Talk:Ryongchon County

County, not city

I have corrected the English-language article to reflect that Ryongchon is a kun (county), not a si (city). For some reason the Korean Wikipedia article says it's a city (perhaps it was translated from the English-language article). Anyway, this is just a note to explain the discrepancy so it doesn't get changed back. You can check the several Korean-language external encyclopedia links to verify it's a kun. --Reuben 19:59, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for checking that! -- Visviva 04:38, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Non-English external links

I just removed this template from the article as it links to (several) non-English language sites. this is discouraged on the English-language Wikipedia. Particularly since this article is a stub it seemed that these links could be useful to editors who can read Korean, so I've moved them here.

• In Korean language online encyclopedias:
  • Doosan Encyclopedia (Encyber)
  • Korean language Britannica (Empas) (Map)
  • Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (Empas)
  • Pascal World Encyclopedia (Nate)

--Siobhan Hansa 01:49, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(links)#Foreign-language_sites: "Since this is the English Wikipedia, webpages in English are highly preferred. Linking to non-English pages may still be useful for readers in some cases: when the website is the subject of the article; when linking to pages with maps, diagrams, photos, tables; explain the key terms with the link, so that people who do not know the language can still interpret them; when the webpage contains key information found on no English-language site." So yes, English-language links are preferred, and if you can find any good ones, please add them. Otherwise, the Korean-language encyclopedias contain maps, diagrams, and photos, as well as information that's not in any English-language site. --Reuben 02:55, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I was trying to find out about Ryongchong so I did look at each link. Two of the sites have no images at all on the pages linked to (except for adds on one), one site has a map but it's not clear what the map is, and one has a photo, again it's not clear what the photo is of. Since the links provided do not provide information, even images, that are comprehensible to someone who cannot read Korean they still fail this exception and should not be on the article page under external links. --Siobhan Hansa 12:53, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't see where any Wikipedia policy says that external links in foreign languages must "provide information [...] that['s] comprehensible to someone who cannot read Korean." To quote the actual policy again, "[l]inking to non-English pages may still be useful for readers in some cases: [...] when the webpage contains key information found on no English-language site." I agree it would be nice to explain the map and images, but the best approach to that would be to provide more information, not to remove the links altogether. Could you provide a quote or a wikilink to the specific guideline you have in mind? --Reuben 18:49, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I'd love to be able to explain the map and photo - but I have no idea what they are since I don't read Korean! I think the map and photo would probably be great links if an English language explanation was provided, especially since there are no illustrations on the article itself.

On the guideline I'm following - it's the same as you, with the added emphasis of external links guidelines which is specifically about external links sections and does incorporate the needs of links to sources. I take Linking to non-English pages may still be useful for readers in some cases to mean that those links should be useful to English readers, that seems to be the point of the guideline in the first place and is reinforced by the request to explain the key terms with the link, so that people who do not know the language can still interpret them when linking to maps etc.. The guideline lists some of the exceptions where a non-English link might be useful, but the links above do not seem to fit them, or to be useful (to English readers) in any other way as they are. --Siobhan Hansa 00:47, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I'll work on better identifying the maps. I think that can be usefully worked into Visviva's template. Maybe something similar can be done for the photos too. The articles for second-level divisions of North Korea are still in their infancy, and in most cases these Korean-language encyclopedias are the source of almost all the info in the article. I don't know of any English-language source that could replace them. So how does that not fit "the webpage contains key information found on no English-language site"? I agree that the links should be as useful as possible to readers with no knowledge of Korean, but when there simply aren't English-language equivalents, I think it's still useful to have the Korean-language links. A good fraction of the readers of this article will have some knowledge of Korean (at least the alphabet). --Reuben 01:15, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I didn't understand that they were sources. In that case I completely agree they need to be in the article. I hope this has at least been useful in identifying the images to, hopefully, be singled out with a little English explanation and hasn't just been a waste of your time on the back and forth. It would probably help readers like me (and would also give due credit to the sites) if they went under a references heading, rather than external links - just a suggestion. -- Siobhan Hansa 01:29, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it might be a good idea to label them as references instead. I have added a map link to the template, so that people can at least find the maps (although they are still in Korean). --Reuben 01:45, 29 November 2006 (UTC)