Talk:Postal Index Number

Removal of US ZIP code comparison
I removed the parenthetical line explaining that PIN codes are similar to American ZIP codes. I feel this reflects a bias towards American readers. The US was not even the first country to introduce postal codes. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cdeuskar (talk • contribs) 03:15, 21 March 2007 (UTC).

Requested move 1

 * 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. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page not moved to Postal codes in India. I've closed the initial discussion (a proposed move to "Postal codes in India," as a clear consensus has been established in the below discussion that per WP:COMMONNAME, "Postal Index Number" or a country-specific title (see next section's discussion) is preferred by the community. Tyrol5   [Talk]  03:48, 13 February 2013 (UTC)  Tyrol5   [Talk]  03:48, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Postal Index Number → Postal codes in India – all other similar articles follow this pattern, as can be seen in Category:Postal codes by country. — capmo (talk) 00:25, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * You're right about the pattern, but I think that may just be because very few countries call their codes anything other than postal codes. But some, like the United States, do: Postal codes in the United States redirects to ZIP code, which is the term universally used for postal codes there. Similarly, in India, pincode seems to be the dominant term—it's used by India Post, The Hindu, and The Times of India. Unless there's another postal code system in India competing with the pincode, I'd leave the article here. If anything, I'd change the name to PIN code or Pincode. —Neil 02:24, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I see your point, but in this case we may have to rename Postal codes in Brazil to Código de Endereçamento Postal (CEP) (or in English, Postal Addressing Code) and similarly for other countries as well. I particularly prefer "Postal codes in XXX" because it's a more generic title and can be expanded to include previous systems and how they evolved over time. —capmo (talk) 04:01, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I think Brazil isn't the perfect analogy here because the particular name of its postal code system isn't part of the English lexicon, but since that article deals only with the Código de Endereçamento Postal and not with any other postal code systems, past or present, I would have no problem with naming the article Código de Endereçamento Postal. In the same way, the article here deals exclusively with the current pincode system, so I think it's appropriate to use the name that Indians (and by extension, people who write letters to Indians) use to refer to that system in every case I can find (here's another, from a video about an Indian mapping website). In fact, since all the sources I've found use pincode, I suggest that we move this page to Pincode with a note at the top pointing to Personal identification number. If in the future, this article expands to include significant discussion of things other than the the pincode system, I'd have no objection to changing the name then. —Neil 06:19, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree with Neil's views. In India, it is simply referred to as PIN code or PINcode or even Pincode, where PIN is abbreviation of Postal Index Number. And it is kind of surprising (to me) that even in Portuguese wikipedia, the article on Post Codes of Brazil is simply translation of the English title rather than CEP or the full form it.--GDibyendu (talk) 06:44, 4 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Oppose: a) Per WP:COMMONNAME. what GDibyendu has mentioned PIN, that is short form of Postal Index Number. b) Oppose move to Pincode, that's a wrong word (a very common one) "Code" is not needed since "number" is already used in the abbreviation or it becomes something like "Postal Index Number Code"! --Tito Dutta (talk) 23:50, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose on the original proposed name. For articles in an  category, we have to take into consideration MOS:TIES issues. A perfect example of this is the articles and subcats of Category:Association football by country, where we have a Soccer in the United States page because "Soccer" is the word most commonly used to refer to the sport in the US. Likewise, Postal codes in the United States redirects to ZIP code. Zzyzx11 (talk) 07:11, 5 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Comment: I think you are missing the point: Postal Index Number may be the name by which it is known in India, but outside it most people will have no idea what it is about until they read the article (Soccer in the United States, on the other side, is quite clear). That was probably the reason why editors decided to create standard names for these Postal Code articles. But if the community decides that WP:COMMONNAME must be followed, then I'll proceed to renaming a few other articles to their original language names per WP:UE. Regards, —capmo (talk) 14:07, 5 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I see what you're saying, but I don't think it's a good idea to shy away from proper nouns and lose precision just because some people—or even most people—are inevitably not going to recognize them. The majority of the world's English speakers almost certainly don't know what the Lok Sabha is, but that doesn't mean we rename the article Lower House of the Indian Parliament. The same thing goes for NASA—no doubt there are hundreds of million of fluent English speakers in the UK, Australia, Nigeria, India, and elsewhere that haven't heard of it, but that's not a reason to call the article United States national space agency. —Neil 01:09, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm starting to agree with you all, your argument above makes sense indeed. —capmo (talk) 01:52, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Oppose: I do not agree with original proposed name. US-related article is ZIP code as it does not conflict with names of other countries. But, UK, Australia and New Zealand use same name, i.e. postcode, so the articles for these 3 countries are Postcodes of UK/Australia/New Zealand. In India, Postal Index Number (PIN) - this English name is the name used all over, and this has no conflict with names of postal codes of other countries, which use English names. So, there is no need to move this article to Postal codes of India.--GDibyendu (talk) 15:19, 5 February 2013 (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 or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Proposed Move 2: to 'PIN Code' or 'Pincode'

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. 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 proposal was not moved. --BDD (talk) 22:06, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Postal Index Number → PIN Code – Relisted this apparently ongoing discussion, per the above rejection of the proposal to move page to "Postal codes in India." Please note that another possibility suggested by the initiator of this follow-up discussion is "Pincode." Tyrol5  [Talk]  03:48, 13 February 2013 (UTC) As I mentioned above, researching this topic has convinced me that either PIN Code or pincode would be a better title for this article than postal index number. Rather than wait to open a new requested move, I'm laying out my thoughts here so we can try for a consensus while everyone's still thinking about the issue.

