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Wikitravel:Collaboration of the month

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The Collaboration of the month is a way to get many contributors working on one article at once, often to get it ready for an upcoming event or a nomination for destination of the month. While anyone can edit any article at any time, this provides a way to highlight specific articles allowing many contributors to help improve them together.

[edit] Current collaboration of the month

[edit] Bangkok / Thailand

For most up-to-date info, check the task lists:

I think Bangkok is a good nomination for CotM. Bangkok is one of the most visited cities in Asia, and very important for showing off Wikitravel to site visitors. Many users should be able to make a contribution as many of them probably have visited Bangkok. The amount of content on the main page is impressive, but basically, it's a big mess. Most of the sights have to be moved from the main page to the district pages. The Snake farm is actually listed twice on the main page and once on the Silom district page!! A list of all that's to be done:

  • Move most of the attractions - from the Bangkok See and Do sections to the districts
  • Clean up the formatting - mostly in the See and Do sections, as well as in the districts. Even bullets are missing.
  • Listingify: Use the listings tool for all the sights, so people can more easily add information later.
  • The Do-section is a mess - the golf section is too big (why are Samut Prakan golf courses here?), and well, so is the Spa section. Some biking routes through the city could be added. I think it should also be more descriptive, instead of these gazillion lists of golf courses.
  • More traveler-oriented descriptions - The See section descriptions are bland, we must live it up by changing them in a more personal and compelling way. Not "oh this is so great, go here", but more from an honest travellers' point of view. Damnern Saduak is a tourist-mania, it's not even written there. And Taling Chan is not that authentic as well.
  • The Buy section - it's actually quite nice, but the 'where to buy' is a drag. Let's move these to the districts, and only keep the most significant ones. Damnern Saduak should be moved to 'Get Out' (and Ampawa could be added to Get Out as well).
  • Contact section - too small, needs more information on internet cafes, calling and post offices.
  • Stay Safe - it has some good info, but it's a bit messy. The 'scam' part starts with the gem souvenir scam, and then repeats it in the second bullet.
  • Yaowarat and Pahurat - a new region, it must be put up to par to other regions, especially by adding more listings in the eat, drink and sleep section.
  • Other regions listings - Thonburi could definitely use some places to eat, drink and sleep in Thonburi. And the Peninsula hotel should be moved there as well. Pahonyothin could use some listings in the See and Drink section, while Ratchadaphisek needs more of nearly any listings.
  • Chao Phraya - Let's decide where the dinner cruises over the river go. Should it be in one of the regions, or in the Bangkok main article?
  • Wat Arun - now it's features in both Rattanakosin and Thonburi. Let's choose.
  • Maps - I know this is not suitable for the CotM, but at least the first region map should be changed to include Yaowarat+Pahurat and Khao San Road. If someone's up for it, we still need maps for nearly everything. I made a beginning with the map of Khao San Road (though that's only an overview map, no listings yet).
  • Bangkok Transportation Map - it is cool, but many stops are missing (like Tha Chang for the Grand Palace, and Phra Athit is wrongfully called "Banglampoo")
  • Pictures - could be added as well.

I'm actually looking forward to the result when all these issues would be fixed. It would be a great article I think.

Globe-trotter 10:27, 15 August 2009 (EDT)

