User talk:Johnpacklambert/Archives/2023/June

1860s births cats

1865 births currently has 3,392 articles, 1866 births 3,324 articles, 1867 births 3,443 articles, 1868 births 3,463 articles and 1869 births 3,609 articles.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:52, 30 May 2023 (UTC)

Always precious

Ten years ago, you were found precious. That's what you are, always. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:13, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Expatriates of the Kingdom of England in Portuguese Angola

A tag has been placed on Category:Expatriates of the Kingdom of England in Portuguese Angola indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:06, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Maltese expatriates in British India

A tag has been placed on Category:Maltese expatriates in British India indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:10, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Sultanate of Aceh

A tag has been placed on Category:Sultanate of Aceh indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:40, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Yugoslav expatriates in South Africa

A tag has been placed on Category:Yugoslav expatriates in South Africa indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:47, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Yugoslav expatriates in Zambia

A tag has been placed on Category:Yugoslav expatriates in Zambia indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:47, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for June 6

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Robert Bell (Irish geologist), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Irish.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 06:06, 6 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Virologists from the Russian Empire

A tag has been placed on Category:Virologists from the Russian Empire indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:21, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:People from the Raj of Sarawak

A tag has been placed on Category:People from the Raj of Sarawak indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:23, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Expatriates of the Republic of Venice in the Kingdom of England

A tag has been placed on Category:Expatriates of the Republic of Venice in the Kingdom of England indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:39, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Emigrants from Australia to the German Empire

A tag has been placed on Category:Emigrants from Australia to the German Empire indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:10, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Kingdom of Serbia expatriates in the German Empire

A tag has been placed on Category:Kingdom of Serbia expatriates in the German Empire indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:14, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Ambrose Small

Hi. I just saw this edit and it got me thinking. Maybe the article should just be moved to Ambrose Small. It was originally moved from Ambrose Small by an editor who was shortly after blocked for massive disruptive page moves. He was definitely famous in his own right even before the disappearance, and the name of the article is likely preventing further expansion in that area. Thoughts? Canterbury Tail talk 19:18, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

• In general if there is anything significant about the person before an event, we should have an article on the person, and cover the event. In a few cases if the event itself is notable enough, but the person becomes notable for others reasons, then we can have articles on both (that is more likely with a kidnapping and the person being found alive, if they disappear and are never seen again their notability is not likely to rise). I do not have any thoughts on this case, other than to say just because the end of life gets coverage, does not mean it is the only thing we need to speak of in an article. It needs lots of coverage for a stand alone article in addition to a bio article, but I have not looked at this specific case, but in theory that does seem a reasonable approach.John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:07, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:American ethicists has been nominated for merging

Category:American ethicists has been nominated for merging. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. - car chasm (talk) 03:02, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

1860s birth year categories

The 1862 births category has currently 3,186 articles, 1863 has 3,154 articles and 1864 has 3,249 articles.John Pack Lambert (talk) 18:15, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Thoughts on emigration categories

Emigration categories refer to people leaving a distinct nation. At times they may have left and been away, and then finally settled down. However, the categories need to refer to an actual distinct place. So we do not have say Roma emigrants to Spain. The categories need to refer to people moving from one place to another when both are recognized countries, and have distinct governments. So we do not have French Polynesian emigrants to France, Puerto Rican emigrants to the United States or French Guiana emigrants to France. Nor do we have Scottish emigrants to England, although we maybe could have Kingdom of Scotland emigrants to the Kingdom of England. For this same reason people who moved between parts of the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Union, the Austrian Empire or any other clearly established place even if they moved between areas that are now distinct political entities, should not be categorized by emigrating. We do have British emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies and some other categories, and have large numbers of people under British emigrants to New Zealand who moved there when it was a colony, plus we have the whole British emigrants to colonial Australia tree. I think we could make the argument that when territories are not adjacent, and when migration tends to be permanent, we can justify these categories. While Puerto Rican migration to the US is not quite the same as people in Bohemia moving to Tyrol in 1895, with the development of modern air travel among other issues it can be done easily, and so is not worth categorizing by. I still think we may have some categories in this regard we do not really need, and may consider renaming some others.John Pack Lambert (talk) 18:24, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

• I once found an article on someone who I lived moved from what is now Portugal to Italy, or maybe the other way around, when both places were part of the Roman Empire, that had been put in an emigration category.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:25, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Category:Kuwaiti emigrants to Egypt

A tag has been placed on Category:Kuwaiti emigrants to Egypt indicating that it is currently empty, and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion. If it remains empty for seven days or more, it may be deleted under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 02:10, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Alexander Zarudny

