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Article requests : Add sections on Commerce (without advertising), Gastronomy (where/what to eat and local delicacies - without advertising), Education, Industry. Add to the GalleryAdd images - it would be nice to add images of: villages in Lewis as they are today; wildlife actually from Lewis (as opposed to generic species image); anything showing industry in Lewis; an actual Lewis-Harris league football match; Something showing culture in Lewis
Cleanup : Land Mammals, Marine Life, Birds (need to rephrase contents as liberally copied from local authority website)
Expand :Education, Arts, Reptiles, Gastronomy , Transport, Government and politics, Sport, Myths and Legends, Industry, Mamals, Marine Life, Historical Events, Plant Life, Religion, Insects
Copy edit for WP 0.7 completed save for fact tag for "home of the poet". I can find numerous other suggestions in e.g. Haswell-Smith, Hamish (2004).
The Scottish Islands. Edinburgh: Canongate.
ISBN978-1-84195-454-7. I'll come back in a couple of days and change this unless a citation can be found.
BenMacDui08:47, 11 October 2008 (UTC)reply
Myths and legends
This article has a "myths and legends" section. I'd like to examine this for verifiability because of some doubts about sourcing.
Here is what it looks like at present:
The Blue Men of the Minch (also known as storm kelpies), who occupy the stretch of water between Lewis and mainland Scotland, looking for sailors to drown and stricken boats to sink.
Kelpies were said to occupy several lochs, including one at Leurbost.
Seonaidh - a water-spirit who had to be offered ale in the area of Teampull Mholuaidh in Ness.
Searrach Uisge - a monster who was said to occupy Loch Suainbhal. Resembling a capsized boat, this creature has been reported swimming around for one and a half centuries. Locals say lambs were once offered annually to the creature.[37] Other such creatures have been reported in several other lochs, including Loch Urubhal.
A family of werewolves were said to occupy an island on Loch Langavat. Although long deceased, they promised to rise if their graves were disturbed.
Various sea monsters have been reported off the shores of Lewis over the years, including a sighting reported in 1882 by a German ship off the Butt of Lewis. The ship, 15 kilometres off the coast, reported a sea serpent around 40 metres in length, several bumps protruding from the water, along its back. Sea serpents have also been reported at the southern side of the island.
Glowing Balls have been reported in the area of Sandwick. The lights that float around the area normally announce approaching death for a local. Some say the light belongs to an Irish merchant who was robbed and murdered on the island.
Much of this isn't a lot of use. For instance, a family of werewolves, long deceased? In what century? Which island of Loch Langavat? For this kind of tale, I'd expect to find a reference to a collection of oral history or folklore, but there is nothing of the sort. Since I began to type this section I've noticed
this posting on another site which echoes my own concerns about reliability.
Much of the sourcing seems to come from a website called The Paranormal Database. I've discussed this
at the reliable sources noticeboard and the consensus is that as a self-published source it's not reliable. I am removing that section from the article as of now. If reliable sources can be obtained the information can be restored. --
TS11:13, 13 January 2009 (UTC)reply
I've put The Blue Men back in, linking to a book on Scottish Myth and Legend, published in 1917, as a reference. Given how well they are known (far more than Seonaidh), it's a bit disappointing to have to do that.
Lianachan (
talk)
13:20, 13 January 2009 (UTC)reply
Talking of Dr Who, I have a snippet about the "Phantom of the Seven Hunters". Although referring to a ghost that reputedly inhabited (inhabits?) the
Flannan Isles, it is presumably a piece of folklore from, if not specifically about, Lewis.
BenMacDui19:41, 13 January 2009 (UTC)reply
I tidied the section up a wee bit, putting the two candidate toponymy sources togther and apart from the (vastly earlier) mention by Ptolemy. Heather Isle, in my experience, is almost never used - but does tend to refer to Lewis & Harris together, yes. I'll check my placename books and sources for some consensus on the origin of Lewis. Personally, I prefer the Gaelic one - although I can see how it could have been reverse engineered quite recently from the Ptolemy reference.
