Q
Q q
Q
Q
There seems to be an overall preference for PPP figures in Wikipedia when comparing GDP for countries. Nominal currency adjusted GDP figures should be given at least equal -- and arguable higher -- status when looking at overall economies. PPP method should be limited to per capital figures.
I propose that nominal GDP figures be included in Infobox directly above the PPP GDP section.
The Human Development Index ( HDI) is a standard UN measure/ rank of how developed a country is or is not. It is a composite index based on GDP per capita (PPP), literacy, life expectancy, and school enrollment. However, as it is a composite index/rank, some may challenge its usefulness or applicability as information.
Thus, the following question is put to a vote:
Should any, some, or all of the following be included in the Wikipedia country infobox/template:
YES / NO / UNDECIDED/ABSTAIN - vote here
Thanks!
E Pluribus Anthony 01:52, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
While I personally prefer Timor-Leste (and have explained my reasoning on other pages), it's objectively not good for this vote to only have four votes on it. That it's currently a tie just makes it worse. So, please read all the various comments on the issue, and then vote, please. Thanks! ナイトスタリオン ✉ 16:33, 5 October 2005 (UTC)
This issue has become live again at Wikipedia:Templates for deletion#Template: Cuba infobox. I didn't know of this page when I began using the infobox, and nor did I choose the 20 top economies, mostly chose Latin America where Brazil and a couple of others were already using it, SqueakBox 21:07, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
There is an editor, SqueakBox who has chosen to templatize Country infoboxes on a one template for each country basis and he has been taking articles with existing {{ Infobox Country}} template use and creating templates that contain just the {{ Infobox Country}} stuff. I'm putting together a TfD for them all, which I hope to have up shortly. Caerwine 21:31, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
I trust you won't only be Tfding those I worked on as that would be a demonstration of bad faith, and that you are planning to resolve this issue by tfding the boxes of all countries that have them, and then putting a note on each countr's talk page that is currently using it so all those affected can vote. I am surprised you didn't choose to wait to see what happened at the Cuba vote that only you and I have voted for, SqueakBox 21:48, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
I noticed quite a few country articles are lacking pictures, even though there are plenty of pictures for many of them on Wiki Commons. I added a few to Ecuador, Peru, Italy and Saudi Arabia. It would be good to try and look through wiki commons for pictures that could be used in the country articles. Astrokey44 01:10, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
I have completed the section for Hungarian culture... but any improvements are welcome! -- Charm Quark ?? 12:32, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
I also checked, and it appears Hungary has no national motto: http://hungary.biography.ms/ -- Charm Quark ?? 16:06, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
I was thinking about starting a Wikiproject focused on using the Library of Congress Country Studies. These are public domain texts with good information on many countries. I think there should be a project to track which articles have gleaned information or text from the LOCCS and work towards the goal of having all information in the LOCCS included in Wikipedia either by direct use of the texts or using them as a reference. Is anyone interested in working on the project or does anyone have thoughts about creating such a project?-- Bkwillwm 20:55, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
There has been discussion and preparations for implementation to a change to Infobox_Country in Template talk:Infobox Country, unaware of the previous Wikipedia:WikiProject Countries/Infobox vote.
(The exact location is under the control of the template and this removes the "Infobox vote" issue of whether the Infobox should be on a subpage of the country page) ( SEWilco 09:37, 10 January 2006 (UTC))
(Most infoboxes only will be referenced from the country's page so the convenience of the "country|infobox" is minor and the location of the Infobox is easily found by looking at the Article for a country. If template knows name of country's article the template can produce an "edit" link to the page.) ( SEWilco 16:16, 10 January 2006 (UTC))
I have a proposal to make for the introduction of a country article. As is common usage in encyclopedias, the article should be introduced with the name of the article first, and then with the official name. For example as is the case for Greece, Germany or even Afghanistan, Iran, South Korea the article starts with the name of the article. The format is "Name, officially Republic/Kingdom/Grand Duchy (whatever) of Name, is a country located in..... etc etc". Since the article talks about the whole country in general, not just the political system, I think it would make more sense to start the entry that way. This entry would also preempt any conflict with other articles, for example Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Also see China and People's Republic of China. I am not proposing to completely get rid off the official name in the article's heading of course (even though it already is reflected in the country template), but to place the internationaly most common name first, and then the official name. Considering countries can often change their political system and/or their official name, such as Venezuela, my proposal tries to balance both sides, by having the most known common name (since the article is named that way), along with the official name. I am open for suggestions and can be convinced otherwise of course, but I don't see any issue with introducing an article with the name of the article itself first. with kind regards. Gryffindor 17:23, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
Anyways..... again the proposal is only to have the entry reflect the name of the article. The articles talk about the country in general, not just the official name/system of government. The articles use the common name = common sense. And we can have the official name mentioned in the lead as well, as a compromise. I hope this is acceptable. This format is already used in Germany and Greece, which looks nice and sweet. And we can also codify exceptions, as exists already with Canada, Iran, and Republic of Ireland, which look totally fine IMO. I am not talking about the actual names of articles, just the entry to it. Gryffindor 20:56, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
The Federal Republic of Germany (
German: Deutschland or Bundesrepublik Deutschland Audio file "De-Bundesrepublik_Deutschland-pronunciation.ogg" not found), or Germany, is one of
the world's leading
industrialised countries, located in
Europe
, hence, my confusion on the... lack of monolithicness. ;) But, yes, emphasis on the English name/s, native ones in parentheses (as has been the standard).
