WallAdhesion

Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, WallAdhesion!

First steps tutorial Our first steps tour and our frequently asked questions will help you a lot after registration. They explain how to customize the interface (for example the language), how to upload files and our basic licensing policy (Wikimedia Commons only accepts free content). You don't need technical skills in order to contribute here. Be bold when contributing and assume good faith when interacting with others. This is a wiki. Getting help More information is available at the community portal. You may ask questions at the help desk, village pump or on IRC channel #wikimedia-commons (webchat). You can also contact an administrator on their talk page. If you have a specific copyright question, ask at the copyright village pump.

Goodies, tips, and tricks Put Babel boxes on your user page so others know what languages you can speak and indicate your graphic abilities. You can find the files you have uploaded in your Uploads. Please sign your name on Talk pages by typing ~~~~. To link to an image page without embedding the image, type: [[:File:Foo.jpg]], which produces: File:Foo.jpg. You may enable gadgets (custom features) for your account. There are several tools to upload files. Have you edited Wikipedia before? This guide might be useful. Made a mistake? Do you want to have a file renamed or moved? Use the move link and wait for an authorized user to rename it. Do you want to have your recently uploaded picture removed? Tag it as {{speedy|reason here}}. For more information read the deletion guidelines.

-- Wikimedia Commons Welcome (talk) 03:09, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

Historic county shapes

First, thank you for creating a lot of these maps! Just letting you know that I've renamed them to follow the pattern Statename (YEAR–YEAR) county map, cb 500k.svg. This is so they can easily be referred to in the template {{Cb500k map}}.

Please lmk if you have any questions! Also, would you mind uploading the Wisconsin one you made? Elli (talk) 05:22, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

@Elli: Okay, great. I'll try to follow that pattern in the future.

Regarding the Wisconsin map, that was my first time ever using Inkscape and my workflow was perhaps less than optimal. Instead of editing the standard Wisconsin map to get a historical boundary map and then filling in the colors, I started with the 2000 senate map, edited the county boundaries, realized the new boundaries were already in effect for that election, and then recolored the map for the 1998 election (lol). So I don't actually have a historical Wisconsin template to upload. At some point I will want to make more Wisconsin maps, and if no one has beaten me to it then I'll either edit the borders of the standard map or the colors of the 1998 map to get a standard historical map.

I actually have accumulated a few questions related to renaming files and/or making historical county maps. Hopefully you can answer at least a couple of them:

• First, I'm wondering about the correct procedure for uploading. Picking an arbitrary hypothetical for concreteness, suppose I make a new version of File:1942 Wisconsin gubernatorial election results map by county.svg in the new style (that is, based on a version with edited borders of File:Wisconsin_county_map,_cb_500k.svg). It seems like the usual thing is to use the "Upload a new version of this file" button. But per COM:TOO US, adding shading and colors to an existing map is below the threshold of originality required for copyright protection (at least in the US). I am far from an expert, but I understand this to mean that the new map should match the licensing of File:Wisconsin_county_map,_cb_500k.svg rather than File:1942 Wisconsin gubernatorial election results map by county.svg (less important in this case because the former is under CC-0, but still). So for that reason I want to upload the modified version as it's own file, but that ruins the standardization of files names among the in-use versions of the file, which as you say is important. Is the proper approach, then, to move the existing file (e.g. to 1942 Wisconsin gubernatorial election results map by county old version.svg or similar) and then replace the automatically created redirect with the new file?
• Second, I also made File:Virginia county map 2007 to 2013.svg. I didn't add it to the proper category because it was my first attempt adding a county to a map, and I'm worried I screwed it up somehow (moving lines and deleting counties seems a lot more straightforward). I had previously asked another user for feedback but haven't heard from them yet. I guess my two big worries are (a) whether the county has the wrong position or shape, and (b) whether the underlying svg object I added is somehow different from the other counties in a way that could cause problems down the line. If you would be willing to give the map a once-over that would be great. I can do the work of adding it to the right categories after I hear back.
• Third (and I know this one is more abstract so no worries if you don't have anything to say here), I was wondering if you had a rule of thumb for deciding what changes are big enough to warrant their own map. Like, my rule of thumb has been that if The Newberry Library doesn't include a change on their interactive map it is definitely too small, and that changes are only otherwise too small if they cannot be shown without increasing the level of detail in the map (see e.g. my 1988-related comments in the description here). But I'm worried a bit that I'm being too much of a perfectionist, and I wouldn't want to make historical county shapes maps that no one is going to bother using. For example, File:1998 United States Senate election in Wisconsin results map by county with old borders.svg. Was that change worth making? I'm not sure.

