Wikipedia talk:British Isles Terminology task force/Channel Islands

Just curious
Is there a time limit for this Taskforce/Channel Islands? GoodDay (talk) 19:15, 12 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I think keeping it a "sub-task-force" of the BI task force makes more sense. The question (or non-question) of the Channel Islands, and how to approach it, is part of the wider issues about the British Isles. Creating a new task force would divide energy IMHO. --rannṗáirtí anaiṫnid (coṁrá) 20:21, 12 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Okie Dokie. GoodDay (talk) 20:23, 12 December 2009 (UTC)
 * GoodDay just wants to know if I can take as long as I can. The answer GD is yes I can(!) I've just got a problem getting to the library at the mo. I have most of my case already though - I just need a solid group of working examples to puff out the leather. I can't see arbcom getting invloved before we are settled here (I can't see them getting invloved at all to be honest, unless it's just to encourage us to sort this kind of thing out in view of a guideline). Matt Lewis (talk) 02:14, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Oi ...

The term is archipelago, which comes from the Greek Arkhi- (i.e., "Chief"), and Pelago (i.e., "Sea"). Thus, in ancient Greek the word Archipelago was the long-form Name of the Aegean Sea. Due to the fact that the Aegean Sea has a tonne of Islands ... Archipelago got the meaning of "Group of Islands".

The British Isles is a group of islands ... i.e., an archipelago. The inclusion of an island, or group of islands, into a larger group of islands is in the end an arbitrary choice. The Channel Islands, and the Island of Ireland have always being included in the British Isles archipelago. This whole discussion is just a manufactured controversy.

ArmchairVexillologistDonLives! (talk) 22:53, 12 December 2009 (UTC)


 * There are different uses of the term out there, as far as I'm concerned this a debate on which one is best to suggest in a guideline (though I realise people are dragging their feet on needing one). All encyclopedias have definition guideines for their contributers to follow. It's all about uniformity, but it needn't be to the detrement of articles - guideines can be quite involved. What archipelago can mean is just a minor technicality as far as I'm concerned - we can easily explain what we mean. Please keep to the project page, btw! Matt Lewis (talk) 02:14, 13 December 2009 (UTC)