Template talk:West Virginia

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Maybe we should drop the counties and go a bit more thematic, per Cmadler's suggestion on the article talk page. Youngamerican 19:35, 2 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. states/state templates lists and displays all 50 U.S. state (and additional other) templates. It potentially can be used for ideas and standardization. //MrD9 07:26, 19 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I feel that 25,000 might be a little low. That is a big suburb in most other states. It makes us sound like we are reaching. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 19:10, 11 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Youngamerican, I think it's fine the way it is. West Virginia is a state with a (relatively) low population in all aspects. I think it is only fair to West Virginians and the rest of the world to include cities that are major to the state.. if that makes sense. If we compare WV to Texas or California, WV wouldn't have any major cities at all.. and that would make WV look even worse.

And that brings me to Martinsburg. I don't think it is fair to exclude Martinsburg as a major city. Martinsburg has certainly sprawled outside of its city limits with 43000 residents included in the zip code, while only 14000 are included in the city limits. Martinsburg has recently annexed sections of Arden (the area west of I-81) and I believe that should increase the city's population to at least 25000, especially with all the people moving in from DC, though I can't find a true source for it. Still, even if it doesn't meet the population requirement, it's the largest city in the eastern panhandle region, and should be considered noteworthy.

Does anyone have any thoughts about Martinsburg?

MattDell 19:20, 11 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm...maybe go three cats? "major cities" (35K+),"larger cities" (10K+), and "smaller cities?" youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 00:47, 12 July 2006 (UTC) Nevermind, that'd be too bulky. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 00:48, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I really think the template looks great the way it is. But when I saw Martinsburg not listed as a major city it surprised me. I grew up in Martinsburg and recently went back to visit and it's hard to believe that it's classed together with places like Fairmont and Clarksburg. No disrespect to those cities, but they certainly aren't as big as Martinsburg.

MattDell 16:55, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Its part of the nature of the beast. According to WP:V, we have to stick rather closely to the numbers and not so much the intrinsic value of the item in question. For the sake of the template, an arbitrary number had to be selected for consistency's sake, and that was 25K. With current population trends, however, I wouldn't be shocked if Martinsburg ended up with more than 25k before too long. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 17:06, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is currently an ongoing discussion regarding standardization of state templates (primarily regarding layout and styling) at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. states/state templates. An effort was made earlier this year to standardize Canadian province templates (which mostly succeeded). Lovelac7 and I have already begun standardizing all state templates. If you have any concerns, they should be directed toward the discussion page for state template standardization. Thanks! — Webdinger ^{BLAH | SZ} 23:07, 27 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looking through the current listing of small cities, I'm not sure that the current standard (>10,000) really gives an accurate picture of the cities in the state. We end up with several unincorporated places that are effectively suburbs (Teays Valley, Cross Lanes) while regionally important cities like Elkins are left off.

I'd like to propose that we only show incorporated places. I'd also like to either lower the population threshhold or redefine it in some manner such as to eliminate places like South Charleston that are really just suburbs. (Maybe the place cannot be listed if it is in the same county as another listed place?)

This is somewhat of a subjective listing, but to my mind these are the major "small cities" in West Virginia we should be showing:

• Fairmont
• Clarksburg
• Weirton
• Bluefield
• Beckley
• Elkins
• Martinsburg

Maybe also:

• Princeton
• Logan
• Lewisburg
• Summersville

In a nutshell, I'd like to see the listing redesigned to list the places that are basically the hubs of economic activity for their respective regions in the state. Thoughts? Brian Powell (talk) 04:23, 16 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can live with the list, sans the "maybe also" entries. I would also demote the cities in the 30Ks down to "smaller." y'am'can (wtf?) 15:17, 18 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]