User talk:Dsammy/Sandbox5

Good idea to break courthouse info onto another page
Breaking county courthouse information out of the county page onto its own page seems like a good idea, Sammy. This should reduce the bloating we're seeing on some county pages. Nice work! RitcheyMT 14:36, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Information section
Sammy, I'm going to leave comments in the order in which I read sections. My first comment is about the Information section. Although the information about the county's "creativeness" in working around the federal grant rules is interesting to me and would work well in a county newspaper, it doesn't help the reader find his ancestor, so it's outside the scope of the wiki. Again, it's interesting -- it's an article I'd definitely read in a newspaper. But it puts the wiki on the slippery slope of including potentially a ton of interesting-but-not-genealogically-useful historical facts. RitcheyMT 14:30, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Just an idea. The other potential info is "Burned Courthouses" and/or "GenDisasters" in detail. "Record Loss" can be here with details. Dsammy 15:01, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I think "Burned Courthouses" or "Record Loss" would be great additions, Sammy! RitcheyMT 15:17, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Subpage
Subpage titles confuse readers because of the slashes they contain. It's just such a non-standard way to title an article or Webpage that it puts off readers, especially beginners. So rather than make a courthouse page a subpage, I'd make it into its own page such as "Montgomery County, Maryland, Courthouse" or "County Courthouse of Montgomery County, Maryland." RitcheyMT 14:36, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * The intented url address which is automatically titled of the subpage would be XXXX County, XXXX Courthouse. We're looking at SandBox in first place for development. Dsammy 14:56, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I think including the state in the article title will go a long way toward disambiguation. There are so many counties with identical names.... RitcheyMT 15:06, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Idiot's Guide to IRAD
Regarding the IRAD heading, when I see an acronym and don't know what it means, I feel dumb. I find myself wondering if the acronym is not spelled out because I'm the only one on Earth who isn't familiar with it. I know that's not a feeling any of us want to give our readers, so I think when articles contain acronyms, they should follow a journalistic standard and spell out the acronym's full name. But I think wiki articles should do one better. As an Illinois research beginner reading the IRAD section, I am completely unaware of what IRAD is or why it would be useful to me. I'd love if the section explained this to me. RitcheyMT 14:44, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * This is very raw first edition. We will add necessary info to this IRAD section followed by the address after feedback from others. Dsammy 14:58, 28 June 2011 (UTC)