Talk:Grand Forks, North Dakota

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Grand Forks, North Dakota article.
Article policies
Featured article star Grand Forks, North Dakota is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do.
To-do list for Grand Forks, North Dakota: edit · history · watch · refresh

Use this article as an example for other city articles, specifically those in North Dakota.
Maintained The following user(s) are actively contributing to this article and may be able to help with questions about verification and sources:
MatthewUND
This in no way implies article ownership; all editors are encouraged to contribute.

Contents

[edit] Image

I changed the picture on the top of the page with something I took myself last year. The older picture looks unnaturally squashed, and the licence it is under has not been revealed. I moved it to the middle of the article, but if another picture of that street corner can be taken... something laid out along the horizontal plane rather than the vertical, that'd be perfect for the top. --Alexwcovington (talk) 08:29, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I wasn't aware that the earlier pic looked squashed. I viewed the page on several different computers and it really never (and still doesn't) looked squashed to me. The older picture looks nice where you put it further into the article though. The only problem that I have with the new picture on top is that it is rather dark. The postcard is from my personal collection. I got the idea of adding a vintage postcard from the Minot entry. --MatthewUND 20:06, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Should we take more pictures of local attractions? I think we should take a new one of City Hall and of Clifford Hall, which both look blue. I'll take this up if no one has any objections. --Rick Abbott 01:29, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

That would be excellent, Rick. We could use all sorts of GF pictures. --MatthewUND(talk) 06:28, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rewording

I changed "settlement by white man" to "settlement by Europeans", as the term "white man" has become somewhat archaic and its use deprecated. --Radarthreat 15:59, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Music scene" section

I just removed the "Music scene" section that an anonymous user put in. The section was poorly executed, was POV, and we don't really need a list of obscure bands in this article. Please refer to Wikipedia:Neutral point of view and Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. --MatthewUND(talk) 04:23, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it was particularly POV, these bands show up on most show bills in the city as far as popular music is concerned. --AlexWCovington (talk) 05:13, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
This was most definitally NOT pov, this bands are the top bands local to grand forks and like alex covington said, they appear on almost every local bill Frenrir1 01:52, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
The phrase "sometimes due to police/city interference" is unsubstantiated and very POV. Also, "Local Web forum is The North Dakota Indie Nation were you can learn more about the local scene from those who live it!" is POV. It reads exactly like an advertisement for this external website. These bands may be known by a segment of local citizens who are interested in a certain genre(s) of music, but plenty of people in Grand Forks would have never even heard of them. I'm not against some sort of "Music" section, but I do have problems with a badly written section that seems to just advertise an external message board and to list a few bands...two of which aren't even located in Grand Forks. --MatthewUND(talk) 08:54, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
From what you've quoted, the original content does sound a bit off. My own opinion is that the music culture in Grand Forks over the years has been surprisingly rich for a city of its size and does much to distinguish it from what might be taken as an insignificant bump on the prairie. I think the music part of the culture section could be expanded, provided it's decently written. I haven't the time at the moment but if someone else hasn't already done it before long I'll write something up. Ehinzpeter 21:13, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

ok well, i got rid of the emo scene thing, since theres only 2-3 actual bands that are emoFrenrir1 00:11, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Good Article!

This article is also a serious contender for Featured Article status. —Rob (talk) 04:20, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm going to put it as a candidate for Featured Article status.--milk the cows (Talk) 00:12, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
I cleaned up the article a bit. I found some sources for the facts, although much of them is already known by the locals (like me). Maybe it would improve its chance to being a featured article.--milk the cows (Talk) 05:20, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
I'm not sure that this FA nomination is going to pass, but after seeing the effort that you've put into sourcing, I'm not sure how it will go. I'm glad that you would think highly enough of this article to nominate it in the first place. I'm very pleased to see your hard work finding sources. You're doing an excellent job with sources and I really appreciate it. Even if this FA nomination doesn't pass, it's looking more and more likely that a future one probably would. --MatthewUND(talk) 05:42, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
You're a sourcing machine! We have to get you to work on other North Dakota article references too! --MatthewUND(talk) 06:58, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
Haha, I had extra time today since my work told me I could take a few days off (since it's slow). otherwise, I'm on here or playing golf.--milk the cows (Talk) 07:23, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] largest arena

