Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:36, 20 April 2010

This article has not yet been rated on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Cities This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cities, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of cities, towns and various other settlements on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CitiesWikipedia:WikiProject CitiesTemplate:WikiProject CitiesWikiProject Cities Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Ohio This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ohio, which collaborates on Ohio-related subjects on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to current discussions.OhioWikipedia:WikiProject OhioTemplate:WikiProject OhioOhio ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

A short A. And it has more than 6100 full-time residents; it has that many "households," but households doesn't equate to "full-time" residents.

Is the name of the town pronounced with a long a or a short a like the town in Greece?Edison 05:19, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

It's short A. I think all US Athens towns (there's something like 20, usually college towns) are pronounced the same. jaknouse 18:30, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Outline for general improvements

There are many areas for improvement, here is just an initial list.

1. The intro summary is too brief and incomplete
2. The section on trails might be better headed as "Recreation" and include a wider variety of recreation common to Athens
3. The history seems lacking, and needs references (I know I have a history book on Athens, there are likely several).
4. There are many examples on better city pages that could be adopted.
   1. Compare to Kent Ohio, use of historical and contemporary images
   2. Several sections in other small city pages could be considered
      1. For instance, the climate graph on the Kent page is helpful.
5. References are sorely lacking
6. What else?
7. The festival section might be better in paragraph form rather than a list, and some selectivity and organization could be applied.

--Htw3 (talk) 14:49, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

I casually watch this article and occasionally edit it, but am by no means a regular editor here. That said, most of what you said is correct. The best places to start are WP:USCITY, which is the general guideline for City articles. It is by no means an absolute necessity to follow this, but is helpful for the general organization of the article. This article suffers from, like you said, a lot of unverified, unreferenced claims, so adding reliable sources is a very pressing need but be careful of WP:FANCRUFT or excessive detail, even when reliable sources are available. Simply having a source does not mean something is notable or appropriate for a specific article. Another problem is what another editor calls "border creep". This is where editors start putting information that isn't directly relevant to a specific city, but it outside the city limits. Now some of this is appropriate for articles (like when something is associated with a specific city but isn't actually in that municipality), but many times it isn't. One example is listing the repeaters for WOUB-FM. Saying it has repeaters in the region is appropriate, but listing each one of them isn't relevant to Athens, Ohio. The same could be said for listing radio stations that can be heard in, but are not based in or licensed to Athens. There are a lot of unsourced WP:POV terms like "sports-crazed" for instance too that need to be addressed. The last problem I see is a large amount of external links, most of which are embedded in the article. Generally we want to avoid putting external links in the text and instead use inline citations if anything at all. See WP:EL. An example of excessive external links is the Festivals section.

Also, while I appreciate citing the Kent, Ohio article as a good example to use (it's one I've spent time working on and continue to work on), my caution there is that it isn't a featured article, so be careful using it as a model. A good smaller city featured article is Hillsboro, Oregon. --JonRidinger (talk) 15:40, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Hi jon-- thanks a bunch for the comments and advice. I will be sure to use and encourage the use of the Hillsboro article as an exemplar as well as refer to the general content and organization principles in WP:USCITY. I happen to live in Athens now, and other places I have lived (Kent, Ithaca, Seattle) have attracted much more effort towards improvement. I am also encouraging some other residents I know to contribute towards the improvements. --Htw3 (talk) 20:12, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

The key here is making sure those that help are familiar with Misplaced Pages policies and guidelines. Too often people edit the articles of the towns they are from as residents rather than Misplaced Pages editors and that's where problems arise with questionable, inappropriate, and unsourced content. You have to think as an editor, not as a resident promoting the town. Most smaller towns and cities have just one or two editors who edit consistently. Even the Kent article is something I've done a lot of on my own mostly because there is very little interest. The benefit to you being in Athens is you likely have access to printed materials that arne't available online (like history sources) and you can add appropriate photos. I'm always here if needed for help. --JonRidinger (talk) 20:36, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Missing content

• How about a section on local culture? would include more info on the farmers market, arts, community, cuisine?
• The economy section is lacking on local businesses.
• Recreation section needs discussions of hunting, mountainbiking, horseback riding, rock climbing / bouldering, birdwatching?,
• could use many more images.

--Htw3 (talk) 15:34, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

As long as reliable sources can be found and there isn't too much detail, those additions would be great. Again, see WP:USCITY if you haven't already. It not only has organizational guidelines, but also suggestions for content scope. What we're going for is a thorough, but still somewhat general, article about the city, not a comprehensive guide to everything in Athens. --JonRidinger (talk) 15:40, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Awesome Media People

I removed this section which was basically a plug for a local radio presenter.

Regards

Capitalistroadster 18:42, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Stable Hillsides

I removed this statement which is simply not true:

"Most hillsides, though, are solid sandstone and present very little slip potential."

jaknouse 18:29, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Human vs. Zombies

Actually, this IS a real event that has happened in 2006 and 2007 (and is over for the year as I write). If it happens again next year, I would feel justified listing it. jaknouse 19:09, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Citations

This article needs a lot of citations in pretty much every section, especially of oustanding claims are made. Please be sure to add a source and avoid using phrases like "most people say" or "some people think", etc. --JonRidinger (talk) 07:09, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

• All unassessed articles
• B-Class WikiProject Cities articles
• All WikiProject Cities pages
• C-Class Ohio articles
• Unknown-importance Ohio articles
• WikiProject Ohio articles