Talk:Fargo, North Dakota

Population

The words, has risen to about 100,000 is in no way accurate for several reasons. Census estimates show 92,660 for the city of Fargo as of 2007. Plese do not use vague language in wiki articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.16.248.72 (talk) 16:16, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

It's 95,556 in Fargo in July 1, 2009 now. Ross Carlisle Degenstein 208.107.123.63 (talk) 23:11, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

The Dam

okay, does anyone know why the dam (the radio station) was shut down? i'd like to know Starwarsnerd 16:52, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Educated rumor has it the companies that own all of the radio stations around town hired out of town survey companies to test the demographic. Since the majority of people 18-25 only have a Mobile phone, thus illegal to survey, all of the people tested requested more Country. So, this is what we have, all country. Unless the radio companies wake up (which they wont) I recommend going out and buying a cowboy hat, or an Ipod. Yipie Kai Eh (or something). Technoscience 18:50, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Wasn't it call "The DAMM" with two 'm's or am I mistaken? Either way, pity that it is gone. I graduated High school with their DJ 'Jack Spade'--Bschott 17:00, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

It's always been one "M" though some people have mistakenly spelled it "Damn". I think they went country because the last Arbitron ratings book showed country station Froggy 99.9 as the most listened station once again, and Clear Channel Communications went furious. "Jack Spade" is on Q98 now I think.--grejlen - talk 05:48, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Notable natives...

A ton of notable natives were just added to the article. Several of these people I'm not so sure ever spent much time in Fargo and I question their inclusion. What do other users think of all of these people being included in the list? --MatthewUND^(talk) 09:33, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

My mistake. I was thinking that it was a page on the state for some reason. LilianPhoebs 16:46, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

No problem! --MatthewUND^(talk) 22:52, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Fargo North High School

I have removed the recently added link to Fargo North High School. Please see Talk:Fargo North High School where I question the worthiness of such articles for individual schools. Regardless, it is not really worth having a wikilink to in this main Fargo article. Such a link would really only belong in the Fargo Public Schools article. Good articles (like we all want to make this one, right?) should not contain excessive lists. --MatthewUND^(talk) 06:39, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Inncorrect Schools

Park Christian was listed as being one of four parochial schools in Fargo; however, Park Christian is actually in Moorehead. --—Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.230.68.94 (talk • contribs)

Did they mean the south Fargo campus? It's actually in both states now. --SSJPabs 18:17, 12 July 2006 (UTC)SSJPabs

Largest City In The State

I am removing the re-occuring -Citation Needed- tag as not only is it common knowledge that the city is the largest in the state, but a quick look at any other city population in the state will confirm this. --—Preceding unsigned comment added by Bschott (talk • contribs)

I don't think anyone is disputing the fact that Fargo is the "largest city in the state". The text that some users feel requires a citation is the 2006 population estimate. I won't put back in the "citation needed" tag myself, but it would be good if you could find a website that details this 2006 population estimate. Until then, it sounds more like pure speculation to readers with a critical eye. BTW, remember to sign all of your comments. --MatthewUND^(talk) 03:51, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I added a reference to what I was able to find on this matter --Ndstate 22:10, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Aakers Business College

Since Fargo has two colleges, it is only fair to mention them both. NDSU, while a state college, shouldn't be given a carte blanch on the page.--Bschott 21:23, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

I would encourage other editors of this page and other ND articles to put in their two cents in this matter. I obviously have no problem with including a mention of Aakers in the "Higher education" section (I put it in that section), but I'm not so sure about including it in the intro paragraphs. This first section should be a quick overview of the city of Fargo and only contain mentions of important facts and major institutions. I just don't think that a college the size of Aakers needs to be included in this first section. BTW, I hope you won't insinuate that I am an unfair editor of Fargo/NDSU articles simply because I am a UND student. If you look at most ND-related articles you will see that I am one of the most avid editors of all such articles. It wouldn't make me a very good wikipedian if I let any kind of favoratism get in my way. --MatthewUND^(talk) 03:57, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Matthew the thing is, I am from Fargo and have been for most of my life, and while NDSU is a state college and well known in the community, it isn't the only college. In point of fact, if we are talking about a Higher Education section I believe I/we also have forgotten Mary's College, and the Skills and Technology Center. I understand the Bias in only wishing to include a long time UND rival as the only major college in Fargo, but you may have missed the fact that Aakers also is a 4 year college and owned by the University of Phoenix. That makes it fairly significant in the community and while NDSU has been more well known for a longer time, Aakers has been making significant strides in the community.

