Talk:Kirk

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference

Should this page be a redirect, or a disambiguation page for various Kirks (George Samuel Kirk, Peter Kirk, James T. Kirk (mirror), etc.)? --Josiah Rowe 17:11, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)

I say disambig, as was done with Sisko and others. Tyrant 17:13, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)Tyrant

Disambig, definitely. -- Michael Warren | Talk 17:13, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)

Will do. (I'd just fixed the broken redirect while waiting for response to the question — I didn't expect such fast service!) --Josiah Rowe 17:19, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)

[edit] Two more questions

OK, it's a disambiguation page now; the next question I've got is whether Kirk android or Kirk Thatcher should be listed. I can't imagine anyone typing "Kirk" and meaning either of them, but you never know... --Josiah Rowe 17:30, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)

I believe Kirk android applies, but I don't believe that actors qualify for disambiguation pages. --Gvsualan 19:45, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)

I disagree, it might not be used, but it might be. And if it has any chance of being helpful, where's the harm? Tyrant 19:51, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)Tyrant

Fair enough. In they both go... --Josiah Rowe 19:57, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)

Ah, however, Kirk in Kirk Thatcher is his first name, a.f.a.i.k., disambiguations are for last names (except in cases where only the first or a singlar name is know) -- otherwise every actress in star trek with the first name "Kelly" would be on Kelly disambiguation page and James Kirk and James Doohan would be on the James page, and at the same time forcing that into a disambiguation. Its unnecessary, thats why the search feature is capable of producing results instead of disambiguation pages for every partial name/place/etc that anyone types. --Gvsualan 20:12, 3 Mar 2005 (GMT)

Can I get a definitive word on this, either from a help page, from an admin or a consensus of users? I can't tell from Memory Alpha:Disambiguation whether to use my judgment (which would suggest not including the android or Kirk Thatcher), to go with Tyrant's "what's the harm?" philosophy and include them both, or follow Gvsualan's suggestion and include the android but not Thatcher. --Josiah Rowe 03:30, 4 Mar 2005 (GMT)

Well look at it this way. Kirk android is James T. Kirk as much as James T. Kirk (mirror) is James T. Kirk -- all the same actor representing the same character from the same family -- in one "format" or another. --Gvsualan 03:44, 4 Mar 2005 (GMT)

I suppose my reasoning (which I'm hardly committed to) would be that a disambiguation page exists for two purposes: to help readers find the page they're looking for, and to act like a redirect when there are multiple entries the listing could go towards. I can envision a sloppy editor writing [[Kirk]] in, say, a summary of a novel about the Mirror Universe, or about one of James T.'s family members. I can't imagine anyone making a wiki link to [[Kirk]] meaning the android or the erstwhile Muppeteer/punk, nor can I imagine someone on this wikiwiki typing "Kirk" when looking for either of these two.

But as I said, I'm willing to go with a consensus or an authoritative source here. --Josiah Rowe 04:52, 4 Mar 2005 (GMT)

• Well, I stand by helpful and harmless. And to respond to Gvsualan, I think that once a disambig is created everything with that name in it should be added. Therefore, if James or Kelly exist as a disambig, then we can have a sub-section for people with that first name, but we wouldn't create a disambig solely for that purpose. None of these list are going to be overly long, and if they are, so what, as long as we have the more obvious ones at the top. Tyrant 04:59, 4 Mar 2005 (GMT)Tyrant

I don't believe it is the intention of the creators to make this entire site one massive disabiguation -- and our universe (actors) should be separate from the star trek universe (characters). Although hearing from an authority on this would be nice (hint, hint)--Gvsualan 22:08, 4 Mar 2005 (GMT)