Talk:Banja Luka

I'm from Banja Luka. What one can see of remains of Ferhat-Pasha Mosque is only their basement, so acctualy there is almost noting to see. I recommend to remove this section.

Its being rebuild now. -- (WT-en) Eiland 12:00, 7 December 2009 (EST)

Pagebanner

The pagebanner was just replaced. The current one above, the former one below.

Current banner

Former banner

User:Слободни умјетник, who replaced the previous banner with the current one, says the current banner is a better one. I find that very hard to judge, as it's a completely dissimilar kind of image. The former banner was a somewhat unusual image of part of an attractive historical train station, which is currently the Museum of Modern Art of the Republika Srpska. The current banner is a panorama. To be sure, the terrain and pattern of vegetation and settlement make the panorama unique, but we have so many panorama banners and so few that are slices of buildings. I appreciate the work that went into the current banner and like the image, but I think I'm leaning toward reverting to the former banner, because a slice of a nice building seems more interesting than yet another panorama, particularly as this panorama is pretty but — no offense, please — not close to breathtaking. Your views, everyone? Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:24, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I am the author of the banner that got replaced, so I am certainly not impartial here, but I would like to add that my motivation for creating the "slice of museum building" banner while the panorama was at hand was just as you outlined it. I also wanted to highlight that Banja Luka is a city with some really nice architecture, not just a quite nondescript collection of buildings spread over a hill as it may seem from the panorama. That said, we may consider the latter to be a more accurate and attractive image of Banja Luka to the tourists. PrinceGloria (talk) 04:32, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Such objects, as the ordinary building of the old railway station is, exists in many cities that were part of the Habsburg monarchy or occupied territories. I think that's not the most representative building of Banja Luka. Banski dvor maybe, but the old railway station from the period of occupation.. I don't think so. This panorama shows the city and its environs, which has a lot of content that are interesting for visitors.--Слободни умјетник (talk) 20:44, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

I prefer the new one too, and find it more characteristic of Banja Luka. The city's green surroundings are an important asset, and I find the image more inviting.JuliasTravels (talk) 21:58, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Reverted edits

I just reverted this edit because it unilaterally altered the geographic hierarchy (any change in that needs to be discussed at Talk: Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a consensus for the change would have to be reached for it to be executed) and used loaded terms like "barbarian Ottoman trybes." I also think the reverted changes that introduced a history section included too much information that belongs either in an encyclopedia (e.g., Wikipedia) or the article for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole. However, there were some things of value in the reverted edits, including historical information that is specially about Banja Luka, which with suitable editing could be well worth including in this article. I'd welcome discussion of what should be excised from the article and what should be added. Ikan Kekek (talk) 13:06, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Understand section

The current Understand section is:

"The Republika Srpska has a turbulent recent past, which motivates some people to be less than enthusiastic of many things Serb in Bosnia. A 1969 earthquake destroyed most of the town, and in 1993 local Serbs blew up the city’s mosques, including the famous Ferhadija, built in 1580. Ferhadija has been rebuilt."

The first sentence sounds weird in a travel guide. For that matter the turbulent history words can be said of any place in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other three facts that are mentioned are 1) 1969 earthquake, 2) blowing up mosques and 3) Rebuilding of Ferhadija. How do these pieces of information help *understand* the city? Alaexis (talk) 18:27, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

@Alaexis: Please go ahead and make the changes you desire, per Wikivoyage:Plunge forward. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 18:34, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

Thanks @SelfieCity:! I've left this comment after having my change reverted to explain my reasoning. Alaexis (talk) 19:51, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

I'm grateful for your explanation, Alaexis - спасибо. Obviously I can't make you, but if you know something about Banja Luka that would be of interest to visitors, could you put some information in place of what you delete? Having an 'Understand' section that really does introduce the city as a travel destination would be great. By the way, tensions between Bosnian Muslims and Serbs, if still current, may be relevant to travellers, but information on those would go in a 'Respect' section towards the end of the article. Thanks again, ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 21:13, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

Yes, agreed with TT. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 22:06, 25 August 2019 (UTC)

Unfortunately I don't know much about Banja Luka, otherwise I would have added something. Just like having no map is preferable to having a wrong one I believer that it's better to have no Understand section rather than a misleading one. Thanks for the suggestion re the respect section. Alaexis (talk) 17:34, 26 August 2019 (UTC)