Lianachan (
talk)
22:25, 13 January 2009 (UTC)reply
Yes, perfectly aware of that, thanks. The expression was chosen for it's comedic value, so I'm glad it appears to have given satisfaction.
Lianachan (
talk)
09:07, 14 January 2009 (UTC)reply
Heights of the hills on Lewis
I notice that information on the heights of the hills has come from the 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The list of Marilyns gives updated information for the same peaks, and appears to give the Gaelic spelling of the names:
"Compared to Harris, Lewis is relatively flat, save in the south-east, where Ben More reaches 1,874 ft (571 m), and in the south-west, where Mealasbhal at 1,885 ft (575 m) is the highest point"
Updated and with the above information this would read:
"Compared with Harris, Lewis is relatively flat, except in the south-west, where Mealisval, 574m (1,883ft), is the highest point, and in the south-east, where Beinn Mhor reaches 572m (1,877ft) "
What precisely happened to the ownership of Lewis when Leverhulme died in 1925, and subsequently? The Lewis and Lever pages are not consistent.
Grahamsands (
talk)
13:16, 18 August 2010 (UTC)reply
The Lewis page is not so much inaccurate as that it fails to cover the issue. The Leverhulme page, which provides more detail is partly accurate. It say "After offering to give Lewis to its people in 1923, but being turned down and selling it onward to absentee landlords..". The story as I understand it is that Lever offered the land for free, but not as a single large unit. His idea was to split the estate up into a a dozen units (or possibly one larger unit and to give all the crofting land away - I've seen both ideas suggested). It seems crazy now but eleven of the proposals were turned down - but the crofters were by this time fairly sure of their position and may have guessed that running a country estate was potentially a recipe for losing money. The Government were asked to help but turned the idea of offering support for running costs down. The twelfth was Stornoway and Lochs - which to this day is largely owned by the Stornoway Trust. Remarkably they don't seem to have a website and what little info I have is probably out-of-date.
BenMacDui18:59, 18 August 2010 (UTC)reply
Disambiguation
Can I say just how completely bizarre and unexpected it is for
Lewis to continue with "(Scottish Gaelic..." and be about a Scottish island? This page should be a disambig. —
Felix the Cassowary22:31, 23 April 2011 (UTC)reply
You can't have looked at many Scottish geopages, most of them list the Gaelic right after the English name. As for dab/no dab i think that has been debated before.
Akerbeltz (
talk)
00:38, 24 April 2011 (UTC)reply
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. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a
move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
Lewis → Lewis, Outer Hebrides – There is such a huge long list of things and people called Lewis, that something would have to be extremely prominent to qualify as primary topic for this name. This region in Scotland is not. In fact, it is little-known outside Scotland, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of English and Irish people hadn't heard of it. As far as the non-primary nature of this name, there are ten towns in the United States named "Lewis", Note that the general practice of including state names with US place names provides no valid argument, since it doesn't make
Boston a secondary topic, does it? Anyways, with so many Lewises in the world, this page should be a disambiguation page.
Ego White Tray (
talk)
13:40, 26 November 2012 (UTC)reply
Oppose It is the primary topic in Scotland, and although that may carry little weight with some, a prominent argument of the previous move request at
Talk:Lewis/Archive_2#Requested_move was that it was the primary topic more generally. There is no doubt that "Isle of Lewis" gets a lot of use, (although Lewis is not an island) but if it is to be moved then it should be to Lewis, Outer Hebrides per
Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) and
Harris, Outer Hebrides. No doubt the nominator will offer to fix the 500 plus links to the article if the move is successful.
BenMacDui20:51, 26 November 2012 (UTC)reply
Even if there are no such unintentional links, I'd fix them all myself. If the move is in accordance with
WP:NC, this is a poor reason to oppose. --
BDD (
talk)
21:13, 26 November 2012 (UTC)reply
It is not the reason I am opposing and having looked at the first 250 links I'd say that less than half-a-dozen are not intended for the current article.
BenMacDui09:34, 27 November 2012 (UTC)reply
What do you think they do think of? Very few people are going to look for "Lewis" if they are searching for someone with that surname or forename.
