Creating a Graticule Page
If you're the first to geohash in your area, there may be only a machine-written wiki page for your graticule, or if you're from somewhere really remote, no page at all.
Pages already exist for most populated English-speaking areas. Someone might have named it after another city in the graticule or with a different spelling. For example, Montreal, Quebec is not the same as Montréal, Québec. Go to the All Graticules page to see if it is listed there. If it is, click on its name on the All Graticules page and you will be taken either to the graticule page or to an edit box to create it.
Contents
Graticule names
If your graticule is not listed on an All Graticules subpage, you get to name it. Please follow the guidelines for naming graticules. Add the name to the appropriate subpage of All Graticules, following the format exactly. The appropriate subpage for your graticule depends on the location. The following subpages exist:
You may also want to name its neighbours, while you're there. The name may be changed later, but try to pick a good one.
If your graticule has a name but it is spelled incorrectly, an obscure place, confusing to locals, or otherwise something that you as a local find to be a poor name, yes you can change it. You should put a notice on the talk page that you want to do it, allowing people to comment. Then the page needs to be moved to the new name, the name on its map centre changed, its entry in All Graticules and the links from the neighbouring graticules changed to match.
Basic Graticule Page
For an easy instant graticule page, just cut and paste the text below into your page and replace the Xs.
The {{PAGENAME}} [[graticule]] is located around [http://irc.peeron.com/xkcd/map/map.html?lat=XX&long=XXX latitude XX, longitude XXX].
{{graticule
|lat=XX
|lon=XXX
|nw=
|n=
|ne=
|w=
|name=
|e=
|sw=
|s=
|se=
}}
==Geohashes==
None yet.
[[Category:Inactive graticules]]
The result will be a very basic graticule page. Such a default page probably already exists. Improve it by adding appropriate sections from those suggested below, or whatever suits your graticule.
Description
Describe the location and geography of your graticule. Name the population centres, highways and geographical features encompassed by it. Include in the description names of places and regions that new geohashers in your area might put into the search box to look for their graticule. Consider former names of cities, and the names in different languages spoken in or around your graticule. Brag about the difficulties and advantages of geohashing there. Say what is unique about your graticule. Some graticule pages even include a photograph of the graticule, or a group photograph of local geohashers.
Land Usage
This Land usage program can be used to determine the percentages of forest, water, roads and other types of terrain in your graticule. You may want to use the information in your description.
Links
Links to transit schedules, tide tables, ferry schedules, bike routes, kayak rental outlets, or local regulations might help geohashers get around your graticule.
Neighbours
The neighbouring graticules shown on the graticule template can be left blank (the template will automatically put in a "-" for those), filled in as text only, or made as links. It's common to leave them as red links so that if and when someone creates a page for that graticule, you know immediately.
Local Geohashers
Include a section for all the local geohashers to link to their own user pages and optionally give brief descriptions of their geohashing intentions, e.g. "Can give rides," "only on weekends," or "if it's near public transit."
Names given in the form [[User:Geodude|Geodude]] are counted automatically to estimate the activity level of your graticule.
If your graticule has a Facebook page or other means of communicating with participants, mention that here.
Geohashes Reached
Link to expedition pages for your graticule's exploits, one geohash per line, by date with a brief description and a link to the full story of the Expedition.
*[[2008-09-21 49 -124|2008-09-21]] - Seventeen geohashers met at the bottom of Cold Lake in a submarine.
That format looks like this:
- 2008-09-21 - Seventeen geohashers met at the bottom of Cold Lake in a submarine.
Notable Dates
What's notable to your graticule? The first geohash ever attended in your graticule? The most people ever to attend a geohash? The day the geohash was on top of the tallest mountain in your graticule? The one time ever that the geohash hasn't been either in the ocean or in a restricted area? Maybe nothing yet.
Categories
Add the categories appropriate to the graticule, according to the following standards.
USA, Canada, Mexico and Australia
If your graticule is in one of these countries, include a category for every state and/or province that has a part inside the graticule, no matter how small. Do not include country or continent categories. The province and state categories will automatically put it in the right hierarchy. There are special categories for graticules that span four US states and Category:Graticules that span 3 Canadian provinces.
Other than the USA, Canada, Mexico and Australia
Include a category for every country that has a part inside your graticule, no matter how small. Do not include the name of the continent. The country name will put it in the right continent.
Active or Inactive
if you are creating the page out of interest, but not actually geohashing there, add Category: Inactive graticules. If you or someone else is regularly attempting to reach geohashes within the graticule, then add Category: Active graticules.
Split Cities
If your graticule splits a city in half or is otherwise part of a group of two or more graticules closely enough related that most people in one graticule will consider the other one(s) home graticules too, you have a split city, and building your graticule page may be more complicated. There should still be an All Graticules line entry with a unique name for every lat-long pair, but some of those can link to graticule pages which are merely redirects to the main page for the split city. Look at some of the members of the category for inspiration.
Watch This Page
After you have created the page, make sure you select the watch this page option so you know when a new participant signs up or someone reports an expedition.
