Category talk:Ontario provincial highways

Latest comment: 18 years ago by Carlb in topic Category sorting

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I asked elsewhere, is someone willing to make a template so we can put all the ontario highways into a series, as our amis in Quebec have done?? Bacl-presby 00:07, 1 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

Category sorting

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Soliciting outside comment: should articles without a number in their title, such as Queen Elizabeth Way, Main Street Tunnel, Thousand Islands Parkway, etc. be sorted on the actual title of the article, or on hidden highway numbers like "451" and "7146" that aren't in the title and usually have no meaning to anyone besides the Ministry of Transportation and about 50 roadgeek subscribers to the Yahoo ontroads list? Bearcat 18:13, 7 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

  • Of course they should. And your question is misleading - 2S, 55 and 100 were signed; 58A is signed. The only one that you might have a point on is Main Street Tunnel, a 7xxx highway. All the others either have or had signed numbers, or, in the case of the QEW, fit naturally with the 400 series. --SPUI (T - C) 18:30, 7 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

If you're looking for a road name, you don't go to a category of highway numbers. --SPUI (T - C) 18:59, 7 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

  • Sort by common name, as that's what an average Wikipedia user would expect. Few people looking for information about the QEW would think to look under 4 or 451. They'd expect to see it at Queen Elizabeth Way, the name by which they know it. Most certainly, nobody expects to see Townline Tunnel sorted between Highway 58 and Highway 60. Mindmatrix 19:05, 7 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
  1. This is a category for current and former King's Highways, all of which are or were numbered.
  2. The highways are sorted by number.
  3. Therefore they should all be sorted by number, even those which happen to be named differently.

Your inability to understand this is not my problem. --SPUI (T - C) 04:11, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

  • That's like saying that since all apples are fruits, and all bananas are fruits, all apples should be listed as bananas. The name of the category is "Ontario provincial highways", not necessarily King's Highways. Not only are there more than just King's Highways for numbered routes in Ontario, you can have a highway without a number - I doubt anyone will disagree that the Gardiner Expressway is a highway (though not necessarily "provincial"). And besides, what sense does it make to list them under numbers that haven't even been used internally, let alone signed, in 40 years? Kirjtc2 04:38, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
    • This category deals specifically with the King's Highways; "Ontario provincial highways" means exactly the same thing in this context. (It was presumably an attempt by someone for needless standardization.) If the category were at Category:King's Highways of Ontario or something similar, would you object to sorting by number? --SPUI (T - C) 06:34, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
  • Oh, we understand your position just fine. We just disagree with it, which doesn't even come close to making any of us idiots. You want to talk "common sense"? All right; a person with common sense would not sort a category based on a hidden criterion that requires significant background knowledge to understand, when the whole point of the category is to help people who know nothing about the topic, and hence don't have the background knowledge to understand why you're sorting it that way. Common sense means putting yourself in the average user's shoes and structuring it the way they would find most genuinely helpful. It does not mean "you're an idiot if you disagree with me". Bearcat 05:21, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
The whole point of this category is to contain the numbered King's Highways of Ontario. --SPUI (T - C) 06:34, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
The whole point of this category is to organize all articles relating to the provincial highway system in Ontario, whether they're numbered roads or not, in a format that is readily understandable to readers regardless of their knowledge level. Nobody ever said the point was to reflect numbered highways only; not all King's Highways in Ontario are numbered roads. Bearcat 08:39, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
Which King's Highways are not numbered roads? And don't say QEW - that has a "hidden" number as well as the signed "number" QEW. --SPUI (T - C) 08:43, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
For the last fucking time, hidden internal inventory numbers are irrelevant. You do NOT title or sort an article with a name that nobody reading the article recognizes. And at any rate: the Thousand Islands Parkway is a non-numbered road. The Long Sault Parkway is a non-numbered road. And given that a hidden internal inventory number that has never, ever been publicly posted on said highway is irrelevant to Wikipedia titling conventions, the Queen Elizabeth Way is indeed a non-numbered road. Bearcat 08:48, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
The Thousand Islands Parkway is not a King's Highway. --SPUI (T - C) 09:04, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
It is a part of the provincial highway system. Bearcat 09:12, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
Do you have a source for that? Either way, that doesn't refute my statement that every King's Highway is numbered. --SPUI (T - C) 09:21, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
It doesn't make your statement relevant to the matter, either. Bearcat 09:28, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
It certainly does - all King's Highways are numbered, so let's sort them by those numbers. --SPUI (T - C) 09:38, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
Sort them by the numbers if the number is in the proper and correct title of the article. If the number isn't in the title, sort by what is in the title. This really isn't hard to understand. Bearcat 09:41, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
I don't think you understand how arbitrary the title is - there is no "proper and correct title" when deciding whether to use the number or name. --SPUI (T - C) 09:55, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
Yes, there is; when a highway has a public, common name and a number that's known only to insiders and was abandoned thirty years ago or has never been publicly posted on the highway, then the name is the proper and correct title; Wikipedia has a rule that in any case where a specific naming policy for that class of articles hasn't already been set forth, the "most common name" prevails. Bearcat 17:56, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

Oh, and what about Highway 137? Should that be sorted under H because it's no longer signed? --SPUI (T - C) 09:07, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

False comparison; Highway 137 doesn't have any other possible title besides its highway number. Bearcat 09:12, 8 July 2006 (UTC)Reply
Backwards in any case on the chronology of Highway 137, the road *was* unsigned (or signed as "To Interstate 81" until about a year ago, when the signage on the 401 and the Parkway was changed to replace "I-81 Hill Island USA" with "137 Hill Island, Ontario" and the I-81 indicators moved to secondary signposts as seemingly an afterthought. --carlb 14:29, 22 October 2006 (UTC)Reply

Apologies for any personal attacks here. I'm still convinced you're all wrong, but I'll stay out of this for now. --SPUI (T - C) 20:32, 10 July 2006 (UTC)Reply

Sort by common name. There are many instances of articles being titled by the name used in the common lexicon, for example the Leslie Street Spit actually has the official name Outer Harbour East Headland but nobody calls it that. Articles should be referred to by their common designations rather than some obscure technical title. It makes Wikipedia more human. --Atrian 04:56, 14 July 2006 (UTC)Reply


Another proposal to rename this category

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As per Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories)#Man-made objects, by country categories of such things are named "in country". I believe the same convention should be applied to Provinces of Canada and therefore, the sub-categories of Provincial highways in Canada should be renamed in the style Provincial highways in <province>, and this category should be renamed Provincial highways in Ontario. RayGates 15:53, 16 July 2006 (UTC)Reply