The point I want to make is, since I am a resident of Fargo and an older member of the community with a stable career (I have lived here most of my life, missing only one year when I was away for college), I think that I would know better on what is concidered significant in Fargo than a UND current college student that lives in Grand Forks. I applaude your efforts but they do show a Bias (through no fault of your own except not being a resident of the community's pages you edit). I have no problems with you editing anything about UND or Grand Forks, but I have serious reservations on you making any changes to Fargo's Article. --Bschott 15:06, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't understand why you think I have something against mentioning other Fargo higher education institutions in this article. In fact, the article is incomplete without mentions of these other institutions. My only problem has been that the intro section is almost always reserved for only the largest and most prominent institutions in a community.

I find your insinuation that I am inherently biased in editing pages about Fargo or NDSU to be unfortunate. Of my 6,000+ edits, a majority have been to ND articles and you would be hard pressed to find bias in them. You will quickly learn that good editors on Wikipedia should be able to edit any article without inserting bias. Also, being a citizen of a certain community and having a "stable career" there is not prerequisite for editing that community's Wikipedia article. -MatthewUND^(talk) 08:54, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

I have lived in Moorhead for over 25 years and don't believe Aakers belongs in the intro paragraph either. The other institutions of higher education relative to NDSU are minor in comparsion and in impact to the city. I see no problem with substituting "and a number of vocational/technical/specialized (choose whatever word is best) educational institutions" in the intro paragraph and detailing them in the higher education section. I have seen no evidence of any kind of UND bias by MatthewUND. I mean no offense but this may be a case of "not seeing the forest for the trees" on your part. (SSJPabs)

More Pro-UND Bias

"UND" or "University of North Dakota" appears 5 times in an article about Fargo? Please remove them, they are completely unnecessary. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.2.242.82 (talk • contribs)

It is also worth noting that there are zero references to NDSU in the Grand Forks article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GothmogLOB (talk • contribs)

Sports Teams Removal

I think its funny that you said the sports team reference was not appropriate in the higher ed section, yet the grand forks article has one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Forks#Higher_education —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.129.67.153 (talk) 20:40, 29 March 2007 (UTC).

Radisson image

I have concerns over using the picture of the Radisson Hotel in the Fargo infobox. The infobox picture is supposed to either be an image of a city's skyline or of a notable landmark or vista. I'm not sure how a picture of a hotel fulfills that. Also, the Radisson picture has no copyright information and appears to have come from this website. --MatthewUND^(talk) 02:32, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree. I will remove it for the reasons you have stated. Additionally there appears to be a watermark on it. --Ndstate 21:44, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I just added a pic of the Fargo Theater. That pic also does not show the skyline, but it is probably a more familiar symbol of Fargo than the Radisson. I'm going to keep looking for a skyline pic. --MatthewUND^(talk) 23:25, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Where did that pic go? I think it would be better for the main info box pic, then the one that is currently there. --Ndstate 03:52, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

You mean you liked the Fargo Theater pic better than these "skyline" pics this other user has been putting up? Me too. These other pics have questionable licensing status and aren't that great really. The first one showed the downtown skyline during a flood...rather odd. This last one is mainly showing the senior citizen high-rise. I think I'll go ahead and put back the Fargo Theater pic for now. It would be nice to find a skyline pic of some sort..or maybe a pic showing Broadway downtown...that would be nice. --MatthewUND^(talk) 04:01, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree with you. --Ndstate 18:46, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Spin off media?

Does anybody else think we could stand to spin off the "Media" section into its own article? That's what we have with the Grand Forks article - the station lists have been spun off to Media in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Let me know what you think. --MatthewUND^(talk) 22:56, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

I think it could be done --Ndstate 03:39, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I spun it off into Fargo-Moorhead media.--milk the cows (Talk) 06:38, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Media Print section

I dont mean to make anyone mad here, but I think it is incredibly lame to include "Tidbits" as a part of our "print" media in Fargo. It's not even a Fargo based product, Tidbits is everywhere in the country. If you are gonna list this, you might as well list every place that sells a USA Today or NY Times as well.

12.162.213.5 00:58, 16 April 2007 (UTC)Josh

I agree...it is lame to mention Tidbits. I just removed the reference. --MatthewUND^(talk) 07:43, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Flood image

Does anybody else think it's a little bit odd that the skyline picture currently being used in the infobox is from a flood? If not for the presence of the flood, this would be a nice skyline pic, but it's a little odd having the main pic in this article be a flood. It just doesn't strike me as the kind of first impression we should be putting out there. Also, the pic was taken from a blog. We can't use it unless the blogger took the picture himself and unless he was the editor who uploaded it on here. --MatthewUND^(talk) 06:59, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

A much better one is needed. Sorry I cant take one, I will not be in Fargo until August. --Ndstate 03:16, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Metro Area Population

First of all I suppose this is called discussion not talk...