In the sources, PIN code seems to be used more often than pincode, but it's not entirely clear, since some of the results for PIN code were probably talking about personal identification numbers. At any rate, both were far more common than postal index number. Here's the data.

Particularly interesting was the fact that India Post almost always uses pincode, which seems like a less formal term to me. Thoughts? —Neil 05:21, 6 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Comment: For the usages at India Post website: the main page is this, where title of the page is "Pincode", but the first two statements are:"Postal Index Number (PIN) or PIN Code is a 6 digit code of Post Office numbering used by India Post. The PIN was introduced on August 15, 1972." I would support move to PIN Code, as it is the common name used in India, even among people who are not English-speakers (there is no other name in regional languages, AFAIK). But, move may require appending "(India)" to the title, as PIN Code may not be unique, it redirects to PIN dab page now. If really PIN Code could mean one or more of those listed in PIN dab page, then we should have another dab page for PIN Code (only numbers could go there from PIN dab page).--GDibyendu (talk) 07:03, 6 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Oppose Postal Index Number is fine. If you have filled or submitted any Indian central/state Government document/form, everywhere they write "Postal code" or just "PIN". Pincode is incorrect as it means "Postal Index Number Code" (more details above)! --Tito Dutta (talk) 07:56, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't think PIN Code is incorrect. Code need not be number only, can be alphanumeric. Most people refer to it as PIN Code, not just PIN.--GDibyendu (talk) 09:21, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * And I doubt that even 1% of Indians know that PIN is abbreviation of Postal Index Number.--GDibyendu (talk) 09:23, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Hey, not that bad! We read that in childhood in quiz books/abbreviation book. PIN Code sounds weird. If you say just "Postal Index Code" (no "Number"), I can understand. But, Postal Index Number Code is similar to "Tumhara naam kya hain Basanti?" (for English the word "number" is getting repeated here!) Take up any official Indian form, you'll see use of either Postal Code or just PIN. --Tito Dutta (talk) 09:34, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * How many people read quiz books or abbreviation books? In my time, it was less than 10% in urban area, could be 0% in most rural area. But PIN Code is used by everyone, literate or illiterate, most of them do not know the full form. Check this link, main page on PIN Code in India Post website. It uses PIN Code, doesn't it?--GDibyendu (talk) 09:40, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * a) I did not count number of GK book readers of my time! b) I saw use of Pincode in that website yesterday and also read your first post in this thread, but, I can not digest "Postal Index Number Code" at this moment! Reference desk language may provide some suggestion! --Tito Dutta (talk) 09:55, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Are you sure that all government documents use postal index number? The table of Google search results I made above shows that Indian government websites use PIN code more than one thousand times more often. A great deal of those results are government forms. —Neil 00:53, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Nobody ever uses "Postal Index Number" either while writing or speaking: I have never used, I have not heard or seen anyone else using it; never saw someone using it in books, magazines or newspapers or forms etc., except in general knowledge books. It's just a full form of PIN, but never used directly.--GDibyendu (talk) 03:45, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose most people associate 'PIN code' with their ATM pin.  Hot Stop     (Talk)   05:13, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I agree there's potential for confusion there, but that's what disambiguation pages are for. We should use the most common term whether it also applies a dozen other things, like PIN does, or not. Out of curiosity, would you agree that PIN code is the common name here? —Neil 05:57, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not familiar enough to say either way.   Hot Stop     (Talk)   22:36, 14 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Strong oppose this is not about the personal identification number (PIN code) used on credit cards, debit cards, etc -- 65.92.180.137 (talk) 05:43, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose: No evidence is given that this is the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for PIN code. PIN code should lead to a dab page. —BarrelProof (talk) 06:12, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The page Personal identification number does mention that it is often referred as "PIN number", but it does not use the term "PIN code" in the whole page.--GDibyendu (talk) 06:20, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * WP:NOTDIC, Wikipedia is not a dictionary, we do not enter every single synonym onto the article pages. -- 65.92.180.137 (talk) 07:01, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Excellent point. When I searched Google, 7 of the first-page results dealt with the Indian postal code while only three dealt with personal identification numbers, so I think we can safely say it is the primary topic. But perhaps we should have a hatnote at the top of the page saying: This page deals with the Indian system of postal codes. For the numeric password, see personal identification number. (If you think of better wording, please suggest it—mine sounds a bit clunky to me). —Neil 07:34, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Establishing something as the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC ordinarily requires much more than a 7:3 ratio of search results. In previous discussions, the ratio mentioned to me was 10:1. —BarrelProof (talk) 18:28, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * That's a small difference, and is also dialect dependent. Try a search restricted to British English or American English and see how many Indian results come up. Further most acronyms end up being expanded on Wikipedia. -- 65.92.180.137 (talk) 20:03, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * .uk restricted search ; .nz search ; .au search ; .ca search ; .us search ; .za search ; .ie search ; -- no indication of "Postal Index Number" in any region listed (UK, New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada, South Africa, Ireland) -- 65.92.180.137 (talk) 20:09, 13 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I checked few of this search links; I think you have a point. And I am now more inclined on moving this page to PIN Code (India), and we can keep it listed in both dab pages PIN and Pincode, as it is now.--GDibyendu (talk) 10:47, 15 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Strong oppose; current title seems unambiguous, proposed title is not. Red Slash 22:34, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. 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.

"PIN code" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect PIN code. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 December 13 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. nyuszika7h (talk) 11:46, 13 December 2021 (UTC)