Talk:Austin, Texas/Archive 1

message: Stuff that needs mentioning from what I recall about the place from a short visit:
* rolling hill country surrounding the place.
* the river running through town, and the lake up the road, complete with Larry Ellison's mansion IIRC.
* Dazed and Confused was shot there.  You can see the moonlight towers all over the joint :)
* Large amount of recent development.
--Robert Merkel
The phrase, "46.7% are non-families" isn't clear.  If the term "non-families" has a general meaning among statisticians, I'd appreciate a link to a definition.
--Gil Dawson
Mr. Merkel's right, how come there's no mention of the Moon Towers?  I added a few sentences.  Hope I did it correctly...
--Gyrofrog
Need mention of local attractions including the Congress Avenue bat colony (would explain the Ice Bats name) and Barton Springs.
Link to Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau -- http://www.austintexas.org
--flowdelic
Regarding 1900-1969...Ramiro Martinez should be listed ahead of Houston McCoy as the person that "gunned down" Charles Whitman. According to a recent article published by Texas Monthly, ("96 Minutes", Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly, August 8, 2006, Volume 34, Issue 8), Martinez, McCoy and a civilian named Allen Crum stormed the observation deck. Martinez fired the first shots at Whitman with his service revolver and finally brought him down with McCoy's shotgun. McCoy was overheard consoling Ramirez following the shooting.
Progressive populist 07:03, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: stuff

message: Restated Republican/Democratic with conservative/liberal.  Although the Republicans since the 1980's have been the party of conservatism, this was not always so, and its pretty recent politically speaking. Roadrunner 04:31, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Politics 

message: There were several external links () sprinkled throughout this article, which would seem to violate the "prefer internal links" policy. I've changed them to regular Wikipedia links (...). - dcljr 23:28, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prefer internal links 

message: Anybody sees anything suspicious in this text from the article:
:Austin, founded in 1839, was first named Waterloo. In 1838, Mirabeau B. Lamar renamed the city in honor of Stephen F. Austin.
Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 19:04, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I fixed this discrepency using information from here and here. Feel free to improve the way I worded/phrased the new sentences. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 20:06, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wrong info 

message: Jimbo Wales is coming to Austin for the SXSW conference.  In advance of this event, I would like to revive the monthly wikimeetup.  If we have an event in place by SXSW (March 2006), we could possibly ask Jimbo to attend one of our meetings! Please head to Wikipedia:Meetup/Austin and add your name to the list under the Future heading if you are interested. -Scm83x 11:34, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Once again, anyone interested in the Austin Wikimeetup, please head over to Wikipedia:Meetup/Austin.  We may have a chance to meet Jimbo in March if we can get everything together! — Scm83x talk  05:08, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reviving the Austin Wikimeetup 

message: I have been contacted regarding this removal.  I do like this resource, although I wasn't entirely convinced of its relevance to the article.  Any comments regarding its inclusion or exclusion are welcome. --bbatsell | « give me a ring » 06:26, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd say it's relevant because of all of its historical pictures. Ario 06:44, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

text: It's an interesting resource. I'd let it stay in. adamrice 15:36, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

text: Shame the postcards have www.austinpostcard.com superimposed on them, or at least those which I've looked at, as many are in the public domain. Regardless, I say add the link back in. jareha 23:45, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

text: I agree that its useful, relevant to the article, and should stay.  SteveHopson 02:36, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [http://www.austinpostcard.com/ Austinpostcard.com] 

message: I have proposed the idea of a WikiProject devoted to Austin-related articles on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Austin Wikiproject?. Are there people interested in dedicating some time improving articles related to our wonderful city? Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 23:57, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Austin Wikiproject? 

message: This picture certainly isn't the best of Austin and I have tried to change it various times, using pictures in the public domain and ones I have shot myself. Yet the photo is constantly changed back to the one on the page right now. I don't understand it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by  Madbiggie00 (talk • contribs)  13:32, 2006 April 4  (UTC)
:I suggest you list the potentil pictures here in the form :picture_name.jpg, then we can click on the pictures you are recommenting and have a discussion about how they compare to the current picture. Johntex\talk 21:51, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Main Picture 

message: Hello folks.  Austin native here.  The entire sports section should be rewritten.  This is pathetic.  The Austin sports scene is dominated by the stellar University of Texas sports program, which is mentioned almost as an afterthought.  This should be the absolute first item mentioned, and additional accolades should be mentioned as well, such as all years UT football won national championships, as well as the fact that the UT sports program as a whole dominates college sports.  Actually I could find a citation for this if need be - I'm not just ranting.  UT and UCLA regularly are ranked #1 and #2 for overall sports programs.  The mention of the large number of Longhorn olympians should be included, (including but not limited to Kat Osterman).  The mention of the professional teams in Austin should follow an extended discussion of the UT sports program, possibly including seating capacity and picture of memorial stadium.  Mention of Darrel Royal would be a welcome addition, as he is an Austin icon.  The swim center is the best in the state of Texas.  The facilities are second to none.  This entire section should be completely redone to accurately reflect the true nature of Austin sports. ArteWorks Business Class 22:56, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay then if there is no objection here should i just start writing? ArteWorks Business Class 20:58, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello ArteWorks - yes, please feel free to improve the article.  My only suggestion would be to keep in mind that this article is about the whole city of Austin, and so the sports section shouldn't overwhelm the whole article.  You may want to consider including a pointer from this article to Texas Longhorn Athletics and then to help us improve that article's coverage of UT sports.  Other places you may want to check out include :Category:University of Texas at Austin, Portal:University of Texas at Austin, and Wikipedia:WikiProject University of Texas at Austin.  Best, Johntex\talk 21:04, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

