User:Estarapapax/Spratly Proposal


 * Note: The following is a draft for a discussion I want to start. I'm still waiting for a reply from Wikipedia talk:Requested moves. Please post at my talk page for issues.


 * UPDATE. Two days after I created this proposal, I've decided to give it up. Just thought it is actually a trivial thing to pursue. Well, I'll still leave this draft here. If you have something to say, post at my talk page.  eStaRapapax  xapaparatse! exsatpaarpa! 18:30, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Proposed naming standard for Spratly Islands I have once moved "Thitu Island" to "Pagasa Island (Thitu Island)", "West York Island" to "Likas Island (West York Island)" and "Itu Aba Island" to "Taiping Island (Itu Aba Island)". All of those were reverted by User:AjaxSmack saying that these moves are controversial. Here are my reasons for the moves:


 * Many sources, especially those coming from non-claimants, are starting to call the islands by the name used by the current occupant. Thitu Island is more commonly called as Pagasa Island by international sources. Taiping Island, Layang-Layang Island, etc. are more commonly used than Itu Aba Island, Swallow Reef, etc.
 * Having the international name as the title LIMITS the availability at which one can find the article online. For example, the term Thitu Island is very uncommon for Filipinos. A Filipino trying to google Pagasa Island will never see the article on the hits (Google shows a maximum of two hits only per domain. Google search for Pagasa Island has Kalayaan, Palawan and Spratly Islands as the top two hits for en.wikipedia.org. Thitu Island is not included). However, don't be stupid saying "what about other countries?" Thitu Island is still uncommon for Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. If they try to google for the island in their respective local names, they will certainly be unable to find the English article. However, upon knowledge that it is occupied by the Philippines, they will try to google for its Philippine name and google that name.
 * Having the international name as title LIMITS the scope at which the article can be edited. For example, take the Taiwan article. That article is a mere geographical article. It asks readers to see Republic of China for the state that administers Taiwan. So, do we need to do that for Spratly Islands? Do we need to have Thitu Island as a geographical article that asks readers to see a separate Pagasa Island article for the Philippine political division that represents Thitu Island? This will only make redundancies! But perhaps some will agree with this geographical-separate-from-political standard since it was implemented already for the Taiwan article.

Note:Since Vietnamese and Chinese names are not in Latin, the transliteration for features they occupy will be used, just like how the Chinese and Taiwanese press translates the names from their Mandarin news to English.

I wish that Wikipedians who edit Spratly-related articles will contribute to this discussion.  eStaRapapax  xapaparatse! exsatpaarpa!