El_C 21:27, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
If this is done, I suggest parallelism with the native names. Example: "Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublic Deutschland), is ...." However, I'm not sure if it should be done in all cases. Would we end up with "The United States, officially the United States of America..."? I think this is best done only when the long name isn't a straight derivative of the short name. "FR Germany" still has Germany; Most Serene Republic of San Marino still has San Marino; but obviously Greece, South Korea, Mexico, etc. aren't easily done like this, being Hellenic Republic, Republic of Korea, and United Mexican States, respectively. So I think this should only be done in those cases, to minimize repetition in the intro. We don't need to tell someone what the short form is when it's obvious. -- Golbez 11:13, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
However, Gr.'s initial proposal deals with the topic equitably. As well, arguably, it also brings country articles more in-line with the Manual of Style, which recommends:
Since articles generally have titles (i.e., nouns) harking of their simpler forms, with longer-form/compound or multilingual names (same or not) atop the infobox, the simpler forms should precede any others. Pull out The World Almanac and Book of Facts (2005) and you'll see the simpler name for countries (by which they're organised) followed in smaller print by the longer name. Dictionary entries are self-evident: Webster's lists alternate forms at the end of an entry, and Oxford doesn't even list longer-form names (but multilingual variants).
And, arguably, since the longer forms are atop the infobox and thereby "obvious", why reiterate it in the lead? The current hodge-podge, which requires a visitor to perhaps make unnecessary assumptions about a term or political system (e.g., note there's also a disambig for the adjective Swiss, ditto for Confederation), seems to me an insufficient reason to continue that practice. Simple: eliminate any inconsistency/ambiguity and list both as proposed. I think that's it for me. E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 21:03, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
I think this discussion has stayed for quite a while and a consensus seems to have crystalised itself:
The country introduction reads:
For example, the introduction to France should read:
Exceptions: If the official name and the most common name are synonymous, the entry is left with only one name, as is the case in the articles United States, United Kingdom, Romania, Mongolia, etc. For example:
In cases where there is a thorough explanation of the official name, the official name in the lead sentence may be dropped, as long as it is explained later. This exception is illustrated in the article Canada.
That's it, that's my proposal. Any polishing is welcome as long as it does not change the content. Gryffindor 20:35, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Having had the misfortune of having the Xxxxx, officially the Yyyyyy of Xxxx style imposed upon a number of country articles I edit, I would like to say that I am very strongly opposed to this style because it's clunky and almost unreadable. Isn't this project supposed to work in the interest of the reader? Also, it might be nice to have the countesy to inform the editors active on country articles before you make changes. Guettarda 12:48, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
It seems a little dispute has arisen on the Third World page which I believe could benefit from the perspective of the WikiProject. A vote is now occurring at Talk:Third World/countries vote, which is trying to determine which countries should appear how on the map of the third world. I personally believe that it would be more appropriate to have Third World redirect to developing world (as opposed to the way it is now, the other way around), as the latter term is much more widespread in today's usage and seems more neutral. Please leave comments and vote.-- naryathegreat | (talk) 03:38, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
For some crazy reason, no one seems to have pointed out the vote on this subpage, which involves basically the real function of the project. A vote is occurring at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countries/Infobox_vote which has gained enough votes so far to have legitimacy in my opinion, but more votes is always good.-- naryathegreat | (talk) 03:52, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
I went ahead and started WikiProject Library of Congress Country Studies. So far I'm the only member, which defeats the purpose, so take a look. Also, I've run into a few areas that might be best addressed in this project. For instance, there doesn't seem to be a consensus on having articles that are Health in X or Healthcare in X. Likewise, environment is usually titled Environment of X or Environment in X. Personally, I think it should be Environmental issues in X. Take a look at the project and let me know if I'm missing a naming policy.-- Bkwillwm 07:32, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
I'm inaugurating my own personal push to convert country articles to the use of Template:Infobox Country. And believe me, there are far too many which don't, and in countries which you don't expect. I'd like everyone who's interested in all the hard work and consensus building that's been put into this template to help. To start off, I've created a map of the countries which use the template and can be updated when necessary.
Thanks for your work. Please note that I placed a similar message at Template talk:Infobox Country-- naryathegreat | (talk) 06:00, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
A poll is currently underway to determine the rendition of the island, nation-state, and disambiguation articles/titles for Ireland in Wp. Please weigh in! E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 08:32, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
As well, another poll is underway to determine if the article at United States should be renamed and moved to the lengthier rendition United States of America.
Additional details for the US and Ireland polls appear on their respective talk pages. The results of these polls might have implications on conventions for other country articles in Wp. Please weigh in, and thanks for your input! E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 18:21, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
I'm looking forward to found the Wikipedia:WikiProject Venezuela. I had the idea of creating it when I first made the portal. The project will have the main objective of centrating efforts into a more complete information and a higher quality of the articles in Wikipedia, other media in the sister projects, and the portal itself.
However, the rules say that I should have at least five to ten members willing to integrate and contribute to the wikiproject. So if some of you guys want to join in, then leave me a message, or in this page. I will be back in a few days to see how things are going on.
