Wikivoyage:Previous collaborations/2013
This page lists previous collaborations for 2013.
Our continent articles are major gateways to the rest of our content, but they are often ill-formatted and have glaringly blank sections. We need to fill out these articles with the basic content they need, and then make sure they sparkle. Writing a "see section" or "do section" for a continent is actually pretty easy, especially if we get a team of people together playing to their own strengths. This would be an easy CotM, but still a very useful one.
See Wikivoyage:Country surgeon Expedition#Standards for an idea of how to write a good overview section
- Empty sections — fill 'em in! C'mon, everyone has some idea of what to put in a Europe "eat" section!
- Bullet points to prose — for basic main headers like see, do, eat, buy, etc., information should be in overview prose form, not random cherry picked bullets.
- Rationalize — sometimes weird suggestions crop up in the various sections. Stuff mentioned at the continental region should be mentioned for a reason. Imagine some wealthy, shallow (but probably interesting-to-talk-to and rather active) person who wants to "go see South America," and assess whether the items discussed are noteworthy enough to plausibly fit in such an itinerary.
- Prioritize — see & do first, then get in, get around, and stay safe.
Target articles:
The next natural targets would be continental sections, perhaps for a future CotM.
Peter Talk 08:53, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
- Support—Filling in all the sections in 5 articles seems like a lot of work. I think the main priority should be adding good-quality See & Do sections, with Get in, Get around & Stay safe sections following behind. Once those sections are completed, then adding to the rest of the sections should be encouraged. AHeneen (talk) 14:10, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
- Support. Globe-trotter (talk) 15:24, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
- Support - It's a daunting task, but I'll do my best to fill out the general sections! JamesA >talk 01:32, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- Question Why are bullet points for "See" and "Do" inferior to a narrative in continent guides? Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:55, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- I'd presume because bullet points are used for listings or key ideas. Continents are huge places, so it is simply impractical to list specific major sites. The See and Do sections should give a general idea of which country to go to depending on what you want to see. ie, for Africa, if you're after ancient history, go to Egypt. If you're looking for safaris, see Kenya, etc. (of course, that'd have to be fleshed out with more interesting info) How could you say that with bullet points? JamesA >talk 04:09, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- I'm not positive about that. I think it still might be possible to have some bulleted sights. For example, for Africa, the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx are obvious, whereas for Asia, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Taj Mahal, and the Great Wall of China would be obvious. And I think highlights of Europe would include iconic sights like St. Peters in Rome, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. However, I'm certainly willing to try working with narratives, which could include bolded sights such as the ones I mentioned. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:18, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- We avoid lists in the main sections of region/country/city overview articles for a couple reasons. One is that they can just grow and grow without a narrative structure. We could limit them to 9 like we do the navigation lists, but that can wind up being an arbitrary impediment to actually telling readers what there is to do in a country. A narrative structure (especially a thematic one) provides focus without any arbitrary limits on what you can discuss, and is also just a lot more interesting to read (and more challenging to write—lists are kind of lazy). I think our ultimate goal is beautiful, polished travel writing, so bullet points are not much more than a starting point. Africa#Historical Civilizations is a pretty nice example of what to aim for on the continental level, I think. Compare to the "scenic areas" list here... --Peter Talk 06:50, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- Thanks for pointing to that section of the Africa article. It was seriously in need of substantive edits. I get your point, though. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:28, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- We avoid lists in the main sections of region/country/city overview articles for a couple reasons. One is that they can just grow and grow without a narrative structure. We could limit them to 9 like we do the navigation lists, but that can wind up being an arbitrary impediment to actually telling readers what there is to do in a country. A narrative structure (especially a thematic one) provides focus without any arbitrary limits on what you can discuss, and is also just a lot more interesting to read (and more challenging to write—lists are kind of lazy). I think our ultimate goal is beautiful, polished travel writing, so bullet points are not much more than a starting point. Africa#Historical Civilizations is a pretty nice example of what to aim for on the continental level, I think. Compare to the "scenic areas" list here... --Peter Talk 06:50, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- I'm not positive about that. I think it still might be possible to have some bulleted sights. For example, for Africa, the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx are obvious, whereas for Asia, the Old City of Jerusalem, the Taj Mahal, and the Great Wall of China would be obvious. And I think highlights of Europe would include iconic sights like St. Peters in Rome, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. However, I'm certainly willing to try working with narratives, which could include bolded sights such as the ones I mentioned. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:18, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- I'd presume because bullet points are used for listings or key ideas. Continents are huge places, so it is simply impractical to list specific major sites. The See and Do sections should give a general idea of which country to go to depending on what you want to see. ie, for Africa, if you're after ancient history, go to Egypt. If you're looking for safaris, see Kenya, etc. (of course, that'd have to be fleshed out with more interesting info) How could you say that with bullet points? JamesA >talk 04:09, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
- Notice - Unless anyone wishes to speak up and oppose, I'll be changing the CotM this coming Monday to Continents. I was getting a little tired of the Cleanup! JamesA >talk 07:42, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
- This is CotM since April, should we archive it now? --Saqib (talk) 08:31, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
This COTM has been on for a bit to long now and it seems we are not collaborating lately. So yes this should be archived. And I updated now COTM's. Let's get the community involved again. This should be a collaboration of the month not of the half-a-year! Velorian (talk) 01:32, 22 October 2013 (UTC)