  • Definite Support. If it is not finished by the time we tackle Bangkok, then sorting out the breadcrumb trail of all the Thailand articles could go hand in hand. I have started this job.--Burmesedays 09:10, 6 October 2009 (EDT)
Yes, I also started with the Ayutthaya article, which has similar issues. Globe-trotter 08:02, 2 November 2009 (EST)
  • Support. It is a great city that deserves a better article and the info is there so everybody can get started jan 10:05, 6 October 2009 (EDT)
  • Update. Some of these tasks are already done (though many aren't as well). I made a new list of tasks to do at [1]. Globe-trotter 14:34, 15 December 2009 (EST)
  • Not sure if this is common, but I'd like to change the nomination. Quite a lot of the easier tasks in Bangkok have already been done (though there are still a lot left also, as can be seen this Task List [2]). But as Burmesedays already noticed, now it seems more important to fix the regional structure of Thailand. Now every province is listed and even subdivided in Amphoes (districts), with many provinces just boasting one town (the capital). I proposed a new structure, and put up a London-style table to show where things should be moved. Everyone can do this, just follow the table here → [3]. Then I think we could combine Bangkok and Thailand as suggested above. --globe-trotter 11:19, 14 January 2010 (EST)
I would fully support that. The work to clean up a regional stucture is perhaps a little more involved than tackling a city, but I do not see any problems with that as it seems that everyone who participates in a CotM is an experienced Wikitraveller. On a list of WT priorities, sorting out Thailand shoud be quite high up. Major country for travellers which is in a bit of mess. --Burmesedays 11:28, 14 January 2010 (EST)
Support Burmesedays and Globe-Trotter: Would you want to make this the February (next) collaboration? I ask you two, because it seems you are heading the project, so if you are not ready for it to be featured, then we should wait. If you are ready, then I think this can be a success! ChubbyWimbus 18:48, 15 January 2010 (EST)
Support. And I will be happy to participate, ClausHansen 19:00, 15 January 2010 (EST)
Yes, I am all for this project, to finally sort out the Thailand regional structure and get at least the important articles up to usable status. The Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) spammed pretty much all sections with listings, but is this what we really want? Now many listings are not written from a traveller perspective. I feel we could delete the descriptions of many of these listings so that travellers can fill in their own opinion later. If travellers are looking for the TAT dump, they better just visit TAT. --globe-trotter 19:10, 15 January 2010 (EST)
February works for me. On the TAT infomation dump, I have cleared it out of a couple of articles already (few months back) and I know Stefan has done the same. Keep the better stuff only. A lot of it is just long lists of establishments. --Burmesedays 23:04, 15 January 2010 (EST)
Yes, I see Texugo has also done some cleaning here [4]. We better just clean it out for the most part. --globe-trotter 10:55, 16 January 2010 (EST)

[edit] Nominate

Think carefully before making a nomination. A successful collaboration of the month must be more than just an article you would like to see improved. In particular, it's a bad idea to nominate articles that lack enough content—most collaborators won't have intimate knowledge of the destination, although they can do style edits and fill in some of the blanks with very basic research.

Nominations most likely to be collaborative successes are those that have clearly defined areas for improvement, are of interest to a wide range of people, and that are already pretty well developed. Particularly good choices for nomination are articles that could quickly become options for the Destination of the Month, or Off the Beaten Path featured articles.

When nominating, describe exactly what you hope would come of a Collaboration. Explain why you think it would be a successful collaboration. (Not why you would like it improved!) Then leave a list of several bullet points detailing exactly how other contributors can help with the collaboration. The bullet points should be very concrete, and should detail basic tasks that anyone can help with. Collaborative tasks should be geared towards the goal of having a large number of contributors doing a small amount of work. Examples of good collaborative tasks include:

  • Listingify all the listings (A task that anyone can do in small quantities spread out over the month.)
  • Fill in basic details for listings (Anyone can spend five minutes on a given day to look up addresses and phone numbers for a small subsection of listings.)
  • Add images (It is easy enough for an interested collaborator to look up one image on flickr [5] or Wikimedia Commons [6], upload it to shared, and add it to an article in about 10 minutes.)
  • Copyediting (A lot of articles have issues with basic grammar, spelling, and style, particularly when written by non-native speakers. This is another good task easy to finish when spread out across a number of contributors, each contributing in small chunks.)

Take pains to avoid listing tasks that require either a significant committal of time or in-depth knowledge of the destination from individual contributors:

  1. research beyond basic information (like contact information for a listing),
  2. original writing,
  3. map making (aside from more simple region maps),
  4. devising new districts.

These are tasks for contributors with a special interest in a particular destination, not for contributors simply interested in devoting a small amount of time in support of the collaboration. If these types of tasks are to work, the nominator will have to volunteer to do them, or find someone beforehand who is willing.

