Talk:French Heads of state
Sugested Merge of Articles to List of heads of state of France or Overview of heads of state of France
editGoal: to make France's political history explained Chronologically (In a simple way) (In one place)
For (1)
editI have always found the separation to be confusing, trying to follow the charts chronologically is very time consuming. Cards84664 (talk) 22:22, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Against (4)
editMerging all those lists here would be an awful decision; they are all deservedly standalone articles. Number 57 19:52, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Merging all of them together could create WP:SIZE issues as it would probably be around 150K bytes and difficult to read and navigate for some visitors. These are all better of seperate so more attention can be given to monarchy and republican leaders. --Steverci (talk) 05:34, 19 September 2015 (UTC)
It would, indeed, be a very bad idea if this proposal passed. The new list will be very confusing for someone who wants to find information about a specific time period, which is what most people who browse such lists are up to. Also, uniting the lists is like ignoring the fundamental differences between Monarchies and republics.--The Traditionalist (talk) 14:00, 27 September 2015 (UTC)
Opposed to this strongly. This was part of the French Revolution and these guys changed the office every two weeks (so that no one could acquire too much power, in theory, but in practice it didn't work so well). Regardless, incorporating this list into "heads of state" master list would be completely unmanageable. If necessary refer to the list(s), but don't merge the several lists. This list in length is barely manageable size wise. To add it to another list that covers a thousand years would be absurd. Perhaps a set index or some such thing would be appropriate. List of Heads of State of France, then list in sub headings from there. I don't see how following a chronology here is all that difficult. The Info box contains the predecessor/successor links, and one can readily go from there. STRONGLY OPPOSE auntieruth (talk) 23:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
Hub and spokes compromise (3)
editHaven't formed a votable opinion yet ("one place" is a pro; "too big" is a con). One thing I'm concerned with is duplicated source that would have to be maintained in two places or risk going out of sync. One way to deal with that would be to have transcludable templates that generated the table (or text) sections that were common to two or more articles.
As a compromise, rather than merging, couldn't the French Heads of state article be transformed into a kind of "hub" page, with short sections (around a paragraph) for each dynasty, republic, and interregnum, where each section has a common layout that included links to more detailed information?
A section would start with a section header, as now (e.g., == Merovingian dynasty (486–751) ==) followed by a {{Main}} template (e.g., Main article: Merovingian dynasty), followed by a paragraph such as appears now (The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years...). The table that now appears in each section would be removed and placed instead in the Main article if it doesn't already have a table, or merged into it, if it does. (If the article didn't exist yet, the table would become the kernel of the new article.) Optionally, where the table used to be in the hub we could add a short, linked, comma series of names (e.g. "Leaders include Clovis I, Childebert I, (12 more)..., and Childeric III" which would keep the idea of the hub article containing a link to each leader, without being cluttered with tables or exceeding the size limit. Anyone wanting more detail could just click on the "Main article" link, or a name in the comma series.
The overall result would be a streamlined page, not too long, with a list of sections in chronological sequence for each period, with a link to every "Main article" at the top, and a brief paragraph about each one (and possibly a link to every leader). A good place to start, to see the sweep of all of French history from the PoV of leaders, and links to everyplace you could conceivably want to go for further information. Mathglot (talk) 23:53, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
Sounds like it could work, but let's wait for more people to decide first. Thank you for the idea. Cards84664 (talk) 12:25, 24 September 2015 (UTC)
I am not against this. It would be very useful. Personally, I find the title Overview of French Heads of State better for such an article.--The Traditionalist (talk) 14:05, 27 September 2015 (UTC)
Indeed, this is the way to go. The fact a detailed meme is at the bottom of a heirarchy of wider taxonomy doesn't mean it has no right to exist in its own right. Charles de Gaule - Presidents of the French Third Republic - Presidents of France - French Heads of State - Heads of State. All have validity and should drill down. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7D:B327:8400:A9CF:2584:89A1:25B8 (talk) 06:48, 5 October 2015 (UTC)
Redirected talk page
editBecause the article on this talk page now redirects to List of heads of state of France, and because the List of heads of state of France talk page redirected to Talk:List of Presidents of France til I fixed it, some users who might be able to contribute to this conversation won't be able to find it. I've attempted to re-boot this discussion on Talk:List of heads of state of France; and I'm posting here for anybody watching this page that might wish to contribute to the discussion. Nigholith (talk) 14:09, 22 December 2015 (UTC)