Changed category "19th-century lawyers from the Russian Empire" → "20th-century Russian lawyers", restoring that just-removed category. See text; he worked as a lawyer and judge from 1902 to 1917 — that's 20th century. He did very little as a lawyer after the October Revolution ("did some defense work, but soon stopped in frustration"), so category "Soviet lawyers" just barely fits. – .Raven  .talk 04:58, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:Irish emigrants (before 1923) to Australia has been nominated for renaming

Category:Irish emigrants (before 1923) to Australia has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Laurel Lodged (talk) 10:46, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:Irish emigrants (before 1923) to New Zealand has been nominated for renaming

Category:Irish emigrants (before 1923) to New Zealand has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Laurel Lodged (talk) 10:49, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:Irish emigrants (before 1923) has been nominated for renaming

Category:Irish emigrants (before 1923) has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Laurel Lodged (talk) 10:51, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:People from Ireland (1801–1923) has been nominated for deletion

Category:People from Ireland (1801–1923) has been nominated for deletion. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 22:03, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

Categories

Hello, Johnpacklambert,

I recently noticed that you have been emptying categories. As you know, this emptying out of process is discouraged but especially for categories being discussed in a CFD discussions. If it's decided to keep the categories, then these empty categories might have to be repopulated. It also defeats the purpose of discussing whether a category should be deleted when the categories have been emptied and could be tagged for speedy deletion, CSD C1.

By the way, I have decided to no longer post speedy deletion CSD C1 notifications on your User talk page. They have overwhelmed your talk page and I'm sure they became obnoxious some time ago. Any way, most editors who are as active with category creation as you are ask me to cease the notifications. If you want to keep abreast with empty categories, I suggest you check Category:Empty categories awaiting deletion once or twice a week and if anything seems amiss, you can make sure an empty category is no longer empty.

I hope you have a restful summer. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:23, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

• • I think most of these edits removed people from categories based on them not fitting in the category. Per another editor I decided to in cases where that seems likely but they are currently discussed to stop doing that. So I put the notices explaining that they probably need Category changes on the talk page so that if there still needs to be changes after the discussion ends there can be.John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:13, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

    I have reviewed the my recent edits. I think I have unemployed all the categories currently under discussion. I still think there are structural reasons these cases do not fir in the categories under discussion.John Pack Lambert (talk) 21:35, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Redirects

For example American emigrants to Tanzania has one current article. It is on a person who did not immigrate to Tanzania, but to the British controlled area of Taganyika, which had different boundaries. She also lived elsewhere so Ling it might not make sense to pair the movement all in one category. I wish someone would mention that in some of these cases it appears we lack any articles that fir the actual scope of the article.John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:38, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Togolese emigrants

Togolese emigrants currently has 28 articles in 11 subcategories. Actually there are only 27 articles in subcategories, 1 direct article. That is less than an average of 4 articles per sub-cat, and 1 has 9, so the other 10 have 18 articles so are not even averaging 2 articles per subcat. Although since one subcat is only a parent to the other, the 18 articles in a subcat other than the French are split into subcats with on average 2 articles.~~~ John Pack Lambert (talk) 22:21, 19 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:People from the Kingdom of Ireland has been nominated for renaming

Category:People from the Kingdom of Ireland has been nominated for renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Oculi (talk) 14:54, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

• • For what it is worth we have an article entitled Kingdom of Ireland though.John Pack Lambert (talk) 14:58, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

Qing dynasty

I have been thinking about this. We have [[:Category:Qing dynasty people]]. I am beginning to think this is a little like Ottoman people, which is now People from the Ottoman Empire. The Qing dynasty is the ruling family, which ruled over China, plus what is now Mongolia, and at times also controlled parts of what is now Russia. I am thinking People from the Qing dynasty, might be a better name, but even then I am not sure that dynasty is the right word, maybe something like People from the Qing Empire or People for the domains for the Qing dynasty. Some would argue the convention to call things connected with the area ruled by the Qing Dynasty "Qing Dynasty" as an adjective, or even Qing is so pronounced that we can ignore its technical incorrectness. I am not sure, but I do think this is a technically poor name.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:59, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

British overseas territories v the British Empire

I am beginning to think we may in some ways be creating a false set of two distinct things here. In 1900 is there any other way to see Bermuda, the British West Indies or any current British Overseas Territory as part of the anything but the British Empire. There also seems to be no coherent way to split the history of these British Overseas Territories to categorize differently. So I think having one category set for such things would be better.John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:38, 21 June 2023 (UTC)