Because a month is a long time, and we can get a lot of work done when many contributors are at work, consider whether the tasks for your nomination will take longer than just one week. Huge city articles can be ideal for nominations, as can regions that already have well developed city articles.

Use the following format for nominations: 

===[[Chicken]]===

This article has a ton of great content, but is poorly formatted, is full of basic errors,
and most listings lack addresses. Chicken will be the host of the 20XX Winter Olympics, so 
it would be useful to get the article into good shape beforehand. There's a lot to be done, 
but the work is basic and can be divided easily over many contributors.

*'''Task 1''' — rationale
*'''Task 2''' — rationale
*'''Task 3''' — rationale
*'''Task 4''' — rationale

~~~~

[edit] Select

We decide which articles to select for the collaboration of the month through discussion. To weigh in, add your argument next to a bullet point below the nomination. It's also appropriate to suggest here when the article should be featured. 

===[[Chicken]]===

This article has a ton of great content, but is poorly formatted, is full of basic errors, 
and most listings lack addresses. Chicken will be the host of the 20XX Winter Olympics, so 
it would be useful to get the article into good shape beforehand. There's a lot to be done, 
but the work is basic and can be divided easily over many contributors.  

*'''Task 1''' — rationale
*'''Task 2''' — rationale
*'''Task 3''' — rationale
*'''Task 4''' — rationale

TravelNut 25:25, 31 Feb 2525 (EDT)

* Tasks 2 and 4 are not well suited to collaboration, and the article doesn't have enough 
content yet for us to work on.  ~~~~

Note that objections must relate only to the nomination's potential for success as a collaboration of the month, not to one's own interest in the destination.

[edit] Scheduling

If a nomination has the support of the community, it can simply be added to the upcoming queue at a time deemed appropriate in the nomination discussion. Priority will be given to articles based on the strength of the nomination, urgency of the collaboration (with respect to upcoming large international events), and the goal of ensuring that we have a good balance of collaborations on articles from all parts of the world.

[edit] Archiving

Move the nomination entry for previously featured articles to the article's talk page. Strike goals (using <strike></strike> tags) that were accomplished.

Move unsuccessful nominations to the Wikitravel:Collaboration of the month/Slush pile.

After they have been featured as the collaboration of the month, move the original nomination to Wikitravel:Previous collaborations.

[edit] Upcoming

Month COTM
March 2010 Update Country See and Do?
April 2010 Barcelona?
May 2010 Housekeeping?
June 2010  ?

[edit] Unscheduled nominations

[edit] Accra

Sadly, as to be expected, very few African destinations are above the "usable" status. Although there have been various African destinations in the OtBP position, I believe only 1 has ever made the main feature category.

Because there is a general outline, it doesn't seem like such a difficult task for people who have NOT been there to contribute to, which is nice for the CotM. I think the main problems are:

  • Not enough information in the "Understand" and "History" categories (anyone can look up general information like this)
  • Lacking descriptions of the attractions. (Once again, with attractions listed, descriptions should be easy to add, even for those who don't know the city)
  • Listingify - phone numbers and such need to be added for current listings.
  • Formatting. The listings that are already there need to be properly formatted.
  • Pictures. Even with good information, it's awfully boring with no pictures...

So, what do you think about Accra? ChubbyWimbus 11:03, 21 February 2009 (EST)

Don't support. All these tasks are good, but I think the article is too short to support a successful cotm. Now a cotm for the whole country of Ghana, on the other hand, is intriguing. We could revamp the confusing regions hierarchy, and we have enough active members of the Wikitravel:Regions Maps Expedition to produce a region map. Proofing and mosing the rest of the country's articles might be an ideal use of a cotm. --Peter Talk 01:09, 21 March 2009 (EDT)
A country feature might be interesting. I suppose it could lead people to update Accra, and other cities, as well. I wonder what others think about featuring the nation instead of the city? ChubbyWimbus 11:31, 22 March 2009 (EDT)
Change for Ghana is a good idea because Accra needs loads of local content. Any objections? jan 10:09, 6 October 2009 (EDT)

[edit] Yangshuo

China's biggest natural tourist draw, fantastic karst landscape. Also a major stop on the backpacker trail through Asia and a place where quite a few travellers settle down,open bars, etc.

