From Wikitravel

[edit] Regions

Ugh. I don't really know Oregon well enough to divide it into regions. Anyone willing to give it a shot? -- Evan 14:26, 9 Nov 2003 (PST)

We now (three years later) seem to have aquired some regions in a scattershot manner. I want to migrate some more cities out of the main state page, so rather than propose a comprehensive solution, I'd like to add two more regions:

1. A "Portland Metro" region that will be at the north of the Willamette Valley near the Columbia.
2. We need something for the South of Oregon. I'm not sure what to call the region that contains tons of cities along Interstate 5 in the mountains south of the Willamette Valley. And I'm uncertain "High Desert" is the right designation for the non-desert of Klamath Falls which is just south of the region usually called High Desert.

I also really don't like the vagueness of the "Cascade Mountains". But we'll fight that battle if it becomes a problem. -- Colin 03:46, 12 October 2006 (EDT)

I added Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon. I am thinking that we should do away with Cascade Mountains. Also, I agree with adding a Portland Metro. This seems to be how some of the official sites split it up and it does make some sense from my travels there. Comments? -- Tom Holland (xltel) 21:31, 22 December 2006 (EST)

I'm fuzzy on where the Coast meets Southern meets the Willamette. The Willamette region is pretty easy to divide from the coast based on how water flows (if it flows into the Willamette before it goes to the sea, then it's in the Willamette region. If it's west of there, it's on the coast). But the topography in the South isn't so convenient. For example, going downriver on the Umpqua River, there are little towns every couple of miles along the river. So which ones do we cut into Coastal vs. Southern? Wrh2 found useful maps on the California Tourism website and we just followed those as our definitions when carving up California. In Washington state, Evan arbitrarily assigned the counties into regions. Any way works (and can be improved later by other contributors) as long as there are concrete divisions. -- Colin 21:51, 22 December 2006 (EST)

There is a good county map in Wikimedia Commons that is PD, we could use that to slice up the counties into regions. -- Tom Holland (xltel) 21:45, 22 December 2006 (EST)

That would work if you think the shapes can be stuffed into regions. Nevada lacks regions because its counties suck as regions worse than anything I've ever seen. -- Colin 21:51, 22 December 2006 (EST)

Yeah, I agree... We would have to split some of the counties to make it work. You have any thoughts on a way to go? -- Tom Holland (xltel) 21:54, 22 December 2006 (EST)

Take a look at http://www.traveloregon.com/Explore-Oregon.aspx could we slice up like that? -- Tom Holland (xltel) 22:00, 22 December 2006 (EST)

Here is what I am thinking. -- Tom Holland (xltel) 23:06, 22 December 2006 (EST)

I like it a lot. There's a PDF on the traveloregon.com website that also locates the cities within the regions. -- Colin 02:17, 23 December 2006 (EST)

Okay, good! I got the color a little too close to the adjacent region on Mt. Hood/The Gorge, also I don't think I have it quite right. I think they may have run the line down highway 26 picking up everything along that highway into Mt. Hood/The Gorge. So, I would like to tweak that a little to make sure it is right. Also, I always hate my work on maps, I wish I could do it better. Maybe we can talk someone into doing our region map.

Lastly, what about names of the regions. (We can deal with the cities on the main page after regions) Do you think what we have is good? We might want to include Mt. Hood in the Gorge name and do you want to use "Portland Metro"? And for "High Desert" is that okay, or maybe "Central High Desert". I like using the "High Desert" as part of the name. Thanks Colin for helping on this. Does anyone else have input? -- Tom Holland (xltel) 08:04, 23 December 2006 (EST)

For what it's worth... California has a map drawn by Ryan that's very loosely correct. But we use the state-provided maps for precisely slotting cities into the regions. So if your map is only approximate, but we have an Oregon one to lean on for the precise details then I think we'll be alright. That said, I've been meaning to make a Google Maps overlay for the California Region definitions so that we can have a permanent, shareable, and modifiable precise definition hosted at Wikitravel.