Moves from Category:English emigrants to New Zealand to Category:British emigrants to New Zealand

Why are you making these moves please? Johnragla (talk) 03:36, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Each move I have made involves a person where the article describes them as British, or where they long served in the British military, often in many locations before coming to New Zealand, so describing them as British makes sense. These moves are far fewer than the moves to British emigrants to the Colony of New Zealand, which is a far better category. Emigration categories are to pair someone with the oolity thry were nationals/citizens of wheb they left and the polity they went to. It is not vased on where they lived per se, but it is based on a political entity, not an ethnic group. As I said the direct moves are mainly because the articles deacribe the subject as British. John Pack Lambert (talk) 03:41, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

There may be a few pre-1907 emigrants I forgot to add in the to the Colony of part, but I have been trying to add that in. I have been thinking that we needed to do something different for those who came to the Colony of New Zealabd as opposed to the independent country, but I had not figured it out. Recent discussion of the Emogrants from the United Kingdom to British Overseas Territiries cat has convinced me there is a view we can define such emigration, and so I created British emigrants to the British Empire, and have been organizing and populating it. The Colonial Australia and 13 Colonies carltegories were well organized, there was little else.John Pack Lambert (talk) 03:48, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Writers from the British Empire

Right now this category has some by place subcats. I know it had 13 Colonies, British India and British Ceylon subcats. I do not believe there are at present any others. I am wondering if it would make sense to subdivide out journalists, poets, novelists, etc., or if it is best to leave people directly there until we can place them in a smaller political unit than the whole British Empire. My guess is the later, and I think we could create sub-cats for colonial Australia and the Colony of New Zealand. I have doubts we have enough articles on writers anywhere else to justify more break outs.John Pack Lambert (talk) 04:08, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Another question is does the writing have to be done while a subject if the Empire, or if they were a subject of the Empire does it still count. That will need yo be done on a case by case basis. If someone is the child of a British soldier, so they live in a Colony, their father dies when they are under 10, and then they live in Britain itself from then on, maybe it does not apply. If they are born in India in 1942, maybe those 5 years are not enough. On the other hand if they soend the first 18 years of their life in India because their father works for a Vritish institution there, but write in Britain, setting their work in India, maybe it will apply, maybe not. Of if they live as a subject of the Colony of Kenya until age 18, but only gave stuff published after that, bylut the colonial experience is a subject of their work, then maybe. To add to the complexity the exact date when we can say places left the British Empire is somewhat open to debate.John Pack Lambert (talk) 04:15, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

The fact that some people, most obviously diarists, fall under the writer umbrella without published works makes the issue complex. Also my above statements could all be more complex because what if we have works that were composed while subjects of the British Empire, but published when they were not. A few are easy. If someone lives in the Gold Coadt Colony, but their work in published in an Anerican periodical, this still clearly counts. However what if they are a Nigerian student in the US who has writings published while there in 1948-1952. If he goes back to Nigeria in 1952 we will probably say yes, this applies. However if he goes to Germany, India, Brazil or China in 1952, should that factor prevent us from applying it. If we had Wikipedia in 1950 and were trying to apply the category to an emerging writer as I described above, so we could not know what the furniture would bring, I think we would call that Nogeriab student getting significant works out listed while studying as a student at a university in the US a writer from the British Empire, and if that is do, what he may have done in 1952 should not be enough to negate the Category if it applied based on existing facts in 1950. For the record, the above is a hypothetical, I have no writer actually in mind. Most Nigeruan students abroad in 1952 would have been in Britain, and that is another issue.John Pack Lambert (talk) 04:25, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Writers from the British Empire more thoughts

I am thinking the easiest exception to the writers bring in the Empire itself is people who would be co sidereal colonial subjects, not British nationals, living in Britain while their home areas are still under British control would in general still count as writers from the British Empire, even if they might also be in some way British writers. It is also not always easy either from the articles or existing sources to say if someone was a Britush nationsl or national of a colonized place. If they are from the West Indies that may be headache inducing. Is someone whose parents were born in India, but they were born in Teinidad and Tobago, and are living in London in 1955 a subject of a British Empire territory in the United Kingdom, and so if they then start writing are they a British writer, a writer from the British Empire or both, and would our answer be any different in 1935 when both Trinidad and Tobago and India were part of the Empire? There might be exceptions here. If the child of parents from Indua involved in business comes to Britain at 1 year old in 1912, and she first publishes something in 1937, and she has not been back to India since, than probably she is just a British writer. However if she was 25 when coming to Britain in 1912, even if she waits to age 50 to publish, she still might be able to be called a writer from the British Empire. Conversely, if someone spends 2 years in British Mauritius, but the rest of his long life in Britain, even if he writes and publishes while in Mauritius he may still be a British writer. The catch is that we have wag more articles on people who were transfered between half a dozen British colonies and protectorates over a career that involved mainly being out of Britain for over a decade, than people who only had one posting. The edges if this category may be hard to define, but there are lots of people who clearly fit it, some of whom may not easily fit any more precise geographical Category. It will be hard to retell. Especially since many of our categories like Colony of Jamaica people and Colony if Varbados people are woefully inadequate.John Pack Lambert (talk) 04:40, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Year of emigration is a defining feature