Go to Wikipedia:Wikiproject/List_of_proposed_projects#Venezuela and list yourselves if you are willing to join. -- Alex Coiro 04:12, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
It seems there is a gap between which figures are used in which articles. Accordingly, I support Nmpenguin's push to standardize the figures with the CIA World Factbook, which is for the most part: more up to date, more accurate, and more comprehensive (it lists 232 entities; the IMF lists 192 and the World Bank only 163). Does anyone else have an opinion/objection/etc.?-- naryathegreat | (talk) 16:01, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
This user believes in the application of the factbook to standardize Wikipedia |
and here is the coding info
<div style="float: right; border:solid blue 1px; margin: 1px;"> {| cellspacing="0" style="width: 238px; background: gold;" | style="width: 45px; height: 45px; background: blue; text-align: center; font-size: {{{5|{{{id-s|14}}}}}}pt; color: {{{id-fc|gold}}};" | '''{{{|[[Image:CIA World Factbook Cover.jpg|36px]]}}}''' | style="font-size: {{{info-s|8}}}pt; padding: 4pt; line-height: 1.25em; color: {{{info-fc|black}}};" | This user believes in the application of the '''[[The World Factbook|factbook]] to standardize Wikipedia''' |}</div>
I WOULD BE INTERESTED TO KNOW WHO USES THIS..please note usage here... User:Nmpenguin/projects
Nmpenguin 20:55, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
As we all know our beloved country pages can be at times a quagmire, though this is to be expected when attempting to derive information from multiple sources. This vote is an attempt to bring some form of consensus and consistency as to where information regarding gross domestic product (GDP) comes from. After all, it is not at all conducive to have three different countries listed as 123rd in the world for GDP PPP, to have varied ranks listed in a country's infobox, and so on. Relevant GDP lists are:
As you might have noticed, all of the preceeding lists included figures from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and only GDP (PPP) has the data from the CIA World Factbook; however, the Factbook does list information respective of the other categories.
This election entails selection of a single source for economic data used to compile and rank entries on country pages. Please note the differences in the lists above and below. The following are the options for general election...as in many cases, write-ins are acceptable here.
Which source do you prefer to use when ranking countries in the country infobox?
Thanks for your co-operation! Nmpenguin in assosciation with, and with much thanks to E Pluribus Anthony
What about give a range, say for instance, Nigeria could be listed as 46-55th because of the three different numbers given (46,50,55) -- Astrokey44| talk 04:31, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
By the way, a similar discussion seems to be unfolding regarding territorial areas (where UN figures seem to be the choice value), so perhaps this is a larger issue than the current topic? E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 00:20, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
The UN only offers statistics for 177 entities. What about the entities that are missing from the UN table but available from other sources?-- Jiang 08:54, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 17:47, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Proposal: Following Wikipedia:Neutral point of view policy, which to me is an unshakable foundation of Wikipedia, I am wondering what other users think about countries that have multiple official languages. I have noticed over time, that listing the name of the country/territory/province/whatever in the lead sentence and on templates in multiple languages sometimes leads to edit wars because one language group wants to be put first in front of the other. My point is not who is right and wrong, but in order to avoid such edit conflicts over language, I propose that in such cases where there are multiple official languages, they will be listed alphabetically in order to be most neutral (this obviously excludes English, which will always be listed first). This would make sense for countries and other places that are suffering from ethnic strife and tension, and would save Wikipedia a lot of trouble when it comes to edit wars about which language is supposed to be mentioned first. Gryffindor 17:46, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Template:Infobox Australia has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you.
A few other editors and I are trying to improve the article on Japan, ideally to featured status. We ask for your assistance in the article and your suggestions at Talk:Japan. Best regards, Fg2 06:04, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Being new here, not knowing about this project page, and thinking that the section outlines in some country articles were poorly organized and sometimes a mess, I made some changes to the section outline format of a handful of country articles, around 8 or 10 articles or so. Alas, I've run out of time to work on editing and discussing here -- until this summer perhaps. Please feel free to change those outline edits back, which you can see in my edits page. I appologize if the following is covering old ground.
Some considerations: All of the section categories are aspects of society. Hence, organizing sections along lines of most general level of content is a way to go -- this could be from most objective to most cultural content, as listed below.
I believe that to put politics at the top, under history, is actually to privilege a POV about countries as being primarily political organizations rather than economic or cultural entities. A solution to this POV structure issue is to use a most general outline structure. It is fine to put History at top (counter to most encyclopedia practice), because all POVs can be woven in to history. It is nice to get the outline of a complex history at top. However, after that -- starting with the most objective categories of geography and demographics makes a lot of sense. Keeping demographics close to culture, as is the current case, is a nod to Sociology -- conceiving those subtopics as needing to be proximate for disciplinary unity. This is poor organization. All the sections are about aspects of society. Also, people often want to know the demographics of a country first. So, the more general scheme below makes sense for several reasons. (Perhaps putting politics after economics is better, but that is a smaller issue).
Also, some of the larger country articles have too far many sections for easy use by newcomers to articles. I recommend subtopics be subsections in the outline, such as language and religion as subtopics under culture and region and city lists under geography (as part of human geography).
