This is an archive of past discussions about Alaska. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
RFC: Should we mass-change maps which do not correctly show the location of Alaska?
You know what I’m talking about. That map. The map of the states they had in the classroom when you were a kid, the one that show Alaska in a box where Baja California should be.
Shows where Alaska is not, and the scale is grossly incorrect.Shows where Alaska actually is, and with a much improved sense of scale.
So, if the purpose of Wikipedia is to spread knowledge, should we not use the map that actually shows reality? We already do in this article, because I changed it some time ago, but should we not use this, if not universally, at least in all articles that are actually about Alaska? Because as of right now there are over a hundred articles using the highly inaccurate map and only 5 using the more accurate one. If this request succeeds in forming a consensus for change I intend to file a request for a bot to make the necessary changes, or failing that I’ll do it myself. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:11, 23 May 2018 (UTC)
Yes, but only as long as Alaska is the only state highlighted colored. If we are only pointed out Alaska (or Alaska Hawaii) - then yes. If we are coloring/shading multiple states - then having that big chunk of Canada, ocean, and Greenland detracts from inter-state comparisons.Icewhiz (talk) 09:07, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
Yes, agree with Icewhiz completely - but for the comparison maps I'd advise that we emphasise Alaska is not to scale in the tagline. From personal experience that scaling of Alaska is a very common misconception and we should be actively fighting it. (Alaska not to scale) or similar in italics would be all that's needed. VeritasVox (talk) 05:13, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
Yes, totally agree that the maps should be changed. Also agree with the idea of putting (Alaska not to scale) in italics would be good.AnaSoc (talk) 22:32, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
map with actual scale of Alaska superimposed over contiguous statesIn the Alaska-in-a-box map the scale is way, way off. Beeblebrox (talk) 00:24, 26 May 2018 (UTC)
Yes with a suggestion A map showing Alaska with west Canada and north-west US would make sense, unless the purpose is to show the relative sizes of Alaska and the entire 48-state areas. For location, there is no need to show the entire US. "Not to scale" maps, IMHO, are an abomination. Collect (talk) 22:06, 5 June 2018 (UTC)
Yes but ... I endorse comment by Icewhiz that the amount of ocean/Greenland is unnec and those of Collect that it may not be nec to include ALL of mainland US. It would also be helpful to label Canada and US (though not necessarily states/provinces). Surely establishing location is primary? Pincrete (talk) 18:08, 12 June 2018 (UTC)
Well, it’s been nearly a month and it feels like we are more or less all on the same page. It sounds like some wuld prefer we had a slightly different map, with no other state highlighted and maybe limited to the Pacific Northwest? Personally I don’t have any skills in that department but if anyone here does that would be more than welcome, or we could ask for help at WP:GL/MAP but before I do so I’d like to be sure we’re in basic agreement about what to ask for. Beeblebrox (talk) 05:01, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
I support the change. What about one of those maps that highlights Alaska's place in the circumpolar north that would show its position relative to Russia, Canada, and the contiguous US? I also do not have expertise to accomplish the changes, but I'm willing to learn. Thanks for the conversation.AnaSoc (talk) 02:04, 22 June 2018 (UTC)
I've been kinda ignoring this discussion, real world obligations and all. My watchlist shows the closure of yet another ultimately fruitless XFD related to the University of Alaska. Our coverage of UA is a real mess, as it's a little too dominated by blatant COI edits which amount to a PR whitewashing in many cases. Witness this edit, removing mention of the Ted Stevens archive from Elmer E. Rasmuson Library because it was ultimately not a successful venture for EERL. Most of the news coverage it generated while it was a going concern appears to have disappeared from news sites, though this piece remains, lending some insight as to what a hot potato the matter was. The reason I mention all this? While EERL had the Stevens papers, they put together a small number of public displays from certain materials in the archive. One of them concerned this very topic. Evidently, Stevens mounted a campaign to put pressure on the USGS to quit publishing maps of the sort Beeblebrox complained about as long ago as 1974 or 1975. Due to how long ago that happened, combined with moving the archive to a more private setting, relevant sources may be hard to find. I've done a fair amount of research into that specific era of Alaska's history and don't remember seeing anything which referenced Stevens's campaign besides what I saw in that one display at EERL years ago. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 23:03, 7 July 2018 (UTC)
Apparently, it's pretty standard for requests at the map graphics lab to just be ignored, as the one related to this was. I guess best we can do is go through every instance of the "bad" map and see if it it should be changed per this discussion. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:47, 26 January 2019 (UTC)
What party is Lieutenant Governor Davidson affiliated with? If she's not affiliated to any, then that makes her an independent. So, which is it? GoodDay (talk) 10:16, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
This edit request to Alaska has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.