BenMacDui09:34, 27 November 2012 (UTC)reply
I expect that most people who type "Lewis" in the search bar are looking for a person named Lewis when they've forgotten the person's first or last name -
Meriwhether Lewis is probably a large number of these searches, for example, since he's very famous in the US as the Lewis in Lewis & Clark, but his first name is long and unusual. I expect this region of Scotland to be a small minority.
Ego White Tray (
talk)
13:21, 27 November 2012 (UTC)reply
In what way "fine"? It is inconsistent with other usage and not in line with long-standing and carefully considered conventions.
BenMacDui09:34, 27 November 2012 (UTC)reply
Support move to Isle of Lewis. it is clearly not the primary topic, and Isle of Lewis is the common name in Scotland. And it avoids horribly long names with commas in the middle --
Vclaw (
talk)
13:31, 27 November 2012 (UTC)reply
Oppose. Surprisingly. I expected to support the move, but when I looked at the pageview stats, this page got
31,000 in the past 90 days, while the disambiguation page only got
6,000. That tells me that a large majority of people are happy with how they got here. Making "Lewis" the disambiguation page would force extra unneeded navigation for a lot of readers. (Interestingly,
Isle of Lewis - the redirect - got over
4,500 views in the same timeframe.)
Dohn joe (
talk)
20:49, 27 November 2012 (UTC)reply
But the point is, everyone who enters "Lewis" right now comes to this page. If they come here looking for a different Lewis, they'll be redirected to the disambiguation page. With 31,000 visits to this page, and only 6,000 for the dab page, it's reasonable to conclude that most people who enters "Lewis" are finding what they're looking for.
Dohn joe (
talk)
22:47, 27 November 2012 (UTC)reply
For 19 percent of readers to go to the DAB is extremely high. For every reader clicking on the hatnote, I bet two or three are using the backup function or closing the tab.
Kauffner (
talk)
15:34, 28 November 2012 (UTC)reply
Do you have stats on the typical DAB-usage percentage where there is a primary topic? I'd be open to reconsidering my !vote if 19% is truly an outlier.
Dohn joe (
talk)
20:06, 29 November 2012 (UTC)reply
A movie is primary for
Big, while the DAB gets
2741 /
135364 ==> 2 percent of traffic. Back in April, the novel was primary for
Doctor Zhivago, while the DAB got
1,089 /
24,408 ===> 4.5 percent of traffic. This is despite the fact that the film is a more likely desired topic than the novel.
Kauffner (
talk)
13:18, 30 November 2012 (UTC)reply
I appreciate those two examples, but I'd much prefer to see a more comprehensive look at it - if anyone were to do a reasonable study of it, it might even turn into good guidance.
Dohn joe (
talk)
17:28, 30 November 2012 (UTC)reply
Oppose per
User:Dohn joeet al. Like others, I reckoned "Lewis" would be a good candidate to be a dab page but a perusal of
that page shows very few things called "Lewis" with articles at Wikipedia. The nominator mentions the American towns but only one of these has a population of more than 1,000 souls and one of them has zero inhabitants according to the article. The
surname is the only article that even comes close to being as notable. —
AjaxSmack05:11, 28 November 2012 (UTC)reply
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a
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move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
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The following is a closed discussion of a
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move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
The result of the move request was: Moved to
Isle of Lewis. There is clear consensus that the island is not the
WP:PTOPIC for 'Lewis', therefore a move is called for. There is no clear consensus whether "Isle of Lewis" is the best title – but it's certainly a reasonable one – so another RM can be invoked to determine the final destination. Due to high number of incoming links, I will not immediately execute the move, but try to sort out the links first. If anyone would like to assist, it would be appreciated.
No such user (
talk)
07:14, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
–
WP:ASTONISH I cannot imagine the average person who types in "Lewis" would expect to be taken here. Unlike
Harris, the
name of this place is Isle of Lewis, even though it is not technically an island in its own right. Google searches for "Lewis" (almost no results for the place in Scotland even from England), "Lewis, Scotland" and "Isle of Lewis" show that it is called Isle of Lewis in a generic context.
