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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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)