Information to be added or removed:
Alaska ranked 29th in the nation for educational performance, according to Education Week’s Quality Counts 2018 report. It earned an overall score of 73.1 out of 100 points and a grade of C. By comparison, the nation received a score of 75.2 or a C.
Alaska posted a C-minus in the Chance-for-Success category, ranking 46th on factors that contribute to a person’s success both within and outside the K-12 education system. Alaska received a mark of B and finished ninth for School Finance. It ranked 49th with a grade of D on the K-12 Achievement Index.
I tried to remove the comma, but it's not actually there. It has something to do with that particular parameter. Someone with better knowledge than me about infoboxes will have to fix it. - FlightTime (open channel)02:28, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
Partly done. The template parameter expects a single number (which semantically should be the 2010 census value); adding extra text produces weird results apparently. So I rolled the text back to the 2010 census number. Ideally, the infobox should actually note that this is the 2010 estimate, and not necessarily the most recent estimate. That would have to be fixed at the infobox though. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 03:21, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
The page will be discussed at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Alaska until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.
Users may edit the page during the discussion, including to improve the page to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the deletion notice from the top of the page. North America100020:09, 6 November 2019 (UTC)
Semi-protected edit request on 27 April 2020
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Um, is it too much to ask for you to actually pay attention and use your brain instead of using a bot to dash off an irrelevant and meaningless reply solely for the sake of saying that something's been replied to? The content Eugen Sulina is asking about already exists in the article at Alaska#Cities and census-designated places (by population). As it's based on the 2010 Census, this section will need to be redone shortly. As the typical editor around here appears to be interested solely in whether or not the article happens to have citations of some sort in certain places, those with a more sincere desire to improve it and accurately reflect what's notable about Alaska have likely been dissuaded and moved on. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 21:32, 4 May 2020 (UTC)
Semi-protected edit request on 16 June 2020
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... An exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and territory of Yukon to the east and southeast and has a maritime border with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west...
... An exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and territory of Yukon to the east and southeast and has a maritime border with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west... Will Heisenberg (talk) 06:13, 16 June 2020 (UTC)
And the protection log shows shorter protections and other types of protection such as pending changes were tried first. As the protecting admin at this time I see no compelling reason to think it would be any different if the protection were removed. Beeblebrox (talk) 19:15, 25 September 2020 (UTC)
Semi-protected edit request on 8 October 2020
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"natural resources southward (i.e., coal from the Usibelli"
"I.e." functionally means "in other words", and it excludes other stuff. Please change it to "e.g." (functionally meaning "for example"), to admit the possibility of other natural resources. If you know that it was only coal, instead change it to "coal southward from the Usibelli". 64.203.186.75 (talk) 14:56, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
The Alaska Demographic Map needs to be updated. There are some areas, such as the Yakutat Borough, that should have their color changed. European Americans have overtaken the Native American population there, making up the majority of the population as of the 2010 census. As such, the color of the borough on the demographic map should be changed to a light shade blue. NorfolkIsland123 (talk) 20:18, 19 December 2020 (UTC)
I think the right time to do this will be when the 2020 census data is available, which will probably be next month (maybe, I just heard on the news they've discovered some issues and discrepancies which may delay the final data yet again). And then we'll need to find someone who is willing and able to actually do it. Beeblebrox (talk) 01:43, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
Based on the last news item I read about the redistricting board, there's belief that the census report could be released as late as summer 2021. I looked at the map as presented in the article. I believe the issue NorfolkIsland is bringing up concerns the lack of "as of" dating in the caption. Readers will default to believing that what we present here reflects up-to-date information, when Norfolk is implying that it's actually been outdated for well over a decade. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 02:20, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
