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Requested move 14 August 2018[edit]

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved as proposed. Clear consensus that the Black Mirror episode is not the primary topic for this term. (closed by non-admin page mover) Bradv 04:50, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]


WP:ASTONISH. In ictu oculi (talk) 08:50, 14 August 2018 (UTC) --Relisting. bd2412 T 03:39, 28 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

WP:ASTONISH may not be policy, but it's good advice. WP:DAB is policy, and it says that the primary purpose of disambiguation is leading readers to the page they may desire. Finding an obscure topic, as it is a single episode of a popular series, can be disorienting, when it seems likely that Wikipedia might cover elsewhere the concept in either aviation or economics. Diego (talk) 22:51, 25 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Some claim the science fiction episode, 63 minutes, 21 October 2016, Middling reviews, noted for predictability and repetitiveness, is the primary topic? Seriously? The article, like the independent secondary sources, introduce and refer to the topic throughout with scare quotes. This is because the episode alludes to the word. Nosedive. A sudden large decrease. A noun since 1912. A verb since 1915. The words "nosedive", like "stall and "sideslip", are aviation allusions frequently applied to popularity, which is the central theme of the episode. Clearly derivative. Therefore, not the primary topic, just a flash in the pan popular scifi episode with a very brief rush of fan coverage.
Commercial products, whether toys, songs, or TV episodes, should not easily be afforded "Primary topic" status. It is just a clever form of promotion, name your product with a catchy common word that can easily be slipped into everyday usage in a jingle, a slogan, human memory. Everyone knows what a nosedive is, in a vague way, and so the human mind is prone to something new being slotted into place over that long term memory.[1] No, commercial products must not be allowed to grab "primary status" for common concepts or words.
And quite apart from not being a primary topic for a nosedive, the episode is of no interest outside the context of being a Black Mirror episode. "Black Mirror" belongs in the title, for consistency (see Category:Black Mirror episodes), and for recognisability, and because the sources always include the context of "Black Mirror".
--SmokeyJoe (talk) 04:54, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
"Middling reviews, noted for predictability and repetitiveness". You mean the Emmy-nominated episode which won its lead actor a Screen Actors Guild Award? But seriously, I don't see how your low opinion of the episode has anything to do with this. Your argument amounts to WP:IDONTLIKEIT. And the idea that the creator of an episode chose the episode title so that it would the be primary topic on Wikipedia, or somehow intrude its way into the viewer's mind, is a preposterous conspiracy theory.
WP:DETERMINEPRIMARY very specifically says "Being the original source of the name is also not determinative" and we are not a dictionary. Your ramblings about commercial products do not match our article naming policies in the slightest. WP:PRECISION contradicts what you say about consistency in Black Mirror episodes (it's not convention at WP:TV to disambiguate all episode articles in the way you describe). I suggest you reconsider your comments. Bilorv(c)(talk) 11:15, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The middling reviews stuff speaks to the improbability of ongoing significance. Being the original source is not determinative, but it is important. Commercial aspects go to WP:NOTPROMOTION. PRECISION and CONSISTENCY both matter; the first is failed because the term is ambiguous, the second supports all episodes carrying the same parenthetical. I checked your comment, nosedive meaning Descent (aeronautics) is pretty significant. There is no PRimaryTopic. —SmokeyJoe (talk) 12:09, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
If you just want to look up the definition, you're at the wrong venue... find that at wikt:nosedive. wbm1058 (talk) 16:40, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I have a problem with the second item listed on the nosedive (disambiguation) page, "In sailing, a trapeze (sailing)". The trapeze refers to a wire that comes from a point high on the mast, usually where the shrouds are fixed, to a hook on the crew member's harness at approximately waist level. From that article, "This is necessary to prevent racing catamarans such as the Tornado from digging the bow into the water, also called pitchpoling, and causing a nosedive and often a spectacular capsize." In other words, a trapeze is a thing, it's not a "nosedive". Nosedive isn't even a valid term in sailing; it's the everyday word used to describe the meaning of pitchpoling, the actual sailing term which nobody's as yet bothered to create a redirect for. Nor is there a redirect for pitchpole; see wikt:pitchpole. But you know that, the minute some TV writer names an episode "Pitchpole", there will be a knee-jerk reaction to retroactively create a disambiguation page to define the term. Or maybe not, if nobody's astonished by seeing an unfamiliar term used to name an episode. – wbm1058 (talk) 17:27, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I expect pitchpoling/pitchpole don't exist because they aren't common words, the term nosedive is a common word, but I'd say that those 2 redirects should probably be created. Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:35, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
