Talk:Black Rock Desert

message: The coordinates specified should be -ve.
Currently pasting into google earth sends us somewhere into Japan or China
I cannot verify all of them, but I know they aren't correct as is.
: Looks like someone fixed them.  (SEWilco 23:13, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Coordinates

message: I looked through the Wikipedia policies and, as I understand them, I think my addition of a link to my own web page about the Black Rock Desert should not be controversial.  Though I needed to post this explanation to avoid appearance of a conflict of interest.  Some notes:
* The page has no advertising
* It is obviously intended to be informative.
* It contains information based on dozens of visits, including thousands of photos of rocketry events and recreational visits to the Black Rock Desert.
* Friends have suggested that I should add this link since Dec 2003.  I have hesitated to add it myself because it's my page and I wasn't familiar with Wikipedia policies on that.  But it's been long enough and no one else has done it.
* My page is well known among rocketry clubs and hobbyists.  One comment I heard at an AeroPAC rocket launch about how newcomers were coming better prepared: "Everyone read Ian's web page and knew to bring enough water."
Good enough?
Ikluft 10:44, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Disclosure of link to own site

message: I clarified the existing rocketry info and added some to make it more complete.  I added the AeroPAC and AHPRA links that I suggested above.  Instead of just listing BALLS, I listed all the major HPR launches which occur at Black Rock.  I categorized the page under Model rocketry.  Please double check correct Wikipedia formatting and neutrality were observed.  Ikluft 01:18, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rocketry info 

message: I did some linking and categorizing to bring together the pages of the Black Rock Desert region of Nevada.
I've added Category:Black Rock Desert and Template:Black Rock Desert.  The template contains links to other pages in the region, and makes them navigable among the pages of the region.  The category lists pages related to the region.  More are in the category than use the template, because pages had to be primarily about Black Rock to be given the template.
Once this bound together the pages for the region, I added the Black Rock Desert to the list of regions in Template:Nevada and put the Nevada template on the Black Rock Desert page.  Ikluft (talk) 04:36, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Black Rock Desert Region 

message: I'd like to discuss removing the image of the BLM Eight Mile Sign from the Black Rock Desert page.  The reason is that this is a picture of a sign, the desert is barely visible.  As an analogy, if this were an article about the Eiffel Tower, would we have a picture of a sign that said "Eiffel Tower"?  There are plenty of good photos of the Black Rock Desert that could be used.  A picture of the Black Rock might be nice, or just remove it and keep the picture of the desert below.  Comments? Cxbrx (talk) 17:38, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Remove the Photo of the BLM Eight Mile Sign

message: What about the "Considered one of the flattest surfaces on the earth" text?  This is vague and not
very encyclopedic.  It is tagged with a "citation needed".  The question is, considered by whom?
Looking at the web, many people misidentify the Black Rock Desert as the flattest place on Earth.
What does it really mean to be flattest?  Does it mean that the surface follows the curvature
of the earth or that it really is planar? I'm certain that the Salar de Uyuni (10,582 km²) in Bolivia is the largest salt flat in the world and therefore fairly certain that it is the flattest place on earth because of how the salt flows like a liquid. (see also []).  The dry lake portion of the Black Rock Desert does have some slope to it, water does collect at the north end and in the middle, topo maps and photos indicate this.  Perhaps we should consider removing this unless we can get something really citable?
I'm also wondering about the area measurement of 1000 square miles (2600 km²).  Both Encyclopedia Brittanica and apparently the NY Times Almanac give 1000 square miles or 2600 km², 1000 square miles is an area 31 miles square, so I'm not sure what this number means.  Most definitions of the Black Rock Desert include both arms of the desert, which is much more than 31 miles North-South or East-West.  I'm just not sure what this number really measures: Does it measure the flat area of the "Playa" or does it include the North and South arms. BTW - Bonneville Salt Flats comes in at 412 km².  Any ideas?  Cxbrx (talk) 04:39, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Considered one of the Flattest Places on Earth

message: I added a geobox to the page.  Though many of the fields left blank wouldn't make any sense, some do.  Feel free to add any relevant (and of course either referenced or non-controversial) information to it. Ikluft (talk) 11:07, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Geobox added 

message: I did some edits to make the page more safety-conscious.  The article is starting to look more serious so it better not neglect serious matters like this.  I added "Hazards of travel in the Black Rock Desert" because we'd be endangering lives if Wikipedia made it look easy to go there and didn't mention the dangers of traveling in the desert.  Also, the section on "Hot springs in the Black Rock Desert region" needed some intro text and, well, an overhaul.  I added links to BLM's "stay out and stay alive" campaign about hot springs, and the RGJ article about the lawsuit that led to it.  I also removed most of the hot springs that were listed apparently gratuituously. Just the main three well-known springs remain on the list.  And though they aren't controversial, we should try to dig up a reference for them too.   Ikluft (talk) 11:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Looks like someone took it out. Kortoso (talk) 20:23, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Safety 

message: There is also a black rock desert in Utah, near Filmore. It would be nice to change the name of this page to reflect that this article is specific to the black rock desert in Nevada, and not to the one in Utah.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.186.207.54 (talk) 18:56, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: If that desert is notable, when an article is written then someone will perform disambiguation.  -- SEWilco (talk) 19:08, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

text: Adding to SEWilco's point, there is precedent on Wikipedia for a vastly more common usage of a term to remain on the page named by the term.  The Black Rock Desert in Nevada is a region of the state with various recreational activities, historical references, and world records.  The Black Rock Desert in Utah is an area of obsidian lava flows mainly of interest to geologists, based on web search results.  There is already a link to a non-existent page Black Rock Desert Volcanic Field, Utah on List of volcanoes in the United States of America - when someone creates that page, we should at that time add a disambiguation link to it on the Black Rock Desert page and add it to the existing Black Rock disambiguation page. Ikluft (talk) 05:57, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

text: I added it to the Black Rock disambiguation page.  There were already plenty of other links there to pages which have not been created yet. Ikluft (talk) 08:18, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Black Rock Desert Utah 

message: I did some cleanups and reorganization trying to raise the article's assessment from the current C class.  Take a look at WP:BCLASS and see what else it needs to get there. Ikluft (talk) 00:09, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  significant cleanups done 

message: In 2009, some edits resulted in needing cleanup of the references.  I've cleaned them up, which should retain the article's Class B criteria.  Let's finish up the review of coverage and grammar to finally get it up to Class B. Ikluft (talk) 10:07, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  cleaned up references again 

message: This article needs some expert help on layout. The series of infoboxes and images result in the [edit] tags being bunched up in unhelpful places. I can't figure out how to fix it in a way that looks OK regardless of the width of the browser window. - Fayenatic (talk) 21:57, 15 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Layout help needed