User:Darkest tree

Userboxes

The Novice lv 2, Awarded for being a Registered Editor for 1 month 15 days and completion of 400 edits

USThis user uses American English.

en-5This user can contribute with a professional level of English.

en-us-caDude, this person is totally a California English speaker.

 0.000010% This user has created 1 of the 6,919,417 articles on the English language Wikipedia.

This user participates in
WikiProject Arizona.

This user is a proud native of the U.S. State of Arizona.

This user longs for the U.S. State of Arizona.

This user participates in
WikiProject California.

This user lives in the U.S. State of California.

This user has visited Japan.

This user loves Japan.

This user uses HotCat.

I am Darkest Tree. This is my user page. I try to work on California- and Arizona-related articles and any physical science and aviation articles I come across that I can help out with. My user page is still pretty messy, so don't think too much of my abilities.

Those who will defend authority against rebellion must not themselves rebel.

— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

It would have helped if the Culture had used some sort of emblem or logo; but, pointlessly unhelpful and unrealistic to the last, the Culture refused to place its trust in symbols. It maintained that it was what it was and had no need for such outward representation. The Culture was every single individual human and machine in it, not one thing. Just as it could not imprison itself with laws, impoverish itself with money or misguide itself with leaders, so it would not misrepresent itself with signs.

— Iain Banks, Consider Phlebas

Articles

• Sandbox

Draft articles:

• Deserts of Arizona

Articles I'm focusing on:

• Kingman, Arizona
• Hualapai Mountains
• June Gloom
• Santa Ana winds
• Sonoran Desert
• Mojave Desert
• Deserts of California
• Upper-atmospheric lightning

My Pet Peeve: The CDP

I think a lot of editors have one particular thing on Wikipedia that really drives them nuts, and they start trying to eradicate it. For me, it's the use of the term "Census-Designated Place." I am a geographer by education (not that it counts for anything on Wikipedia), and feel informed enough on the subject to say that there's something wrong here. I see this term popping up everywhere in articles on places: small unincorporated towns, villages, communities, and settlements getting referred to solely as "census-designated places."

Now, like it says at the top of the census-designated place article, a census-designated place is "a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes." For statistical purposes...and nothing more! Somehow, lots of people have gotten the idea that the CDP is a suitable placetype name. It is not! No one would ever say "I'm from the census-designated place of Mendocino, California, or "Back in the ol' census-designated place where I grew up..."

So while it's the Census Bureau's job to set a threshold for what Wikipedia would call notability of settlements in order to take the census, the Census Bureau has no actual authority in the United States over settlements, their naming, or designation of type or category of small towns and villages. It drives me nuts to come across a Wikipedia article that starts off "Place X is a census-designated place in Y County in the US state of Z." Really? Just call it a town, village, settlement, or unincorporated community, preferably per the local convention.

The real, actual important distinction to make is whether a place is incorporated or unincorporated. Then you're talking about a city with its own government versus a place that's governed by its parent county. To use the term "census-designated place" in this context is ridiculous—it should only come into play when discussing census data. So whenever I come across it, I change it.