Talk:Calcutta Travel Guide
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This article was the Collaboration of the week between 11 July 2006 and 17 July 2006. |
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Importing pictures from Wikipedia
Wikipedia decided on Kolkata, after a poll. By the way, is there any way to import Wikipedia pictures to Wikitravel? Pradiptaray 16:25, 20 Jan 2006 (EST)
Calcutta should not be renamed to "Kolkata". Kolkata is city's official name; Calcutta is its most common English-language name, which is in accord with the article naming conventions. --Evan 08:05, 12 Feb 2004 (EST)
Why Kolkata and not Calcutta...
This article should be moved to Kolkata. Even though it is not as big a problem as for Mumbai, since Kolkata is not as common, we cannot continue to give incorrect naming to cities. I have given a more in-depth explanation at Talk:Bombay. It doesn't matter if they're the most common, they are incorrect! It's a bit like the Burma article, which remains Burma for no reason at all, when ALL countries of the world basically refer to it as Myanmar except the USA. Ronline 04:24, 6 May 2004 (EDT)
Text should use Calcutta
Without rendering an opinion on our naming policy.... I'd just like to say that I think the text should use the same name as the title of the article. And the text should use the so-called official name only if the title changes. -- 12:08, 3 Jan 2005 (EST)
- I just made this change. I tried to avoid changing "Kolkata" to "Calcutta" in proper names. --Evan 12:12, 2 Dec 2005 (EST)
Calcutta - Kolkata debate
I notice that Evan's reasons for not changing the name used in Wikitravel from Calcutta to Kolkata were given in Feb 2004 - almost two years ago. I am curretly in Kolkata/Calcutta and can categorically state that the title Calcutta is obslete here. Internationally, however, Calcutta may still be the most commonly used name. If that is the case, then Evan's argument still stands. However, I think that it may be time for review. Apologies for changing the title without due consideration of the policy.
- Honestly, I have no strong feelings either way, about Kolkata or even Mumbai, where I stay. On Wikipedia, I would have strongly supported official names, on the ground that a city is entitled to decide what to call itself. But this is Wikitravel, and understandably, the traveller comes first. Everyone who calls it Kolkata will know about Calcutta, but the reverse might not be true. On a travel site, change should necessarily be slower. -- Ravikiran 11:19, 30 Nov 2005 (EST)
- I agree with your point, but I think that using old discontinued names rather than the new official one makes articles appear out of date. Likewise, deciding which name is the most popular one in English is subjective. Of course, if we google the name, the older one will show more articles because there have been more years over which to accumulate them, but that doesn't mean that the newer name is not presently the one favored in the English speaking world, especially by people who will be visiting the places to conduct business. Personally, I think that it would be easier if official names were used in the main article with a redirect link from the page with the old name. In this way, those who still use the discontinued name can find the article and, in addition, it would save the trouble of having to continuously reasses which name is the more popular in English - just a suggestion.
- Your argument appears to be about the naming policy in general rather than Calcutta specifically. I suggest you make the comment on the appopriate page for discussing the policy in general -- Wikitravel talk:Article naming conventions. -- Colin 10:52, 2 Dec 2005 (EST)
- I agree with your point, but I think that using old discontinued names rather than the new official one makes articles appear out of date. Likewise, deciding which name is the most popular one in English is subjective. Of course, if we google the name, the older one will show more articles because there have been more years over which to accumulate them, but that doesn't mean that the newer name is not presently the one favored in the English speaking world, especially by people who will be visiting the places to conduct business. Personally, I think that it would be easier if official names were used in the main article with a redirect link from the page with the old name. In this way, those who still use the discontinued name can find the article and, in addition, it would save the trouble of having to continuously reasses which name is the more popular in English - just a suggestion.
- Our goal is not to be behind the times, but to be exactly in the times -- neither ahead or behind.
- Some more data points: I checked Google news search, and "Calcutta" is used in US and UK news sources about twice as often as "Kolkata" (I left out "black hole of Calcutta" and "Oh! Calcutta!"). In Canada, NZ, and Australia it was about even; Kolkata was about 8:1 in South Africa, and 5500:3400 in India proper.
- Wikipedia uses Kolkata; the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names prefers "Calcutta" and lists "Kolkata" as the "Bengali name". The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia has "Kolkata -- formerly Calcutta"; Webster's Online only has "Calcutta".
- I think the scale is tipping towards Kolkata, but as far as I can tell "Calcutta" is still the most common English name for this place. --Evan 12:08, 2 Dec 2005 (EST)
