Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/CSA states evolution

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[edit] CSA states evolution

Animated timeline map of the Confederate States of America

Reason: Self-nom. After seeing the happy responses and suggestions for my Canada map (Below) I decided to try it out on the Confederacy. This is much less a 'territorial evolution' map and more an 'animated timeline' but I'll stick with the naming system. ;) I added a days-of-the-month timeline because there are a few months where a large number of events happen. I wonder, should it be there the whole time, or only during busy months? Anyway, let me know what you think. --Golbez 10:02, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Articles this image appears in: Confederate States of America
Creator: User:Golbez
Nominator: Golbez

Support — Golbez 10:02, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Support -Very good and informative -Nelro —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.68.46.208 (talk)
Comment What is the top counter (that goes from 1 to 30) referring to. perhaps you could label it? Witty lama 14:34, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
- Day of the month; since some months, particularly in 1861, had multiple things going on, I figured that was the best way. --Golbez 14:42, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Support. Can you put commas in between the day of the month and the year? Neutrality^talk 17:26, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Question Are the colors based on a cartographic precedent? I have to admit I find them poorly matched and not very telling (for instance USA and CSA could be separated by different color schemes, with different levels of brightness or saturation establishing different levels of incorporation). Also, I don't see the need for the day-of-the-month timeline or the thick line between USA and CSA. ~ trialsanderrors 19:24, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
- The colors are based on all of the hundreds of maps I've made up to this point, and I haven't yet been shown a better scheme. :) As for 'different levels of incorporation', I'm not quite sure what you mean; like showing how much control the CSA held at a certain time? That would be more of a war timeline, whereas this is more of a political timeline. --Golbez 21:01, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
  - Yeah, that's a term I made up on the spot for want of a better one. It roughly means a state in a union is a higher level of incorporation than a territory, so a possible color scheme would be:
    - State of the Union
    - Territory of the Union
    - Independent state
    - Territory of the Confederacy
    - State of the Confederacy
  - It doesn't have to be these exact colors, but it's easy to signal affiliated states by using different color depths. ~ trialsanderrors 00:06, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
    - Hm, I might try that out at some point, but for now I like my system. :) though it did get a little out of whack here, I used my normal "disputed" color for the CSA territory. --Golbez 13:46, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
Support. In reference to Trialsanderrors. I don't know (care) so much about colors. I think the day of month thing works because there is plenty of room and I can't think of anything more worthwhile. I think the thick line is good because it's claiming to be a national boundary... not just a state boundary. gren グレン 20:28, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
Comment - I haven't looked at this in enough detail to make any criticism of the quality (looks pretty good on first glance) but I don't really think an animated GIF is an ideal way to show this progression. There are simply too many steps and the animation is therefore too long and lacks user control. This would be great as a Flash applet with forward/back controls and a speed slider for the automation. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that there's a Flash implementation for Wikipedia so I can't really suggest a constructive way to make this better - I just think it's too long at present, and too likely that someone would want to go back a frame or two and not be able to. --YFB ¿ 20:45, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
- Yeah, as with my other animated timelines I'll eventually make a list article, I simply haven't done that yet. And yeah, this is rather long. And no, I will not be making one for the United States, that animated gif would be over 5 minutes long. =p --Golbez 21:01, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

HTML-ish tabs

- I was wondering the same thing. Is there a way to make it so you click on a little tab with a year and it changes to another (preloaded) image. I know this can be done... but I'm not sure if the code is allowed in Wikipedia. I think that would be ideal (providing there aren't too many years. But, can it be done? gren グレン 13:51, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

You can have a template linking a series of maps, see commons:template:USA territorial evolution --Astrokey44 01:48, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Old version (not nominated)

Support, very nicely done, I like how it shows the confederacy separate from seceded states. Although it might be good to also show the borders of the US territories. Also, should Indian Territory (oklahoma) be confederate too as in this map, or at least shown as disputed? I tried doing something similar several months ago made from maps on wikipedia, interestingly with colors like those suggested by trials&errors above and showing part of the war borders. I had previously thought that writing would not work in an animated gif, but it does work very well here. --Astrokey44 12:24, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
- My original version did have the U.S. territories, but there are too many changes in the time period that it distracted from the focus, which was the CSA. --Golbez 19:42, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
  - And that one includes Indian territory, but I specifically omitted that from mine, because even though it started under CSA control, it was never formally annexed or organized by the CSA, unlike Arizona Territory. --Golbez 13:49, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
Support Very well done animation, shows the image's intention well. The image is very informative with its descriptions and dates. Hello32020 22:43, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
weak support very informative, but I would prefer something like the color scheme in the non nominated example. Debivort 20:27, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
Comment I would recoment pending above recomended color scheme (blues and greys); also your "day of the month" bar kind of threw me off (I thought that it was going to be a slide counter, as in "map 1 of 30".) Otherwise, I am totally digging this map, and hope to see your continured involvement with Wikipedia. OverMyHead 02:56, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Oppose The Canada one does a better job at representing this kind of an animated map. This one here is too cluttered, the day-of-the-month timeline is unintutive and unexplained, and the color scheme is unhelpful and unattractive. ~ trialsanderrors 18:29, 11 March 2007 (UTC)