Lewis (TV series) regularly gets more than double page views. The place is clearly the primary topic over the ship named after it so the hatnote to that would remain. Crouch, Swale (
talk) 11:53, 18 July 2018 (UTC)--Relisting.Dekimasuよ!16:55, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Oppose: "Lewis" is both the formal and the
common name. Leaving aside the issue that Lewis isn't actually an island, very few Scottish islands have "Isle of" in their name, although this may be preprended in picturesque, fanciful or exonymic usage. The only exceptions I can think of are
Isle of May and
Isle of Ewe. Nothing has changed since the previous proposals to move this article – please read the discussions from
2012,
2008,
2007 and
2006. --
Deskford (
talk)
08:58, 24 July 2018 (UTC)reply
"Isle of Lewis" appears to be the formal and common name per the sources, not "Lewis".
Isle of Bute and
Isle of Arran are also "Isle of..." on OS. In addition with
WP:PRIMARYTOPIC the place in Scotland got 13,850 views [
[4]] while just those qualified with brackets and commas got 32,603 views [
[5]] [
[6]] [
[7]] and there are more than just those topics. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
09:48, 24 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Oppose: per the previous archived discussions, which are indeed persuasive.
I can't imagine searches for the tv series will sustain their level after the course of a couple of years but this island will still be there. Would anyone searching for a Lewis gun really just search for a "Lewis"? I guess many or most people looking for Meriwether Lewis may toil to think of his first name; I'd probably search for Lewis and Clark but otherwise, if I typed in just Lewis, it would be as a starting point with the expectation of obtaining the dab page to narrow the search, not expecting to immediately be taken to the article as a primary topic. OS may prefix its name on the map with "Isle of" but, per Deskford, that's not how one would commonly refer to it; to hear it so-referred in most contexts would sound a bit odd (I'm taking the ferry to the Isle of Lewis?). (Even the Isle of May, which is a case where the prefix is the norm, often just gets "The May" locally, though I've never heard plain "May".) And again, read the copious previous discussions on the matter.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
10:05, 24 July 2018 (UTC)reply
OS does not prefix Jura, Islay, Coll, Colonsay or Harris, but it does with Lewis, which probably indicates its common name, while just "Lewis" is used locally. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
10:11, 24 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Showing the comparatively arbitrary nature of the OS designations. I would have said all of these islands could also have "Isle of" stuck in front of their name (although that likewise doesn't make that version their correct name and without it, not), except Harris but if you stick the full term in Google, even it gets significant hits.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
14:19, 24 July 2018 (UTC)reply
It was pointed out that May and Ewe are part of their names, what is interesting to note is that those with a suffix or prefix generally share their name with another common word, the month and the sheep and with Lewis it is the name. Those that don't, often are mononymous, like Jura, this probably reflects common usage and isn't as arbitrary as might first appear. Might it be worth seeking a wider forum. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
06:37, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
I'm not sure what is intended by ""It was pointed out that May and Ewe are part of their names".
So used for DAB by the OS in such cases, thus denoting that it is an isle rather than that the prefix is somehow an essential part of its name. Possibly, but it would be useful to see if the OS state this convention, otherwise it is conjecture/OR. Even if there were a case for DAB here, it would not fit with the WP conventions on geographic names, as pointed out in earlier discussions.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
11:15, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
I was pointing out that apparently it is agreed that those use the prefix.
