Latest comment: 26 August 202521 comments8 people in discussion
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I thought that this page would be about bears in-game, not whomever this is supposed to be. Why is this character more notable than the bears actually in Minecraft? It just doesn’t make any sense.
Well it's not that he's more notable, just that his name is Bear. Usually this takes priority, there isn't a singular bear mob in-game, and the page originally just called bear is a disambiguation page. It can go either way, but as an editor this page having the shorter name makes editing more convenient, he's going to be covered on quite a few pages. More than the bear disambiguation page is linked on. Realshow19 (talk) 23:08, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
Not really, it's only an issue if you're not paying attention. You'll see both in the search, and this page still links to the disambiguation. Realshow19 (talk) 23:17, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
Vanilla features should very much take priority over spin-off / media stuff. Vanilla features are absolutely essential for the wiki, and media characters are just something that's nice to have. Most people come to the wiki for vanilla, so the page titles / search terms should cater to that kind usage. | violine1101(talk)01:00, 26 August 2025 (UTC)
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect millions of people to come here longing for Bear from Magazine. Vanilla should absolutely take priority over spin-offs. What I’m getting at is we should look at the wider picture. As far as just things only called Bear go, he’s the only thing we have on record. It’s completely fair to expect vanilla content when searching the name, but I don’t think it’s fair to push this aside because of subjective opinions. The wiki exists to document things as they exist, objectively, and until we get another character or a bear mob this is the only thing with that exact name. The disambiguation page itself is already mostly for spin-off subjects anyway.
As far as this specific issue goes I would just give both pages parentheses and leave Bear open for if Mojang adds a mob. Realshow19 (talk) 01:12, 26 August 2025 (UTC)
"Polar Bear" has literally "Bear" in the name, and pandas are IRL bears as well, and as such the concept of "bear" exists in the game. | violine1101(talk)01:15, 26 August 2025 (UTC)
Article lemmas are generally singular on the wiki though. And even if singular/plural would matter, that still doesn't beat the criterion that vanilla content should absolutely always take priority over other stuff, and that searches should take people to where they expect to go. | violine1101(talk)01:20, 26 August 2025 (UTC)
Pandas are also bears. People searching “bear” on the wiki are more likely to be searching for the pages on pandas or polar bears than this obscure character.Drour1234 (talk) 23:15, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
The average person will be searching for polar bears expecting the mob itself. If they wanted to search for pandas, then they would type "Panda". I won't refuse that pandas are bears, because that is true, but 99% of the time you won't see anyone referring to pandas as "bears". –👁 Image Rert(talk)23:29, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
Yeah nobody is going to look up "bear" and expect to be immediately taken to a page about a hyperobscure ultraniche character only appearing in a very little-known magazine from 2017. This page should be moved to "Bear (Magazine)" or "Bear (Character)" or literally anything else than just "bear". AlienAgent124 (talk) 23:16, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
I don't think it's wise to make decisions like this off subjective opinions. I don't expect many people to be specifically looking for him either, but let's not pretend the bear mobs in vanilla are especially popular. Fact is there simply isn't a mob just named Bear, the page being called this isn't making any kind of statement. Realshow19 (talk) 23:21, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
I can absolutely 100% guarantee you that actual bears in minecraft (however unpopular they may be) are infinitely more popular than this magazine character that probably none of us here had even heard of until a few days ago, so obviously over 99% of people searching for "bear" will expect actual minecraft bears instead of some random guy. That isn't a subjective opinion, it's just obviously true. It's fine to have a page about the guy whose name is bear, but people aren't going to like it when this is the result upon searching the word "bear". AlienAgent124 (talk) 23:28, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
I'm not arguing whether people will know who he is already, I'm just saying we should try to look at this unbiased. If you were already invested in his character your first thought wouldn't be to say he's obscure. We're not here to decide what's more important, we're here to document these things as they objectively exist. Maybe as a compromise we could just have both with suffixes and keep a singular bear page open in case Mojang adds one. Realshow19 (talk) 23:34, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
I agree that characters, items, locations etc from side material like this one should get a disambiguated title if they can be confused for something that exist in the main game, which is what the majority of readers use the wiki for. Maybe we should consider a separate namespace for content like this.--Capopanzo (talk | contribs) 23:25, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
