Talk:Billboard/Archives/2012

Older discussions

I think the Times square pic needs to be larger, just to get the detail--it's trying to crowd a lot of fine detail into one image, and a thumbnail doesn't work. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 19:58, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

You should make a better image, then... this is turning into a slow-motion edit war.

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I was just wondering: why was the original text transformed into American English? I am referring to things like 'hoarding' (the article came here from hoarding because that one was changed to another meaning) and 'digitalised' (spelt with the 's') – oughtn't they to remain as in the original writing in accordance with the Manual of Style? —Sinuhe 07:23, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

If I just added a paragraph or inserted a sentence or two, it would have been unconscionably rude of me to change the spelling and the word used. However, I added 10x the amount of text, reworked the style and wove some of the statements directly into other parts of the text. With this gigantic amount of new writing, I wrote in a style and spellings I knew, and according to another rule in the Manual of Style one should not mix spellings (though I did not go to the Spellings portion of the Manual, this was my reasoning at the time). It was not intended as a slight or to provoke conflict, and I'm sorry if I caused offense. This was my first Wikipedia contribution. --Jkeiser 08:36, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

OK, just so I know the reason – certainly no offence taken. Thank you for the explanation; it makes sense. I usually forget that other people, unlike me, do not consciously decide to write in American English. And it is a wonderful article indeed: congratulations on it. I hope it is featured, for it appears to be of a high standard. Perhaps, however, it is still somewhat inappropriate to mix up motorways on the one and highways on the other hand; the first is a British expression (something akin to an expressway in the USA), the second an American (for what is known simply as main road in Commonwealth English). —Sinuhe 09:45, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree, we don't need both. We would have to have different names for our freaking roads! I would just say "link to roads" except that billboards are found much more often on highways than smaller roads here (and I suspect in Europe as well). I vote for linking to highways, just because it links to the others and some articles indicate it is used in both U.S., Australia, and parts of Europe. As an aside, that web of articles about different types of roads is horribly overcomplicated and really must have some redundancies in it--I think other people solved the British/American English problem by making two articles about roughly the same thing. --Jkeiser 06:26, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I am wondering why there is no mention of hand-painted billboards. It used to be quite a sight to see an image taking shape as a painter or two filled in a sketch, sort of like Paint By Numbers. Punstress (talk) 22:33, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

proof

This article just goes to show that even the simplest of article creation can turn into a FA. All I ever did was make a little stub, and now look! Kingturtle 20:02, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Yep. And to give credit where credit is due, Sinuhe took that stub and expanded the heck out of it to make it a good jumping point for an article. Without that, I might not even have been stimulated enough to start writing; and you can definitely see the evolution of his sentences into sections of the article. Definitely a good example of Wikipedia collaboration. --Jkeiser 06:26, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Tofu

"Eat more tofu" is funny? Could have fooled me. N328KF 11:14, 2004 Jun 24 (UTC)

I agree, it's not the funniest billboard defacement in the world. I don't think anyone will object if you find a funnier one and put it up there. --67.171.9.211 16:07, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Various changes

Just wanted to say that I wouldn't have usually made the broad changes to an article like that without some consultation with the original authors. However as it is now a featured article (with a linked spike in readers) and a feel/hope that my changes will benefit the readability of the article I went ahead and made them. Also the section on mechanical billboards might well benefit from more eyes, I'm not sure if my rewrite helped or hindered the clarity. Really a diagram is what is needed. Pasd 20:44, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I love your changes actually, they were uniformly excellent. I wasn't a big fan of subheadings before, but you have converted me :) IMO, the mechanical billboards section is more readable. I struggled with the words for the tri-facing billboards in the first place; as you say, it's the sort of thing you can only get into someone's head with a diagram. --Jkeiser 02:38, Jun 25, 2004 (UTC)

timing is everything

The Billboard Liberation Front just did an 'improvement' yesterday night.

www.billboardliberation.com/robot.html

Milton Rand Kalman BLF Chief Scientist

Billboard advertisements are designed to catch a person's attention and create a memorable impression very quickly

Only half-jokingly, I propose this: www.robertaweb.com/. Very effective campaign, with huge billboards (> 5 meters high) too. Not for a family-oriented site, though

What's with the whatsnewkhan.ytmnd.com/ link for "Court vs. William Shatner, 1979?" Kinda random.

Political billboards

In the UK, during general election campaigns, all parties use billboards for political adverts. Does this not happen anywhere else? Morwen - Talk 00:33, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I've never seen it in the US. Acegikmo1 19:29, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

It happens occasionally - I've seen it. →Raul654 19:35, Jul 4, 2004 (UTC)

How many billboards do people really remember? I would submit, that it is very few. I can only remember 2 in my life time and I am 93.

made a few changes

I am one of the people who worked on the software for the Yahoo Autos racing game. Just made a few minor edits -- the sign in question is actually on the Reuters building and the ad actually only ran for a few weeks during the New York auto show. Also the caption for the Times Square photo said "sports billboards" -- not sure why it said that since when it doesn't have games on it, the Reuters sign shows all kinds of news, not just sports. Thanks for featuring our sign!

bolding?