I propose the following general outline as being preferable and better organized to the current one. I recommend that this group have another discussion of this or, if not now, that if ever this group has another decision process about country article outline structure that you include as an option the following structure and the essence of the above argument. Thanks and best to you all, Vir 16:01, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. The article outline structure is completely voluntary, and has nonetheless been adopted in general by most country articles. I find it hard to argue that newcomers have a problem editing an article based on the number of sections; if that's true then we're all doomed. Anyway, language and religion are demographic topics. I think the current structure work fine. And you'll never be able to impose any decision here in any systematic way.-- naryathegreat | (talk) 17:33, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
I came here to find out what the policy for a separate language section was, so will add my 2p worth. I'm accessing these articles specifically for the language info, since it's relevant to my job. Since language and religion could be classified under a number of sections, as discussed above, I suggest that it is therefore better to have them separately. Then I and others like me will know exactly where to go for the info rather than having to look in each of the possible sections. (BTW, I usually look first in demographics since that's what most of the language info is.) Gailtb 08:37, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I changed some text in the country info box before I understood about wikiprojects and the whole structure here. Although I was informed that I should've asked first, it seems that my change has stood. However, I'm still not exactly happy with what I've done. I changed the text labeling image_coat from “Coat of Arms” to “National Emblem.” That change makes sense because many countries' articles do not display a coat of arms for their image_coat ( India, Japan, Mexico, etc.). Many countries, of course, do use a coat of arms, and it is now (incorrectly?) displayed with the caption “National Emblem” ( United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, etc.). And, most confusingly, the United States page displays the obverse side of the Seal of the United States, upon which is emblazoned the US coat of arms, but which should still most properly be captioned, “Seal of the United States,” or similarly.
Is there a way that each country can specify what emblem would be best to display next to their flag, and also to caption it accordingly? That is, could that be done while still using a template? Vijay 22:02, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Just thought I'd cross-post a query I stuck on Talk:List of countries—in a nutshell, do Taliban declarations of statehood and de facto military control of Waziristan get it into the Abkhazia club statuswise? Replies would be appreciated over there. Thanks, The Tom 23:04, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
Is there a standardization for the title of articles discussing a countries media? Both "Media of" and "Media in" are being used. This page has the break down of usage. If there is no set practice yet, what should title format should be used?-- Bkwillwm 05:05, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
I think the Libya article should be put on the list for countries which are close to having featured status? Does everybody agree because I'd like to add it. Jaw101ie 12:48, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
Given ongoing discussions and recent edit warring, a poll is currently underway to decide the rendition of the lead for the Republic of Macedonia article. Please weigh in! E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 01:04, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Hello. I'm a member of the Version 1.0 Editorial Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing articles using these criteria, and we are are asking for your help. As you are most aware of the issues surrounding your focus area, we are wondering if you could provide us with a list of the articles that fall within the scope of your WikiProject, and that are either featured, A-class, B-class, or Good articles, with no POV or copyright problems. Do you have any recommendations? If you do, please post your suggestions at the listing of all active Places WikiProjects, and if you have any questions, ask me in the Work Via WikiProjects talk page or directly in my talk page. Thanks a lot! Tito xd( ?!? - help us) 05:20, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
One thing I have been interested in are the citizens of a country. For example, Iran has been in the news. There has been a lot said about how radical the country is. But, what I want to know is what the average Joe/Jane thinks, and what they want in life. My opinion is that their opinions do not reflect that of the leadership, and I think it is important. 69.6.162.160 20:29, 19 April 2006 (UTC)Brian Pearson
I recommend we take out the Holiday section from the template. During the FAC process for Canada, many editors commented that the holiday section should be removed. -- Jeff3000 20:40, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Currently, the 2005/2006 population figures are from a mix of sources, mainly the CIA World factbook and the UN Population Division, along with some national census estimates. Would everyone be OK with standardizing the population estimates with UN figures instead of Factbook figures? It has been indicated in Talk:List of countries by population/Archive 1 that the Factbook figures overestimate populations of less developed countries. I am proposing we use the UN World Population Prospects estimates for 2005 for standardization across all country articles. Of course, if a more recent national government estimate is available, that has higher priority. What do people think about this? Polaron | Talk 00:34, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
See Template:Danube Countries. It was done poorly, I fixed it up a bit now, but it's still theoretically fodder. -- Joy [shallot] 03:09, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Also Template:Black Sea. -- Joy [shallot]
Also Template:Southwest Asia. The list keeps growing... :/ -- Joy [shallot]
I hope to include all countries in a release version of Wikipedia. Articles can be nominated at Wikipedia:Version 0.5 Nominations. Maurreen 12:31, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
I posted this at the flag templates project as well, and was looking for some input on it. Basically, a lot of pages (notably all sorts of sports tables, but also others like battles) try to use the appropriate historical flag for a nation. One thing we could do is extend the current {{country flag alias}} template to use the #if syntax to parse the year; basically the idea is that if someone was doing statistics for 1960, they wouldnt need to look up every country's flag's history - they'd just put |1960 on every single one and wikipedia would figure out which is accurate. It wouldn't break the current flag templates either, which don't specify a year, but I didn't want to go changing all those since many many pages use them.
Here's a sample I've set up on my userpage for DR Congo:
Economy of the Republic of Ireland is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 21:49, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
Sealand is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 22:09, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
Economy of Africa is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 14:11, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Economy of India is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 14:11, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Cambodia is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 16:11, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Q
Q q
Q
Q
There seems to be an overall preference for PPP figures in Wikipedia when comparing GDP for countries. Nominal currency adjusted GDP figures should be given at least equal -- and arguable higher -- status when looking at overall economies. PPP method should be limited to per capital figures.
