User talk:Jack ma/archive1

Charente and -Maritime

Hi, if you consider that the centre of mainland France is somewhere near Saint-Amand-Montrond, in the Cher department (according to French wikipedia), the location of the departments Charente and Charente-Maritime is more accurately described as "western France" than "southwestern France". I would call Biarritz, Pau and Bordeaux southwest, not La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime). Markussep ^Talk 17:48, 11 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. The problem is that there are other factors than pure geometry. According to what you say, Dordogne or Gironde would be "west", too. Traditionally, Charente and Charente-Maritime have always been in what we call "South-west": the daily Sud-Ouest covers both departments, also names of companies, or contents of books can proove it. The "boundary" is just at the north of these 2 departments: above, West begins (or "Centre-West"): Poitou, Pays-de-la Loire, Brittany... People who live in Charente, like me, know it. It has also a matter to do with "hydrological basins", climates, vegetation, architecture, and human factors... Most of other French people just don't know that fact either: this is a (little) problem with Wikipedia: sometimes articles local to an area are made by people not really knowing this area (Charentes). Because it is not much known, probably. Google gives you 975,000 answers with "Charente + sud-ouest" and 500,000 with "Charente +ouest -sud". The other "difficulty" is that this boundary "south-west/west" is in the middle of the administrative region "Poitou-Charentes" (Poitou is Centre-West, Charentes are South-West), but that's it! I hope that these 70,000 pages (or more) can be changed at once by a robot. Otherwise, we have to rely on luck, and time... Thanks anyway. Jack ma (talk) 13:23, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

70,000 pages??? I would call Gironde and Dordogne southwest (I gave the example of Bordeaux), but I'm a bit hesitant about the Charentes. BTW I didn't create most of those articles, I see Ksnow and Dr. Blofeld have been adding the "western" part in April 2008. Anyway, the change can be done using AWB (I did so for the communes of Loire-Atlantique, someone called that northwestern France). Before I do it, I do need more proof, perhaps some references to books or reliable websites. Is there a clear definition of southwestern France, maybe in French reference works, or encyclopedias? Markussep ^Talk 09:23, 14 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ooops, sorry! maybe (more than) 700 (approximate number of stubs in both departments if I'm correct, without counting the rivers). Unfortunately, there is no clear definition of these areas in France; only human use. I can give you reliable reference for southwest, but (so-called) reliable references exist for west (or even centre-west), too, but a large majority of cases give Charentes into south-west. The dailies are reliable prooves. In Poitou (just North of the Charentes), the daily is "Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest" (and the Charentes: "Sud Ouest"). Another reliable proof would be that Angoulême is traditionally called "balcon du sud-ouest". But here is a citation of a book: Villes, régions et universités, by Raymond Hudon, Jean-Pierre Augustin (2005), p.165 (Maison des Sciences de l'Homme d'Aquitaine, Presses de l'Université Laval)

... tandis qu'au nord les deux départements des Charentes - traditionnellement tournés vers la Gironde - ont été rattachés au Poitou, le rayonnement de Bordeaux dépasse les limites de l'Aquitaine administrative dans une configuration appelée le plus souvent "Sud-Ouest" (à l'image de la zone de diffusion sur huit départements du quotidien du même nom), tandis que, curieusement, l'appellation "Grand Sud-Ouest" déplace le centre de gravité de Bordeaux à Toulouse.... NB: La Rochelle is at the extreme north-west of the Charentes. Jack ma (talk) 16:00, 14 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I've replaced western with southwestern in all articles for communes in the Charentes. I may have missed one or two, but I got the other 850. Markussep ^Talk 20:49, 14 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot ! Jack ma (talk) 05:09, 15 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome! Let me know if you find anything else. Markussep ^Talk 07:05, 15 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox map for french stubs

Hello Markussep, Could you modify the default map for InfoBoxes of France stubs (e.g. Périgueux), in order to show the departments, like on the fr:wiki ? In fact, it is File:Carte France geo.png since 2008. Thanks, Jack ma (talk) 15:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jack, a disadvantage of the map you suggested is that Corsica is not on it. I think this one is better: 270px. I viewed it at 270px width, like it will be in the infobox, looks good to me. If you like it, you can suggest it at Template talk:Infobox French commune. Markussep ^Talk 10:01, 16 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with you. It looks good to me, too, and I am going to suggest it. Jack ma (talk) 11:02, 16 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]