Wikipedia says that the High Desert is Central+East Oregon, though it doesn't define those terms. -- Colin 13:04, 23 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] Rogue Coast

Rogue Coast? I've never heard that particular region called that. - Pingveno 00:27, 4 Jan 2004 (EST)

Google hasn't heard of it either. Most of the hits for the exact phrase are Wikitravel and mirrors. I'm going to rename it. I wonder if the original author perhaps meant Southern Oregon Coast, since they describe it as undeveloped and I thought the northern section is developed. -Colin 01:19, 8 Oct 2004 (EDT)

[edit] Oregon Country Fair

How are we going to deal with the OCF? I'm inclined to make it its own article, like Black Rock City. --Evan 23:03, 4 Jan 2004 (EST)

[edit] Aquarium, Museum

Aquaria and museums don't normally get their own articles; see Wikitravel:What is an article? for more info. I moved the OMSI listing to Portland (Oregon), and the Oregon Coast Aquarium listing to the new Newport (Oregon) page. Elaborations welcome. --Evan 19:31, 3 Feb 2004 (EST)

[edit] External link

Link removed in accordance with Wikitravel:External links, but looks like an interesting site that might have some useful info: http://www.therealoregon.com/. -- Ryan 00:58, 5 June 2006 (EDT)

[edit] Oregon Contributor Activity

Swept in from the Pub:

There seems to be quite a number of newbie contributors in Oregon for some reason. If you see anyone contributing there, check it out because they often seem to need some guidance. -- Colin 13:30, 10 March 2006 (EST)

One of them wrote me and said

As an assignment for a business class at Oregon State my classmates
and I are required to update a public wiki with "valuable contributions."

so that explains that. -- Colin 22:15, 10 March 2006 (EST)

There has been a huge rush of contributions this afternoon (16 March) that appear to be from this group. Maple Canyon, Waldo Lake, Great glen way, and a ton of images. A lot of the images appear to be copyvios, but I've run out of time to keep tracking them down so anyone who has a chance to look into them it would be much appreciated.

To the contributors: your contributions are much appreciated and very valuable additions. The concerns are that they are not copyright violations (see Wikitravel:Image policy), that they are valid article topics (see Wikitravel:What is an article?), and to a lesser extent that they are formatted correctly (see Wikitravel:Manual of style). -- Ryan 20:57, 16 March 2006 (EST)

Also to the contributors: It would also be a good idea to pay attention to the Wikitravel:Article templates applicable to what you're writing, so that your contributions are indeed "valuable." (I'd bet that that Oregon State instructor is aware of the templates -- or soon will be.) Using the templates to begin with will save some rewriting later that may simply wipe your contribution out, with a possibly similar wipeout on your grade... -- Bill-on-the-Hill 22:30, 16 March 2006 (EST)

Did anyone attempt to find out the professor(')s(') name? I'd be more than happy to send him/her a letter explain that we welcome the help from his/her students and how exactly he/she should instruct the students to contribute i.e. MoS, templates, and the copyleft. - Andrew Haggard (Sapphire) 05:29, 11 June 2006 (EDT)

[edit] OBBG

I rolled back the addition of a link to the Oregon Bed and Breakfast Guild (80+ B&B's). We'd love to have those B&B's listed in Wikitravel in their correct towns and cities, but we don't want a big link at the state level. See external links for more details. --Evan 22:31, 13 December 2006 (EST)

Here's the listing, by the way: *Oregon Bed and Breakfast Guild, [1], Email: info@obbg.org, Phone:1-800-944-6196, Association representing 80+ inspected and approved B&B's. The link is probably useful for data mining. --Evan 22:35, 13 December 2006 (EST)

[edit] Too many cities

There are too many cities on this page. I'd appreciate it if someone who knew Oregon better than me (for example, someone who had been there) could move all but 9 to the appropriate region pages. -- Jonboy 16:21, 22 December 2006 (EST)

Done! List is now nine. -- Tom Holland (xltel) 16:46, 22 December 2006 (EST)

Now we need to nail down the definitions of the regions so that we can de-orphan the removed cities. -- Colin 21:14, 22 December 2006 (EST)