Talk:Gabriola Island

It seems an omission not to mention Malcolm Lowry's posthumous novel 'October Ferry to Gabriola'... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Ferry_to_Gabriola — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C4:EA0A:901:DCEC:9AAB:EF6A:FA5A (talk) 14:23, 30 July 2023 (UTC)

Untitled
I'd like to add material about wildlife other than birds, flesh out the bird section, wikify the whole article as I just did with the turkey vulture, add a link to the Gabriola Museum, mention the library, add material about geology, history, geography, climate, boating and fishing. Something about the flora would be good too. Also, the article needs attribution here and there. I'll have to hunt for sources. It might be worth mentioning the publication "Shale" and the island newspaper, which I believe is called "The Sounder." Also, a description of the road system or perhaps a map of it would be good. Finetooth 03:06, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Metric conversions
Oops. I don't mean to start an edit war over the conversions. I just "fixed' several then noticed that User:Peter Horn had changed some of the conversion templates I added several months ago. I suppose several things might be at issue here. I spelled out the main units, metric in this case, because of the following advice in the Wikipedia Manual of Style: "In the main text, give the main units as words and use unit symbols or abbreviations for conversions in parentheses; for example, a pipe 100 millimetres (4 in) in diameter..." I found this advice here. I think I need to change a few more instances to make the whole article internally consistent. Also, I'm trying to round off to the nearest significant figure. Some room is left for debate here, but I think the island high point, for example, should be rounded to 525 feet to match the 160 metres. Finetooth (talk) 18:52, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Photo
I don't think the photo is Taylor Bay. It may be Descanso Bay. That's Nanaimo in the background. Jeffersonbennett (talk) 02:10, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I noticed your good question, but I don't know the answer. I've posted a note to User:Clayoquot, the photographer, to see if I can find out. Finetooth (talk) 03:01, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The photo's description page at the Commons has the filename "Taylor Bay Gabriola.JPG", but the Summary text says "Descanso Bay on Gabriola Island, British Columbia." And if you look at the history, it appears that he thought it was Taylor Bay but someone else added that it was Descanso ("This is actually a photo taken from the descanso bay campgrounds on gabriola of "descanso bay"), and Clayoquot edited it to say so, adding "oops, that's right". Since filenames are hard (impossible?) to change, it is still named Taylor Bay Gabriola.JPG, but it seems clear that the name is a mistake. It's Descanso Bay. Pfly (talk) 03:51, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * "Tired" Bay? cansado = "tired" ... my Spanish is rusty; could the des- prefix make it "not tired anymore bay"?Skookum1 (talk) 04:19, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Descanso = rest. Hastily referring to an article in Shale, Vol. 1, No. 1, November 2000, I see a reference to Cala del Descanso or "cove of rest". Finetooth (talk) 04:45, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The name Descanso comes from the Spanish explorers Galiano and Valdés who in 1792 stopped here for about a week or so in order to give their crews some rest. They had been working long and hard for weeks under trying conditions and were exhausted. Thus Descanso. They also repaired their ships and did other work before leaving. When they were rested and left, they crossed to Point Grey and promptly ran into George Vancouver. Anyway, according to, the Spanish stopped at Pilot Bay, not what is today called Descanso Bay. There's more info on the history at that link. Someday I'll get around to adding the info there to the respective pages. Pfly (talk) 06:05, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Good catch, Pfly. I didn't think to check the history in addition to the Commons summary. I have sent a follow-up note to Clayoquot to say that you found the answer. I think the only way to change the file name is to upload the file under a new name. Finetooth (talk) 04:27, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Severed foot
I have removed the severed foot sentences. While some news items may have a place in an encyclopedia, the severed foot story does not seem to qualify. It is a verifiable event, but that is not enough to justify including it in this encyclopedia. The event, as far as Gabriola is concerned, is an accident; it has nothing to do with anything enduring on Gabriola. The other feet that have been found have washed up elsewhere, and the foot does not appear to have been severed on Gabriola or to belong to anyone on Gabriola. Even if the foot were of Gabriolan origin, part of a murder story for example, the story would not belong here. It belongs in a newspaper or something like it. The Wikipedia Manual of Style says, "While including information on recent developments is sometimes appropriate, breaking news should not be emphasized or otherwise treated differently from other information. Timely news subjects not suitable for Wikipedia may be suitable for our sister project Wikinews. Please discuss this here if you disagree with my reasoning. Finetooth (talk) 17:58, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just modified 6 external links on Gabriola Island. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080224035425/http://www.gabriolamuseum.org:80/span_exp.html to http://www.gabriolamuseum.org/span_exp.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080509095644/http://www.gabriolamuseum.org/nfpmay74.html to http://www.gabriolamuseum.org/nfpmay74.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070827041707/http://members.shaw.ca:80/gabriolaradio/cover.htm to http://members.shaw.ca/gabriolaradio/cover.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080331135851/http://www.gabriolamuseum.org:80/petrgly2.html to http://www.gabriolamuseum.org/petrgly2.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070805002019/http://www.vancouverisland.com:80/regions/towns/?townID=199 to http://www.vancouverisland.com/Regions/towns/?townID=199
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.getawaybc.com/story.cgi?id=2570&keyword=gabriola

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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 4 external links on Gabriola Island. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.gabriolamuseum.org/span_exp.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080415205127/http://www.fortlangley.com/about_history.html to http://www.fortlangley.com/about_history.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.gabriolamuseum.org/petrgly2.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.vancouverisland.com/Regions/towns/?townID=199

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 00:34, 10 October 2017 (UTC)