Talk:Tacoma (disambiguation)

Primary topic

User:Ego White Tray and myself have a disagreement over what the primary topic is. EWY says in his edit summary that Tacoma, Washington is the primary topic. I believe that there is no primary topic and that we have no way of knowing which of the many meanings the reader is looking for. For myself, I was originally brought here looking for information on the Toyota Tacoma - the cities, ships, etc meant nothing to me. Other readers may be looking for the ship. We can not assign a primary topic based on what is most important for one editor. Comments?  Stepho  talk  04:00, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

Well, I'm saying it's primary topic for the very simple reason that Tacoma is a redirect to Tacoma, Washington. But, aside from that, I'd first say that the pickup isn't even in contention, since it is almost never called just "Tacoma" but usually "Toyota Tacoma." Excluding the city in Washington, there are eight disambiguation entries on the page and five of them (including the pickup) are unquestionably named after the city. Of the first 20 Google results, 18 are about the city, with the pickup and guitar company getting one result each. The case for the city as primary topic is overwhelming. If you have any good arguments otherwise, I suggest opening a move request to propose renaming this page to just Tacoma, which is the standard way to make a topic no longer primary. Ego White Tray (talk) 04:34, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

I have objections to most of what you just said. But since you've changed Tacoma, Washington to be just another item in the list instead of above and beyond the list, I'm happy with the final result.  Stepho  talk  05:16, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

Well, if I don't hear any good counter-arguments, I will put the city at the top, which is standard practice for a disambiguation page that has a primary topic. Ego White Tray (talk) 03:08, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

I have no objection to putting Tacoma, Washington at the top of the list of cities - after all, one of them has to be first. I only object to it being separated out, above and beyond the list. WP:HITS strikes out using Google as a way of ranking the cities (Google doesn't differentiate between being truly more important or just a particularly chatty group). Tacoma is more likely an accident of history - ie somebody associated with Tacoma, Washington created Tacoma in 2003 before anybody else did and nobody got around to changing it (except for some fuss in mid 2004). The pickup is often called "the Tacoma", with the brand name being assumed. Your reasons are not overwhelming.  Stepho  talk  06:18, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Let's completely reject the idea that we need to rank the cities. The city in Washington has over 200,000 people living there, and the other two places don't even have a 1,000. Based on that, there can be no doubt that Tacoma in Washington is the primary city with this name. The question then becomes what non-city entries could possibly challenge the city for primary topic. None of the ships are all that famous, and the guitar maker isn't one of the top names in its industry, so I guess the only possible challenger is Toyota (which, I should note, explicitly named this vehicle for the city/mountain). Ego White Tray (talk) 19:04, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

As far as the Google Hits, the page rejects it as a way to determine notability (all topics here are clearly notable anyway), but says nothing about determining primary topic. Yes, Google rankings have their flaws - but there is nothing about the city that would wrongly give it a higher score than Toyota. All the things that bias Google results bias both topics pretty much the same. Ego White Tray (talk) 19:07, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Agreed that cities don't need to be ranked - I have no objection to where Tacoma, Washington happens to be within the list of cities. As to what could challenge it for being the primary topic - well, I guess that depends on what interests you. I have an interest in the vehicle but no interest in the cities, guitars or ships. Another reader may well have different interests. I'm quite happy with this article as it is now and think it represents the interest of most readers in a fair manner.  Stepho  talk  09:04, 18 November 2013 (UTC)