Talk:M. Peter McPherson

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On 26 January 2018, it was proposed that this article be moved from M. Peter McPherson to Peter McPherson. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

Coding Issues

Discussion of McPherson's Peace Corps involvement is somehow entangled in the references section of his biography page. I can't seem to figure out how to untangle it. I already tried but it seems to revert back to way it is now. I'd appreciate some help in that regard. Thanks in advance! CavanaughPark (talk) 01:44, 24 March 2008 (UTC)CavanaughPark[reply]

Yeah, Jcelizalde messed up the formatting for the citations and the Peace Corps section got deleted from the main article. The easiest solution is to revert to the last good version on March 10 which is what I did.

Best Regards,

Reservoirhill (talk) 10:31, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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Requested move 26 January 2018

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: #1 – no consensus, #2 – moved. See little general agreement for the first proposal, and yet there appears to be a consensus and definite need to qualify the Australian footballer. Since WP:PTOPIC is in dispute, the vacated base name will title the disambiguation page for now. Editors can revisit the PTOPIC issue at any time. ♥Happy ♥Hearts ♥Day! (closed by page mover) Paine Ellsworth ^put'r there 22:29, 9 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

– M. Peter McPherson has a good case of being the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC of the Peter McPherson name, because that McPherson was a former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and President of Michigan State University. These are both positions that have much influence in the world, considering what the USAID does and that Michigan State University is ranked in the top 150 of the 500-deep Academic Ranking of World Universities [1]. That is surely more influence in the world than the Australian soccer/association football player Peter McPherson or the former American football player and dentist Peter McPherson, both of whom are only highly known within their native countries.

Also, per WP:COMMONNAME the former academic and US government executive is more commonly known as simply "Peter McPherson" as shown in the following Google searches:

"Dr m. peter mcpherson" "Michigan state": 473
"Dr peter mcpherson" "Michigan state": 604
"president peter mcpherson" "Michigan state": 3.3k
"president m peter mcpherson" "Michigan state": 1.8k
"Peter McPherson" "Michigan State" returns 23k results, compared to 10k for "M. Peter McPherson" "Michigan State"

News media has also used simply "Peter", like the Lansing State Journal in 1994 [2], 1999 [3], and 2002 [4] among other years per a google search "Peter McPherson" "Michigan State" site:newspapers.com

There is also WP:SELFIDENTITY, because the MSU Office of the President website during his administration used "President Peter McPherson". Arbor to SJ (talk) 00:32, 26 January 2018 (UTC) --Relisting. –Ammarpad (talk) 09:36, 2 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Disagree. You propose breaking something that works. I say hat notes take care of any confusion. Roseohioresident (talk) 02:18, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Support per detailed nomination. "Peter" is, indeed, used to an overwhelmingly greater degree than "M. Peter". Also, there is no indication that the 8-sentence stub for the Australian footballer represents the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC of Wikipedia biographical entries for individuals named Peter McPherson. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 07:01, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose first, support second move Peter McPherson (disambiguation) over base line. "Peter McPherson was/is" tests in GNews and GBooks show no primary for this common name. In ictu oculi (talk) 10:27, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Reply: Clicking the link showed a limited number of results that do not fully show how news media covered the former Michigan State University president. Googling "Peter McPherson" "Michigan State" shows many more google news results than "m. peter mcpherson" "Michigan state". Arbor to SJ (talk) 17:05, 3 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. If a consensus develops that the academic–government official is not the primary topic, I would support Peter McPherson (administrator) or any other reasonable qualifier, in addition to continuing support for Peter McPherson (Australian footballer) and, as a result, for Peter McPherson becoming the base name. —Roman Spinner (talk)(contribs) 17:59, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Reply: If that were to happen, I'd suggest keeping the article title as is, since there are enough instances where "M. Peter" is used to justify WP:NATURALDIS such as these links: 1993 New York Times story [5], the International Foundation for Educational Systems [6], and the Michigan State University archives [7]. Still, I stand by my position that someone notable for heading the United States Agency for International Development, Michigan State University, and Dow Jones & Company should be a primary topic for his name if possible. Arbor to SJ (talk) 06:05, 27 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yes Peter McPherson (administrator) fine. Clearly not primary. In ictu oculi (talk) 10:31, 2 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Support moves in general. The American public servant is clearly the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC in terms of both long-term significance (as shown above), and in page views, where he received *96%* of the views over the last 90 days.[8] Not sure how it's possible to argue he isn't the primary topic. However, the Australian McPherson should go to Peter McPherson (soccer) per the naming convention for sportspeople, in particular this.--Cúchullain ^t/c 15:47, 9 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Reply: My intention to propose Peter McPherson (Australian footballer) was to disambiguate from Peter McPherson (American football), but thanks for the tip. Arbor to SJ (talk) 16:14, 9 February 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.

Post debate notice

Peter McPherson (Australian footballer) was subsequently moved to Peter McPherson (soccer) to comply with WP:NCSP per editor Cúchullain. Paine Ellsworth ^put'r there 01:48, 10 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]