This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States Territories, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Territories of the United States on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.United States TerritoriesWikipedia:WikiProject United States TerritoriesTemplate:WikiProject United States TerritoriesUnited States Territories articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Polynesia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Polynesia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PolynesiaWikipedia:WikiProject PolynesiaTemplate:WikiProject PolynesiaPolynesia articles
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: Not moved – Clear consensus against the global renaming. Some individual moves may be discussed separately. —
JFGtalk 15:13, 19 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Eleven American Samoa articles already follow this form, including
Tafuna, American Samoa, the territory's largest settlement; this proposal is to consistently apply the convention to all populated place articles within and below the AS category. This form would be consistent with the great majority of our other US territorial populated place articles (>80% of which append the territory name), as well as with US populated place articles overall (>99% of which follow the convention).
Over the years there've been occasional moves to individual AS articles each way, with a couple removing the territory name
[1][2] and some others adding it.
[3][4][5] Consistently applying a single pattern is better — and if we do agree to apply a single pattern, then including the territory name is the preferable one since it squares with the majority of other US territorial articles, with the great majority of US placename articles in general, and with various
reliable sources like the US Census Bureau
[6][7][8], local sources
[9][10][11], etc. (And of course many assorted general sites, e.g.
[12][13][14][15][16][17][18], etc.)
╠╣uw[
talk 12:53, 12 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Thanks, but I think the idea of applying consistent
naming patterns still remains. Note that one important goal here is to achieve some degree of
title consistency, both within the AS category and also with the overwhelming majority of both state and territorial US articles (many of which follow the convention for
reasons other than just disambiguation).
╠╣uw[
talk 14:24, 13 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose group nomination as excessive disambiguation. USPLACE is a problem that should not be spread further per
ignore all rules. If individual articles specifically need disambiguation they should be discussed on a case by case basis.
Timrollpickering (
talk) 12:42, 14 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Suppport per
WP:USPLACE as these are places within the United States. Imzadi 1979→ 19:55, 14 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose, especially when disambiguation is unnecessary. American Samoa is not part of the official names, and doubtfully is part of the common names. For ones where disambiguation is needed, perhaps it may be useful, although "(village)" adds a deal of information as well.
CMD (
talk) 06:05, 15 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose American Samoa is not part of the United States, and
WP:USPLACE does not apply. It is a possession of the United States, but shares its culture (and language) with
Samoa and has more in common with Samoa than the United States. There is no need to import a usage which is familiar in the U.S. but is out of place in the Samoan Islands.--
Mhockey (
talk) 22:28, 15 November 2016 (UTC)reply
American Samoa is indeed part of the United States, as affirmed by recent RfCs and mediation — please see the update at
Talk:United States, as well as our articles on the
the US,
its geography, etc.
╠╣uw[
talk 00:39, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Well it depends on who you ask. Without wishing to reopen last year's RfC, which was about how to define the United States in the WP article on the United States, the Supreme Court (
report here) has recently confirmed that those born in AS are not US citizens by birth, because they were not born in the US. The Internal Revenue Code (s.7701) defines the United States as the States and DC. The AS government controls immigration under rules which are quite different from those in the US. The point is, American Samoa is different. If you have been there you will know that it is more Samoan than American.--
Mhockey (
talk) 01:54, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Who we ask are many reliable sources;
the US mediation and RfC recently did that in very great depth, and did consider immigration, the IRS, and many other factors. The result was a geographical definition of the United States that explicitly includes both states and territories, based on the preponderance of reliable sources. I won't re-debate all of that here; I'll simply say that in the context of a discussion on geographic features, it's best if we stick to our own agreed-upon geographic definitions and geographic guidelines.
╠╣uw[
talk 11:42, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose. Totally pointless and unnecessary. Why add more words than we need? --
Necrothesp (
talk) 14:07, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Because they are needed – to make titles in this category consistent with each other, to make them consistent with the form followed by nearly all our other 40,000+ US state and territorial articles, to follow reliable sources, to reflect common US usage... basically for all the
various reasons we've repeatedly affirmed USPLACE as our guideline for US places. Thanks,
╠╣uw[
talk 17:32, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Support as a reasonable application of
WP:USPLACE and precision more generally.
Dicklyon (
talk) 05:51, 18 November 2016 (UTC)reply
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Requested move 25 August 2020
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 after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.
