Talk:Cowtown

This is a disambiguation page
There has been a general cleanup. If there is a dispute about whether any given city is referred to as Cowtown, please settle the matter on the Discussion page of the city in question. If the target page lists the city nickname as Cowtown, then that should be sufficient for this DAB page. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 07:39, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Names of nations are not always needed
When the context is clear, name of nations are not always needed after city or province names. "A United States city's article should never be titled "city, country" (e.g., "Detroit, United States") or "city, state, country" (e.g., "Kansas City, Missouri, USA"); that is contrary to American idiom." — Naming_conventions_(geographic_names). The same would hold true for Canada and the UK: Manchester, England, not Manchester, England, UK. (There is no other England, just as there is no other Missouri.) Sincerely, your friend, GeorgeLouis (talk) 19:02, 28 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Unless you assume that all readers know what the names of the US states are or Canadian and Australian provinces, the context is not clear in this case. There is a heterogenous list of places from various parts of the world. The country is necessary. You cannot assume that readers are familiar with Wikipedia naming conventions. older ≠ wiser 20:26, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Well, I appreciate what you are saying, Bkonrad, but it seems that I've run across some kind of guideline on this sort of thing, but I can't find it right now. Do you have anything to back up your side of the story? If so, I'd like to see it, because I have always used the rule that political subdivisions like, well, North Dakota, Wales and British Columbia don't need the nation attached to them. We should both look for such a consensus during the next few days, since I won't be editing this entry until we find one. Sincerely, your friend, GeorgeLouis (talk) 04:06, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia guidelines for the above
Hello, again: I found some guidelines that seem to fit this situation:

A United States city's article should never be titled "city, country" (e.g., "Detroit, United States") or "city, state, country" (e.g., "Kansas City, Missouri, USA"); that is contrary to American idiom. Naming_conventions_(geographic_names)

The description associated with a link should be kept to a minimum, just sufficient to allow the reader to find the correct link. In many cases, the title of the article alone will be sufficient and no additional description is necessary. Manual_of_Style_(disambiguation_pages)

For places, it may only be necessary to write the name of the article. For places, it may only be necessary to write the name of the article. Jacksonville''' may refer to:
 * Jacksonville, Florida
 * Jacksonville, Alabama
 * Jacksonville, Arkansas

Manual_of_Style_(disambiguation_pages) - Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 04:55, 29 August 2010 (UTC)


 * The first are guidelines applicable to naming the article, not for listing an article on a disambiguation page. The last is actually from Manual of Style (disambiguation pages) under Places -- and you left off the last part of that guidance. Here is the full text from that section:

For places, it may only be necessary to write the name of the article.


 * {| style="border: 1px solid black" width=100%


 * Jacksonville may refer to:
 * Jacksonville, Florida
 * Jacksonville, Alabama
 * Jacksonville, Arkansas
 * }
 * }

It may be appropriate to add the country after the link. Leave the country unlinked.


 * {| style="border: 1px solid black" width=100%


 * Kimberley may refer to:
 * Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
 * Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada
 * }
 * }

I respectfully suggest that in a list of places from a several countries it is unhelpful and confusing to remove the country name. older ≠ wiser 10:42, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Reversion of Fake info
I see User:Bkonrad has reverted my edit removing Hamilton, New Zealand, from the list. I have lived in Hamilton and and off most of my life, and I can tell you that this is not a name Hamilton is referred to as. --Thedugganaut (talk) 05:51, 18 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Hamilton, New Zealand mentions that "Cowtown" is a previous nickname. I think the usage is based on this source. older ≠ wiser 11:02, 18 February 2018 (UTC)

Firstly, : Hamilton, New Zealand is not a primary source. They cite this article as a source: - a tongue in cheek article, which also states it is "the sexually-transmitted disease capital of the country" (if you look at MoH records, also incorrect). Here, there is no real evidence for its use other than by one author from one mention in an Auckland newspaper in 2006. A brewery website also states "Cows brought wealth and Hamilton affectionately became known as "Cow Town" Cattle traffic only vanished from Victoria St in 1907!" (sic) - but, in NZ we have very good access to old newspapers from the 1800s through to 1945 via Papers Past, and there is no mention there to Hamilton being nicknamed "Cowtown" or "Cow Town". There is a deleted discussion about the nickname in the Wikipedia Talk page: where it is clear no locals have heard of such a nickname. While Hamilton has certainly been referred to as "a cow town" numerous times (such as in the article cited by User:Bkonrad as a supposed example of the use of "Cow Town", above [this source]), so have many other rural servicing towns in NZ (it is a common phrase), I can find no convincing evidence that "Cowtown" or "Cow Town" have ever been used as a common nickname for the city, past or present. If these were really nicknames for the city, there would be far more evidence than this --Thedugganaut (talk) 03:51, 28 November 2018 (UTC)
 * This is the wrong place to be discussing this. If you disagree with the use of the source in the Hamilton NZ article, you need to make your case there. The purpose of a disambiguation page is to help readers find content in Wikipedia. older ≠ wiser 11:08, 28 November 2018 (UTC)