Talk:North Catasauqua, Pennsylvania

I removed a ton of material from this article. Prior to my edits, the article read like a pamphlet from the North Catasauqua Chamber of Commerce - I removed whole sections about the 2007 centenial celebration, North Catasauqua Merchandise, and contact information for the mayor, manager, chief of police, etc. . . . If someone wants this informtion, they can go to the official website and find it out."Country" Bushrod Washington 21:15, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Nickname

To the user(s) who keep adding "North Catasauqua's nickname is 'North Catasauqua - small town U.S.A.'":

I'm not sure that "North Catasauqua - small town U.S.A." can rightfully be considered a nickname, regardless of what the borough says/does. As I understand it, a nickname is something other than a proper name that is commonly used to refer to a particular entity. The key is common usage -- though North Catasauqua may call itself "Small Town U.S.A." no one else does. If I'm going to visit a friend who lives in North Catasauqua, I wouldn't say, "I’m going to my friend’s house in small town U.S.A." No one would know what that means. On the other hand, I might say, "I’m going to my friend’s house in North Catty." People, or at least locals, would understand to what I was referring. That’s the key to a nickname. Similarly, if I go around insisting that my nickname is "Bob," but no one calls me that, then "Bob" is not my nickname, no matter how much I wish it were. A good discussion can be found here.

Even if "North Catasauqua - small town U.S.A." is a legitimate nickname, a citation is still neccessary. Inviting users to call borough offices to verify a statement is not a citation. Think back to your English class in high school -- when grading a research paper, would your teacher have accepted a factual assertion backed only by the statement, "look it up yourself." That would have been unacceptable then, and it is unacceptable now. Wikipedia is looking for an actual citation, that is to say a reference to a book, magazine, newspaper, publication, or reliable website.

There may very well be an appropriate way to mention "North Catasauqua – small town U.S.A." If I knew when and under what circumstances North Catasauqua was christened small town U.S.A., I could find a way to work it into either the introduction or the history section. However, it should not be referred to as a nickname, and it should come with appropriate citations. "Country" Bushrod Washington (talk) 22:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I posted the following on North Catasauqua small town USA's (talk) talk page. I figured I may as well post it here to, so everyone one else bent on mentioning the borough's alleged nickname can read it.

Did you even look at the comment I posted on the North Catasauqua discussion page? Please do so. Of course a borough can have a nickname -- my point is that, unless "Small Town U.S.A." is commonly understood as refering to North Catasauqua, then it is not a nickname. The Borough Council and the Mayor may officially christened North Catasauqua as "small Town U.S.A." but official action does not a nickname make.

Despite the fact that I've yet to see a citation, I think it is appropriate to mention "Small Town U.S.A." in the article. I'm going to include the following sentence in the introduction: "On May 21, 2007, Borough Council and Mayor Bill Mochany officially christened North Catasauqua 'Small Town U.S.A.'" This seems fair, as it still mentions "Small Town U.S.A." without erroneously refering to it as a nickname (which, as my comment on the talk page explains, it is not, despite the presence of official action). I hope you find this compromise to be adequate.

Finally, if you are going to revert any more edits, please pay attention to what you are doing. You've twice reverted legitimate edits that have nothing to do with the alleged nickname. You keep changing the link for Allen Township and you keep capitalizing the word "borough" in the education section. Wikipedia's article for that township is [[Allen Township, Pennsylvania]] not [[Allen Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania]] and borough should not be capitalized because it is not a proper noun.

Cheers!"Country" Bushrod Washington (talk) 04:53, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to repeat my hope that this compromise is adequate. Your thoughts? "Country" Bushrod Washington (talk) 05:07, 28 March 2008 (UTC)