Category talk:Defunct towns in Illinois

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[edit] Defunct vs Ghost

Just curious -- what do users see as the difference between a defunct town and a ghost town? All ghost towns are by their very nature defunct, and any defunct town could be considered a ghost town (since under most definitions a ghost town is one bereft of inhabitants). --Huwmanbeing 21:49, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

• I have been working alot on ghost towns. The main difference I see would only be that defunct towns have been incorporated into other munipalities, personally I think that combining the defunct cats into the ghost town cats would be better for the sake of organization, what do you and others think? If interested in ghost towns, support my proposed wikiproject at the List of proposed wikiprojects. A mcmurray 23:58, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I think ghost towns could be categorized under defunct towns, but not necessarily vice versa; "ghost town" implies that people no longer live there, while "defunct town" simply means that it doesn't exist as an entity. For example, Green Rock, Illinois is defunct, but people still live there, so it's not a 'ghost town', at least in my understanding. Adso de Fimnu 02:17, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

One probably shouldn't depend on casual Wikipedia users understanding the difference between what constitutes a defunct town, a ghost town, etc. For instance, I didn't fully grasp what defunct meant in this context until coming here, and among other contributors/editors there also seems to be less than complete agreement in this area. I suspect users would assume that all towns no longer in existence (for whatever reason) would be categorized together.

"Extinct towns" to me seems like the most accurate and all-encompassing term -- it'd cover any town that ceased to be for any reason, and doesn't delineate as to whether or not they're inhabited. However, failing that, I'd support "ghost town". --Huwmanbeing 16:52, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

• We can call it whatever. Doesn't particularly matter to me. Ghost town, I think, would be the venacular. I have never heard anyone say they visited a defunct town. A mcmurray 18:26, 13 October 2006 (UTC)