I find it hard to see how you draw these elements together to come up with this conclusion, if anything they indicate other. It is pure speculation. If you can find a source that synthesises all these elements to specifically state this, fair enough.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
12:09, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Comment: I don't think we can take Ordnance Survey as a consistent or reliable authority on place names. In any case, the two OS maps I have close to hand here, Landranger 1:50000 Sheet 8: Stornoway & North Lewis (2005 edition) and Sheet 13: West Lewis and North Harris (2008 edition), both use simply "Lewis" in their titles. --
Deskford (
talk)
11:24, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
So we're agreed on dropping the angle that "Lewis" alone is not the correct name and now debating whether a dab is required? Per above and previous discussions, there is no case for this.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
12:09, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
No, my comments were if others still think "Lewis" is the correct name for the article, then my 2nd choice would be adding ", Scotland" to the title. Given the comments about the other maps and sources, that may well be the case, however even still
WP:NATURALDIS may make "Isle of" still an option. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
12:17, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Lewis, Scotland would be the most acceptable form of disambiguation, if it is determined that this is no longer the primary topic for "Lewis". I remain to be convinced, however, that a surge in searches for a TV series will constitute more than a temporary blip. --
Deskford (
talk)
11:55, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
I agree the TV series is probably temporary popularity but as I
pointed out earlier there are lots of other things and the name is probably likely to be expected to be found with "Lewis". If "Isle of Lewis" is rejected then I'd prefer
Lewis, Scotland per the guideline. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
12:02, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
The guideline would not indicate that solution but
Lewis, Outer Hebrides, should dab be appropriate, but that it is the primary topic is what counts most. I find the arguments presented in the 2012 discussion presented by those who were surprised to end up in opposition to be particularly compelling and as pertinent as they were then.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
13:25, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Oppose. At first glance it looks an obvious move, but on closer inspection, there really is nothing else called Lewis which, even taken together, challenge the island (or half-island actually) to be primary topic. I of course think that the whole concept of primary topic is a bit sus, and would instead have every article at an unambiguous name. But under current policy, no move.
Andrewa (
talk)
13:17, 25 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Please read the archived discussions and the discussion above; what has suddenly made this no longer the primary topic, particularly per the end of the 2012 discussion? I'm at a loss as to why the example of a move to dab a clear primary topic that has numerous subordinate topics being defeated is an argument to support a comparable move proposal here. As mentioned in the current and archived discussions above, and linked, were dab appropriate here the guideline states that "Ambiguous place names within the United Kingdom should generally use the county as the disambiguator" so Lewis, Scotland would be wrong as is the existing title Harris, Scotland, so the latter is no example to follow. Harris is not only not larger than Lewis but a fraction of its size.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
09:16, 26 July 2018 (UTC)reply
In mentioning the comparative areas of Lewis and Harris, I mistakenly conflated the total territory of
Lewis and Harris (841 sq mi) with the territory of Harris alone. In fact, 683 sq mi of that 841 sq mi does belong to Lewis. Additionally, if consensus should coalesce around using
Lewis, Outer Hebrides and (although it is not part of this RM)
Harris, Outer Hebrides, I would move my support to those forms.
Roman Spinner(talk •
contribs)01:43, 27 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Support move. It's blatantly clear that the page cannot remain at its current title, as this is a textbook "no primary topic" situation. ONR(talk)07:10, 26 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Support, a quick search of Google Books shows that "Lewis" is far more likely to refer to a person named or surnamed Lewis. There is a clear absence of primary topic where there is such a likelihood that this is far from the first thing that will come to mind when hearing this name.
bd2412T02:45, 28 July 2018 (UTC)reply
Comment Could the last four editors who have expressed support clarify if they are supporting per nom, i.e. Isle of Lewis, or supporting only that DAB is required? Should the latter be accepted*, the debate above and in the section below indicates that there is no clear consensus as yet as to which of the options for DABed titles should be adopted. (*I'll note that I'm as yet unconvinced and hope that those supporting have read the previous debates, particularly the end of the 2012 one.)
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
11:07, 31 July 2018 (UTC)reply
I'll address the "oppose" arguments in 2012. "It is the primary topic in Scotland" WP is global, not just for Scotland, it certainly isn't even primary in the other UK countries. The fact it has lots of links is weak evidence of the long-term significance criteria. The view argument with the DAB was shown to show the opposite. They show that many readers who search for "Lewis" are being taken onto the wrong article because many will have arrived through Google or a link. While those looking for the island often type "Isle of Lewis". Compare views [
[8]] for other DAB pages compared to Lewis, often they only get 1 or 2%, in the case of Colchester the article gets over 100x the views of the DAB while it is only over 15x for Lewis! AjaxSmack's argument is more convincing but still the views and WP:ASTONISH show no primary topic. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
09:31, 3 August 2018 (UTC)reply
If we must disambiguate (and I think that for best reader experience we should, but on current policy we should not) then
Isle of Lewis is IMO the most recognizable option... quirky, but common and very Scottish.