I propose that nominal GDP figures be included in Infobox directly above the PPP GDP section.
The Human Development Index ( HDI) is a standard UN measure/ rank of how developed a country is or is not. It is a composite index based on GDP per capita (PPP), literacy, life expectancy, and school enrollment. However, as it is a composite index/rank, some may challenge its usefulness or applicability as information.
Thus, the following question is put to a vote:
Should any, some, or all of the following be included in the Wikipedia country infobox/template:
YES / NO / UNDECIDED/ABSTAIN - vote here
Thanks!
E Pluribus Anthony 01:52, 20 September 2005 (UTC)
While I personally prefer Timor-Leste (and have explained my reasoning on other pages), it's objectively not good for this vote to only have four votes on it. That it's currently a tie just makes it worse. So, please read all the various comments on the issue, and then vote, please. Thanks! ナイトスタリオン ✉ 16:33, 5 October 2005 (UTC)
This issue has become live again at Wikipedia:Templates for deletion#Template: Cuba infobox. I didn't know of this page when I began using the infobox, and nor did I choose the 20 top economies, mostly chose Latin America where Brazil and a couple of others were already using it, SqueakBox 21:07, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
There is an editor, SqueakBox who has chosen to templatize Country infoboxes on a one template for each country basis and he has been taking articles with existing {{ Infobox Country}} template use and creating templates that contain just the {{ Infobox Country}} stuff. I'm putting together a TfD for them all, which I hope to have up shortly. Caerwine 21:31, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
I trust you won't only be Tfding those I worked on as that would be a demonstration of bad faith, and that you are planning to resolve this issue by tfding the boxes of all countries that have them, and then putting a note on each countr's talk page that is currently using it so all those affected can vote. I am surprised you didn't choose to wait to see what happened at the Cuba vote that only you and I have voted for, SqueakBox 21:48, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
I noticed quite a few country articles are lacking pictures, even though there are plenty of pictures for many of them on Wiki Commons. I added a few to Ecuador, Peru, Italy and Saudi Arabia. It would be good to try and look through wiki commons for pictures that could be used in the country articles. Astrokey44 01:10, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
I have completed the section for Hungarian culture... but any improvements are welcome! -- Charm Quark ?? 12:32, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
I also checked, and it appears Hungary has no national motto: http://hungary.biography.ms/ -- Charm Quark ?? 16:06, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
I was thinking about starting a Wikiproject focused on using the Library of Congress Country Studies. These are public domain texts with good information on many countries. I think there should be a project to track which articles have gleaned information or text from the LOCCS and work towards the goal of having all information in the LOCCS included in Wikipedia either by direct use of the texts or using them as a reference. Is anyone interested in working on the project or does anyone have thoughts about creating such a project?-- Bkwillwm 20:55, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
There has been discussion and preparations for implementation to a change to Infobox_Country in Template talk:Infobox Country, unaware of the previous Wikipedia:WikiProject Countries/Infobox vote.
(The exact location is under the control of the template and this removes the "Infobox vote" issue of whether the Infobox should be on a subpage of the country page) ( SEWilco 09:37, 10 January 2006 (UTC))
(Most infoboxes only will be referenced from the country's page so the convenience of the "country|infobox" is minor and the location of the Infobox is easily found by looking at the Article for a country. If template knows name of country's article the template can produce an "edit" link to the page.) ( SEWilco 16:16, 10 January 2006 (UTC))
I have a proposal to make for the introduction of a country article. As is common usage in encyclopedias, the article should be introduced with the name of the article first, and then with the official name. For example as is the case for Greece, Germany or even Afghanistan, Iran, South Korea the article starts with the name of the article. The format is "Name, officially Republic/Kingdom/Grand Duchy (whatever) of Name, is a country located in..... etc etc". Since the article talks about the whole country in general, not just the political system, I think it would make more sense to start the entry that way. This entry would also preempt any conflict with other articles, for example Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Also see China and People's Republic of China. I am not proposing to completely get rid off the official name in the article's heading of course (even though it already is reflected in the country template), but to place the internationaly most common name first, and then the official name. Considering countries can often change their political system and/or their official name, such as Venezuela, my proposal tries to balance both sides, by having the most known common name (since the article is named that way), along with the official name. I am open for suggestions and can be convinced otherwise of course, but I don't see any issue with introducing an article with the name of the article itself first. with kind regards. Gryffindor 17:23, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
Anyways..... again the proposal is only to have the entry reflect the name of the article. The articles talk about the country in general, not just the official name/system of government. The articles use the common name = common sense. And we can have the official name mentioned in the lead as well, as a compromise. I hope this is acceptable. This format is already used in Germany and Greece, which looks nice and sweet. And we can also codify exceptions, as exists already with Canada, Iran, and Republic of Ireland, which look totally fine IMO. I am not talking about the actual names of articles, just the entry to it. Gryffindor 20:56, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
The Federal Republic of Germany (
German: Deutschland or Bundesrepublik Deutschland Audio file "De-Bundesrepublik_Deutschland-pronunciation.ogg" not found), or Germany, is one of
the world's leading
industrialised countries, located in
Europe
, hence, my confusion on the... lack of monolithicness. ;) But, yes, emphasis on the English name/s, native ones in parentheses (as has been the standard).
