Talk:Rail travel in Africa

Red links

Why are all the links in this article red? I hope there are plans to quickly start articles (and articles that don't remain stubs for weeks or longer) on these topics. Otherwise, this article would be useless and should be deleted. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:25, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Africa is a neglected topic on Wikivoyage so far. See Wikipedia's Countering Systemic Bias Project for a similar initiative. If you are a deletionist then please do not interfere with Africa's article developments. Normsdale (talk) 22:32, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm not a "deletionist," whatever that means (and you're probably best off not explaining), and I'd love to see actual articles. What's essentially an introduction plus one image and a bunch of red links is not an article. If you put up actual content, I'll be delighted. If not, and the article ends up nominated for deletion, I hope you do more to save it than you've done so far with M5 motorway. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:41, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Vfd discussion

• Delete Redirect. This article has very little content and it has almost no valid links, except for one to an itinerary. The information in this article would be more useful to travelers if its content was moved to other locations. Selfie City (talk) 03:35, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
• Delete. See Talk:Rail travel in Africa. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:23, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
• Delete At the risk of being labelled a "deletionist", this article seems to be meant to curate an overabundance of African rail travel articles that do not currently exist. We don't need an article to curate non-existence. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 09:58, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
• Comment I agree the list of redlinks is useless, but I think the article could get useful if those redlinks where each replaced with a paragraph written based on the By train section of the country article (where something useful can be said). I suppose that could be done without first hand knowledge, but I am not going to do it without some support. --LPfi (talk) 13:36, 16 May 2018 (UTC)'

On the other hand, though, we could just take the one paragraph in the article Rail travel in Africa and move it to Africa#By_train. Selfie City (talk) 13:59, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Also, though, check out High-speed rail#Africa. Maybe you could use that to create a better Rail travel in Africa article. Selfie City (talk) 14:05, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

• Definitely, there's some good content in Morocco#By train and several other pages that could make Rail travel in Africa better, but it still seems that moving all of that information to the Rail Travel in Africa article is harder than just taking the one paragraph and a few pictures from Rail travel in Africa and moving it to Africa#By train. Selfie City (talk) 00:31, 17 May 2018 (UTC)
• It is a valid topic as such (see rail travel in Europe) but it would need love and I fear we have no single Africa based editor for it to grow. On the other hand, redlinks never grow and this existing might attract some eyeballs and editing fingers eventually.... Hobbitschuster (talk) 03:21, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

As the nominator of this deletion, I want to say that I think we're all on the same page (literally!) about this travel topic. However, we need to recognize that this article has been around for years and its content remains almost unchanged; this article needs to be developed soon (and it will probably have to be developed by us) to keep it. Also, I want to point to a map of the African railway network I found on the internet, and I must say (unfortunately) that the current African rail network may not be strong enough for a Wikivoyage article solely on African rail travel: according to the picture's "existing" map, many countries have their own railroad networks, but these do not seem to connect well with the networks of other African nations. Still, if all the "proposed" railroads were put in place, a "rail travel in Africa" travel topic would definitely be a good Wikivoyage article. Selfie City (talk) 03:45, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

• Redirect to Africa#By train. Once enough blue links are created for rail travel in various African countries, it can be become a standalone article again. Gizza ^(roam) 00:41, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

• I'm changing to Redirect. DaGizza's solution is the best one. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:58, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

• Delete A summary/overview article is only useful if there is actual content to summarize -- which there isn't in this case. ArticCynda (talk) 08:45, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

I think a redirect is a reasonable proposition, but it doesn't seem as if Rail travel in Africa would be a very useful redirect. Redirects usually link to a whole article, not just a subtopic of a very broad article. If we create a redirect for Rail travel in Africa, we may as well create redirects for every country in Africa, every country in Asia, etc., and I think the redirects for rail travel in countries could extend beyond their usefulness. Selfie City (talk) 14:02, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Please post in chronological order; otherwise, it's confusing to read these threads, and hard to know where to find new posts. That said, we may as well not create unnecessary redirects, because why should we spend the time doing that? However, if someone did, where would be the harm? It's also not unusual at all for redirects to go to specific sections of articles. Look at LaGuardia Airport, for example. Ikan Kekek (talk) 23:10, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

What about replies to comments, though? Selfie City (talk) 23:14, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

• I support DaGizza's redirect suggestion. The current state of the article isn't doing anyone any good, but a redirect would be fine. —Granger (talk · contribs) 09:03, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

Replies to comments should also be in chronological order. It's very easy to simply write something like "In reference to User X's point about Y..." Ikan Kekek (talk) 15:29, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

Okay.Selfie City (talk) 16:01, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

• Also, I on second thoughts think Ikan Kekek and Gizza ^(roam) are right. I now support redirect. Selfie City (talk) 14:24, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

• Outcome: redirected to Africa#By train. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 00:33, 2 June 2018 (UTC)