is almost useless ... here is what I can make of "compare versions" using two windows: (That numbering isn't what I hoped.)
 * 1) group the first seven entries as "Other" and relegates them to the bottom (6);
 * 2) relegate heading "Sport" to the bottom (5);
 * 3) group some sporting entries as subheading "Other sports" and relegate them to the bottom of heading "Sports" (5.3)
 * 4) group others under Tennis, to the bottom (5.2)
 * 5) group others under Golf (5.1)
 * 6) add many golf listings
 * 7) subdivide golf listings men (5.1.1) and women (5.1.2)
 * 8) cut a lot of sporting talk
 * 9) dislocate the TOContents

What of it? The first and last are unwelcome. Much of the middle ("Sport") is welcome but the addition of golf listings is not --instead we should have a list of major golf tournaments that includes all the historical "majors"; formal subheadings for Men and Women in golf may be overkill. --P64 (talk) 19:33, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Major and Majors
Majors needs disambiguation, not redirect to Grand slam (tennis). Last month I hinted so in grand slam talk but I haven't yet started and will not this weekend. but I did nothing except re-target here --that is, Majors now redirects here.

Should Major and Majors disambiguate together --with a separate main article for Major and Majors surnames, if warranted? --P64 (talk) 19:33, 2 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Currently we do disambiguate both here, including both surnames in section People.
 * I classified the redirect with R from plural and R from alternative name, unsure about the latter.
 * --P64 (talk) 23:13, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Ursa Major, ursa minor
These names of the stellar constellations also known as Big Dipper (Ursa Major) and Little Dipper will be familiar to many readers. I don't know how to fit it in but note that I visited because I was surprised to see maior not major in the preface as Latin, so that may be the place for it. --P64 (talk) 21:26, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguation of minor and major
See Talk: Minor which may suggest improvements here. It's out of date because I revised both pages next day, but the most visible changes (which the discussion concerns) are there to make the arrangement of disambig Minor more like this one.

Here I changed the nature and location of Wiktionary links and location of the Contents box, along with substantial revisions. Yet the table of contents remains as I illustrated in that linked Talk. --P64 (talk) 23:13, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

What to include in this article
I'm looking at this list, which should be things that reasonable readers would look up the term Major, to find something that is often called simply "Major" or "Majors." There's a bit of trivial bloat here, and perhaps things that should not be.

Disambiguation tells us:
 * this is not a search index.
 * Do not add a link that merely contains part of the page title.
 * We reasonably expect to see Abraham Lincoln at Lincoln (disambiguation), but very few sources would refer to the waltz composer Harry J. Lincoln by an unqualified "Lincoln".

Then I see someone add under people, Klaus Heuser (born 1957), German rock guitarist and producer. This guy has a nickname of Major and it is almost always used as a first name or Major Heuser. He is not universally known as "Major" and should not be on this list as far as I can tell.

In looking I can see no reason why another entry should be here...Matt Sanchez (born 1970), American journalist and former porn star, known in the latter field by the stage name "Rod Majors". These are not search indexes for everyone with a first or last name of Major or Majors. This is to help readers find very specific articles that would likely be called only "Major/Majors". I think this should be fixed. I didn't take it to a full RfC because I wanted to gauge others thoughts first. I was talking about this with a fellow editor on my talk page, but wasn't really satisfied. Thoughts? Fyunck(click) (talk) 07:16, 30 November 2018 (UTC)


 * The reference "Der "Major" rockt wieder - Ex-BAP-Gitarrist in Brühl"  in Klaus Heuser seems to justify having a redirect Major (German musician) (or perhaps The Major (German musician)), and an entry in the dab page for that name. If you disagree, then WP:RfD would be the place to discuss.  I've tidied up about Matt Sanchez/Rod Majors, adding him to the Major (surname) page and clarifying that it includes the surname "Majors" as it already has several of that name listed.  Looking at Marshall Taylor I wonder if that page ought to be moved to Major Taylor, as it's the name used in most of the sources (and eg "Major Taylor Association" etc.) Probably doesn't really belong on this page but on Major (given name), though perhaps that page would need to be clarified to say whether or  not it includes nicknames. Gets more complicated the further you look!  Pam  D  10:58, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * I've had a go at cleaning up the page per MOS:DAB and WP:LONGDAB, cutting out a few entries not known simply as Major (etc.). Pam, I have move the 3 nicknames to the given name page - do you think it's ok? Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 13:59, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * I think that "mononyms" go on the main dab page, so have replaced the two musicians. Not sure about removing all the military ranks, though I suppose they are clearly listed in Major, so that no-one would come to the dab page because they'd have found them there first. Will be interesting to see whether they reappear at some point! Pam  D  14:22, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Two things. 1) Why should we be using a non-exact link to an article? I'm not familiar with the mononym requirement for dab pages when at all other times we are supposed to be linking to the exact page name. 2) Klaus Heuser is pretty much an example by Disambiguation of what not to include here. He is rarely called simply "Major" by sourcing, and even those are usually because he uses it as a first name. He is covered under the Major (given name), including people with the nickname section. Fyunck(click) (talk) 18:56, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * "rarely" but not "never": if the name is used for him, then it gets a redirect or, if the name isn't unique, a dab page entry. Perhaps the dab page entry should be unlinked with the real name linked later in the entry, but if he's sometimes known as "Major" or "The Major" (and we have a ref which is evidence for this), then he gets an entry in the dab page, as I understand things. Pam  D  19:07, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * If you don't think the redirect from Major (German musician) should exist then take it to WP:RfD. If it exists, then there should be an entry for him on this dab page. Pam  D  19:19, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * That is absolutely against Disambiguation. We do not include every single instance of something on a dab page. Did you read what I quoted above? Fyunck(click) (talk) 19:39, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Take it easy – you asked for thoughts from other editors, and you got some. Opinions often differ and interpretations of guidance are often different. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 08:23, 1 December 2018 (UTC)
 * And I do want input. However per Disambiguation, just because something exists doesn't make it dab worthy. It might be by consensus but it is not automatic. Another thing we have been told by consensus and administrators (especially when making "good" articles, is that "IF" it is included, the link should be directly to the article name... not to a redirect. It can show "Major (German musician)" but it should always link to "Klaus Heuser", not to the redirect. Fyunck(click) (talk) 10:41, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Major which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 00:15, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Major which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 00:30, 26 December 2019 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Major which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 18:01, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

