Forum:Standardization of place names and categories


 * Okay, before this gets out of control we need to address something. We have pages and categories for places in which the names are not consistent country-by-county and even within countries. I am goign to gather previous discussions, combine them, and address more issues.

Place/category names problems
In regards to place names for articles and categories. Please ignore whether or not the actual articles or categories exist.

Regarding articles, we have the basic continents:
 * North America (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * South America (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Australia (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Europe (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Asia (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Africa (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Antarctica (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)

We also have country articles and categories:
 * Untied States (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Australia (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * England (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * New Zealand (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)

We also have several divisions of country articles and categories:
 * New York (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Pennsylvania (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Georgia (U.S. states) (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * New South Wales (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * North Yorkshire (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Västmanland (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Gotland (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Gelderland (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Baden-Württemberg (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)

and the thousand of others...

New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, New South Wales, and Baden-Württemberg are states, North Yorkshire is a county, Gotland and Gelderland are provinces. Thus, all countries are subdivided differently.

Another problem is inconsistancy:
 * Chautauqua County, New York - specifies county and state (does not specify the country the United States.)
 * Meddo - specifies hamlet (does not specify the muncipality of Winterswijk, the province or Gelderland, and the country of the Netherlands.)

These are just two of the many examples I could give. Also, a too simplified of a name would not account for the many duplication of places names. Examples:


 * Georgia is a country as well as a U.S. state
 * Winterswijk is a town within the muncipality of Winterswijk.

Solution
Use country name in place name

We'll use our examples from before:

Instead of using these:
 * New York (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Pennsylvania (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Georgia (U.S. states) (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * New South Wales (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * North Yorkshire (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Västmanland (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Gotland (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Gelderland (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Baden-Württemberg (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)

We should use these:


 * New York, United States (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Pennsylvania, United States (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Georgia, United States (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * New South Wales, Australia (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * North Yorkshire, England (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Västmanland, Sweden (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Gotland, Sweden (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Gelderland, Netherlands (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Baden-Württemberg, Germany (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)

Then we can go on to use:
 * Chautauqua County, New York, United States (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Bacon County, Georgia, United States (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Hambleton, North Yorkshire, England (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Västmanland County, Västmanland, Sweden (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Visby, Gotland, Sweden (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Winterswijk, Gelderland, Netherlands (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)
 * Heidenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (Born in..., Died in..., Married in..., etc.)

There. That solves the inconsitancy problem and the duplicate place names problem. Too long of a name? No problem. We have redirects. We can make disambiguations.