Talk:List of towns in Wisconsin

Names of places are reused across the state of Wisconsin. This has led to discussion and confusion for those of us attempting to sort these things out. The top section is our working hypothesis for how to do this. Current or new discussion may be arranged by topic or added at the bottom of the page.

Current Intended Use
Where a town's article winds up, in terms of article title, is based on trying to use the simplest name possible. Using thee following steps, the first that results in a unique set of names is used.
 * 1) City and Incororated Village Articles should use the straight forward name, that is Cityname, Wisconsin.
 * 2) Town names that need no further disambiguatiuon (that aren't reused), will also get simple names, e.g. Townname, Wisconsin.
 * 3) When a town name is reused in several counties, the County name will be included, e.g. Townname, CntyName County, Wisconsin.
 * 4) When a city or village has the same name as the town, the form needed is Townname (town), Wisconsin or Townname (town), CntyName County, Wisconsin. When the second form is required for multiple towns, there should be a disambiguation page that uses the first form.
 * 5) When CDP's and unincorprated places (villages) get articles, they may need more complex forms.
 * 6) First choice is Placename, Wisconsin if not ambiguous.
 * 7) Second choice is Placename, CntyName County, Wisconsin.
 * 8) Last choice is Placename, Townname, Cntyname County, Wisconsin.
 * 9) It may become necessary to add a form that includes (CDP) in an article title, but we haven't seen one yet.

First Draft
I realize that most of the towns listed are broken links. The question is how to clean them up. My intent is to re-arrange the current articles as follows:
 * Town names go to a full name, including county. So Beaver Dam (town), Wisconsin will go to Beaver Dam Town, Dodge County, Wisconsin. (many names occur in multiple counties.)
 * User:GUllman wan't the second entry to read Beaver Dam (town), Dodge County, Wisconsin, since that's the standard disambiguation. See dicussion below.


 * Actual cities and villages will go to their natural name. This means that Beaver Dam (city), Wisconsin will go to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The U.S. Postal Service does a pretty good job at making sure these aren't duplicated.
 * Any neighborhoods, unincorporated villages, or places without USPS mail service that are needed in Wikipedia will get Long Names if need for disambiguation. This would look like Place, X County, Wisconsin if there was already an article for Place, Wisconsin. Otherwise they just go to the place, state slot.

I wanted to give people a few days to comment on this structure before moving any articles. There is more discussion of this whole kind of issue on the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. Counties page. ... Thanks Lou I 16:31, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

First Draft Discussion

 * That sounds like a good plan. We've discussed something similar to this idea before in regards to the city and village pages, and have already moved a few (city) pages to the convention you suggested (though by no means are we close to done).  I think I was just waiting for more of a confirmation before I made such a large-scale move.  Once you've decided that this is the way you're going to do things, I'd be happy to help you move pages.  Bamos 18:03, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the help, Bamos. I'll still wait for next week to start, and probably clean up (clarify) the outline above before I start,,, Lou I 13:48, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * I used Ashland, Wisconsin as a sample for the proposed shifts of names. I also deleted the surplus redirects and adjusted links (at least I hope I've got them all). Does this seem to work? Lou I 06:00, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Second Round Discussion
I got sidetracked sorting out Evergreen, Marathon County, Wisconsinand the change to Kronenwetter, Wisconsin, but I've finally rearranged my conclusions into the top section of this page. I also created at sample county section of names at Marathon County, Wisconsin. I will again pause fo a couple of days for comments before further changes. Thanks Lou I 21:06, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Town vs (town)
This subject is one where I'm still of two minds. I wrote the 'first draft' expecting to use names like Berlin Town, not Berlin (town). My reasoning was the we treat Township and County entries that way for other states, and the Town in Wisconsin is functionaly the same. By the second draft, I realized that we would have to move fewer pages by leaving the current practice alone. But, I think that Berlin, Wisconsin refers to the city, while Berlin Town, Marathon County, Wisconsin refers to one of the towns. My first reasoning was that Town is sort of using the full or formal name of the place, while (town) is a Wikipedia procedural note. As I said, by the second draft, I'd decided to leave them at (town), but I certainly would like other opinions. ...Thanks,, Lou I 00:26, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Hello all, I left a comment in the article itself with suggestions for a naming convention, before I checked here for comments. I should have checked first. Here's my thoughts: for towns, name them as Townname, Countyname, Wisconsin. Cities and villages would be simply Cityname, Wisconsin. Reasoning being that towns are minor civil divisions and when you are refering to Name, Wisconsin nearly always you're meaning the city or village and not the town. For consistency, I'd name all the towns the same way. Those towns that do not duplicate city or village names or other towns could also have redirects without the county name.
 * I really should read things before I start typing. I see there's been quite a lot of thought about this above. Sorry for repeating the obvious. older &ne; wiser 20:12, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * Course, this is moot if you've already made significant progress renaming using another convention. I just happened to stumble into this trying to figure out whether I wanted to link to Green Lake (city), Wisconsin or Green Lake (town), Wisconsin. I mistakenly moved the town to Green Lake, Wisconsin. I listed it on Speedy deletions and a hoping an admin will rmove it so I can move the city there.
 * This has been fixed. Green Lake (city), Wisconsin has been moved to Green Lake, Wisconsin. I'm not sure what to do with the town. I'll wait a bit before moving that or removing them both from Articles orphaned without redirects older &ne; wiser 20:12, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * To Lou I's ponderings above, does anyone know how native Wisconsinites refer to towns? Do they include the word "town" when refering to them? older &ne; wiser 19:24, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)


 * I'm a native Cheesehead. The usual way of referring to a town is "Town of Berlin", not "Berlin Town" or "Berlin Township". Tantalate 14:02, 9 May 2004 (UTC)
 * Thanks! It seems that the normal Wikipedia usage would justy get us "Berlin, Wisconsin". There's currently a long discussion at Talk:New York, New York about article naming. Of course, sometimes we stil need "Townname, County, Wisconsin". Lou I 17:31, 9 May 2004 (UTC)


 * I may be off here, since I have only a cursory acquaintance with WI towns, but it seems there are two issues that need to be addressed here: 1) how to disambiguate towns from cities and villages (seems there is often a municipality with the same name within a town); and 2) how to disambiguate towns with the same name in multiple counties (and quite possibly the corresponding cities/villages as well). Do we have a recommended practice for these? older &ne; wiser 18:39, 9 May 2004 (UTC)