Eh, what's with all the recent random bolding of sentences and words? Is there some Wikipedia convention I'm unaware of? Jkeiser 17:41, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

It is probably someone that is not familiar with the Wikipedia style manual. I have reverted it. mydogategodshat 20:34, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

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Wow, arbitrary bolding isn't the only problem. I don't have an account on Wikipedia, but this article is in serious need of a rewrite — it's terrible! The article is full of awkward writing, laborious sentences, made-up words, bad punctuation, sloppy grammar, clumsy syntax, poor organization, iffy statements of supposed facts and many other problems. I'm tempted to sign up — if only to copy edit this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.179.214.80 (talk) 20:08, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

You do not even need to sign up – you can edit the article right now! Paul Erik ^{(talk)(contribs)} 20:51, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Bus advertising

Could the advertising on the sides of local buses be called billboard advertising? If not, what would it appear as in Wikipedia? See my example below. Peter Ellis 21:35, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Answer -- Side of a bus advertising. Peter Ellis 15:54, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Or simply Bus advertising. *grin* Ckamaeleon 03:40, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

stadium billboards

original text: Apparently, billboards in stadiums are called advertising boards.

Does any sentence beginning with "apparently" belong in Wiklpedia? That's not exactly the encyclopedic tone we're going for here. This statement should either be substantiated or removed. Ckamaeleon 03:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Magic Vinyl Printing link?

Seems like the link to magicvinylprinting.com should be labeled as a commercial site, or omitted.

(As a side note, that's one of the most badly-designed websites I've seen. Wikipedia linking to it almost undermines the authority of the article, in my opinion.)

US POV?

Regarding the worldwide and uspov tags put up on the site.. I personally feel the article does a fine job of providing world-wide information on billboards. It just so happens that many highlights in billboard history happened in America. Maybe we can add notes to some of the historical highlights that don't yet say they happened in the U.S. Anyone is welcome to add more non-American historical highlights (and I'm American, so it won't be me), but I feel the ones there are all valuable. I say take these cleanup tags out. --Vossanova ^o< 18:00, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I've been trying to find some cites for a fair bit of non-US info to go into the article - roadside billboards are banned near motorways in the United Kingdom, for example, so farmers are now illegally parking trailers painted with the advertisements in their fields ajoining motorways. If anyone can think of a good way to integrate this into the article, it may go some way to allieviating these concerns. Laïka 15:18, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Free Coffee Billboards

You know, the "free coffee exemption" of the Highway Beautification Act is still bugging me. I can't figure out who the act is aimed at--it specifically says it's OK for non-profits to put up billboards allowing volunteer groups. It itches a little bit on my curiosity meter--is there some bigger story behind this?

I did a little deeper searching and the mystery continues. There is a 2005 Oregon law that specifically references them as well:

366.490 Coffee and cookies at roadside rest areas; rules. (1) The Department of Transportation shall establish by rule a permit program allowing nonprofit organizations to provide free coffee or other nonalcoholic beverages and cookies at roadside rest areas.

Does someone else have more info or search savvy than I, that might be able to expound? Maybe it is just what it is, but the phenomenon sounds article-worthy by itself. People would have to be mighty motivated to do something like that.

Jkeiser 16:43, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Ooh! I found an explicit program from the Washington Department of Transportation. I wonder if this was government-driven from the beginning? It's 50 years old so it could go either way. More specifically though, everything I've found shows that these programs are related to volunteers serving coffee in rest areas. A search on '"free coffee" highway volunteers rest area' finds more gold. Oregon does it too. Not all states do. Australia has a Driver Reviver program--it's international now! Might be worthy of inclusion in the rest area article. Jkeiser

Billboard Ban in São Paulo

I haven't yet created an account and learned how to edit articles in Wikipedia, but seems to me this article should have some discussion (perhaps under History) of the billboard ban in São Paulo effective January 1, 2007. Hopefully one of the many wonderful contributors to this site will pick this up for editting. Some references, pre-ban in effect http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5355692.stm http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/12/news/brazil.php http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2006/12/sao_paulo_is_ba.html and, post-ban in effect http://www.artthreat.net/2007/04/158 http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2007/04/20/04

Page move

This serious page move was made without any discussion, and has already been reverted twice. This page has been sitting here since 2003, there is no compelling reason to suggest the "Billboard mag" is common usage over an actual billboard to warrent this change. Epson291 (talk) 16:36, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Offensive Picture?

I think that sooner or later some 8 year old will see the billboard picture and get a *****ion.

Does anyone think a stripper picture is the best example of a billboard?

Tangmeisterjr (talk) 23:46, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

It's not even a good picture for showing what a billboard is. I would say it would be best to go with a regular highway billboard or something. Petero9 (talk) 23:53, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

non-traditional billboads

What happend to the truck billboards? How about a sailboat billboard?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 20:46, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't know - but 'other types of billboards' have returned - and feel free to return the sailboat billboard to this article --92.237.84.183 (talk) 15:06, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Hoarding archaic?

This sounds wrong to me. You can easily find plenty of evidence of “hoarding” being used in the sense of advertisement in 2011 in e.g. the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Times of India, Straits Times (Singapore), and I daresay points north, east and west. I looked up a couple of online dictionaries (Collins, Chambers). It’s certainly not archaic. So I changed itCampolongo (talk) 07:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

File:SkyBoard en Barcelona.jpg Nominated for Deletion

An image used in this article, File:SkyBoard en Barcelona.jpg, has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests October 2011 What should I do? Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so. If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use) If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used. This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 14:07, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

"Fast food billboards" photo

Those are billboards? They look to me like signs used to identify a place of business. 66.232.240.121 (talk) 17:43, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

NPOV?

This article seems to be low on information (for example, standard sizes of billboards, 48 sheet and 96 sheet) and largely in the hands of those who seem to believe billboards should be banned. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MartinTurner (talk • contribs) 23:07, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Although desperately in need of work, particularly hard facts and cites, this article doesn't seem to be 'in the hands' of anti-billboard forces. Real controversies belong in articles. On the other hand, much of this article does read like random clippings from popular media.--Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 18:23, 14 September 2012 (UTC)