Talk:Waiau Toa / Clarence River

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Ashley River (New Zealand) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 16:02, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

Clarence River is the river's common name

This article was moved from Clarence River (New Zealand) to Waiau Toa / Clarence River following discussion here. This decision was based on the use of the official name as a natural disambiguation, despite the official dual name not being in common use. Therefore, the article title should be treated as a disambiguator, and the common name (Clarence) should be used as normal. This also avoids the awkward lengthy dual name with its slash confusing natural reading.

For recent evidence of the common name in use, please see the following reliable, New Zealand news sources using Clarence, rather than Waiau Toa: RNZ; ODT; Stuff; and the Herald. (NB: I have chosen sources for recency rather than emphasis on the river as the primary topic, but either way, uses of the dual name—or Waiau Toa—are rare. These four sources are the main, independent news sources of NZ.) — HTGS (talk) 02:14, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Ugh. Frankly I can't be bothered having yet another argument about dual names right now so I'm not going to bother. Maps have listed the river with a dual name of some form for as long as it has been on maps, those same sources also use the dual name, as do people who actively use the river. Add to that the fact that Wikipedia needs to be neutral - which dual names do far better than when they are consistently omitted - and I'm not entirely sure why you're always so insistent on making such changes. It also doesn't really matter whether or not you find a name awkward - I find Avon Heathcote Estuary awkward but I'm not here replacing it with Ihutai. But whatever, you do you. Turnagra (talk) 05:09, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Once again—as I have pointed out since the beginning—this isn’t omitting the dual name. The dual name is mentioned in the lead, listed in the infobox and discussed in the article. Seeing as we really aren’t getting into this, I won’t point out that your sources are generally less reliable and usage is far less numerous. Even the news item (in Pou Tiaki, Stuff’s Māori arm) uses the dual name once and then once reversed. Clearly the dual name doesn’t even have a common enough usage that its order is memorable. But somehow I have no doubt you will continue to “do you”…

Happy New Year, Turnagra — HTGS (talk) 09:27, 4 January 2022 (UTC)