Hello,

Can you cite the source for "that is the largest arena between Minneapolis and Seattle"

Thanks --Ndstate 07:02, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, if you search Google for that, several sources pop up. The Grand Forks city website is just one. I think what they are saying is that it it the largest event center between Minneapolis and Seattle. I agree that the Fargodome has a larger seating capacity for some events. I think they mean that, while the Alerus may not have the most seating, the fact that it is a major arena coupled with a major convention center makes it the largest facility of its kind in the region. It is a rather subjective statement and a little confusing. I'll try to reword the statement in this article. --MatthewUND(talk) 08:04, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Motorcycle accident

I'm looking for information about a motorcycle accident occurring on 9 Jun 1972. Any help locating news articles or other information would be greatly appreciated. ```` —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Erickskf (talk • contribs) 21:28, 25 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Climate colors?

What do the colors mean in the climate data box? I think we need some sort of color guide. Also, perhaps we could use slightly lighter colors. --MatthewUND(talk) 07:23, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Congratulations

Congrats on the new-found the FA status! I didn't get a chance to say it in the FA review before the promoted it but I'd like to thank the editors for being so quick and thorough in the FA nomination process. Okiefromokla•talk 18:46, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Wow, I'm so happy to see this happen! I've literally been "playing around" with this article for years now and it is so rewarding to see it reach FA status. Thanks to everyone involved in improving this article, including Okiefromokla for his helpful advice. I'm just so thrilled about this! --MatthewUND(talk) 22:41, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
Yeah its exciting, I was the same way with Tulsa, Oklahoma and when it finally went featured it was great. I spend a lot of my wikitime working with FA city articles (mainly upkeep and making sure they stay at the same quality they were) so you may see me make a few edits to the article here and there after a while. Good job once again; this one is one of my favorite city featured articles. I also went ahead and put the Featured Article star on the page. Okiefromokla•talk 22:53, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
I requested it to be Today's Featured Article on the home page. Thank you everyone who has contributed to this article.--milk the cows (Talk) 00:31, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Right-aligned pictures

In my screen resolution there is a problem in the economy and history sections. In economy, the image aligned to the right toutches the demographics table and so there is blank space between the economy heading and the actual prose. Same in history, because the right-aligned picture is blocked by the city's infobox so there is a huge blank space. Is this a problem in your resolution? A lot of people do have my resolution so with their browsers it would loook awkward. Left-aligning the pictures would take care of this, though. But I wanted to see if you had something else in mind, like re arranging the pictures. Okiefromokla•talk 15:53, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I had not been experiencing those problems at my resolution using Firefox, but I experimented with my resolution and I did experience those problems in Internet Explorer (but not Firefox). I'm glad you pointed the problem out...I wouldn't have noticed it. --MatthewUND(talk) 06:51, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New map

I know the new map shouldn't be as big as I had it, but do you think we could make it big enough so people could at least read the text without having to click on the map to get the larger version? Even just a little bigger than the current size would help, in my opinion. Since a map is a little different case than all of the other pics in the article, I don't think it would be so bad to have the map be at least a little bigger than the article's other pics. --MatthewUND(talk) 00:20, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Sure, I certainly don't mind. It's just that for my browser and resolution, 450px made it huge... it was like opening an actual map! It really ruined the whole look of the page. Whatever size you choose to the map to, keep in mind that you would be superceding the perferred pixelation that each individual user has set in his or her preferences. That's why I ususally like to specify no pixelation, so all the pictures are automatically set to individual tastes. The flip side to that is many users (including many anonymous, casual Wikipedia users) have it set to the default preference which is 180PX and that can make maps pretty small. Okiefromokla•talk 01:22, 10 September 2007 (UTC)