It does make a difference in law and in reality if someone left Ireland in 1915 or in 1925. Because in 1915 they would have been a subject of the United Kingdom, in 1925 they would not have been unless they were leaving Northern Ireland, or had in some other way retained British citizenship. There is a clear change in the political situation and it has a clear impact on immigration.John Pack Lambert (talk) 14:44, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

hi

Hey John Pack Lambert, just dropped by to say hi, how are things going here? Herostratus (talk) 03:28, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

well, it has almost been a year since the most recent restrictions were imposed on me, but my attempt to get others lifted in October was so poorly received it looks like I cannot make any requests for changes until at least October of this year. I have been trying to in general now avoid creating small categories and instead I create good sized categories. That is at times a lot of work. Today I created [[:Writers from the British Empire]], it did already have some subcats. I have to admit until the other day I thought there was a chance J could request a restriction be lifted, at least part of it, in July, but I then figured out the restriction was imposed at the start of August and the October decision seems to restrict any appeal until down. I felt down when I realized that.John Pack Lambert (talk) 03:36, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

OK. Well good on you for refining your understanding of categories. Good wishes. Herostratus (talk) 07:16, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:Hessian emigrants to the United States

If you're going to define it that way, you should put a clarifying note on the category's listing page. And a heck of a lot of the people currently in that category will have to be removed. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:00, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

badly named deaths categories

Deaths are one thing that when we are putting them by place, they are by place. Thus Accidental deaths in the Czech Republic should have no articles on people who died prior to January 1, 1993. The fact that I just moved someone out of that category who died in 1889 is not encouraging.John Pack Lambert (talk) 15:08, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Given the fluidity of European borders and the belated creation, expansion, contraction and renaming of nation states and empires, this is a very real problem. Likewise for ethnic and language groups. For example, my maternal grandfather identified as Ukrainian, but he was drafted and served in the Austro-Hungarian army. There is the place and there is the regime; trying to fit thse into categories is ambiguous and problematic. Good luck. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 16:16, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

In general if someone is a subject of a country we can identify them as such. This especially applies to those serving in a military of a specific country. Some things are ambiguous, but them name of the country where someone dies rarely is, at least if we know where and when they died.John Pack Lambert (talk) 17:11, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

There is overlap; especially over time. Places and geographic identity are more plastic than one might suppose by looking at a globe, for example. I've seen edit wars over the claims that Copernicus and Tadeusz Kościuszko are nationals of particular countries. Common problem. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 19:42, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

• What country someone is a national of can at times be disputable. Although creating categories that specifically refer to a country in a specifc time does help solve some of these disputes. However in a case of a category like Category:Deaths in Austria-Hungary or Category:Deaths in the Ottoman Empire, it does not matter what country those placed in the category were nationals or subjects of, it only matters where they were at the time of their death.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:46, 23 June 2023 (UTC)

Undestood. We agree. It's a particular point in geography, history and time.

Hypothetically, though, if someone was killed today in Crimea, some would claim it was in Russia and others would assert Ukraine. Same location and date; different politics and point of view. Schrodinger's cat problem. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 11:34, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

The things I have seen are normally not disputed. They are anachronistic applications. No one died in Bangladesh in 1935.John Pack Lambert (talk) 19:50, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

The solution to that is to have a Crimea category or just have cats that related to location rather than state. Spartaz ^Humbug! 19:57, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Well we have a very large tree of things under Category:People by former country. We even have Category:Deaths by former country. There is some work needed to properly develop it though.John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:06, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

The world is a messy place. So is history. I would think that we should try to aid the readers (some of whom are poorly or misinformed) to navigate through the 7 million articles to find the one they need. IMO, categories help that goal. If then a more complete exposition is in the articles, the reader can make an informed decision. It is a difficult problem. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 21:02, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Use the name of a place at the time of an event when describing an event

