A fact from David Long Jr. (linebacker) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 2 January 2019 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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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.
– Both football players go by David Long Jr., both were born in the same year...think this proposal is the best option. APM (talk) 10:09, 2 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. It's not true that both players are referred to as David Long Jr. David Long Jr. is referred to that way in 6 of the 7 ref and external links in his article, while David Long (American football) is referred to as David Long in 8 of the 9 ref and external links in his article. Readers are more likely to know them by those names than by the month they were born. The hatnotes are sufficient to take care of any confusion. Station1 (talk) 03:32, 4 December 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.
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 discussion.
Comment. These two players are easily confused, as can be seen on a page view graph (hence the similar numbers). It is true that David Long (defensive back) seems to be referred to as David Long Jr more frequently in recent refs than he was at the time of the previous RM, but older refs still refer to the defensive back as simply David Long. Hatnotes are definitely necessary no matter what we title these articles. Station1 (talk) 18:54, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Comment are both of them commonly referred to with their suffix, or is one common with the suffix and one without? If it is the latter we should not move based on WP:NATURALDIS and WP:SMALLDETAILS but if both are commonly referred to with their suffix than disambiguation is needed. cookie monster75521:02, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The linebacker (this article) is almost always referred to with the suffix. The defensive back (cornerback) was almost always referred to without a suffix in the past. However, the most recent refs appear to show a trend toward using the suffix for him too. So this is a tough call. Station1 (talk) 22:17, 1 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Support. It doesn't sound like either one is clearly primary, and because each name is very common, there are probably other notable persons with similar names, and will likely be more in the future. The disambiguation will help avoid mistakes, and make it easier to sort out any confusion that already exists. P Aculeius (talk) 10:53, 2 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The potential for confusion still exists as long as both articles could be called by the same title, and would be recognized (or confused) in that manner. And as I said, with a fairly common name it's likely that there are other notable persons with whom both of them could be confused; in this situation disambiguation seems desirable. P Aculeius (talk) 12:48, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You don't have to tell me, I was the page creator of both pages in order to help clarify the confusion. I just think that there may be less confusion than is necessary for this proposal (especially in light of the reversion).-TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 04:01, 4 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]
There's no real threshold for moving a page to a less-ambiguous title, provided there's no substantial opposition. So far everyone who's commented is either in favour or equivocal. And a move will be very little trouble. Just wait a few more days in case anyone is opposed to moving it for some reason other than "I don't want to be any trouble" or "this takes too much work to justify doing it", and if not, just be bold and move the page. Or if it can't be moved due to a redirect in the way, any admin can do it, and will if asked, and there's no real opposition. P Aculeius (talk) 03:04, 5 August 2024 (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.