It was proposed in this section that multiple pages be
renamed and moved.
result: Procedural close. Seems clear that this issue must be discussed in a different venue where it will attract a wider possible consensus. (
nac by
page mover) P.I. Ellsworthed.put'r there 18:16, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
– Why are these articles named the way they are? First of all, there are some articles like
Tafuna, American Samoa, that already follow the conventions listed at
WP:USPLACE. Why should these articles not also be named like that? (and for the record, American Samoa IS part of the United States. They are a territory.) If USPLACE does not apply to territories, why do Puerto Rico, the USVI, Guam, and the CNMI all follow USPLACE, but American Samoa does not? Also, these village names are in Samoan. Suffixing them with ,American Samoa helps discern them from towns in Samoa, which can be hard to tell apart (as most readers of the English Wikipedia do not speak Samoan). I-82-I|TALK 06:48, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
SPEEDY CLOSE This precise issue has just been argued out at
Talk:Futiga#Requested move 17 August 2020 which closed as "No move" less than 18 hours before this was opened. We shouldn't have to argue the same thing all the time.
Timrollpickering (
talk) 09:15, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
I support the proposed moves on merits, though Timrollpickering is quite right to note that we did just complete a discussion related to the titling of some American Samoa articles. That RM addressed a subset of AS articles that were the subject of contested moves; is there merit now to explicitly considering all places in American Samoa? (My guess is that this question will continue to arise since, as the nominator notes, these articles are all oddly
out of step with nearly all other US place articles, for reasons that the previous RM didn't make clear.)
╠╣uw[
talk 14:04, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Well the point about the other US place (territory) articles was made and then countered that this conventions isn't universally applied in the US territories. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:21, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Support as I think USPLACE does (or should) apply.
Rreagan007 (
talk) 16:05, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Speedy close. As pointed out above, we had just finished discussing this issue. Consensus can change, but not literally overnight. –
Uanfala (talk) 16:58, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Yes the Futiga RM close noted "It may take a wider discussion to resolve this issue." I'm not sure if having the debate here is "wide" enough for that, maybe discussion at
Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (geographic names) might be a better place. In any case if we're not sure then its probably better to just have them at the plain name. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:16, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States Territories, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Territories of the United States on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.United States TerritoriesWikipedia:WikiProject United States TerritoriesTemplate:WikiProject United States TerritoriesUnited States Territories articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Polynesia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of
Polynesia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PolynesiaWikipedia:WikiProject PolynesiaTemplate:WikiProject PolynesiaPolynesia articles
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: Not moved – Clear consensus against the global renaming. Some individual moves may be discussed separately. —
JFGtalk 15:13, 19 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Eleven American Samoa articles already follow this form, including
Tafuna, American Samoa, the territory's largest settlement; this proposal is to consistently apply the convention to all populated place articles within and below the AS category. This form would be consistent with the great majority of our other US territorial populated place articles (>80% of which append the territory name), as well as with US populated place articles overall (>99% of which follow the convention).
Over the years there've been occasional moves to individual AS articles each way, with a couple removing the territory name
[1][2] and some others adding it.
[3][4][5] Consistently applying a single pattern is better — and if we do agree to apply a single pattern, then including the territory name is the preferable one since it squares with the majority of other US territorial articles, with the great majority of US placename articles in general, and with various
reliable sources like the US Census Bureau
[6][7][8], local sources
[9][10][11], etc. (And of course many assorted general sites, e.g.
[12][13][14][15][16][17][18], etc.)
╠╣uw[
talk 12:53, 12 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Thanks, but I think the idea of applying consistent
naming patterns still remains. Note that one important goal here is to achieve some degree of
title consistency, both within the AS category and also with the overwhelming majority of both state and territorial US articles (many of which follow the convention for
reasons other than just disambiguation).
╠╣uw[
talk 14:24, 13 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose group nomination as excessive disambiguation. USPLACE is a problem that should not be spread further per
ignore all rules. If individual articles specifically need disambiguation they should be discussed on a case by case basis.
Timrollpickering (
talk) 12:42, 14 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Suppport per
WP:USPLACE as these are places within the United States. Imzadi 1979→ 19:55, 14 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose, especially when disambiguation is unnecessary. American Samoa is not part of the official names, and doubtfully is part of the common names. For ones where disambiguation is needed, perhaps it may be useful, although "(village)" adds a deal of information as well.
