User:Blethering Scot Mobile/Theatre Sandbox

List of West End theatres

 * If no show is currently running, the play listed is the next show planned (dates marked with an *)
 * If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable columns are left blank

I would like to seek clarification on whether the community feel that the common name policy can where applicable override individual projects naming conventions. For instance convention at WP:Footy is that F.C. should be added after the name of a club if their official name ends with Football Club.

For instance Manchester United's official name is Manchester United Football Club, so the name we use on wikipedia is Manchester United F.C. If you look at the statistics on a search for Manchester United F.C. you only get 73,300,000 but search for Manchester United you get double at 156,000,000. If you look at page hits the redirect was hit 4,524 times in the month of January with the real article being hit substantially higher at 107, 463, although as a google search simply for Manchester United brings up a direct link to our article situated at Manchester United F.C. that is no surprise. But 4,524 hits for the redirect is higher than you would averagely expect. Put that together with the search stats and the fact that the club markets themselves as simply Manchester United there is an overriding argument that common name applies and the article should be at Manchester United and not Manchester United F.C..

Now the main naming policy states that the article title should indicate what the article is about and distinguishes it from other articles and notes that consistency is key. However the common name part of the naming policy states that the name that is most commonly used (as determined by its prevalence in reliable English-language sources) should be used as such names will usually best fit criteria such as recognisability and naturalness. Now if the name was ambiguous and could be mistaken for another subject lets say Manchester City which could realistically be mistaken for Manchester then common name wouldn't apply as a disambiguation is clearly needed and as the clubs name is Manchester City football club, convention at WP:Footy would state it should be named Manchester City F.C..

It was raised at an WP:RM that local naming conventions such as F,C., shouldn't be disregarded without further discussion. If that is the case then what is the point in having a common name policy, when local naming convention can overrule. To me common name is more important than local convention as it would be a more natural name for search and instantly recognisable. Naming convention is important as it creates consistency, but should not override reliable sources and natural search terms.

My question for the community is where a article meets the criteria for common name and it can be proven clearly at a WP:RM that that is the case, and there is no need to have a dismambig to avoid ambiguity, do we as a community feel that local convention should override common name policy? This RM isn't about WP:Footy per se, but local projects naming conventions in general.