Wikipedia talk:WikiProject French communes

Display problem

A number of article on French communes (e.g. Pézenas) begin with a massive amount of white space. This seems to be related somehow to the infobox and image files. I have been playing around for some time, tweeking things here and there, to no avail. Is there any way (stupid question - I know there is but it doesn't seem to happen here) of preventing this? I suspect that the problem lies somehwere in the design of the infobox. Emeraude (talk) 18:47, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

I can reproduce this behaviour when using Internet Explorer 6, but with Firefox 3.6 the article looks fine. What browser are you using? Kiwipete (talk) 22:18, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Internet Explorer 7. Emeraude (talk) 16:30, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

I've just tested IE8 - it works the same as Firefox, i.e. does not show any white space beside the info box and photo on the right side of the article. Maybe you should either Firefox or IE8. Kiwipete (talk) 21:22, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

I'd resisted installing IE8 having heard so many bad things about it. Now installed it and, yes, the display problem is solved. Can't really understand that, as I didn't think Wikipedia pages would make such dedicated use of whatever updated code varies from IE7 to IE8. Thanks for the tip and solution. Now to see what doesn't work in IE8! Emeraude (talk) 12:42, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Taking photo requests: Strasbourg

Hi! I'm spamming this here because you appear on the project banners at Talk:Strasbourg. I'll be spending some time next month in and around the city, so if anyone has any photo requests of specific locations in the town or immediate vicinity do let me know. I can't promise all or even any, but I will make an effort. I'll have access to top-flight Canon equipment, so do feel free to request higher-res replacements of images already available. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 12:26, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

excessive precision in latitude and longitude

I just wanted to let people know that I've made a proposal at Template talk:Infobox French commune to change the level of precision used in specifying latitude and longitude of French communes. If there's any discussion, I'd prefer for it to take place there. —Stepheng3 (talk) 19:12, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Template:Infobox French commune nominated for deletion

Please note that {{Infobox French commune}} has been nominated for deletion. The discussion may be found here. --AussieLegend (✉) 12:00, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

Naming convention of commune lists by department

@M-le-mot-dit, Rich Farmbrough, Kiwipete, and Dr. Blofeld:

Hello all, I'm seeking input regarding a change I think we should make to the naming convention of the articles listing communes by department. Olivier began some years ago to create these commune lists, and has done a lot of work on them since. When I first came across them almost four years ago, I contacted him regarding the format of the article titles to indicate that the format Communes of the X department is not the proper word order in English. He was agreeable to my suggestions, for example Communes of the department of X or Communes of X. Finding no bot or tool that would aid me in bulk renaming of articles, and not wanting to undertake changing them all manually, I decided to just change the titles as I came across them. Recently, Markussep undid my page moves, and after some discussion, we decided that I should post here and alert you. I took your names as suggested by Olivier in 2012.

The current naming convention is the result of an error by someone who, while fluent in English, is not a native speaker. It's certainly not a grievous error, and the titles are comprehensible, but they are quite awkward. They are the equivalent of naming a French article Communes du Jura département instead of [Liste des] communes du département du Jura, or of naming an English article Churches of the Rome city instead of Churches of Rome. I think we should change the format to something like what I suggested to Olivier, and I'd like to get some input here, especially from native speakers of English. And if you agree with me, would any of you know of a tool that might help? Thanks in advance for your views, and please ping anyone you think would be interested. Eric ^talk 17:24, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

Since I was curious whether "the X department" is really wrong in English, I searched for both "the Isère department" and "the department of Isère" in Google Books. Both get many hits, but the latter version seems to be more common (resp. 851 and 4,630). If "the X department" is wrong, it's a common mistake, also made by e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica: The combined stream crosses into the Isère département and flows along the Vallée de Graisivaudan depression, passing through Grenoble.. Markussep ^Talk 08:18, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

I wouldn't put too much stock in today's online Britannica. It seems to be collaborative, and has some style and punctuation issues that wouldn't have appeared in the old print edition. I saw "edit" and "history" buttons, and noticed in the history that the article originally placed the Isère in southwestern France. Eric ^talk 13:36, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

I guess you're right about online Britannica. If we should decide to move the lists to something like "Communes of the department of X", the easy part is moving the list articles themselves, and updating the templates referring to them: {{Communes of France}} and the templates in Category:France commune (country subdivision) templates. The hard part is modifying the commune articles (see for instance Volonne): nearly all of them have a "see also" section with a link to the list article, and the lead is usually something like "X is a commune in the Y department in southeastern France.". WP:AWB is a useful tool, and maybe Lonjers can make a bot for it. Markussep ^Talk 13:22, 22 February 2016 (UTC)