El_C 21:27, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
If this is done, I suggest parallelism with the native names. Example: "Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublic Deutschland), is ...." However, I'm not sure if it should be done in all cases. Would we end up with "The United States, officially the United States of America..."? I think this is best done only when the long name isn't a straight derivative of the short name. "FR Germany" still has Germany; Most Serene Republic of San Marino still has San Marino; but obviously Greece, South Korea, Mexico, etc. aren't easily done like this, being Hellenic Republic, Republic of Korea, and United Mexican States, respectively. So I think this should only be done in those cases, to minimize repetition in the intro. We don't need to tell someone what the short form is when it's obvious. -- Golbez 11:13, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
However, Gr.'s initial proposal deals with the topic equitably. As well, arguably, it also brings country articles more in-line with the Manual of Style, which recommends:
Since articles generally have titles (i.e., nouns) harking of their simpler forms, with longer-form/compound or multilingual names (same or not) atop the infobox, the simpler forms should precede any others. Pull out The World Almanac and Book of Facts (2005) and you'll see the simpler name for countries (by which they're organised) followed in smaller print by the longer name. Dictionary entries are self-evident: Webster's lists alternate forms at the end of an entry, and Oxford doesn't even list longer-form names (but multilingual variants).
And, arguably, since the longer forms are atop the infobox and thereby "obvious", why reiterate it in the lead? The current hodge-podge, which requires a visitor to perhaps make unnecessary assumptions about a term or political system (e.g., note there's also a disambig for the adjective Swiss, ditto for Confederation), seems to me an insufficient reason to continue that practice. Simple: eliminate any inconsistency/ambiguity and list both as proposed. I think that's it for me. E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 21:03, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
I think this discussion has stayed for quite a while and a consensus seems to have crystalised itself:
The country introduction reads:
For example, the introduction to France should read:
Exceptions: If the official name and the most common name are synonymous, the entry is left with only one name, as is the case in the articles United States, United Kingdom, Romania, Mongolia, etc. For example:
In cases where there is a thorough explanation of the official name, the official name in the lead sentence may be dropped, as long as it is explained later. This exception is illustrated in the article Canada.
That's it, that's my proposal. Any polishing is welcome as long as it does not change the content. Gryffindor 20:35, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Having had the misfortune of having the Xxxxx, officially the Yyyyyy of Xxxx style imposed upon a number of country articles I edit, I would like to say that I am very strongly opposed to this style because it's clunky and almost unreadable. Isn't this project supposed to work in the interest of the reader? Also, it might be nice to have the countesy to inform the editors active on country articles before you make changes. Guettarda 12:48, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
It seems a little dispute has arisen on the Third World page which I believe could benefit from the perspective of the WikiProject. A vote is now occurring at Talk:Third World/countries vote, which is trying to determine which countries should appear how on the map of the third world. I personally believe that it would be more appropriate to have Third World redirect to developing world (as opposed to the way it is now, the other way around), as the latter term is much more widespread in today's usage and seems more neutral. Please leave comments and vote.-- naryathegreat | (talk) 03:38, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
For some crazy reason, no one seems to have pointed out the vote on this subpage, which involves basically the real function of the project. A vote is occurring at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countries/Infobox_vote which has gained enough votes so far to have legitimacy in my opinion, but more votes is always good.-- naryathegreat | (talk) 03:52, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
I went ahead and started WikiProject Library of Congress Country Studies. So far I'm the only member, which defeats the purpose, so take a look. Also, I've run into a few areas that might be best addressed in this project. For instance, there doesn't seem to be a consensus on having articles that are Health in X or Healthcare in X. Likewise, environment is usually titled Environment of X or Environment in X. Personally, I think it should be Environmental issues in X. Take a look at the project and let me know if I'm missing a naming policy.-- Bkwillwm 07:32, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
I'm inaugurating my own personal push to convert country articles to the use of Template:Infobox Country. And believe me, there are far too many which don't, and in countries which you don't expect. I'd like everyone who's interested in all the hard work and consensus building that's been put into this template to help. To start off, I've created a map of the countries which use the template and can be updated when necessary.
Thanks for your work. Please note that I placed a similar message at Template talk:Infobox Country-- naryathegreat | (talk) 06:00, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
A poll is currently underway to determine the rendition of the island, nation-state, and disambiguation articles/titles for Ireland in Wp. Please weigh in! E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 08:32, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
As well, another poll is underway to determine if the article at United States should be renamed and moved to the lengthier rendition United States of America.
Additional details for the US and Ireland polls appear on their respective talk pages. The results of these polls might have implications on conventions for other country articles in Wp. Please weigh in, and thanks for your input! E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 18:21, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
I'm looking forward to found the Wikipedia:WikiProject Venezuela. I had the idea of creating it when I first made the portal. The project will have the main objective of centrating efforts into a more complete information and a higher quality of the articles in Wikipedia, other media in the sister projects, and the portal itself.
However, the rules say that I should have at least five to ten members willing to integrate and contribute to the wikiproject. So if some of you guys want to join in, then leave me a message, or in this page. I will be back in a few days to see how things are going on.
