Talk:Anchorage (disambiguation)

Anchorages A separate entry should be made to describe and list the use of military anchorages, such as the WW1 Allied anchorage of Scapa Flow, the Cold War Soviet anchorage at Socotra Island off the Horn of Africa - both to save energy yet be immediately ready, and the National Defense Reserve Fleet, the "mothballed fleet", that's used simply for ship storage. Am surprised there's no mention of the Soviet navy in the history of Socotra. tpk (talk) 00:00, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Requested move 21 July 2019

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. No further edits should be made to this section.

Not moved. Consensus is clearly against this proposal at this time. bd2412 T 03:26, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Anchorage (disambiguation) → Anchorage – WP:ASTONISH. The term would usually be expected to mean Anchorage (maritime) and while the city does have more views the maritime meaning is probably primary by PT#2. The city is named after the maritime meaning. Also its argued that the state is part of the city's common name (unlike places in other countries) thus its less likely that the city is primary for plain "Anchorage" especially since readers are used to seeing US cities with the state included. There was a discussion at Talk:Anchorage, Alaska#Requested move 14 September 2018 that was closed as not moved to the base name despite plain "Anchorage" redirecting there. This move would make that suggestion moot. I suggested this at the RM and I probably would have suggested that from the word go (as opposed to just leaving a "Comment" first) had the title been in lower case. The Scottish islands book mentions anchorage(s) frequently and its quite a common term globally while the term "Anchorage" would probably only be understood to mean the city in Alaska in the United States. In addition there are also several other places in the United States anyway and a few other uses such as Anchorage (orthodontics) and Anchorite. Crouch, Swale (talk) 18:59, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose. First of all, WP:ASTONISH has no bearing on article titles. The relevant policy is WP:AT. How many times must this be explained to you? Second, nothing in your statement shows the Alaskan city is not the primary topic. Being named for something doesn't prevent it from being the PT. See Boston, St. Louis and Maine for example. The other RM you mentioned failed not on PT grounds, but because of WP:USPLACE, which prevents all but a handful of US cities from being located at the basename, regardless of them being the primary topic. Calidum 20:40, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

  The MOS is a guideline and as explained WP:NWFCTM does say "We certainly don't want to astonish our readers, and the topic that comes first to mind indeed often is suitable as the primary topic" which is what WP:AT hinges on in this current RM (since this RM only involves primacy rather than an article move). Yes being named after doesn't prevent primacy but Boston and Maine are far better known than the original meanings and St. Louis is possibly so for the abbreviated name. Surely you would agree that in terms of primacy "Anchorage" could easily mean the maritime meaning, especially in long-term significance. Crouch, Swale (talk) 21:05, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

  Also a Google Book search for "anchorage is" returns many results for the maritime meaning but "anchorage was" returns more for the Alaskan city. Crouch, Swale (talk) 21:19, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

  Note that WP:ASTONISH has been used in countless RM discussions by many editors without opposition, so I would completely disagree that it can't be used to refer to article titles. In practice it is commonly so used and has been for many years. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:32, 24 July 2019 (UTC)

• Oppose - the nautical term gets such a heinously smaller amount of pageviews than the city that it's the clear WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. Nobody uses the term in common discourse anymore except to refer to the city._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 20:43, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose, anchorage (maritime) is an incredibly minor topic and a borderline WP:DICDEF violation; it should possibly be merged into Port as a two-sentence explanation or the like. The city is far more relevant as an encyclopedic topic. Also, admonish nominator for not informing Talk:Anchorage, Alaska of this discussion and just letting a commenter do so instead. SnowFire (talk) 13:02, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose. The city is clearly the primary topic here. Rreagan007 (talk) 15:38, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
• Support. I agree that the primary topic is the generic and common English term. Sorry, but saying it's not used commonly any more is complete rubbish. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:24, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
• Oppose per Zxcvbnm. We should consider adding anchorage (maritime) to the hatnote at Anchorage, Alaska if people feel it is important. power~enwiki (π, ν) 14:48, 29 July 2019 (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. No further edits should be made to this section.