On seeing the update to the target of Dive (aviation), I think this is a reasonable link to the topic with the greatest long-term significance. Whether that's enough to counteract the weight of current usage, I'm still not sure of that. wbm1058 (talk) 16:26, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
If you're referring to the addition of the words "or nosedive" to the article, I believe that is a faulty edit. The 3 sources added - two dictionary definitions and one discussion of a definition - seem to corroborate Narky Blert's statement below, that nosedive is a subset of dive, not a synonym as presented in that edit. A dive has a number of intentional purposes, while a nosedive involves lack of pilot control and possibly ground contact. While a paragraph could probably be written about nosedives, as of now nobody has written it and the article appears to be inaccurate. Station1 (talk) 06:30, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Where do you see that nosedive is a subset of dive? All the references define nosedive as a steep and sudden fall, and only the Linguistics analysis introduces a suggestion to distinguish uncontrolled falls as one particular case of several (with both dive and nosedive appearing either with or without control). Diego (talk) 09:35, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Although sometimes used synonymously, the Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms (the original citation in the article) says that a dive is simply "a steep descending flight path"; it has no entry for nosedive. The Cambridge source just added, says a nosedive is "a fast and sudden fall to the ground with the front pointing down". The Oxford source says "plunge". The Token source says "without the pilot's control", while the rest of Descent_(aeronautics)#Dives describes only dives that are under the pilot's control, such as used in acrobatics and dive bombing. I'll add that Webster's says a dive is "a steep descent, in which the air speed attained is greater than the maximum speed in horizontal flight", while a nosedive is more specifically "a head-on dive in an airplane". Station1 (talk) 20:43, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Well, of course, who said they don't? But a Primary Topic is not just "something that people take seriously", it must be the thing that people unambiguously thinks of as the thing that goes with the name (if it's not unambiguous, it needs disambiguation); and not just as the first thing that comes to mind, but also after reflecting upon it, even then it must be the thing that makes people say "well, of course this subject is the primary topic, what else could it be? Oh yes maybe there's such and such, but I understand how this one is is primary". So I ask, what is the percentage of the English-speaking population that when hearing "nosedive" think, "Of course, you're talking about that Black Mirror episode"? (I really enjoyed the episode, by the way; it may be one of the best in the series. Not that it's relevant to the discussion). Diego (talk) 22:51, 28 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The primary meaning in UK of 'nosedive' has been a subset of Dive (aviation) since WWII, and I suspect also since WWI. A nosedive is not a good idea: it implies an impending crash; most likely, because a plane has just been shot up, and is heading straight towards the ground, nose first, most likely under power; with unfortunate (i.e. fatal) consequences for everyone in it.
"He went into a nosedive" is laconic 1940s RAF understatement.
Where did that UK TV series get their episode title from?, I ask myself. Narky Blert (talk) 04:08, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Playing the Wikipedia:BUTIDONTKNOWABOUTIT card? I hope the closing admin has the policy understanding to weigh such !votes appropriately... --В²C 16:43, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Narky Blert makes the pertinent point that even in the UK many people know absolutely nothing about this TV series. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 23:30, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I find funny that B2C's new argument is that the closer will know how to understand policy properly (linking to a guideline stating Because many topics on Wikipedia are more interesting or pertinent to particular groups, one potential criterion to commonly avoid is what "first comes to mind"), when the whole position for not moving is that the TV chapter is popular among people looking for information about the series. Diego (talk) 05:36, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I'm also in the UK and have never heard of Black Mirror, I agree to most people "Nosedive" means the descent. Crouch, Swale (talk) 20:49, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Are we serving the users, or not?[edit]