Go to Wikipedia:Wikiproject/List_of_proposed_projects#Venezuela and list yourselves if you are willing to join. -- Alex Coiro 04:12, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
It seems there is a gap between which figures are used in which articles. Accordingly, I support Nmpenguin's push to standardize the figures with the CIA World Factbook, which is for the most part: more up to date, more accurate, and more comprehensive (it lists 232 entities; the IMF lists 192 and the World Bank only 163). Does anyone else have an opinion/objection/etc.?-- naryathegreat | (talk) 16:01, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
This user believes in the application of the factbook to standardize Wikipedia |
and here is the coding info
<div style="float: right; border:solid blue 1px; margin: 1px;"> {| cellspacing="0" style="width: 238px; background: gold;" | style="width: 45px; height: 45px; background: blue; text-align: center; font-size: {{{5|{{{id-s|14}}}}}}pt; color: {{{id-fc|gold}}};" | '''{{{|[[Image:CIA World Factbook Cover.jpg|36px]]}}}''' | style="font-size: {{{info-s|8}}}pt; padding: 4pt; line-height: 1.25em; color: {{{info-fc|black}}};" | This user believes in the application of the '''[[The World Factbook|factbook]] to standardize Wikipedia''' |}</div>
I WOULD BE INTERESTED TO KNOW WHO USES THIS..please note usage here... User:Nmpenguin/projects
Nmpenguin 20:55, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
As we all know our beloved country pages can be at times a quagmire, though this is to be expected when attempting to derive information from multiple sources. This vote is an attempt to bring some form of consensus and consistency as to where information regarding gross domestic product (GDP) comes from. After all, it is not at all conducive to have three different countries listed as 123rd in the world for GDP PPP, to have varied ranks listed in a country's infobox, and so on. Relevant GDP lists are:
As you might have noticed, all of the preceeding lists included figures from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and only GDP (PPP) has the data from the CIA World Factbook; however, the Factbook does list information respective of the other categories.
This election entails selection of a single source for economic data used to compile and rank entries on country pages. Please note the differences in the lists above and below. The following are the options for general election...as in many cases, write-ins are acceptable here.
Which source do you prefer to use when ranking countries in the country infobox?
Thanks for your co-operation! Nmpenguin in assosciation with, and with much thanks to E Pluribus Anthony
What about give a range, say for instance, Nigeria could be listed as 46-55th because of the three different numbers given (46,50,55) -- Astrokey44| talk 04:31, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
By the way, a similar discussion seems to be unfolding regarding territorial areas (where UN figures seem to be the choice value), so perhaps this is a larger issue than the current topic? E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 00:20, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
The UN only offers statistics for 177 entities. What about the entities that are missing from the UN table but available from other sources?-- Jiang 08:54, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 17:47, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Proposal: Following Wikipedia:Neutral point of view policy, which to me is an unshakable foundation of Wikipedia, I am wondering what other users think about countries that have multiple official languages. I have noticed over time, that listing the name of the country/territory/province/whatever in the lead sentence and on templates in multiple languages sometimes leads to edit wars because one language group wants to be put first in front of the other. My point is not who is right and wrong, but in order to avoid such edit conflicts over language, I propose that in such cases where there are multiple official languages, they will be listed alphabetically in order to be most neutral (this obviously excludes English, which will always be listed first). This would make sense for countries and other places that are suffering from ethnic strife and tension, and would save Wikipedia a lot of trouble when it comes to edit wars about which language is supposed to be mentioned first. Gryffindor 17:46, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Template:Infobox Australia has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you.
A few other editors and I are trying to improve the article on Japan, ideally to featured status. We ask for your assistance in the article and your suggestions at Talk:Japan. Best regards, Fg2 06:04, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Being new here, not knowing about this project page, and thinking that the section outlines in some country articles were poorly organized and sometimes a mess, I made some changes to the section outline format of a handful of country articles, around 8 or 10 articles or so. Alas, I've run out of time to work on editing and discussing here -- until this summer perhaps. Please feel free to change those outline edits back, which you can see in my edits page. I appologize if the following is covering old ground.
Some considerations: All of the section categories are aspects of society. Hence, organizing sections along lines of most general level of content is a way to go -- this could be from most objective to most cultural content, as listed below.
I believe that to put politics at the top, under history, is actually to privilege a POV about countries as being primarily political organizations rather than economic or cultural entities. A solution to this POV structure issue is to use a most general outline structure. It is fine to put History at top (counter to most encyclopedia practice), because all POVs can be woven in to history. It is nice to get the outline of a complex history at top. However, after that -- starting with the most objective categories of geography and demographics makes a lot of sense. Keeping demographics close to culture, as is the current case, is a nod to Sociology -- conceiving those subtopics as needing to be proximate for disciplinary unity. This is poor organization. All the sections are about aspects of society. Also, people often want to know the demographics of a country first. So, the more general scheme below makes sense for several reasons. (Perhaps putting politics after economics is better, but that is a smaller issue).
Also, some of the larger country articles have too far many sections for easy use by newcomers to articles. I recommend subtopics be subsections in the outline, such as language and religion as subtopics under culture and region and city lists under geography (as part of human geography).