Andrewa (
talk)
10:27, 26 July 2018 (UTC)reply
It would thus be appropriate to address your proposal on the policy first and if it is changed, only then would this discussion have validity.
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
10:43, 26 July 2018 (UTC)reply
The first option is to call it "Isle of Lewis" (saying something like "the Isle of Lewis, commonly refereed to as Lewis..." and move other topics like
Parkend, Lewis to
Parkend, Isle of Lewis. That is to say we are saying "Isle of Lewis" is its proper name and "Lewis" is an alternative name, I think there is clear consensus against this, and the evidence has contradicted my evidence of it being "Isle of Lewis".
The 2nd option is to use "Isle of Lewis" as
natural disambiguation meaning that it still says the "Lewis" is its proper name. topics that are disambiguated by it will still just use "Lewis" not "Isle of Lewis" thus
Parkend, Lewis would remain where it is.
The 3rd option is to use "Lewis, Scotland" or "Lewis, Outer Hebrides", the latter would be consistent with
Jura, Scotland and
Harris, Scotland.
WP:UKPLACE says "The number of larger settlements or islands that are likely to be well-known outside of the region..." use ", Scotland".
To reply to Andrewa's comment I think this should be moved per policy as well. It clearly fails the first criteria of
WP:PRIMARYTOPIC as the TV series gets more views and I think the name has long term significance. I'd say that if you say "Lewis" to someone in England, more than 96% of people will think you mean the given name and the other 4% will think of the surname and that will be even more so in other countries outside the UK. I don't think we should put every DAB page at the base name, but just have primary topics when its clear that a meaning is primary in a general audience. I'd defer to you're arguments about
New York and
Nancy. If this article is not moved it will continue to confuse readers and editors and this proposal will probably come up again in a few years. What would be interesting would be is to like through a redirect similar to what was done with
Lincoln and in a year see how many people searching for "Lewis" want the different articles. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
07:39, 28 July 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.
I'm currently working on resolving incoming links; out of ~150 thus far, some 5 were totally misplaced. In some 20% of cases, the links were piped as [[Lewis|Isle of Lewis]]; in yet others, it was referred to as "the island of [[Lewis]]". Even before my last batch of retargeting,
Isle of Lewis had 461 incoming links (I still have the page open in my tab). I think that it demonstrates that even editors are well-aware how ambiguous the bare "Lewis" is.
No such user (
talk)
10:20, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
I think the point is that because "Lewis" is a common name, reliable sources (like the OS) commonly call it "Isle of Lewis" (however that was rebutted which then leads to the natural DAB argument) just like
Isle of Wight because if people said just ""Wight" people would think you meant the colour, same with
Isle of Man, but not Jura. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
10:32, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
Per the closing statement that "There is no clear consensus whether "Isle of Lewis" is the best title", isn't it somewhat jumping the gun to make global changes to links already as if there were such consensus?
Mutt Lunker (
talk)
10:26, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
Per
WP:THREEOUTCOMES (a section of
WP:RMCI) There are rare circumstances where multiple names have been proposed and no consensus arises out of any, except that it is determined that the current title should not host the article. In these difficult circumstances, the closer should pick the best title of the options available, and then be clear that while consensus has rejected the former title (and no request to bring it back should be made lightly), there is no consensus for the title actually chosen. I believe that there is clear consensus that "the current title should not host the article". My closing statement also addressed that "there is no consensus for the title actually chosen." and I picked "certainly a reasonable one" The facts that 1) there already existed 461 direct links to
Isle of Lewis 2)
WP:NATURAL is generally the preferred form of disambiguation and 3) "Isle of Lewis" was the proposed target, which was explicitly or silently supported by several posters, I think that my close was perfectly within letter and spirit of the rules. "Global changes to links" I'm performing do not block any potential subsequent move, as the fixed links will continue to correctly point to
Isle of Lewis, whether it ends up as the main title or a redirect to another.
