Talk:Brown-dwarf desert

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 March 2020 and 30 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jomoeberhard. Peer reviewers: Jfields7.

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Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was moved -- Aervanath (talk) 07:26, 3 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The most frequent usage of this term is without the hyphen. For example a search of the ADS abstracts service for the term "brown-dwarf desert" (in quotes) results in 7 abstracts being retrieved [1] whereas a search for "brown dwarf desert" (in quotes) results in 71 abstracts being retrieved [2]. A similar pattern is obtained from a Google search: about 5,830 for "brown-dwarf desert" (in quotes) [3] but about 17,500 for "brown dwarf desert" (in quotes) [4]. Icalanise (talk) 12:18, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's true that it is very common in English to ignore the rules and use ambiguous or incorrect typography. I usually take 10% correct as sufficient evidence that the rules apply. In English grammar, "brown dwarf desert" is a dwarf desert that is brown, while "brown-dwarf desert" is a relative lack of brown dwarfs. Since some 10% of editors go to the trouble to get it right, we should, too. Dicklyon (talk) 14:55, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the other hand Wikipedia guidelines state that the most common name should be used, not the most correct. Icalanise (talk) 16:02, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The guidelines also talk about choosing titles that are precise, rather than ambiguous. With the hyphen it's precise; without, it's ambiguous. Dicklyon (talk) 00:08, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There's only an ambiguity if the term "dwarf desert" actually exists. The first page of Google hits for such a term returns references to the brown dwarf desert, and a dwarf desert hamster. Icalanise (talk) 00:29, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there it is; the brown dwarf desert hamster is the garden path you'd be on if you left out the hyphen. By the time you wonder what a "dwarf desert" is, you're way past the misleading mis-hyphenation. Dicklyon (talk) 02:27, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Are you suggesting that someone could come across this article and think of hamsters? Really? Icalanise (talk) 12:30, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No, not really. Just suggesting that correct punctuation makes the title easier to read and understand. Dicklyon (talk) 16:07, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Support – There seems to be very little likelihood of confusing this term with a dwarf desert that is brown, or with a hamster species.—RJH (talk) 18:17, 29 March 2009 (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. No further edits should be made to this section.