User talk:Harjk/Jimbo Wales

Bangalore or Bengaluru

Dear Jimbo,

This is about Bangalore article. The city name has been officially renamed to Bengaluru since November 1, 2006 onwards. However, a lot of Indian chic lovers still prefer it to be Bangalore and they are editing/reverting against consensus. Coz, Bangalore sounds more chic and Bengaluru is a local name. The consensus should be clear that it should be renamed since it is a Government order. Since WP stands for WP:TRUTH, I feel it looks awkward seeing in the old name. The page should definitely be moved to Bengaluru. I'd moved it once, but it has been reverted by a minority. Do you have any opinion on this issue? Which name do you prefer? Please comment.
--Tomb of the Unknown Warrior tomb 09:29, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Jimbo has no special authority in content matters, so I fail to see why you appeal to him. I also fail to see where the consensus for Bengaluru was established. Opinions are quite equally divided, as far as I can tell. And the Government of India (or any other country or organisation) has no authority over what Wikipedia should use, not has it any authority over what English speaking persons outside India may or should use. Looking at Google News hits for only the past month, there are only 186 hits for Bengaluru[1], and some 12,000 for Bangalore[2], many from Indian sources. The official name is mentioned as such in the first line of the article, so I don't see how Wikipedia is not showing the truth. Fram (talk) 11:53, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In general, I think we should use the most common contemporary English names of places and take appropriate note of other names. Redirects can be used to help people find the right article. There will be many difficult borderline cases, and in such cases, I advise people to try to relax as much as possible: that is, I should acknowledge most probably the people who have a different view from me are not doing so out of malice or stupidity, and will eventually be persuaded of the right answer.

In your case, with the official renaming by the government, I can assume that Indian sources and then eventually other English speaking sources will start using the new name in due course. Or, if people do not come to like the new name, the old one will persist for a long time. But it is not up to Wikipedia to decide such things, I think: we are descriptivists, not prescriptivists.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 13:58, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your suggestion. So I think it is time for me to 'take relax' as you suggested. Let it ‘being bangalored’ in due course. Btw, I imply you to read Indian renaming controversy to get some POV’s on the issue. --Tomb of the Unknown Warrior tomb 05:48, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]