We should use the name of a place when an event occurred to describe an event. If someone was born in Toronto in 1860 they were born in Canada West. Ontario does not exist yet then. Calling it Upper Canada is also wrong, because that name was scrapped in 1841. The one exception to this rule is if standard historical practice is to refer to the area by another name. So if someone was born in 1825 in what is now Ecuador, we would describe the place they were born as Gran Colombia, even though at the time it would have been called just Colombia, because the practice of historians it to call that place Gran Colombia to distinguish it from the later smaller country of Colombia.John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:01, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Former country categories need names that make clear they are former countries

If we are going to put categories under things like emigrants from former countries or deaths in former countries, we need to make sure the names clearly refer to former countries, and are not such that someone might think that someone who leaves that place or dies in that place today would be considered to come under its domain.John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:02, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

English emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies

I thought we at one point had a category with this name. I am not finding it anymore. Does anyone know what happened to it?John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:47, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

• Hmm, it looks like through renaming and merging it has all ended up directly at Category:English emigrants.John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:51, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
  • • I am not sure that was the intended intention in the most recent discussion.John Pack Lambert (talk) 12:54, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Too much negative communication

At one point whenever I saw a notice that I had a talk page message I would think "what are people going to complain about now?" I am glad that we now have a thank function. Although the fact that we needed to create a thank function because it was done so little is maybe not a good sign. I as an autistic person am very poor at communication, and do not do it well in any facet of my life, at least not as consistently as I would like. I want to see better communication happen on Wikipedia, but I am not sure how to achieve that.John Pack Lambert (talk) 14:19, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

I think the Thank button and barnstars should be used a lot more than they are. Positive reinforcement works. It is a great motivator. Beating up each other – which is the norm here – doesn't. B.F. Skinner had the answer. It would be a great contribution to editor retention. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 15:57, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Category:Immigrants to the Colony of New Zealand has been nominated for merging

Category:Immigrants to the Colony of New Zealand has been nominated for merging. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. Fram (talk) 16:17, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Are emigration and expatriate categories underpopulated?

This is a question that has been part of some recent discussions. James Gossland suggests to me that they are. However I cannot tell from the article if Gossland was a British expatriate in South Africa or a British emigrant to South Africa. I am not 100% sure it was even South Africa yet when he went there, but since all his actions as a sportsman were done in Britain, it looks likely. If he was merely on a "short visit" to South Africa when he died that would not be defining. I think we will generally agree that if someone is an emigrant, that is that they go from being a subject or national of one place to being a subject or national or another that is defining. However, a huge percentage of those who move across international borders, although I do not know what percentage, are only expatriates not emigrants. Also, since emigrants can be "subjects" or the new place and not just nationals, you do not have to be formally naturalized to be an immigrant. Anyway, secondary sources will often not tell you enough details to distinguish emigrants from expatriates easily, and some writers will use the terms interchangeably, or in other ways that make using them to build categories hard. The bigger issue is that not everyone who is from country x but present in country Y is an expatriate in a way that it is worth categorizing by. I will offer myself as an extreme example of someone not getting to a category. I am an American. I went on my honeymoon to the Bahamas, we flew there on Monday and flew back Friday. That is not enough. I also have been to Canada, maybe once spending 5 days in a row there, that is not enough. I once spent a full 7 days in a row in Mexico, that is not enough either. I have a nephew who is on a high school trip to Germany, where he will be gone about 2 months. That is probably not enough. I would say someone who spends a whole year of their education as an exchange student, we had some such students from Britain when I was a student at Wayne State, does not qualify. However if someone does their entire 4 year degree abroad, I think we maybe should consider it. We actually have a some subcats under expatriates that mainly involve people being there 2 years or less. I would say if it is 3 years or more, it is highly likely to be enough to categorize by, if less than 3 years one has to consider the context. However if someone was an expatriate in more than 3 places we might want to consider if that is defining. If someone from Russian comes to the US and plays basketball for 5 years, and then goes back to Russia I think that is worth an expat cat. I have my doubts about someone from the US who goes to France, Italy, Germany and Poland each for 1 year, and then comes back to the US. Especially if they are in leagues where not even all the games are in the country where they are playing, and especially if we know that they were only on those countries for parts of the year. At that point I would say just put them in American expatriate basketball players and call it a day. Categories need to be defining, and if you traveled to that many countries as part of a career, being an American expatriate basketball player is defining, the specific countries you were in are not.John Pack Lambert (talk) 18:00, 28 June 2023 (UTC)