I know that was a lot — thank you for your time! WallAdhesion (talk) 18:58, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

In reply to your first question, you don't need to upload it as a new file. The copyright status on these maps is messy... but they're all below the US TOO. Just upload the file as a new version.

Your Virginia map looks fine. Ideally we'd be making all of these historical maps using shapefiles instead of tracing (for maximum accuracy) but... that isn't really necessary either. One thing to keep in mind: when exporting SVGs to upload from Inkscape, please use the "save as -> plain SVG" option, instead of just saving the file normally. That way we get a cleaner file.

Honestly I'd make versions for every visible map change. It's reasonable to start with the more important/notable change, though, of course. Elli (talk) 22:33, 5 March 2023 (UTC)

@Elli: Okay, will do. Regarding the "save as -> plain SVG" option, I assume it became too late for the maps I already uploaded the moment I saved them normally?

Also, one more question while you are here: I noticed that some (NY, MS, WI) but not all (NC, OH) of the standard maps were reverted back from V2 to V1. Do you know if/where that was discussed? Should I be updating any historical maps I've made to be based on V1 instead of V2?

Thanks, WallAdhesion (talk) 02:55, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

It wasn't discussed, and we should be using V2. Elli (talk) 02:57, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

About the saving... no, you can re-save the files as plain SVGs and reupload to clean up the source code. Elli (talk) 02:57, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

Okay, sounds good. I'm traveling next week so it might be a bit, but I'll reupload my previous maps as plain SVGs before I make any new ones. Thanks again for your help! WallAdhesion (talk) 03:13, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

Of course; thank you for making these maps! Feel free to ask me any further questions you might have. Elli (talk) 23:10, 6 March 2023 (UTC)

@Elli: Okay, I reuploaded all my old maps as plain SVGs (except my first Wisconsin map — that wasn't based on V2 of the standard map so I didn't see the point. I'll reupload it when I make a 1967–2000 Wisconsin map.)

Could you do me a favor and rename File:Virginia county map 2007 to 2013.svg to "Virginia (2007–2013) county map, cb 500k.svg" to match the others? I don't have file mover privileges.

Thanks, WallAdhesion (talk) 22:22, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

Sure thing! Elli (talk) 22:25, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

maps

hey walladhesion hope you're doing well, i've been updating maps using your new shapes but i've been holding off on some due to the fact there are still no shape files that have the historical boundaries, for now could you make some for the following: Wisconsin: pre 2000 back to 1901 Florida: pre 1997 back to 1927 Colorado: pre 1980 back to 1900s (i know they've changed very frequently lol so maybe just the most notable changes?) California pre 1991 back to 1901 Georgia: pre 1999 back to 1908 Washington pre 1970 Putitonamap98 (talk) 18:57, 25 November 2023 (UTC)

Hi Putitonamap98. I'm doing well, though I've been pretty busy IRL and don't know when I'll be getting back to mapmaking (maybe January...?). Though if I do start up again I will keep your suggestions in mind.

Fun fact about Wisconsin, though. Originally I thought there needed to be a new map for before 2000 (and I even made one based on the V1 map at File:Wisconsin county map, cb 500k.svg). But then that file was reverted to V2. As it turns out, the only change in 2000 was an extra squiggle to follow a river on the boundary between Monroe and Jackson counties, and that squiggle isn't even visible on the V2 maps because they are less detailed. So TL;DR I think it is safe to use the existing WI template all the way back to 22 December 1967 (and possibly back to 1 May 1961 when Menominee County was created — the changes between 1961 and 1967 are between Brown and Shawano counties and IIRC they are also too small to see, though I would double-check that before making any).

Best, WallAdhesion (talk) 22:26, 26 November 2023 (UTC)

Ok thanks for letting me know and good to hear :) i have started updating some of the 1990s wisconsin maps with new v2 shapes. would you also say the same for the pre 2000 florida and arkansas maps? i was really needing the colorado maps for sure since the boundary changes are most noticeable before i could change the really old map very simplified shapes

i use this website as reference you might find helpful i forget if i showed you or you showed me originally lol

https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/map/map.html#CO Putitonamap98 (talk) 03:11, 13 December 2023 (UTC)