WikiProject U.S. States

First, an important note for everyone to remember:

A few Wikipedians have gotten together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in articles about states, cities and towns. Here they are: WikiProject U.S. States These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles!

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Title: WikiProject U.S. States

Scope: This WikiProject aims primarily to provide information on all of the 50 U.S. States, their counties and cities. This WikiProject shall also provide information on the current U.S. Federal Territories (District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, etc.) as well.

Parentage: The parent of this WikiProject has not yet been defined. Possible candidates include [WikiProject Countries of the World]? and [WikiProject United States]?.

Descendant Wikiprojects:

No descendant WikiProjects? defined

Formatting for U.S. States:

There shall be an article called U.S. States, which shall discuss U.S. States in general, as opposed to any particular state, and provide a list of U.S. states. It shall also list the current U.S. Federal Territories, and explain the difference between a state and a Federal territory. It shall also include a listing of U.S. states in order of admission to the Union, including the date on which it was admitted.

Each U.S. state shall be called by the common name of the state, e.g. Texas, California. An exception to this rule is Georgia, since that is the name of both a U.S. State and an independent country in the Caucasus?; means must be found of distinguishing between the two. The article on each U.S. State shall include the following information:

• introduction: statement that it is a state of the United States, (note internal link to U.S. States), the U.S. Post Office abbreviation for the state, (e.g. MA, TX, etc.), the official (long) name of the state (e.g. "Commonwealth of Massachussetts").

MichaelTinkler has suggested: in the first line I would add "Order of entry into Union," and for the first 13 "Order of ratification of the Constitution." For the seceding states of the Confederacy there should also be "seceded on" and "readmitted in" dates. I don't think this is history but political identity of stateness.

KQ adds: May I suggest also adding each state's motto, song, tree, and bird? Also (perhaps) when the new state-designed quarter comes out (or came out)?

• Geography
  • Physical geography (mountains, rivers, plains, elevation, that sort of thing)
  • National parks, etc.
  • adjacent U.S. states, oceans, Great Lakes, Canadian provinces or Mexican states
  • Cities (including state capital) (the list itself makes for a good subpage)
  • List of counties (if someone wants to go to the trouble) (the list itself makes for a good subpage)
• Demography
  • state population
  • racial/ethnic makeup of state
  • religious makeup of state
• Economy
  • State income
  • Major industries/products
  • state taxes
• Law/Government? of state [Note that all the U.S. states have similar legal and political systems, so maybe we only need to mention anything that makes the state distinct]
  • governor -- current, previous governors
  • legislature -- bicameral or unicameral? names of houses?
  • structure of state judicary
  • information on state constitution
  • does it have referenda?
• History
  • history prior to joining the United States
  • when first came under U.S. control (if it was a territory prior to being a state)
  • when it attained statehood
  • major historical events that occurred in state
• Colleges/Universities? in state, Sporting teams in state, similar lists.

If any section above becomes too detailed, it should be split off into a separate article.

Pages on U.S. Federal Territories are to have the same format as U.S. States above, mutatis mutandis.

Please try to avoid including trivia in the articles for U.S. States, unless you consider the trivia especially interesting.

Formatting for U.S. Counties:

Each U.S. county shall be called by the common name of the state, e.g. Jackson County, Michigan. Where needed, a link to the county will be placed on a more general entry page, e.g. Jackson should contain a link to Jackson County, Michigan, Jackson, Mississippi and Jackson, Michigan. The article on each U.S. County shall include the following information:

• introduction:
• Geography
  • Physical geography (area, unique features)
  • List of Townships or other subdivisions
  • List of Municipalities
  • Major Parks
• Demography
  • county population
  • racial/ethnic makeup
  • religious makeup
• Economy
  • Major industries/products
  • taxes
• Law/Government?
  • County Executive-- current, previous executives
  • representative body?
• History
  • major historical events that occurred in county
• Colleges/Universities? in county, Sporting teams in county, similar lists.

Formatting for U.S. Cities:

Each U.S. city shall be called by the common name of the city, e.g. Jackson, Mississippi, [Des Moines, Iowa]?, New York, New York. All other possible common names for the city should re-direct to the main city entry. Ideally, it should be that every city has an entry titled in the CITY NAME, STATE NAME manner. New York City, for example, or other such instances should at least be in some way associated to a CITY NAME, STATE NAME entry so that a common linking standard can be maintained. (The proliferation of New York City entries shows, I think, the need for a naming standard specific to cities). The article on each U.S. city shall include the following information:

• introduction:
• Geography
  • Physical geography (area, unique features)
  • Major Parks
• Demography
  • city population
  • racial/ethnic makeup
  • religious makeup
• Economy
  • Major industries/products
  • taxes
• Law/Government?
  • Mayor or City Executive-- current, previous executives
  • representative body?
• History
  • major historical events that occurred in city
• Colleges/Universities? in city, Sporting teams in city, similar lists.

Hierarchy definition:

ManningBartlett's example has ways of dividing the topic here. Do we need to classify the U.S. States into groups somehow?

Directory of Participants

• Simon J Kissane
• Trimalchio
• BenBaker

General Strategy and Discussion forum
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/Strategy?