No such user (
talk)
11:15, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
Exactly, that was my point about it being "reasonable", even though there may be no consensus to call this something other than plain "Lewis". Crouch, Swale (
talk)
11:21, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
One of the main problems with the article being at
Isle of Lewis is that Lewis isn't an isle. Please don't make any more edits in support of this wrong-headed outcome. Please don't make any more RM determinations like this one. It is going to create more work for volunteers in cleaning up the mess you are making. --
John (
talk)
11:28, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
@
John: as I already explained, my edits are not "supporting this wrong-headed outcome" – they support the move of
Lewis (disambiguation) to
Lewis. While I might understand your dislike of the outcome, I don't see how your objections are supported by policy and obvious consensus from the well-attended RM. Particularly, you haven't stated any policy-based reason why my close was "wrong".
No such user (
talk)
11:57, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
I went ahead and executed the moves; most incoming links have been fixed by
Crouch, Swale and myslelf. I believe I closed the discussion correctly and answered the concerns to the best of my ability; please start a
WP:Move Review if you still disagree with the close. A new RM for this page is probably the best way forward if you find the current title inappropriate.
No such user (
talk)
14:30, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
This was the right, indeed the only close. Well done. Different disambiguation, if necessary, can be hammered out later, the important thing is moving it away from
Lewis, as it’s not the primary topic.—
Cúchullaint/
c15:35, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
Anyone can start a new RM to
Lewis, Scotland or
Lewis, Outer Hebrides etc (I would be mildly against) but as Cuchullain has pointed out at least we've disambiguated it, which was clearly a surprising page to land on when searching "Lewis". A move review in this case would be inappropriate since a new RM can be made as pointed out. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
18:20, 7 August 2018 (UTC)reply
I now accept that "Lewis" is also a correct name for this place however its not been shown that "Isle of Lewis" is incorrect. Thus "Isle of Lewis" can be used per
WP:COMMONAME or at minimumWP:NATURAL especially given that its own
website uses "Isle of Lewis" along with many tourist websites (which may not be reliable sources though but do show that "Isle of Lewis" is common). The move was indeed made because while there was no consensus if "Isle of Lewis" was the best name for this page, it was clear that its not primary for "Lewis" thus at minimum
WP:NATURAL would apply. If there is disagreement between an available title (Isle of Lewis) and an unavailable title (Lewis) then an effective tiebreaker is to use the available title rather than needing to qualify. In terms of the arguments about primary topic:
By PT#1
this shows that there is clearly no primary topic by usage, since even ignoring all other titles such as the gun that aren't qualified the others get more than double views (even the TV series alone gets more than double). This is obviously generous since the place in Scotland will surely be searched for using "Isle of Lewis" frequently.
This post clearly shows the problems this is causing to readers (as opposed to many other primary topics).
By PT#2 there may be a weak case that among topic called just "Lewis" that this one is dominant by then we go back to the last question, that is to say how much long-term significance does it have for plain "Lewis" anyway.
By
WP:ASTONISH and
WP:COMMONSENSE it blatantly fails both since even if it was the most likely search destination it would clearly be very surprising/confusing to most. Thus I think its clear that the move makes it far easier/less confusing to people looking/expecting to find something else and the move was supported by policy, common sense and local consensus and none of the opposers had provided that the move was against policy. Crouch, Swale (
talk)
12:32, 26 May 2019 (UTC)reply
"Clach na Thursa"
I'm from Lewis, although the east side of the island. I've never heard of a place called "Clach na Thursa" in Carloway. Is this just my ignorance? Does it really exist? The name as it stands certainly doesn't fit the rules of Gaelic grammar, although maybe, of course, it comes from Old Norse. The only references I can find to "Clach na Thursa" on the internet are in pages which have clearly copied the list of monuments on this page; and a single one in a list on the Callanish Visitor Centre's site (who you would think would know what they're talking about) which gives no details other than the name.