Talk:Appalachian Region

Appalachia

Appalachia, the Appalachian Region, and the Appalachian Mountains all designate different areas of the United States and Canada, should these be merged or kept separate? Nicole Sharp (talk) 09:12, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

That's a good question, Nicole. It's certainly true that the Appalachian Mountains include regions that are not normally considered part of Appalachia, but I wasn't aware that there was a geographical difference between Appalachia and the Appalachian Region. My feeling is, go ahead with this article, and once we have the content, it could always be merged with Appalachian Mountains, if that decision is made, but either way, it's good to have the content up.

However, there are some questions of format in this article so far. On Wikivoyage, we generally don't like numbered lists, and the standard format of city lists in regional articles is to link, with short descriptions, the 9 most important cities under "Cities," and then list up to 9 other cities/other attractions of sufficient importance to have their own article (e.g., large national or state parks, mountain ranges) under "Other destinations." A list of the top 23 Appalachian cities might or might not be good on Wikipedia, but it's not the way we do things here. Please have a look at Wikivoyage:Region article template and Wikivoyage talk:Region article template#How many is nine. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:24, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Chopping it down to nine is no problem. Btw for regions, I do not know how to import images, but there is one at http://www.arc.gov/research/MapsofAppalachia.asp?MAP_ID=31 the ARC is a US federal agency so all information on their website is public domain. However, the ARC subregions are mostly economic regions and do not correspond to cultural regions that a traveler would experience. "Appalachia" is a catch-all term, but for most contexts refers to the cultural as opposed to the geophysical definition. The mountains do create cultural differences from the lowlands regardless of where there are (e.g. Quebec or Massachusetts) but Appalachian culture is most strongly associated with Southern Appalachia (Georgia to West Virginia). Large parts of Virginia are extremely rugged and mountainous and within the Appalachian cultural region but excluded from the Appalachian Region for political reasons (many Virginians do not want to be labeled as "Appalachian"). Similarly, Memphis, TN and northern Mississippi are in the Appalachian Region for economic development but are outside the mountains. I would suggest keeping Appalachia and Appalachian Mountains separate to exclude Canada and New England from the more common (though less literal) definition of Appalachia and approximate the Wikivoyage Appalachian region on that set by the ARC (by merging Appalachia with Appalachian Region). Nicole Sharp (talk) 09:37, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

I moved the contents of Appalachian Region to the page for Appalachia. Nicole Sharp (talk) 09:43, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Makes sense to me. I think that travelers would be more interested in the cultural and physical aspects of the region, and less interested in purely political/bureaucratic aspects, but economic regions could be relevant to travelers' experiences, too. I couldn't tell you how to transfer a map file. Perhaps someone else will chime in. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:50, 31 March 2013 (UTC)