Talk:William Packard (author)

Cleanup
This article needs some cleanup to make it more encyclopedic. I am going to leave this to Mr. Hammond for the time being. ~ N. Harmon 16:30, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Pilferred Content
The content on this page is taken from NY Quarterly's web page, and I don't see a reference. Since Packard founded NY Quarterly, I sincerely doubt they stole the biography from Wikipedia. I'm not sure what to say. I know Wikipedia is unreliable at best, but I didn't realize its content is just plain lifted from other sites.

Pardon me, but I'll stick to - well - every other site on the Internet for my research. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.18.233.145 (talk) 02:01, 19 January 2007 (UTC).

(Thank you, no, I prefer not to sign my entries.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.18.233.145 (talk • contribs)

NOT PILFERED
I am the current editor of the NYQ and posted this information from our site to get the Wikipedia page on William Packard started. I have not had time to go through and change it too much. I did change the copyright on the NYQ site's page to reflect that the article can legally co-exist on both sites without violating copyright.

Rhammond 01:37, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Needs sourcing
I have just worked on this a bit to make it more encyclopedic and not as much of a eulogy. I also added the NYT obit. However, there are a lot of unsourced quotations in this I am going to leave for now. Jokestress (talk) 19:49, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

M?
I don't believe that the middle initial belongs in the name as the title of this article. Did William Packard ever use it? After searching the internet and looking at the title pages of his books, it appears he never used his middle initial. Looking at the history of editing, it appears that this article began as William Packard, and that the initial may have been added (on October 16, 2010) merely for a technical Wikipedia purpose -- to make disambiguation easier. That reason doesn't accord with the WP article naming conventions. Barklestork (talk) 03:17, 12 June 2014 (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. 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 moved. Armbrust The Homunculus 06:56, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

William M. Packard → William Packard (author) – William Packard was known far and wide as “William Packard”. That’s how his name reads on the cover of all of his books — his fiction, his plays, his poetry. That’s how his name appeared in the New York Quarterly for many years. In his entire career as an author his name was always William Packard. It’s how the New York Times referred to him. It’s how he boldly signed his name — he didn’t scribble his signature — he took the trouble to spell it out. Obviously, that’s how he wanted to be known, and he never wavered. As an author, a man of letters, his name clearly was important. Wikipedia should get it right. He was a great editor — the editors of Wikipedia should not throw a curveball with the man’s name.

The evidence that his name should be “William Packard” can be found by simply clicking on the links in the article. To get a look at his bold signature click on the link to “The Estate of William Packard” in the “External Links” section.

Wikipedia, at WP:NC, recommends that a good Wikipedia article title should have Recognizability – “a name … that someone familiar with … the subject area will recognize.” That would be “William Packard (author)”. A middle initial would confuse people who would not expect to see such a thing. And a good Wikipedia article title should have Naturalness – “The title is one that readers are likely to search for and that editors would naturally use to link to the article from other articles. Such titles usually convey what the subject is actually called in English.” That would definitely be “William Packard (author)”. Contrariwise, the title as it now stands violates the two WP principles just mentioned.

Where did the initial “M” come from? According to an editor's note in the article's history it appears to have been added (on October 16, 2010) in order to "make disambiguation easier”. That reason doesn’t accord with the Wikipedia naming conventions, and it represents yet another violation of the principles of Wikipedia (as stated on WP:NC) caused by the confusing middle initial letter “M”.

Nothing in the article — no reliable source — supports the idea that the M. belongs there.

Also, it can be seen on the internet on sites that simply reproduce Wikipedia content that this misguided “renaming” of William Packard can be spread around like a virus, so this should be tended to. --Relisted. Armbrust The Homunculus 09:42, 27 June 2014 (UTC) Barklestork (talk) 06:10, 20 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Malformed request – since the target name is taken and no proposal has been made about how to deal with that fact. If the middle initial is not the preferred disambiguation for this guy, propose an alternative, such as William Packard (author).  Dicklyon (talk) 06:27, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you, that is helpful. I will propose William Packard (author) and will edit the above proposal accordingly.  He wore a few hats, but I think that your suggestion would be best and clearly indicative.Barklestork (talk) 12:28, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Support William Packard (author) In ictu oculi (talk) 11:04, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Support, conditional on the absence of evidence for a middle initial. When Firstname Lastname is ambiguous, it's pretty much always better to use Firstname MI Lastname than Firstname Lastname (parenthetical disambiguator), because using simply the guy's name is much more natural than sticking a parenthetical disambiguator that won't necessarily be known by readers.  This being said, of course we absolutely must have evidence for what the middle initial was; we can't just assign him a middle initial!  If we have evidence for a middle name, I would strongly oppose this request.  Nyttend (talk) 21:33, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
 * There are two statements in the Wikipedia guidelines that support the change to “William Packard (author)”, they are: “Wikipedia prefers the name that is most commonly used (as determined by its prevalence in reliable English-language sources)” (found in WP:COMMONNAME) And also: “Adding given names, or their abbreviations, merely for disambiguation purposes (if that format of the name is not commonly used to refer to the person) is not advised.” (found in WP:INITS)   Barklestork (talk) 10:34, 2 July 2014 (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.