I propose the following general outline as being preferable and better organized to the current one. I recommend that this group have another discussion of this or, if not now, that if ever this group has another decision process about country article outline structure that you include as an option the following structure and the essence of the above argument. Thanks and best to you all, Vir 16:01, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. The article outline structure is completely voluntary, and has nonetheless been adopted in general by most country articles. I find it hard to argue that newcomers have a problem editing an article based on the number of sections; if that's true then we're all doomed. Anyway, language and religion are demographic topics. I think the current structure work fine. And you'll never be able to impose any decision here in any systematic way.-- naryathegreat | (talk) 17:33, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
I came here to find out what the policy for a separate language section was, so will add my 2p worth. I'm accessing these articles specifically for the language info, since it's relevant to my job. Since language and religion could be classified under a number of sections, as discussed above, I suggest that it is therefore better to have them separately. Then I and others like me will know exactly where to go for the info rather than having to look in each of the possible sections. (BTW, I usually look first in demographics since that's what most of the language info is.) Gailtb 08:37, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I changed some text in the country info box before I understood about wikiprojects and the whole structure here. Although I was informed that I should've asked first, it seems that my change has stood. However, I'm still not exactly happy with what I've done. I changed the text labeling image_coat from “Coat of Arms” to “National Emblem.” That change makes sense because many countries' articles do not display a coat of arms for their image_coat ( India, Japan, Mexico, etc.). Many countries, of course, do use a coat of arms, and it is now (incorrectly?) displayed with the caption “National Emblem” ( United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, etc.). And, most confusingly, the United States page displays the obverse side of the Seal of the United States, upon which is emblazoned the US coat of arms, but which should still most properly be captioned, “Seal of the United States,” or similarly.
Is there a way that each country can specify what emblem would be best to display next to their flag, and also to caption it accordingly? That is, could that be done while still using a template? Vijay 22:02, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Just thought I'd cross-post a query I stuck on Talk:List of countries—in a nutshell, do Taliban declarations of statehood and de facto military control of Waziristan get it into the Abkhazia club statuswise? Replies would be appreciated over there. Thanks, The Tom 23:04, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
Is there a standardization for the title of articles discussing a countries media? Both "Media of" and "Media in" are being used. This page has the break down of usage. If there is no set practice yet, what should title format should be used?-- Bkwillwm 05:05, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
I think the Libya article should be put on the list for countries which are close to having featured status? Does everybody agree because I'd like to add it. Jaw101ie 12:48, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
Given ongoing discussions and recent edit warring, a poll is currently underway to decide the rendition of the lead for the Republic of Macedonia article. Please weigh in! E Pluribus Anthony | talk | 01:04, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Hello. I'm a member of the Version 1.0 Editorial Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing articles using these criteria, and we are are asking for your help. As you are most aware of the issues surrounding your focus area, we are wondering if you could provide us with a list of the articles that fall within the scope of your WikiProject, and that are either featured, A-class, B-class, or Good articles, with no POV or copyright problems. Do you have any recommendations? If you do, please post your suggestions at the listing of all active Places WikiProjects, and if you have any questions, ask me in the Work Via WikiProjects talk page or directly in my talk page. Thanks a lot! Tito xd( ?!? - help us) 05:20, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
One thing I have been interested in are the citizens of a country. For example, Iran has been in the news. There has been a lot said about how radical the country is. But, what I want to know is what the average Joe/Jane thinks, and what they want in life. My opinion is that their opinions do not reflect that of the leadership, and I think it is important. 69.6.162.160 20:29, 19 April 2006 (UTC)Brian Pearson
I recommend we take out the Holiday section from the template. During the FAC process for Canada, many editors commented that the holiday section should be removed. -- Jeff3000 20:40, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Currently, the 2005/2006 population figures are from a mix of sources, mainly the CIA World factbook and the UN Population Division, along with some national census estimates. Would everyone be OK with standardizing the population estimates with UN figures instead of Factbook figures? It has been indicated in Talk:List of countries by population/Archive 1 that the Factbook figures overestimate populations of less developed countries. I am proposing we use the UN World Population Prospects estimates for 2005 for standardization across all country articles. Of course, if a more recent national government estimate is available, that has higher priority. What do people think about this? Polaron | Talk 00:34, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
See Template:Danube Countries. It was done poorly, I fixed it up a bit now, but it's still theoretically fodder. -- Joy [shallot] 03:09, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
Also Template:Black Sea. -- Joy [shallot]
Also Template:Southwest Asia. The list keeps growing... :/ -- Joy [shallot]
I hope to include all countries in a release version of Wikipedia. Articles can be nominated at Wikipedia:Version 0.5 Nominations. Maurreen 12:31, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
I posted this at the flag templates project as well, and was looking for some input on it. Basically, a lot of pages (notably all sorts of sports tables, but also others like battles) try to use the appropriate historical flag for a nation. One thing we could do is extend the current {{country flag alias}} template to use the #if syntax to parse the year; basically the idea is that if someone was doing statistics for 1960, they wouldnt need to look up every country's flag's history - they'd just put |1960 on every single one and wikipedia would figure out which is accurate. It wouldn't break the current flag templates either, which don't specify a year, but I didn't want to go changing all those since many many pages use them.
Here's a sample I've set up on my userpage for DR Congo:
Economy of the Republic of Ireland is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 21:49, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
Sealand is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 22:09, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
Economy of Africa is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 14:11, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Economy of India is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 14:11, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Cambodia is up for a featured article review. Detailed concerns may be found here. Please leave your comments and help us address and maintain this article's featured quality. Sandy 16:11, 23 July 2006 (UTC)