Talk:Boomstick

Expand, merge or redirect

This page is a mere dictionary definition (something which Wikipedia is not). It explains the meaning, alleged origins and one particular usage of a slang expression. I can't find any encyclopedic content on this page that's not better discussed on a different page. Nothing here rises past what I would expect to read in a truly great unabridged dictionary. The definitions and usage discussions belong over in Wiktionary where folks with the right skills, interests and lexical tools can more easily sort out the meanings and origins.

Options to fix the page here include:

1. Expand the page with encyclopedic content - that is, content that goes well beyond the merely lexical.
2. Redirect the page to a more general page.
3. Replace the current contents with a soft-redirect to Wiktionary (usually done using the {{wi}} template).

Pending a better answer and considering the strong recommendations of the AFD discussion participants, I'm implementing option 2 for now. I do note that there were two recommended redirect targets. The word "boomstick" is not used in the sawed-off shotgun article but is used in the Army of Darkness article. To minimize confusion and to best help our readers, I'm going to be bold and restore the redirect to the AoD page. Rossami (talk) 22:08, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Keep as an info page?

See also Talk:Sawed-off shotgun#Merge from Boomstick.

• I have restored to the info page. This page's current redirect target Army of Darkness does not contain the word "boomstick" anywhere and is no help for readers looking at Wikipedia to find what a boomstick is. The ultimate purpose of Wikipedia is as an information source for the public, and everything else is servant to that. Unless helped by context, someone coming across the word "boomstick" for the first time may guess any of these:
  1. "stick that goes boom": someone's slang for "gun"
  2. "stick that goes boom": someone's slang for "stick of explosive"
  3. a stick that is (part of) a boom#Pole or spar application
  4. typo or mishear for "broomstick"
  5. If he is a scuba diver, a bang stick

  Anthony Appleyard (talk) 04:26, 29 May 2009 (UTC)