text: ...and of course 2005 Texas Longhorn football team...Hook em! - Johntex\talk 21:07, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay I used to own and operate a now defunct longhorn sports site at mightyhorns.com - it was one of the first longhorn fan sites, even before hornfans.  It was in operation from 1997 to 2000.  Anyway, I have maintained a friendship with one of my writers from that site.  His name is Bert Hancock and currently he writes for Roger Clemens Inside Texas.  He knows all about the horn sports program and history more than I do.  I have contacted him and asked if he is willing to write a couple of paragraphs for review.  When he gets back to me I will post them here for discussion and then after a few days if no objection I will make them live.  If he isn't interested then I'll try to come up with something, but will likely need some assistance after I submit the first draft because although a huge fan I am certainly no expert in the history and such.  I'll keep everyone posted. ArteWorks Business Class 15:16, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Today I posted a note on hornfans asking if anyone wanted to help rewrite this section and got a bunch of sarcastic smack talk about it.  So I posted a link to this page and said if anyone wants to suggest revisions to do it here.  Maybe if nothing happens in the next couple of weeks I'll go ahead and come up with some suggested language for comment. ArteWorks Business Class 15:10, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

text: *I'm skeptical of recruiting authors from outside Wikipedia.  New editors are always welcome of course, but they have a downside in that they don't know the ropes here.  I'm particularly concerned about recruiting them from a partisan location because of the risk of their introducing undue bias to the article.  Again, any of them are welcome if they play by the rules, but I actually hope your message does not result in a flood of new poeple who are mainly interested in talking about how great UT sports are.  We have quite a lot of editors watching this page already.  If needed, we can always recruit more eyeballs from Wikipedia:Wikipedians/Texas, or we can nominate it at Wikipedia:Texan_Collaboration_of_the_Month. Johntex\talk 16:32, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

text: *Out of curiosity, can you please post a link to the Honrfans discussion? Johntex\talk 17:49, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  <-- link. Sorry if this wasn't a good idea. My choice of words on the thread may have been poor as I said "de facto editor" all I was trying to say was that in the absence of anyone else doing anything I would be the one ending up writing the first draft.  Discussion has gotten more friendly since this morning.  Chime in if you like! ArteWorks Business Class 20:33, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sports Section 

message: I was surprised that we didn't have a climate section already, so I decided to make one. It's still a little short at the moment, but it has great room for expansion. I also borrowed a template box from our friends over at the Dallas, Texas page for displaying averages, which I'm probably also going to add records to as well. Anyone is welcome to help me expand this- I was thinking of including things such as relation to tornado alley, flash flooding, etc..
On a side note, I've tried to make this section pretty well sourced, using <ref> tags. Hopefully we can slowly but surely make this article better sourced as a whole. EWS23 (Leave me a message!) 00:01, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Climate section started

message: For what it's worth the photo of the "Hill Country" is nice but not exceedingly impressive. Among other things the "hilliness" does not stand out (if you only glance at it you might not even notice that it was taken from the top of a hill since the vegetation is really what stands out). Does somebody out there have a free picture that maybe gives a better visual?
--Mcorazao 17:32, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Photo

message: I was reading the Richmond,_California wiki, which is much longer than the Austin,_Texas one, especially given the difference in population sizes and that Austin is much more well-known.  Perhaps someone would want to use the Rickmond wiki as a template for expanding Austin? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 199.233.121.152 (talk) 19:15, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  page needs to be expanded 

message: "ATX is a recently popular abbreviation for the city of Austin."
I've never heard it.  and never want to.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.83.206.176 (talk • contribs).
- I hear this used all the time, and have for probably 4-5 years.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.62.211.101 (talk • contribs).
:I've also heard this for several years; it seems to be relatively popular. Eric (EWS23) 02:48, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  ATX? 

message: Recent reports have indicated that birds have literally and actually fallen DEAD out of the sky. 65.173.104.227 07:52, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Dead birds

message: I went ahead and removed this section, because there must be over 100 churches in Austin.  We could never hope to list them all, and we certainly have no reason to list them all.  It has a real chance to turn in to a "list my church here" section, followed by a "after listing my church I should make a wiki article on it" section.
If there are notable churches that deserve mention, maybe they could be listed, but there should be a reason why they are notable listed.
Yes, I realize this might be taking Be Bold a bit too boldly.  If someone really feels the section has merit, re-add it.  I will not revert your change.  Come here and say why it should be re-added and we can all discuss it.
Mishatx 23:09, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Nope, you're not being too bold. Every city has churches, and very few are notable by encyclopedic standards. A short list of selected churches does very little good. I don't see any reason to retain this section. Thanks for being bold and deleting it! (Of course, your previous statement still stands- if anyone thinks there is any merit to this section, state your arguments logically; perhaps there is a reason we haven't thought of.) Eric (EWS23) 02:47, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, I sort of lied before.  Based on the above, I decided to remove the section when it was re-added anyway, as it was just a list of churches with no assertion of notability. If you feel it has a place in the article, state why.   *Mishatx*-In\Out 05:26, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Churches" section 

message: For a city like Austin, this article lacks pictures. Im adding one to this article, and one to the UT Austin article. Not the best of pics, but will do.--Zereshk 17:05, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Details