I guess because of covid, it's going to be late. There were problems everywhere, and some problems specifically with counting remote villages in the middle of a pandemic. Anyway, final numbers are apparently going to the president at the end of April and the deadline for final release to the states is July 31, although it could come before that. Something tells me the administration may have other things on it's mind besides continuing to monkey with the census numbers as the previous administration wanted to do. Beeblebrox (talk) 23:52, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
How should we improve the article so that its suitable to be rated as an A class article? What problems specifically need to be dealt with? PeterPrettyCool (talk) 22:12, 3 February 2021 (UTC)
Hello, as an Alaskan myself, it is safe to say that there is nothing wrong with this article; however, the problem is the admins, they are so self-obsessed with their power - if they had more sense, this would be listed as a Good article by now (which it is, and it meets the requirements). This is a GOOD article with GOOD content, I would just nominate it again until it gets accepted, something will give sooner or later. 2601:5C7:4100:3600:FDEF:DD23:2980:6185 (talk) 15:23, 1 April 2023 (UTC)
Pacific Gulf Yupik
Nobody in Alaska has ever used Pacific Gulf Yupik, and is only obscurely used by linguists. It should be replaced with Aluutiq or Sugpiaq or Aluutiq/Sugpiaq. 24.69.133.124 (talk) 07:32, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
I assume we're talking about the links in the infobox and the lead section? I tend to agree since it redirects to Alutiiq language anyway. I went to just go and change it, but it isn't done with regular linking but rather some kind of template coding, so it may take a moment to figure out. My inclination would be to have the template parsing changed so it displays "Alutiiq" with that same coding, but I'm no expert on these things. Beeblebrox (talk) 21:24, 11 February 2021 (UTC)
Done, I got some pointers to the appropriate place, and modified the list so that using that code anywhere renders it as "Alutiiq". Beeblebrox (talk) 22:14, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
Well, I got reverted for not being compliant with the IANA language-subtag-registry file, whatever that is. Will keep trying. Beeblebrox (talk) 22:51, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
Don't ask me to explain the how and why because I don't get it myself, but apparently it could only be done some other way, and has now been done. Beeblebrox (talk) 23:35, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
Semi-protected edit request on 23 February 2021
This edit request to Alaska has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.
This is listed as a B-class article. The assessment criteria (#1 ) states: The article is suitably referenced, with inline citations. There is at least one "needs additional citations" section tag (January 2020), inline tags, and a lot of unsourced content considered "important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged. Continuing in the current state will result in demotion. -- Otr500 (talk) 04:57, 19 May 2021 (UTC)
As should be immediately evident from the first sentence of this article, Alaska is a state in the United States, not a country or "some other deal." There is an entire article on the Economy of Alaska that should answer your question. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:46, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
Alaskan person from Nenana❤️
I’m Alaskan and I am from a little city called Nenana it has 350 people in the town and 750 in the area and at one point in time was the biggest city in Alaska at 5000 people and was part of the Iditarod (It was Where the train stopped) and nobody has heard of it so I want to popularize smaller towns in Alaska 174.26.115.59 (talk) 21:47, 1 March 2022 (UTC)
There's a wikipedia article about Nenana. I believe that the best you could to do popularize smaller towns about it is to develop stubs about it into larger articles given that you have sources about them. 206.213.190.64 (talk) 18:33, 9 March 2022 (UTC)
The House seat is now vacant. I don't know if there's an established protocol about how to indicate that, but the section is currently inaccurate. Oooooooseven (talk) 20:25, 29 March 2022 (UTC)
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Not done: Please provide a source unconnected to Education Week for this claim. Spintendo 21:00, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
Partly done. The template parameter expects a single number (which semantically should be the 2010 census value); adding extra text produces weird results apparently. So I rolled the text back to the 2010 census number. Ideally, the infobox should actually note that this is the 2010 estimate, and not necessarily the most recent estimate. That would have to be fixed at the infobox though. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 03:21, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
Done, I got some pointers to the appropriate place, and modified the list so that using that code anywhere renders it as "Alutiiq". Beeblebrox (talk) 22:14, 14 February 2021 (UTC)