Talk:List of municipalities in Alabama: Difference between revisions

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::::::This is a much better “template” to aspire to. I’m glad you got in here.

::::::The text immediately starts speaking about the topic at hand (communities) and the map is relevant. That map of course is much better than the Alabama map I found, but surely we can agree that the state map improves this page. [[User:Ξάνθος|Ξάνθος]] ([[User talk:Ξάνθος|talk]]) 23:28, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

:::::::Added map back as per discussion. [[User:Mattximus|Mattximus]] ([[User talk:Mattximus|talk]]) 13:14, 5 October 2025 (UTC)

List of municipalities in Alabama is a featured list, which means it has been identified as one of the best lists produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia’s Main Page as Today’s featured list on December 23, 2016.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
October 4, 2015	Featured list candidate	Promoted

Would anyone be opposed to me splitting off the unincorporated communities into it’s own list? We can link to it at the bottom so it’s still easy to access for those that are interested. I could also do this to census designated places, to keep the focus of this list specifically on cities and towns. Mattximus (talk) 13:45, 23 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I’ve taken the initiative and created the respective pages, now Alabama is in line with other states. I’ve also added images, expanded the lead, and created more columns for information. My goal is to bring this page up to featured status similar to List of cities and towns in California. I have brought 8 such lists to featured status in the past, and hope to see Alabama there as well. I’m wondering if anybody has some free time, I need help populating the “city or town” column, the 2000 population column, and the % growth column. If there are any GIS wizards out there, Alabama could also use a simple map that shows what areas are incorporated, and which are not. Thanks for your help. Mattximus (talk) 14:03, 17 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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“List of municipalities in …”

The reason I edited this page was because I was looking at Huntsville, Alabama and thought the “most populous cities” link had been set to the Alabama state page. Hovering over shows this:

“Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States. According to the 2020 United States Census, Alabama is the 24th most populous state with 5,024,279 inhabitants and the 28th largest by land area spanning 50,645.33 square miles (131,170.8 km²) of land. Alabama is divided into 67 cou…”

Now just hover over Alabama and you’ll see my point. The problem is that the intro adds non-city info to a page which exists to list cities. Honestly having any intro at all is questionable given “List of municipalities,” but I figured the legal lore might be admissible. Ξάνθος (talk) 22:31, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I’m happy to work with you on changes. For it to be a featured list, there must be a thorough lead that summarizes the table, and the context for the table. That’s why for a list of municipalities in Alabama, it’s vital to link to Alabama. It’s also standardized to dozens of other lists. Can you help me understand the issue, is it the summary for hovering over the link to the list that is the issue? I tried to simulate what you said and couldn’t get anything to appear while hovering. I’m happy to help resolve the issue.

Also your idea to include a map for municipalities is a good idea but the one you posted was not for municipalities, if you can find one that fits that would be great. Mattximus (talk) 23:55, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Key to qualifying for this “featured list” star is: Lead. It has an engaging lead that introduces the subject and defines the scope and inclusion criteria.

My gripe is with the scope. I’ve seen that you use the same template for many “List of municipalities in…” lists, so I’m worried you’re entrenched in this format. But the fact is the intro does not stick to the scope. If the people clicking on the “List of municipalities in Alabama” article don’t know where Alabama is, they can glance at the Alabama link which is in the very first line. 99.99% of people on this page do know that though. Municipalities is quite a specific aspect of Alabama ‘lore’ for readers to encounter without even knowing what Alabama is.

So, despite the fact I don’t actually care if it’s “featured” myself (I just want useful), its current status as featured is actually pretty tenuous since it technically violates the second tenant of featured-dom. The adjustments I attempted before would not only improve the prose through brevity and get people to the list they wanted faster, but also resolve that apparently unnoticed contradiction and incidentally strengthen this article’s claim to a star.

Also the map I posted was municipalities. It shows many cities and towns. The map of America shows none of Alabama’s municipalities. This is another scope issue. Ξάνθος (talk) 01:51, 1 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The adjustment you made did remove a lot of really important data that most users would find useful (the largest by population, and area, without actually scrolling through the list). And yes I do like this format a lot, but it’s not mine. I took it from another user who started working on it (I think California was the first one?), and I found it very useful. But the content you removed doesn’t harm the page, so there it is only a negative to remove. If you want you can bring it to featured list review? Or maybe you can post your suggestions for change here and other users can comment? It’s rare that major deletions/changes are made to featured lists without some discussion. Mattximus (talk) 00:58, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Also I agree the page could use a better map, but the one you posted just had an arbitrary number of places. Maybe one with all cities only would be beneficial, barring one with all the municipalities. Mattximus (talk) 01:02, 2 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Let’s start with the map. The map of America has 0 places. The Alabama map has all major cities. I took the time to find this one already and it’s indisputably a better map. Ξάνθος (talk) 00:27, 3 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Why not add both? Mattximus (talk) 18:47, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, both can be in the article, with the proviso that the one about to be added can be further improved by eventually finding a replacement map that shows all municipalities. Hwy43 (talk) 21:00, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

So neither of you see that the ~50 city, readable (public-domain) map obsoletes the map of America? Do you both think it’s paramount to push the municipalities list down further on a page whose main purpose is “List of municipalities.” Ξάνθος (talk) 23:21, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hwy43: List of communities in Alberta

This is a much better “template” to aspire to. I’m glad you got in here.

The text immediately starts speaking about the topic at hand (communities) and the map is relevant. That map of course is much better than the Alabama map I found, but surely we can agree that the state map improves this page. Ξάνθος (talk) 23:28, 4 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Added map back as per discussion. Mattximus (talk) 13:14, 5 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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