Talk:Pleasanton, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject California, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

Wondering how to edit this U.S. City Entry?
The WikiProject U.S. Cities standards might help.

what is the nearest university to Pleasanton (decent university that's accredited)? thanks.

The nearest university is probably California State University, East Bay (formerly CSU Hayward), but University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, and San José State University are within commuting distance. Hope this helps. MCB 05:23, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey, what about San Francisco State University? As far as CSU's go, San Francisco State is the second closest, after Hayward. SFSU is closer than SJSU. When you include UC's, however, Berkeley is the second nearest. Also, Las Positas and Chabot colleges do offer Associates degrees, as well as transfer programs.--Livermorekid 05:21, 14 August 2006 (UTC)


From a previous revision: "Pleasanton is becoming known as the home of pro-war protestors."

It is? I'm downtown every Saturday for the farmer's market, and every Thursday evening for band practice, and while I've seen protestors about various local political issues, I've never seen pro-war demonstrators. Also, this doesn't belong under geography. --Wnissen 03:47, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'm assuming that the statement must stem from the controversy concerning mayor Jennifer Hosterman, who signed her name as the Pleasanton mayor on a petition to stop fighting in Iraq. It really got some Pleasanton residents very hot under the collar.--Livermorekid 05:24, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I doubt if it had anything to do with Hosterman; I think it's more likely referring to some people who used to stand out at Valley & Hopyard with some pro-war or at least "support our troops" signs; I also saw some people with similar signs in front of the Veterans' building downtown one morning. Haven't seen anything at either place for a while now, but then, the "previous revision" mentioned was from June 2004. --NapoliRoma 06:08, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Hart's article

Hi, I think that since all the other middle schools have articles, Hart should too. Does anyone think so?

West Dublin BART info from <bart.gov/docs/planning/WEST%20DUBLIN.pdf>.

[edit] Removed non-notable residents

I removed the unnamed "sister of famous Bollywood actress Rekha" and unnamed "cousin of bhangra/pop singer Daler Mehndi" on the grounds of lack of individual notability of the residents themselves, plus lack of verifiability. It is the usual practice to only list notable residents, that is, people with their own articles (or who would be eligible for articles). --MCB 20:20, 10 July 2006 (UTC)


Word to Potential Editors:

Clearly, it does not matter what you put on the Pleasanton page, because NapoliRoma has taken it upon themselves to be the Pleasanton editor, even at the sake of distributing misinformation. Therefore, whatever people put on the page, NapoliRoma will edit it at s/he sees fit. Even if they make it incorrect, turn it into poor grammar, or just needlessly make changes, NapoliRoma simply feels the need to edit the page at least twice a day.

For example, they changed the page to say Pleasanton is called P-Town because of it's hotrod culture. Huh? This hotrod thing is relativley new compared to how long the city has been called P-Town. They also make edits to needlessly "tighten" things up and take out "wikilinks to nowhere". Huh? Now people aren't allowed to request new articles? Not if the boss of the Pleasanton page, NapoliRoma, has their way. Maybe they should go back to NapoliRoma and leave the Pleasanton page to people who actually know about it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Livermorekid (talk • contribs) 17:55, 15 August 2006.

Please take a look at the note on the bottom of each edit page next time you get the chance:
If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly [...] do not submit it.
It's important to grasp that this is the way wikis are in general, and it's the rule for Wikipedia in particular. Don't let it become an emotional thing; check out WP:BOLD for more insight.
That being said, I don't think I've been exactly merciless. Yes, if you put something on a page, I or someone else might "edit it as we see fit" -- what other way would one edit things? However, "how I see fit" is fairly simple:
  • it should be factual;
  • it should be grammatically correct; and,
  • it should make stylistic sense -- that is, it should fit in with the flow of a Wikipedia article.
So, my edits that you commented on:
  • I added a comment that the P-Town nickname was favored by car enthusiasts. I put this here knowing full well it might not be the whole story, but it was based on personal observation: seeing the name "P-Town" often used by car clubs and the like. I fully expected that someone would come by and correct me if there were a better explanation -- and you did, and the article was better for it. No problem, right? That's how wikis work.
  • However, your addition had a side effect: it made what was supposed to be the brief summary section at the beginning of the article perhaps too long -- my belief was that two sentences were too many to spend on one nickname. A longer treatise on the history of Pleasanton nicknames would be more apropos to the "History" section. So, I shortened it "as I saw fit" -- I didn't take your part out, I didn't revert to the "hotrod" version; I edited it. We're all editors on this bus. Your response was to revert, typos and all, to your original two sentences. Your right to do so; maybe not so good to start in with flamage on "someone with poor language skills" creating a "run-on sentence". Let's take a look at the sentence:
  • Pleasanton is sometimes referred to as "P-Town", a moniker earned, according to local lore, when a section of the famous "PLEASANTON" sign that arches over Main Street burnt out.
This is not a run-on sentence. (It might be too long, but that's different, and you could have dealt with it by editing it instead of reverting.) Why isn't it? For clarity, let's construct a shorter example that uses the same language concept:
  • Kari Byron, an accomplished actress, is known for once having photocopied part of her body for a popular television program.
You'll probably agree that this is grammatically correct, and even kind of intriguing as well. The dependent clause is understood to be short for "...who is an accomplished actress." Similarly, the P-Town sentence has within it
..."P-Town", a moniker earned when the sign burnt out
short for
..."P-town", which is a moniker that was earned when the sign burnt out.
I can see how at a quick glance this could be mistaken for a comma splice (slightly different from a run-on sentence), but it isn't.
  • But, since you diplomatically registered your confusion, I gave it another try, this time using two independent clauses separated by a semicolon, which is again grammatically correct. Argue with it being clumsy if you will, or better yet, take a shot at editing "as you see fit", but it is not incorrect English usage.
  • You noticed that I took out some redlinks. Did you also notice that upon reflection I put them back almost immediately? I did so for exactly the reason you mentioned; I realized my first impulse was wrong, and undid it. And I see you even took the cue as an opportunity to create a TV30 article, so cool beans there.
So, sorry if you object to people—especially me, I guess—editing as we see fit. That's the world of wikis. I can't go back to Napoli Roma, since it's a variety of tomato, sorry; you'll have to deal with all kinds of people being here with you, some of whom might occasionally disagree with the way you see things. Hey, it's good practice for the real world. --NapoliRoma 19:46, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "P-town" nickname

I have removed the various folk etymologies of the "P-town" nickname because they are unverifiable and not confirmed by reliable sources, as required by Wikipedia guidelines. More to the point, it is most likely that none of them are true: a number of cities and towns (including Pleasanton, Texas) have been called P-town, and it is a natural nickname for a place name beginning with "P" and ending with "-town" or "-ton". (The most famous P-town is undoubtedly Provincetown, Massachusetts). --MCB 04:02, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Created history section

I created a History section out of the top, in preparation for a major expansion of the town's history; luckily this did not require any other edits. However, there are some problems with the history as stated. While John Kottinger named the town "Pleasanton" after Gen. Pleasonton [sic], it had already been a town for some years, under the name "Alisal". (Clearly, if the town existed in the 1850s, as is mentioned in the article, it could not have been named yet for a famous Civil War figure!)

I have some reference material, some of it from the Museum on Main St. and the local historical society, and plan to expand and rewrite the History section. --MCB 21:03, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Cool. I had been thinking this needed to be done too after some historical tidbits got published a few weeks ago in the local paper, but I really have no time for it. About names, isn't the name "Verona" also associated with the town? --Stacey Doljack Borsody 22:35, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/l/e/Talk%7EPleasanton%2C_California_a441.html"