CMD (
talk) 06:05, 15 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose American Samoa is not part of the United States, and
WP:USPLACE does not apply. It is a possession of the United States, but shares its culture (and language) with
Samoa and has more in common with Samoa than the United States. There is no need to import a usage which is familiar in the U.S. but is out of place in the Samoan Islands.--
Mhockey (
talk) 22:28, 15 November 2016 (UTC)reply
American Samoa is indeed part of the United States, as affirmed by recent RfCs and mediation — please see the update at
Talk:United States, as well as our articles on the
the US,
its geography, etc.
╠╣uw[
talk 00:39, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Well it depends on who you ask. Without wishing to reopen last year's RfC, which was about how to define the United States in the WP article on the United States, the Supreme Court (
report here) has recently confirmed that those born in AS are not US citizens by birth, because they were not born in the US. The Internal Revenue Code (s.7701) defines the United States as the States and DC. The AS government controls immigration under rules which are quite different from those in the US. The point is, American Samoa is different. If you have been there you will know that it is more Samoan than American.--
Mhockey (
talk) 01:54, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Who we ask are many reliable sources;
the US mediation and RfC recently did that in very great depth, and did consider immigration, the IRS, and many other factors. The result was a geographical definition of the United States that explicitly includes both states and territories, based on the preponderance of reliable sources. I won't re-debate all of that here; I'll simply say that in the context of a discussion on geographic features, it's best if we stick to our own agreed-upon geographic definitions and geographic guidelines.
╠╣uw[
talk 11:42, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Oppose. Totally pointless and unnecessary. Why add more words than we need? --
Necrothesp (
talk) 14:07, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Because they are needed – to make titles in this category consistent with each other, to make them consistent with the form followed by nearly all our other 40,000+ US state and territorial articles, to follow reliable sources, to reflect common US usage... basically for all the
various reasons we've repeatedly affirmed USPLACE as our guideline for US places. Thanks,
╠╣uw[
talk 17:32, 16 November 2016 (UTC)reply
Support as a reasonable application of
WP:USPLACE and precision more generally.
Dicklyon (
talk) 05:51, 18 November 2016 (UTC)reply
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Requested move 25 August 2020
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 after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.
It was proposed in this section that multiple pages be
renamed and moved.
result: Procedural close. Seems clear that this issue must be discussed in a different venue where it will attract a wider possible consensus. (
nac by
page mover) P.I. Ellsworthed.put'r there 18:16, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
– Why are these articles named the way they are? First of all, there are some articles like
Tafuna, American Samoa, that already follow the conventions listed at
WP:USPLACE. Why should these articles not also be named like that? (and for the record, American Samoa IS part of the United States. They are a territory.) If USPLACE does not apply to territories, why do Puerto Rico, the USVI, Guam, and the CNMI all follow USPLACE, but American Samoa does not? Also, these village names are in Samoan. Suffixing them with ,American Samoa helps discern them from towns in Samoa, which can be hard to tell apart (as most readers of the English Wikipedia do not speak Samoan). I-82-I|TALK 06:48, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
SPEEDY CLOSE This precise issue has just been argued out at
Talk:Futiga#Requested move 17 August 2020 which closed as "No move" less than 18 hours before this was opened. We shouldn't have to argue the same thing all the time.
Timrollpickering (
talk) 09:15, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
I support the proposed moves on merits, though Timrollpickering is quite right to note that we did just complete a discussion related to the titling of some American Samoa articles. That RM addressed a subset of AS articles that were the subject of contested moves; is there merit now to explicitly considering all places in American Samoa? (My guess is that this question will continue to arise since, as the nominator notes, these articles are all oddly
out of step with nearly all other US place articles, for reasons that the previous RM didn't make clear.)
╠╣uw[
talk 14:04, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Well the point about the other US place (territory) articles was made and then countered that this conventions isn't universally applied in the US territories. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:21, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Support as I think USPLACE does (or should) apply.
Rreagan007 (
talk) 16:05, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Speedy close. As pointed out above, we had just finished discussing this issue. Consensus can change, but not literally overnight. –
Uanfala (talk) 16:58, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
Yes the Futiga RM close noted "It may take a wider discussion to resolve this issue." I'm not sure if having the debate here is "wide" enough for that, maybe discussion at
Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (geographic names) might be a better place. In any case if we're not sure then its probably better to just have them at the plain name. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 17:16, 25 August 2020 (UTC)reply
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.