Anyway, I fixed the Metro Population numbers and based my info on Census data: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P001&-tree_id=4001&-redoLog=false&-all_geo_types=N&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=38000US2520&-search_results=38000US2520&-format=&-_lang=en

Please do not keep changing this without discussing it first. I do not know of a better source then the govt.--Ndstate 03:41, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Economy / Notable Local Companies

I noticed that Microsoft is listed as :

Microsoft - a division (Microsoft Dynamics GP, formerly Great Plains Software) of the software giant is located in Fargo

...when in fact Microsoft Dynamics GP is actually the name of one of the products under the Dynamics brand. Perhaps a better wording would be :

Microsoft - the Business Solutions Group (Microsoft Dynamics, formerly Great Plains Software) of the software giant is located in Fargo

as it's currently described on this page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft#Business_Division

thoughts? MatthewNDSU 08:36, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

• Good catch Mat, however (as I worked there for a year) the division in town actually supports not only the Business solutions (GP, CRM, Sharepoint) they also have other support and development not related to the Business solutions side of MS. I'm personally thinking that the Microsoft Dynamics GP should be removed and just leave the 'formerly Great Plains Software'. Great Plains was only one of five software packages that Great Plains software had when MS bought them out. --Brian_{(view my history)}/^{(How am I doing?)} 18:37, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

I've removed Alien Technologies from the list of largest employers, since they recently closed all Fargo facilities[1], and never had that many employees to start with. What's considered a large employer? Phoenix International has several hundred in Fargo, I'm sure Case and Marvin Windows have large head counts too. Gelada (talk) 01:25, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

What happened to Rosenbluth

Didn't Rosenbluth ( the big travel management company) have a call centre in Fargo. What happened to it. Did Amex take it over when they bought the company.--Dmol (talk) 03:18, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Likely vandalism

I'm not sure how many people live in Fargo, but it sure as hell isn't 13 million. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.100.7.184 (talk) 16:21, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

animal and plants

This section just seems silly, so i removed it, anyone agree/disagree? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.161.109.226 (talk) 16:20, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Pictures of Fargo

I understand that people want to post flattering pictures of Fargo, but I find it curious that the three pictures of Fargo show plenty of trees and sun. This can be extremely misleading to many, as Fargo is one of the coldest cities in the lower 48. My guess is these pictures had to have been taken in either July or August, because when else could they shoot it? I'm sure Fargo's a great city, but to try to bury and flit over the fact that it's ungodly cold there is misleading. Asc85 (talk) 17:48, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm almost 100% sure (from personal experience) that if the infobox were replaced with one featuring a gray sky and mounds of dirty snow that we would immediately begin getting complaints on the talk page about the picture being too gloomy. One of the issues with articles like this is that there aren't a huge number of pictures to choose from; it's not as though there are a dozen great downtown photos and there was a deliberate attempt to pick the most tropical looking one. Also, there are several pictures in the article that look as though they were taken during winter. Another thing to remember is that although the reputation of many cities in this part of the country is of an eternally cold place, that is really only half the story. It can get very hot in North Dakota, and the spring/summer/fall season is quite a bit longer than the months of July and August. I realize that there are at times cases on Wikipedia of... let's call it "civic boosterism"... (see Detroit, which is apparently a vibrant, ritzy place to live according to the pictures in that article), but I just don't really think that that's the case with this article. AlexiusHoratius 18:34, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

That said, I suppose a snowy/wintery picture for the climate section wouldn't hurt. AlexiusHoratius 18:43, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I think your comments are fair, and I've long ago given up on articles where the "civic boosterism," as you say is evident. I try to cut down on excessive boosterism whenever I can, but I'd be here all day. Since I went to school in Allentown, PA, I like to look at that entry from time to time, and it's the same kind of thing you're talking about. Asc85 (talk) 12:50, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

WikiCities Importance Scale

Just out of curiosity: Why is fargo given the designation of "low importance" when the criteria clearly states that a city is of mid importance if it has less than 200,000 people but has had "International news coverage by at least two media agencies of an event or disaster." This springs flooding was not only reported by every major new agency in the country, but also recieved international coverage by at least the bbc and the guardian. Would this not then qualify Fargo as a city of "mid" importance in the WikiCities directory? I don't know if this is the correct place to bring this up. Thanks

Sstoy (talk) 17:18, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

I have fixed this per the guidelines. --NDState 17:35, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Removing Midcontinent Communications reference

Midcontinent Communications does not offer any service inside Fargo city limits. They're in Moorhead, West Fargo, and most of the other small towns surrounding Fargo, but not in Fargo proper. (My understanding is that the City of Fargo has been blocking their requests to operate here for years.) Accordingly, I removed the mention of Midco as a cable TV provider. Any objections? --Lukeonia1 (talk) 05:12, 29 August 2009 (UTC)