Talk:Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia regions
Nova Scotia regions really should follow the official tourism regions of the province. What currently exists do not. I'm new here and don't really know how to make such a big change. See http://novascotia.com/en/home/planatrip/gettingaround/regions/default.aspx The regions are:
 * Yarmouth & Acadian Shores
 * Fundy Shore & Annapolis Valley
 * South Shore
 * Halifax Metro
 * Northumberland Shore
 * Eastern Shore
 * Cape Breton Island

(WT-en) troutpoint 13:55, 14 March 2009 (EST)


 * Help with Nova Scotia : On my talk page I was asked:


 * Huttite please help. The listings for Nova Scotia are very confused geographically. There is tons of current overlap between counties, regions, and cities. Locally, counties are really not treated as very important, but tourism regions are. See my comment at the Nova Scotia discussion page. For example, Yarmouth is no longer part of the South Shore region and to divide this region by counties doesn't really help anyone. I'm too new at this to really make such a big change without further advice. troutpoint--(WT-en) Troutpoint 08:30, 15 March 2009 (EDT)

My response to both of the above is below:
 * If you haven't done so already, I suggest you read Project:Geographical hierarchy and Project:What is an article?


 * I my opinion, there is no one right way to do the regions and there is no need to be totally exclusive about it. For example, organising destinations by local government organisations at the county and city level follows an administrative organisational strategy. While organising destinations by geography, such as mountains, valleys and shorelines follows a geographic organisational strategy. Then again, one can organise based on communities of interest that cross both geographical and administrative boundaries and follow a social organisational strategy. Similarly, the tourism organisational strategy follows a breakdown suggested by tourist operators and travel agents. You may even want to suggest your own regional breakdown. What is important is that things hang together in a (fairly) logical and understandable way once the articles are written. It is quite possible, and may even be practical, for two or more overlapping region organisational strategies to exist. However, in that cases one does need to be very clear about which organisational strategy is working for which region page.


 * The issue probably comes down to how much detail should be in a region article. Please remember that regions can be subdivided repeatedly. Though there is no hard and fast rule, it is a good idea that a region lists about 7 +/- 2 smaller regions, cities (ie. towns or communities) or other destinations. If you find you need to list more than about 8 or 10 places under the City or Other destinations heading it suggests you need more regions, i.e. another level of breakdown, to put these places within. If you are struggling to get two or three destinations for a region, that would suggest that you have gone too fine with your regions, as the region could then probably be merged with the destination it contains.


 * The top level regions that you are suggesting for Nova Scotia seem to be about the right number, though their names leave something to be desired. The use of and in a name suggests that two regions are being cobbled together. More importantly the ampersand character (&) should not appear in a name as it makes an article unviewable, as & is misinterpreted by webservers as a URL parameter separator, so the article name is cut short. My suggestions for the names of the top level regions you propose are:


 * Acadian Shores - this can include a reference to Yarmouth, which can also be included in South Shore if it is on or near the boundary of the two regions.
 * Fundy Shore and Annapolis Valley should be separate regions, unless the two run together in a way that means they cannot be easily separated. At a lower level they may still need to be separated, so doing it at the top level may not cause too many problems.
 * South Shore
 * Halifax Metro
 * Northumberland Shore
 * Eastern Shore
 * Cape Breton Island
 * Below the top level, counties, etc. could be used to assist with keeping destination lists short. Or, if counties don't work, geographical and social groupings, or all three alternatives depending on what works well in different places.


 * However, I am not saying what you propose is the best way to do things. Frankly, I haven't even looked at how things are organised at the moment. There is probably a fair bit of effort invested in the existing structure, so any change will involve a fair bit of reorganisation. It would be a good idea to work out how the existing regional organisation of Nova Scotia articles would migrate into your proposal.


 * Exactly how all this is done is a bit of a dark art and is worth discussing before doing - as you have done here. The important thing to remember is that every Nova Scotia destination (city, town or other attraction) that is listed in Wikivoyage needs to be listed somewhere and the pages that they are listed on in turn need to be listed somewhere, and so on up a geographical hierarchy tree to Nova Scotia and beyond. That way these destinations can be found and placed in some sort of logical geographic grouping for the traveler.


 * Ultimately, how things hang together for the traveler is the best test of all. If you were to travel to Nova Scotia using Wikivoyage, only, would the way things were organised work for you? - (WT-en) Huttite 06:52, 16 March 2009 (EDT)


 * The official tourism regions mostly look OK. The Northumberland Shore, Eastern Shore, Cape Breton Island, Halifax Metro and South Shore regions look alright, although I'd suggest including some areas near Halifax Metro (such as Peggys Cove) in that region to balance it out.


 * My biggest concern is the Fundy Shore and Annapolis Valley region, which doesn't strike me as a natural fit. I'm oversimplifying a bit, but essentially the region would work as Bay of Fundy stuff in the northeast, the Annapolis Valley in the middle and then more Bay of Fundy stuff on the western end. The two Bay of Fundy pieces are not connected and the Annapolis Valley only has secondary road connections with the NE piece of the region (the major roads run via Halifax). Tourism NS's scenic routes also break the region up, with the NE piece on the Glooscap Trail and the Annapolis Valley and points west on the Evangeline Trail.


 * My suggestion is to break up the Fundy Shore and Annapolis Valley region into three pieces. The NE portion (Amherst, Truro, Parrsboro and Springhill) would remain Fundy Shore. The Annapolis Valley would stand as its own region (this includes Windsor, Annapolis Royal and Kentville). The part along the coast west of the Valley would be merged with an Acadian Shores article that would feature Yarmouth and Digby.


 * Overall, my suggested regions would be:
 * Acadian Shores - Yarmouth and Digby
 * Annapolis Valley - Windsor, Middleton, Annapolis Royal and Kentville
 * Cape Breton Island - Sydney, Baddeck and Louisbourg
 * Eastern Shore - Guysborough
 * Fundy Shore - Amherst, Truro, Parrsboro and Springhill
 * Halifax Region - Halifax, Dartmouth, Peggys Cove and Hubley
 * Northumberland Shore - Antigonish, New Glasgow, Pictou, Stellarton
 * South Shore - Lunenburg, Chester, Shelburne and Bridgewater


 * As for the county articles, I think they should be redirected into the region they lie in. None of these regions exceed nine cities with articles, so it seems unnecessary to further subdivide the regions (at this time, anyway). --(WT-en) Shaund 15:42, 22 March 2009 (EDT)

Stay Safe
This is offensive. It gives the impression that if you are black, go somewhere else. I'm not sure what history they are referring to but it no longer exists and has not for many years. I've lived in Nova Scotia for sixty years and have never heard it referred to as 'Mississippi North'. I'm not saying you can't find prejudice (it's in every society) but there is no segregation in Canada and especially Nova Scotia. If you really want people to be safe, warn them about the Black Flies in June.