Any user who enters nosedive into the WP Search box and hits Go is most likely looking for the article about the episode. We know this from page view counts and Google test results limited to en.wp discussed above. The Astonish argument is essentially, "too bad", because the tiny minority looking for the relatively rarely viewed aeronautical article will be "astonished" upon landing on a TV episode article titled Nosedive. It is a disservice to all the users searching with nosedive in order to read about this episode to send them somewhere else instead, and they are clearly in the majority. Are we about serving the users, or not? It seems to me anyone supporting this move is not. --В²C 02:05, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that anyone supporting the move is not trying to serve the users. But I agree with the sentiment. One interesting thought I had is that ASTONISH is not really related to whether editors coming to the discussion are astonished about where they landed. It's about whether a reader would think "I wonder if Wikipedia has an article on ___; I'll just type in 'nosedive'" and end up somewhere unexpected. And it seems quite rare that a reader would type in 'nosedive' if they were looking for something aviation or stock market related, but of course it's the only thing someone looking for the Black Mirror episode could possibly search for (and it's a highly searched-for article). Bilorv(c)(talk) 02:23, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
If the episode were titled Nosedive (Black Mirror), "Nosedive (Black Mirror)" would appear at the top of the drop-down autocomplete suggestions, the best result for everyone. Under the ambigfuous "Nosedive" title, no one know for sure what they will get. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 02:48, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
All of this is not so hard to work out on a large desktop screen. On a small computer or handheld device, working it out is awful. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 02:49, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
It's best to ignore the role that drop downs may or may not play. On mobile if I type in nosedive and click Search, it takes me to Nosedive. Which is good, because that's where most people typing nosedive in the Search box are looking to go. Where someone unlikely to ever enter nosedive in the Search box, like many of the participants in this discussion appear to be in (including myself), would expect to be taken if they ever did search for nosedive, is hardly relevant compared to where users who are likely to enter such a search are looking to go. And that, at least for the foreseeable future, is the article about the TV episode. --В²C 16:52, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Now you want to ignore the dropdowns? What proportion of even English speakers do you think know anything of the TV episode? What proportion know about aeroplanes? --SmokeyJoe (talk) 23:30, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Of the people who search for "Nosedive" on WP, a very large majority know about the TV episode because that's what they are searching for. Everybody knows about aeroplanes, but very few would expect a separate article about nosedives. Station1 (talk) 06:50, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The use of the search box is not restricted to those only interested in separate articles.
There are very many reasons someone one Wikipedia would want to search for "nosedive". The word occurs in many articles, very often a key word where if you don't know what it means you can't understand the sentence. examples include:
"Attendance took a nosedive,"
"Tourism takes a nosedive in Crimea"
"a nosedive and crash like the one that killed Lilienthal"
"Disney, in particular, saw its ratings nosedive"
"The airplane plummeted into a nosedive" (ua93)
"Raasi's career started taking a nosedive"
"can lead to a nosedive crash"
"Used VW diesel prices nosedive"
"Karate's Prestige Takes a Nosedive"
"in an attempt to send the plane into a nosedive"
"sales took a sharp nosedive"
The Wikipedia search box does not include a warning to not search for words. A reader who just happens to not be a fan of a particular TV anthology may very well search for this key word, and end up somewhere astonishing. People searching "nosedive" are best taken to the DAB page where there is the Wiktionary link. By retitling the episode "Nosedive (Black Mirror)", it will appear in the search box at the top after the fifth letter is typed, preventing the access-rich TV pop culture fans from accidentally seeing a DAB page. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 07:20, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
It's best to be taken to a dab page with a Wiktionary link for those people searching for a definition of nosedive. It's best to be taken directly to the TV episode for those people searching for the TV episode. The latter outnumber the former by a huge margin. Station1 (talk) 07:36, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
That's true, but... If the episode were at "Nosedive (Black Mirror)", everyone wins. People searching for the episode see "Nosedive (Black Mirror)", people searching for other things (definition or the other topics) will not go to the episode. It's better for everyone to win, than for just most to win. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 08:02, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
You're assuming everyone who wants the TV episode will click on that new title. I assume many will, but not everyone. Some will still type Nosedive/Enter, and the vast majority of that smaller number will still want the TV episode. It's a small number who will be slightly inconvenienced, but still a net detriment to WP. Station1 (talk) 08:25, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
And how large is that number of readers looking for the episode who will not click on Nosedive (Black Mirror), compared to readers who are not looking for the episode and will get a net improvement? 'cause for people deliberately avoiding the tag (Black Mirror), the most likely explanation is that they are not looking for Black Mirror. Diego (talk) 09:19, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
How is any of this discussion related to policy-based arguments? It's all hypotheticals. Wikipedia editors skew unduly towards using browsers and being sighted. I personally have very little idea of what navigation with the search bar is like when using mobile or speech-to-text software (or a Braille keyboard etc.). But I would imagine that in these cases, users looking for the Black Mirror episode would benefit from it being located at Nosedive. Now of course only a minority of readers will be blind, but a large majority are on mobile, so there's little point to approaching this from the perspective of how we use the search function. Bilorv(c)(talk) 16:29, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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 or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Links to include[edit]

@JHunterJ and Uanfala: please stop making changes without consensus. Let's discuss the links which should be included in the dab page, and in what order. My suggestion is we include all of the links that were originally there. Note that to include a link, the target does not need to use the word "nosedive"; it only needs to cover the topic that "nosedive" describes in that context. Then, I think we should have two sections for "Terminology" and "Arts and entertainment", and the Black Mirror link will either be in the opening sentence or the latter category depending on the closure of the discussion above. Bilorv(c)(talk) 22:10, 23 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It's reasonable to include Dive (aviation) in the main body of the dab. I wouldn't object to mentioning the term "nosedive" in the Descent (aeronautics) article, defining it as an "extreme dive" which puts a plane at risk of a crash or actually results in (perhaps causes) a crash. I'll bet if you searched for news articles about small-plane crashes you could find one quoting a witness who saw the plane "nosedive into the parking lot" where their attempt at an emergency landing failed. wbm1058 (talk) 14:23, 24 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it's a widely used term (though somewhat tautological: you really don't want to attempt a taildive). Certes (talk) 14:13, 27 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]