Commons:Categories for discussion/2022/10/Category:Wooden cobblestones

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Category:Wooden cobblestones[edit]

Misnamed, misleading. "Cobblestones" are something specific, not a generic term for all pavement. I tried to bring this up on the talk page Category_talk:Wooden_cobblestones a few years ago. Category:Wooden pavements would seem the correct general category; possibly a subcategory "Wooden street pavements" might be of use, other subcategories could be created if someone felt them useful. -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 21:09, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Infrogmation: The word "cobblestones" is an attempt at a literal translation of the European term, which includes a surface made of pieces of paving (from various materials), but not a cast pavement (asphalt, concrete etc.). It should mean a paving from wooden cubes ("wooden cobbles"), but not a floor from wooden boards (planks) or flat parquet blocks. According to my dictionary, the word paving should have a narrower meaning than pavement in this sense, but is it really so? Could "wooden paving" be more fitting? Are you sure that the term "wooden cobbles" is not used for this historical type of paving? You can find some occurrences by Google. --ŠJů (talk) 21:30, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Yes I'm sure that this is not the actual term. (Trying to accurately categorize images on Wikimedia helped inspire me to get into 19th and 20th century street furniture history and terminology.) In recent decades "cobblestone" seems to have informally become a generic term used by non-experts for non-continuous types of pavements, especially historical - but in many cases that is not the correct term, either historically nor by modern people who work professionally with these materials. (Eg, brick streets are not "cobblestones", nor are stone sett pavements... but for now let's deal with wooden blocks and such.) Let's try to use accurate terms in Wikimedia. Wooden block pavement (or wooden block pavers) would be the term for square or rectangular types. (See also en:w:Nicolson pavement, though I'm not sure if that term was much used outside of the USA, so I think it better to keep to the general term). -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 22:13, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
They could be wooden setts, but (as noted) never wooden cobblestones. But as we seem to have wooden pavements, isn't that sufficient? Andy Dingley (talk) 22:18, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I have no objection to creation of "Wooden block pavements" as a subcategory of "Wooden pavements"; seems to be what was intended. -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 22:25, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
What's wrong with Category:Wooden pavements ? "Block" is implicit, as how else could it be? Andy Dingley (talk) 23:10, 31 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Wooden plank pavements eg File:Call of Heroes 2016 (011).jpg, File:Деревянная мостовая у парка атракционов в Мурманске.jpg; also Category:Corduroy roads. -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 01:04, 1 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • I have created Category:Wooden block pavements. Other subcategories, such as geographic, might be created if someone found that useful. Main point is that this category name seems to have been created from a mistaken understanding of terminology. (Cobblestones eg are by nature irregularly shaped and sized, rather the opposite of wooden blocks. I suppose it might be possible to make imitations of cobblestones out of wood, but I see zero photos of that here.) Since the existence of "wooden cobblestones" is hypothetical at best, and the name as applied mistaken or misleading, I suggest moving the media in this category to "Category:Wooden pavements" (or relevant subcategories of this if wished). -- Infrogmation of New Orleans (talk) 15:43, 3 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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