Talk:List of the largest country subdivisions by area

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[edit] Comment

Should we limit as to how many can be listed on here? - 68.23.33.147 02:11, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I don't really care about the size limit, but I have tagged the article for cleanup. The list is rather long - I think a table or perhaps a section or two is in order. Not saying the content needs shortened; I think just better formatting would help tremendously. Editing the list is a real bear. If you don't agree, feel free to delete the cleanup tag. Perhaps I'm wrong —akghetto (talk) 18:25, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

What is the precise function of this page - and why several entries from one country (eg PRC). If it is retained it should be organised in a logical manner (eg - alphabetic by entry or by country: or largest subnational entity in each country). Not saying there shouldn't be an entry: useful for crosswords, Christmas quizzes and other such amusements.(g)

Jackiespeel 22:55, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ordering

Um, according to their pages, Utah, Kansas and Idaho are smaller than Minnesota, yet that is listed differently here. 70.92.1.10 04:46, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup is definitely needed

What it looks like is someone took the list from World Gazeteer and did a quick cut and paste job. Unfortunately, there is no consistency as a result. So a lot of the entries here disagree with their respective Wikipedia pages. For example, Sakha is listed as "3,078,125.1" square kilometers, and this precision makes it suspect. (After all, the true number would vary with the ebb and flow of the Lena.) The appropriate page actually lists "3,103,200". I think the second number is more reliable.

Another thing which needs to be pointed out: are we counting the whole area, or the area excluding lakes and rivers? I prefer the first - it's easier to calculate.

To quote 'Jackiespeel':

What is the precise function of this page - and why several entries from one country (eg PRC). If it is retained it should be organised in a logical manner (eg - alphabetic by entry or by country: or largest subnational entity in each country). Not saying there shouldn't be an entry: useful for crosswords, Christmas quizzes and other such amusements.(g)

Well, I like the idea of one MoFo list of all the sub-national entities. The list is tough to maintain, but I can't imagine it getting any easier - the use of "hashes" for numbered lists saves the user from numbering and renumbering and renumbering.

Finally, there should be some cut-off. The de-facto is "100,000", so why not make it de-jure as well?

--Tphcm 08:57, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

I had a whack at editing the list. I got down to New South Wales. That's when I encountered the tricky problem of Krasnoyarsk Krai. That's basically when you've got one entity containing two others - yet all three considered Federal subjects of Russia. Do we list all three, or just one?

--Tphcm 09:33, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Consider 'em all; they're gonna merge in 2007 anyway.—Ëzhiki (ërinacëus amurënsis) 06:04, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I've been working down the list, and got as far as number 65. I've added footnotes to the effect:

  1. Whether you count autonomous okrugs are part of the Krai or Oblast they're part of. My rule of thumb: if the a.o's are small, you count them; if not, you don't. This is inconsistent. Anyone got a better policy?
  2. Unverifiable figures. A lot of the figures are unverifiable from their respective Wiki pages. I've made a note of the ones.
  3. The status of Irian Jaya.

My policy is to check the figures with their respective Wikipedia page - round to the nearest square kilometer, and then update them in the list. Is this a good policy?

--Tphcm 11:08, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I've made some cleanups, notably I've made the footnotes use the new Cite.php format. It looks a bit strange for the unverified note since there are so many, but I think we can live with that and it also makes it easy to find the unverified entries for those wanting to fix them. I also fixed a few red links, and crossed out a few of the unverified numbers, mostly for Kazakhstani provinces based on the numbers in the Provinces of Kazakhstan article. If there's anything wrong with these numbers for any reason, then please tag them as unverified again. I also changed the cleanup tag to a verify tag, and I put it at the bottom and not at the top. No reason to scare the readers only browsing the first 100 or so entries when those numbers should be quite accurate, I believe. Shanes 03:29, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

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