post-move
Here's the monthly stats: Combined with meta:Research:Wikipedia clickstream data, since the move it looks like this:
 * https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&start=2023-01&end=2024-05&pages=Major

incoming identifiable 3225: outgoing identifiable 1495:
 * November 3536
 * other-search   Major   external        1653
 * other-empty    Major   external        1042
 * other-internal Major   external        209
 * other-external Major   external        47
 * Major_(United_States)  Major   link    102
 * Main_Page      Major   other   96
 * Major_(United_Kingdom) Major   link    30
 * Tiger_3 Major  other   20
 * War_(2019_film) Major  other   16
 * Lieutenant     Major   other   10
 * Major  Major_(rank)    link    1081
 * Major  Academic_major  link    173
 * Major  Major_(surname) link    45
 * Major  Major_(film)    link    43
 * Major  Major_and_minor link    42
 * Major  Major_(given_name)      link    35
 * Major  Major_(Joe_Biden's_dog) link    24
 * Major  Major_(manga)   link    21
 * Major  Military_organization   other   11
 * Major  Major_film_studios      link    10
 * Major  Age_of_majority link    10

So the top link was ~30.6% compared to the total incoming traffic. It's at ~72.3% of identifiable outgoing traffic, but with the obvious long tail being obscured by anonymization, this is quite a bit inflated.

incoming identifiable 3284: outgoing identifiable 1555:
 * December 3685
 * other-search   Major   external        1852
 * other-empty    Major   external        904
 * other-internal Major   external        193
 * Main_Page      Major   other   122
 * Major_(United_States)  Major   other   64
 * Sam_Bahadur_(film)     Major   other   59
 * other-external Major   external        53
 * Major_(United_Kingdom) Major   link    37
 * Major  Major_(rank)    link    1117
 * Major  Academic_major  link    154
 * Major  Major_(surname) link    87
 * Major  Major_(film)    link    53
 * Major  Major_and_minor link    43
 * Major  Major_(manga)   link    35
 * Major  Major_(given_name)      link    32
 * Major  Military_organization   other   14
 * Major  Major_(Joe_Biden's_dog) link    10
 * Major  Major_(American_musician)       link    10

Here the top link was ~30.3% of the total incoming traffic. It's at ~72% of identifiable outgoing traffic, but with the obvious long tail being obscured by anonymization, this is quite a bit inflated.

--Joy (talk) 18:59, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

https://wikinav.toolforge.org/?language=en&title=Major shows in January 4.8k (4790) incoming, and 11 identifable outgoing destinations (total 1716), with 1.22k (1221) for the rank (~25% / ~71%). --Joy (talk) 10:34, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

In February it's 4.1k (4064) incoming, 13 identifiable destinations, 1.15k (1146) for the rank (~28%), 206 for academic (~5%), 87 for music (~2%), etc. --Joy (talk) 19:07, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

In March we saw 5127 incoming views, and in turn
 * clickstream-enwiki-2024-03.tsv:
 * Major       Major_(rank)    link    1092 (~21.3% / ~74%)
 * Major       Academic_major  link    199 (~3.9% / ~13.5%)
 * Major       Major_and_minor link    44 (~0.86% / ~3%)
 * Major       Major_(manga)   link    38
 * Major       Major_(film)    link    29
 * Major       Major_(surname) link    26
 * Major       Men's_major_golf_championships  link    16
 * Major       Major_(given_name)      link    12
 * Major       Major_(American_musician)       link    10
 * Major       Counter-Strike_Major_Championships      link    10
 * total: 1476

--Joy (talk) 20:43, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

In April, with 4578 total views, clickstream-enwiki-2024-04.tsv showed:
 * Major       Major_(rank)    other   1233 (~26.9% / ~72.5%)
 * Major       Academic_major  other   213
 * Major       Major_and_minor other   59
 * Major       Major_(surname) other   41
 * Major       Men's_major_golf_championships  other   38
 * Major       Major_(film)    other   28
 * Major       Major_(given_name)      other   26
 * Major       Counter-Strike_Major_Championships      other   22
 * Major       Major_professional_sports_leagues_in_the_United_States_and_Canada       other   15
 * Major       Major_(manga)   other   15
 * Major       Major_(Joe_Biden's_dog) other   11
 * total: 1701 to 11 identified destinations

In May, with 3263 total incoming views, clickstream-enwiki-2024-05.tsv showed:
 * Major       Major_(rank)    link    1211 (~37.1% / ~73.7%)
 * Major       Academic_major  link    206
 * Major       Major_and_minor link    51
 * Major       Major_(film)    link    35
 * Major       Men's_major_golf_championships  link    33
 * Major       Major_(surname) link    22
 * Major       Major_(given_name)      link    22
 * Major       Major_(manga)   link    21
 * Major       Major_(Joe_Biden's_dog) link    16
 * Major       Major_professional_sports_leagues_in_the_United_States_and_Canada       link    15
 * Major       Grand_Slam_(tennis)     link    11
 * total: 1643 to 11 identified destinations

--Joy (talk) 11:19, 17 June 2024 (UTC)