Template talk:FranceAdmin

Should this be divided into Francie and Gaulhe? BoArthur

Undoubtedly. And, something tells me that Christophe once wrote that the administrative division of France is quite different *there*. So instead of all the départements it might be wiser to simply work with Francie, Gaulhe and the overseas territories (which should include Algeria and a few other places).

BTW, I would also like to discuss the following topic once: how do we handle red links? In my view, a red link means that an article under that name is planned and/or sollicited. In other words: I don't make a link when I don't intend to write an article (like, in the case of the provinces of the RTC). In the case of France's departments I seriously wonder in how far we would ever plan to give them an individual entry; personally, I don't think they deserve to be links in a template.

Cheers, --IJzeren Jan 23:45, 11 Apr 2005 (PDT)

At the same time, Jan, wouldn't it be in the interest of IB to leave those open as they are? They don't have to be filled, and can be as newcomers join, or as Christophe or others of us find the need to fill them in. The only reason I filled in all of Louisianne was because I've had some strong preconceived notions about the area and wanted a solid baseline for QSS. I'll agree to the political differnces and removing the departements for now, but I also think that there is at least some level of similarity; the revolution is what gave us the departements...they may have changed between then and now, but they started the same. Any chance we can persuade Christophe to bring in his two cents? BoArthur 00:48, 12 Apr 2005 (PDT)

Regarding your first question: yes and no. You are absolutely right from your own point of view, Dan, but mine is a bit different in this respect. Like I said, I avoid creating a link to a non-existing page unless I seriously plan to write the corresponding article in the near future. Too many red links in an article or a template give me a feeling of incompleteness, and in some cases that feeling is not at all justified. Because (and here we are touching the basics of IB), in my view completeness is not what we are pursuing with our project. Nor should this wiki in any way try to emulate the real-world wikipedia. You are fully entitled to create entries for individual department of Louisianne; if you have reached such a level of completeness with your country, that is a really, really wonderful thing. But there is no rule dictating that there be any kind of uniformity between country entries. From this point of view templates are a cool feature, but also a dangerous one: they force you to answer questions that may not want to answer at all (and frankly, that's why I use them reluctantly. I don't like to be forced to calculate a country's size in km², nor do I want a red link Prime ministers of Lithuania since I don't intend to ever create such a page).

In this particular case, I think it's up to Christophe to decide. The best advise I can give you is to mail him privately. I can assure you first hand that he is alive and kicking (I was at his birthday party last Saturday :) ).

Cheers, --IJzeren Jan 06:18, 12 Apr 2005 (PDT)

I would think that Ghaul and Francie are level between departments and the central government. Might be something similar to the situation in belgium *here*.--Marc Pasquin 17:40, 12 Apr 2005 (PDT)

What's that situation? I'm not that aware of Belgian politics. Any comments on the display of the départements? BoArthur

its divided along ethnic lines between flander (dutch) and walonia (french) with brussel being mixed. Each region is then divided into provinces. I'm pretty sure Christophe mentioned some sort of comparison at one point. --Marc Pasquin 18:16, 13 Apr 2005 (PDT)

New Update

Marc, Jan, what do you think of these? This way, should someone want to write an article about the respective departements, they can. Comments? BoArthur