Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ghost towns

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Support 2 How close are we? 3 Way too many stub stypes! 4 New page 5 Azerbaijan 6 Your name and scope 7 Sofala, New South Wales

[edit] Support

• I definitely support this project and am very interested in documenting our many extinct towns and villages. As has been discussed elsewhere, there's less than full agreement about what constitutes a ghost town, so the terminology may need more discussion to reach consensus. I, though, am fine with calling any town a ghost town that once existed and now doesn't. --Huwmanbeing 17:32, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

• As am I. Perhaps we can reach consensus here. A mcmurray 18:24, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
  • I need to get the supporters to sign on here and on the proposal page. Then we can get a permanent presence on here. A mcmurray 01:25, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

• I'm in. Yes, we need to work out the definition, as in Oregon we also have Category:Defunct cities in Oregon, which seems to be for places that have been completely absorbed into other cites, or as in the case of Vanport, Oregon, washed away. Which reminds me, Bayocean, Oregon is an interesting story... [1] Katr67 13:27, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Cool link, I love the old photos. Also, thinking of terminology, "extinct town" is one possibility to kick around. It's a fairly broad term I've applied elsewhere to describe towns that for a variety of reasons no longer exist, have been abandoned, have become defunct, etc. One point in its favor is that it doesn't imply "abandoned but still extant structures", which some consider the mark of a true ghost town. Just a thought! BTW, Warrenton, Indiana (my county's original seat) is one long-lost town I've been researching lately -- I thought the bit about the whiskey was interesting... --Huwmanbeing 17:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

• Which brings us back around to an earlier point. The difference between ghost town and defunct town/city. As I thought, Katr67 also thinks that defunct city implies that the community has been absorbed into another city. I say we go for consensus on that definition. A mcmurray 17:49, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

• I'll alert EngineerScotty to this discussion. I think he's the one who created the defunct city cat... Katr67 18:21, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
  • I didn't have anything more specific in mind than "cities which no longer exist". The includes several former cities which were merged into a larger city; at least one which was destroyed (Vanport); one which was disincorporated by the court (Rajneeshpuram), etc. Oregon has a few other interesting cases, such as Valsetz, Oregon--a company town from which everyone was evicted when a mill went out of business (the town was subsequently demolished), a few classical "ghost towns" (communities which were more or less abandoned when their economic wellspring dried up for whatever reason), etc. I'm not an authority on the subject, I should note. --EngineerScotty 19:17, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How close are we?

The proposed project has the support of four editors, including myself. Ideally we need at least 5 or six, as those are the guidelines per wikipedia for a consensus, otherwise nothing we decided would have sticking power. I am working on solidifying some templates, which I will post on the main page here for now, anyone who wants to can start adding them to articles in the Ghost towns cats. That will probably help recruit others, and if Katr67's enthusiasm is any indication, the userboxes are going to be a big hit. A mcmurray 18:48, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Way too many stub stypes!

The guidelines for stubs call for at least 60 existing articles for new stub types, with an exception being made for the first stub of a WikiProject, where the bar is lowered to 30. Keep in mind that by using stubs instead of some other method of you are asking others outside your project (and the members of WikiProject Stub Sorting in particular) to help you out. The stub sorters need to keep the total number of stub types to a manageable level which is why they have minimum size guidelines. Also there are the stub type naming guidelines which your stub templates do not follow. These stubs will be heading to SFD in about a week for either deletion or renaming. Caerwine Caer’s whines 23:03, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New page

A new page, mostly copied from the NRHP project. Also anyone know how to add assessment capability to the talk page ghost town templates. That would be good. Also perhaps adding the scale and some other info on assessment to the main page, I don't know much about it personally and if it's not a stub I usually leave that kind of stuff to other project memebers.

If anyone sees anyway to improve the page go ahead. Be bold.

For now we need to tag existing articles which will help with exposure, as well, of course, as writing new articles, there are countless ghost towns. Maybe some lists may help in the near future. Anyway. Happy Editing and special thanks to the NRHP Project and its members.A mcmurray 01:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, how do we make it so when a page is tagged it gives the talk page a category within our project, say in Category:Ghost towns in the United States?A mcmurray 06:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I figured this out.A mcmurray 04:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has a couple of Ghost towns as Shusha, Agdam, Khojaly etc all due war with Armenia. It also has the largest ghost tonw in the world - Agdam, a city of 150,000 people but now nothing, thats gotta be a record! We need to get this information in this article!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.146.213.29 (talk) 14:00, 2 February 2007 (UTC).

Only Agdam is listed in the article as being a ghost town, and that article has a dispute tag on it. Is there a standard of how _long_ a place must be abandoned to qualify? 13 years doesn't seem like a permanent abandonment. Chris 15:53, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Your name and scope

I just tagged Wittenoom, Western Australia with your WikiProject tag. Then someone pointed out to me that this project is for ghost towns in the United States. Once I'd quietly and calmly explained to the walls of my office my opinion of america-centric cultural imperialism and what-not, I decided that I ought to come here and point out that Wikipedia is an international project, and as such, your project name does not match your project scope. You should either rescope the project to include all ghost towns everywhere, or rename the project to "WikiProject US ghost towns". Hesperian 02:18, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Responded here. I am going to go with rename, unless someone objects in the next ten minutes IvoShandor 11:47, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the civil response to the not-so-civil message. ;-) Hesperian 12:20, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

For anyone who dosnt understand - he is quite a nice guy - I have met him and can vouch for him - he has tagged some articles that I wrote for ghost towns in Tasmania . Oh and thanks from another Australian for widening the scope - we have quite a few in this country... SatuSuro 12:48, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sofala, New South Wales

I was rather surprised to see a wikiproject ghost towns box added to Talk:Sofala, New South Wales. As I've noted on that talk page, the town is not a ghost town. It has never been abandoned. Please discuss on that talk page rather than here. --Athol Mullen 22:12, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Resolved. Hesperian 05:06, 17 March 2007 (UTC)