Talk:Norfolk County, Ontario/Archive 1

pronunciation
I regularized the IPA. Just want to make sure I didn't misread the /o/ in the original guide. kwami 22:23, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

This article is a list of other articles that should not exist.
This article has potential, but it is basically a list of articles that, for the most part, should all be merged. The list is overwhelming and most of the other articles are not notable enough to anyone who does not live in Norfolk County. Frankly, even someone who did live there would probably not feel that every single cemetary or each of the 10 defunct elementary schools needs its own encyclopedia entry. The focus should be on making this entry encyclopedic, instead of trying to have over 100 separate entries for one county.Beeblbrox (talk) 09:58, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree. I did a bit of work editing this article (for example, the section on historic townships) and I had started doing some more research into the settlement and early history of Norfolk, but I became discouraged by the numerous additions of articles on every little hamlet of a half-dozen households (usually listing trivia like how many minutes' drive it is from the hamlet to the nearest towns, where people drive to buy their groceries, and which residents have mean dogs) and additions to articles about schools in Norfolk County that seemed to spend most of their space discussing whether or not there were special education classes and what those classes did.  As a former resident of Norfolk, if I knew that a few other contributors were now watching this article, I'd find that very encouraging.
 * Specifically, I agree with you about the lists of articles that need to be deleted. I don't see anything in the list of Attractions that should be saved (in their present forms) except for Long Point and Long Point Provincial Park. And unless they are noteworthy (and I don't think they are), none of the defunct schools need their own articles or to be listed here.  I don't even know if it is worthwhile to list the active schools in this article.  A special list-article like List of schools in London, Ontario might be more appropriate.
 * This is not to say that I don't think there is anything about Norfolk County that deserves a separate article. I think there could be good articles about the Sand Hills; the history and current status of tobacco farming in Norfolk; and historical pioneering settlement and land grants. But like you said, the focus should be on making this core article encyclopedic. --thirty-seven (talk) 05:45, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, I have a cottage on Long Point, and I think that many of these articles are about NN things. Some of the attractions are notable (Backus Mill is a National Historic Site) but many lack notability. Many of these articles were written by the same user and read like advertisements and are filled with things that don't belong in an encyclopedia (the article on Langton used to mention that a certain store only sells Pepsi). I agree that many of the defunct school articles could be deleted or perhaps merged with the school board article, and some of the smaller communities could be deleted or merged as well. -- Scorpion0422 19:51, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

some progress
Ok, I have tried to clean up the section on "attractions" and it is a little less like a travel guide now, but the sections on the schools still needs major revision. I added tags to try and get some more editors on this problem, I'm not sure how handle this mess.Beeblbrox (talk) 21:06, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * According to the Proposed notability guidelines, the six current high schools might be okay because Simcoe and Delhi have both won provincial championships and Waterford, Valley Heights and Waterford received province wide coverage a few years ago when the board tried to shut them down. However, it looks like many of the dufunct schools and smaller elementary ones probably could go. -- Scorpion0422 21:18, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for bringing that to the discussion, it should be a lot of help in cleaning this up.Beeblbrox (talk) 22:09, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems like there was a substantial migration from Norfolk to the manitoulin island.. anyone know the reason for this? I'll be count - I'm just currious if anyone knows more about Isaac Freshette (b: 1811) and Sarah Brandow washley @ uwaterloo .ca —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.204.18.31 (talk) 05:20, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

questionable and poorly explained mergers
In 2008 a contributor redirected Port Dover, Ontario to this article, with the edit summary: "merging to article on the parent municipality; no reason to have 40 short stubs instead of one good article on Norfolk County."

As near as I can tell this was the only discussion for this merge.

I am sorry but I believe this merge, while no doubt well-intentioned, was extremely damaging, and illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes the wikipedia useful. What makes the wikipedia useful? Wikilinks.

Our over-hasty merger is writing from the POV that the only reason why a reader would want to read about Port Dover would be in the context of Norfolk County. This is a deeply short-sighted assumption. Port Dover was the site of a (large) American raid during the War of 1812. Readers may want to read about Port Dover in the context of the War of 1812 -- or a number of other contexts.

Our over-hasty merger seems to have overlooked that it is easier to for a reader to navigate to the information they want by clicking on wikilinks, rather than by scrolling or searching within a large, omnibus article.

Our over-hasty merger seems to have overlooked that the utility of the "what links here" article is eroded when articles aren't devoted to a single focussed topic. Geo Swan (talk) 08:01, 5 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree entirely. I looked for an article about Port Dover because our family used to go there on summer weekends in the late 50s. I was ticked off getting directed to an article about Norfolk County, about which I don't really care. Port Dover deserves its own article, (and not just because I swam there ;-) Modal Jig (talk) 14:32, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I also agree. I think that at least the main towns of Norfolk County (Simcoe, Port Dover, Waterford, Delhi) if not the smaller communities (e.g., Langton, Teeterville, Port Rowan) deserve their own (smaller) pages that link to the larger Norfolk County page. Granted, obscure and unnecessary information about where the mean dogs in town live (as cited above) don't belong. But these communities have distinct histories and economies that should be highlighted for those with an interest in them, that the large Norfolk County article can't and doesn't provide. I don't see what the problem is in having a few shorter place-based articles that link to a larger Norfolk County article. Any other opinions about this?Invalidusername (talk) 19:59, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Naming
What is the origin of the name? Is the namesake, Norfolk in the UK, the Duke of Norfolk, some person with the "surname Norfolk"? GraemeLeggett (talk) 22:11, 27 April 2011 (UTC)