Talk:rearview mirror

canonical entry
The rearview mirror and rear-view mirror entries seem unaware of each other. One of them should be the primary entry, and the other a pointer to it listed as an alternative form (cf. uh oh). I don't know which should be the primary. 66.68.23.185 12:41, 12 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I'll make this here spelling the primary. Tbh, it doesn't really really matter, because making one an alt. form over another isn't exactly supposed to imply the "alt. form" is less used, though that may be the case sometimes. 50 Xylophone Players talk to meh 12:48, 12 July 2012 (UTC)
 * On second thoughts, the hyphenated one will become main entry; there are a lot more translations there. I guess I could copy-pasted but whatever. 50 Xylophone Players talk to meh 12:51, 12 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Is the arbitrariness of which form is the "alt." a Wiktionary policy? In most dictionaries, the preferred form is the primary entry, and alternative forms are (varying degrees of) less preferred. 66.68.23.185 00:25, 13 July 2012 (UTC)
 * A term preferred in one region of the world might not be so in another region. See the problem? Preference is subjective. Jamesjiao → T ◊ C 00:31, 13 July 2012 (UTC)
 * You're right; "preferred" is not the correct term. What I meant was that in most dictionaries, primacy of one spelling is often indicative of something, such which form is the more common.  (Regional variations, typically, are explicitly mentioned as such.)  My question, based on 50 Xylophone Players' comment, is whether Wiktionary's policy is to break with this common practice, and choose the primary entry arbitrarily.  If so, does Wiktionary have another mechanism for indicating if one form appears more frequently than another? 66.68.23.185 20:34, 18 July 2012 (UTC)
 * We can only try (Google searches, etc). --Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 06:07, 25 July 2012 (UTC)