Talk:Washington State

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I'm currently in the process of fixing all links to this page that mean Washington, and then will fix the redirect to go to Washington State University (like Ohio State, Oregon State, etc.). Holler if you'd like to help or have some problem (I'm assuming no one will, but thought it'd be polite...)  Matt Yeager 05:29, 26 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Er, I won't change for the time being, but I really don't think "Washington State" should point to the university, but to Washington the state. I think the usage of "X State" as short for "X State University" is not common or well understood among a non-American audience.


 * I don't think the "Ohio State", etc. precedent should apply, since Washington is a special case (because of the state/DC confusion). "Washington State" is the first thing I would think of calling the state of Washington. --Saforrest 16:09, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

"Washington State" redirects to Washington State University, while "Washington state" goes to the state of Washington. This is confusing. Might it be better to instead create a disambiguation page for both "Washington State" and "Washington state", with links to both the state and the university? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.211.250.18 (talk • contribs) 00:35, 31 July 2006


 * Heavens no for "Washington state"; that's overwhelmingly the state itself. As for "Washington State", the phrase does only properly refer to one thing--the university. Matt Yeager ♫ ( Talk? ) 04:09, 31 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Outside of the US "Washington State" means the State, not the university. In believe the disambiguation should be set up.  Jamie  | C 20:13, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Since only two articles are in question, a subtle "For the state called Washington..." will be placed at the top of the university's article. --Notmyhandle 07:56, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I saw that Oregon State redirected to Oregon. I changed it to a disambiguation page.  There is a stronger argument for Washington State to refer to the state than for "Oregon State," because inside the beltway people may use the term "Washington State" to differentiate between the state and Washington, D.C.  However, the argument for keeping the redirect to the university is strong enough that I am changing it to a disambiguation page. 69.140.152.55 (talk) 22:36, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

"Washington State" isn't really that common (or appropriate) of a way of referring to Washington, especially when you consider the usage of the term to refer to Washington State University. I appreciate your willingness to be bold, but I'm curious about whether or not a disambiguation page best serves our interests as an encyclopedia. (By the way, in the three years in between when I wrote that little comment and the present day, someone changed Oregon State. I've changed it back and await feedback on that page, too.)  Matt Yeager   ♫  (Talk?)  23:46, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, I agree with the disambiguation. I have often said "Washington State", so people know I'm not talking about Washington D.C.  Soxred  93  15:07, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia guidelines: Case sensitivity should not be used to disambiguate. Washington State and Washington state should not lead to different articles based on case. According to english language: Which one refers to the state vs the university is a matter of journalistic style (CMS, and the state government prefer lower case, NYT prefers upper case, but is inconsistent in application). There are only two states that have this problem, WA (because of DC) and NY (because of NYC) so it is non-useful to look at what other states have done. So both should be a single dab page with Washington State redirecting to Washington state. SchmuckyTheCat (talk)


 * That seems conclusive to me, and I'm going to go ahead and make the change. This is exactly the sort of thing that disambiguation pages are for.  --207.176.159.90 (talk) 22:39, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... No journalist that knows the heck what they're doing would use "Washington State" to refer to the state. But then again, we're not altogether concerned with what's "correct", merely what's used. I definitely disagree with this, but it looks like there may be consensus against redirecting to Washington State University. I understand. However, "Washington state" simply should never mean the university, so I'm changing that redirect and putting it back to the state, and I can't see any problem with that.  Matt Yeager   ♫  (Talk?)  01:29, 9 June 2008 (UTC)