Wikipedia talk:WikiProject New Jersey/Archive 1

Stubs
Before you create any New Jersey stubs, you should visit WikiProject Stub sorting/Proposals to propose the new stubs. The general criteria for creating a stub is that there should be enough articles to make the new stub category useful, which is around 100 articles. You can start by looking at the articles that currently in Category:United States-related stubs and Category:Northeastern US geography stubs to see how many are New Jersey articles. At the bottom of WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types, there is also a list of other stubs that might also have more New Jersey articles. You might also look for various New Jersey list articles (see WikiProject California/Lists for a list of California lists), and count the number of red-linked articles that could easily be turned into stubs. The New Jersey article also has a bunch of red-linked community colleges. Blank Verse  &empty;  22:04, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Good point! I haven't created any stubs yet and I was using the stubs proposed in the WikiProject Massachusets page that I had copied as a template. I am very carefully researching the stub issue and won't do anything until I'm confident that I have the issue under control. Right now, WP:NJ is in more of a requirements definition phase than a development mode. Thanks again for the guidance. Alansohn 23:35, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

To Infobox or not to Infobox?
The project page speaks of Template:Infobox Town NJ. I lean opposed to infoboxes that do not add new data, especially on the created pages for CDPs, municipalities, counties, etc. They all have a distinct style, and if you have seen one, you know where to look for data in the others. For an example of what adding an infobox can do to the flow of an article, see these revisions of Bergen County when Template:US County infobox was added:. I'm not saying that we definitely should not add an infobox for towns, but rather that we should not do so lightly. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 22:22, 1 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I actually think that all the basic data, such as date of incorporation, population, name of mayor, area, and other information we gather for every single town, should be in infoboxes rather than buried in the prose. IMHO, the prose sections should be prose, rather than just recital of dry facts. --Leifern 18:56, 7 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I don't see why we couldn't do this. There are a number of infoboxes floating around on the New Jersey municipality pages (I use one at my hometown model page at Teaneck, New Jersey) and there's no reason we couldn't get a consistent format and content on a statewide basis, providing basic information regarding each municipality. Alansohn


 * Another example of a municipality infobox can be found on the article about Oppdal (where I was born); this is the infobox used for all 465 municipalities in Norway, and I think they're all populated now. --Leifern 20:03, 7 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I like the infobox idea, too, especially for Leifern's 2005-12-07 18:59 comment's reasons. //MrD9 05:42, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
 * If we are to use an infobox, I think we should create an NJ-specific template off of an existing infobox. A NJ town infobox could include specific callouts to the items in the NJmunigov infobox.  --ishu 00:59, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

New Maps


I've been working on maps of NJ state and federal representation districts. Here is one of the maps, please comment. SVG source will be uploaded once the image is finalized.

Particular items I would like clarification on are:
 * 1) District 28 has two unconnected sections.  Is this confusing?  How should it be addressed?
 * 2) Are numberings of districts clear in general?
 * 3) Is the name of the map file appropriate?  Senate seats are only for the 2004/2005 session?
 * 4) What is a sufficient image size to upload?  This one is 1024x1448.
 * 5) Any data errors?

Thanks. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 21:02, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

The map is fine.
 * 1) District 28 is not confusing to me.
 * 2) The numbering of districts are quite clear (to me, a New Jerseyanite). However, it      would help if Districts 22, 20, 31, 29, 28, 27, 32, 34, 36, 33, 37, 38 and 35 were part of a blown-up map (to avoid confusion)
 * 3) The name is appropriate. This map should be updated after elections. (which one I do not know)
 * 4) I had a hard time seeing the smaller districts (possible solution above) on the WP:NJ page. Either the whole map can be larger (slower loading speed) or there can be an enlarged portion.
 * 5) I believe there are no data errors.

I would like to become involved in this project as I am interested in my home state.

Kevin Hanse 13:32, 7 November 2005 (UTC)(talk)


 * Kevin, thanks for your input. When you click on the image and then select the image on the resulting page, you will get a full-size version (1024x1448).  Is this still too small?  Or would you prefer a blown-up portion of the map in its own image that can be thumbnailed and still legible?  BTW, you can sign your username with ~ .  You can customize this via preferences to include a link to your talk page.  Also, please don't edit other people's comments or user pages, even to fix typos.  Thanks.  I look forward to your contributions to New Jersey-related articles. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 16:17, 7 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Following up on the earlier discussion, I agree that an inset to show the much smaller districts in northeastern New Jersey would help make this a far more useful map than the original version. Kevin, we welcome you to Wikipedia and encourage your participation on WP:NJ. Alansohn 16:58, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the input, all. I've added two images to the New Jersey Legislature page based on this. They are reproduced here for comment. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 18:50, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

The new map inset is very good, thank-you ChrisRuvolo.


 * A request, next time you make these maps (EG. After this coming election), can you make the districts solid-color? IMAO this would look better. Or have you tried this and it came out awful? 68.39.174.238 03:34, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Celebs in WP:NJ?
Someone has added the WP:NJ template to the talk pages of several celbrities from New Jersey. I'm not sure there is really anything for WP:NJ to do in these cases.. the people are not directly related to the state. They are not a public official, nor are they identified with the state any more. I suggest we remove the template from them. WP:NJ may include pages about people, particularly government figured identified with the state, but celebrities? I don't think so. Comments? --ChrisRuvolo (t) 00:31, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I guess if they are relevant enough they would fall under part of the "Culture of New Jersey" side of WP:NJ. AndyZ 14:44, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

NJ resident userbox for user pages
For those of you that are NJ residents, take a look at this userbox template you can add to your user page. It also adds people to the category Category:Wikipedians in New Jersey. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 13:51, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Inclusion of local politicians
There's recently been a discussion on the WP mailing list that seems to be converging on a consensus that every local politician in the world ("from the dog catcher up") should be prepared to have an entry in WP. This will make it a lot of fun to distinguish between all the John Smiths, etc. I'm not going to make it a priority to write an article on school board members, etc., but we can certainly put their names in brackets in case someone feels moved to write an article on Fred Profeta, or whatever. --Leifern 18:52, 7 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks again for your most thoughtful input here, and on Wikipedia in general. I thing for the most part I agree. As I stated elsewhere, I had a very contentions VfD on a page for a Freeholder from Passaic County, New Jersey (see Articles for deletion/James Gallagher2 for the ultimately successful debate). While Passaic has about 500,000 residents, Millburn, New Jersey has about 20,000. There are 21 counties statewide, so there would be about 150 Freeholder pages in New Jersey. With 566 municipalities there could be 3,000 - 4,000 pages for mayors and council members. More than that for school board members. I'm not even concerned about the number of pages or the storage capacity issues. My mind is boggled at the though of creating 8,000 - 10,000 new pages. I've been updating municipality pages (albeit singlehandedly), and it's a quite daunting task to obtain the data and wikify it for public consumption. How could we possibly get a consistent level of information for 10,000 local elected officials. Again, I'm not criticizing anyone, I'm just concerned about getting it right. Alansohn 19:13, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
 * It could be more when you want to include historical elections and officeholders, so I get a little anxious as well. My inclination is to not make this part of the project for now (until and unless we can simply start uploading the information through some kind of automated process and also have a naming scheme that avoids ambiguity). --Leifern 19:59, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Let us know when you get another VFD like that. I'd be sure to chime in.  Also, welcome, Leifern. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 20:07, 7 December 2005 (UTC)