The article needs a fair bit of work:

My major concern with this nomination is that there is not enough work to be done for a collaboration of the month. I think it would turn into a "collaboration of the day," which would not be good for the cotm project. Perhaps work on this article could be combined with something else? --Peter Talk 00:39, 13 March 2009 (EDT)
It could be combined with nearby Guilin. However, you may be right. There might not be enough work for CotM. Pashley 00:44, 13 March 2009 (EDT)

[edit] Zhuhai

Another Chinese city with a lot of tourism. Good article in many ways, but needs work.

  • Add a city/districts map.
  • Currently has many photos. Some excellent, some should be deleted.
  • Remove repeated text; e.g. same description of BBQ street in "districts" and "eat".
  • General MoS overhaul.

[edit] Mauritius

This article has lots of great content, but is poorly formatted, needs to be broken into regions, and most listings lack addresses and other basic info (like city). This is a great tropical destination and I saw a TV show a while ago about this island which presented this island as an astounding destination.

  • Create Regional/City Articles & Move Listings — The author(s) has already broken down "See" section into regions which ought to be created (there is only one article [the capital] of all the regions/cities/other destinations!). You don't need the firsthand knowledge to create the articles, simply rephrase a couple lines from Wikipedia and then move the listings to them...stub/outline articles are better than no articles!
  • Formatting — In addition to the first rationale, there are lots of non-standard ways the author(s) has formatted most sections.
  • Sleep Cleanup/Expansion — The sleep section has many listings, but is not broken down by price, many lack a description, and they should be moved to appropriate regions/cities. Fortunately for us, all of them have a website listed in the article.
  • Better Map—The map is a simple map of the island with cities and a scale. The map could use a key (or at least get rid of the white section at left), and someone could easily search online for a map of the island with good destinations (ie. parks, points of attraction) to stick on the map so it's not bare. Also, if regional articles are created, this map will need appropriate shading for the various regions.
  • More Pictures — The article could get a couple more pictures. At a minimum, they need to be spread out.

AHeneen 01:40, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

  • Lukewarm. This is a great nomination, and we could do all these tasks and make it a much better guide. My only worries would be that we could probably move through all these tasks rather quickly, since the island nation is so small, and the amount of content is not huge. But that's not to say we shouldn't do this—it could definitely work. --Peter Talk 02:06, 23 April 2009 (EDT)

[edit] Barcelona

We can start with official districts set (as defined in Talk:Barcelona#districts_proposal), and if consensus changes at some point later, we can fix that (and re-organize listings respectfully).

Before this article can be nominated, we need either:

  • to complete a MyMaps mashup for Google Maps where every district is supposed to be shown--as it helps much in finding a right district for each individual district. Currently, it doesn't fully reflect the current consensus (which is following official borders, except not splitting yet Ciutat Vella into sub-districts.
  • or prepare a static map compliant to our license--which can become an official map at Wikitravel for the whole city and each of its districts

Another thing to do beforehand is to split "MoS proofreading" into smaller and do-able subtasks.

The tasks for this CoTM are:

  • write up district borders: a street-by-street description of borders for each district, based on the current consensus.
  • Manual of Style proofreading (identifying subtasks here may be a CoTM task in itself)
  • answer questions in Talk: help in reaching consensus on at least part of topics in Talk:Barcelona
  • MoS Stay Safe: it was recently compressed, but not sure the current format is fully MoS-compliant.
  • Contact: even trivial advice on mobile services would be helpful--especially for those coming to Bcn outside of Europe (traveller SIM cards; choosing a right operator and tarif plan etc)
  • create an article-local blacklist of apartment agencies--those who repeatedly add themselves. It can be created as a subpage of Talk:Barcelona, and easily derived from history of reverts in Barcelona. It will make easier to prune frequently re-added agencies that violates our policy.
→ Wikitravel:Barcelona/Apartments blacklist (first cut) --DenisYurkin 12:30, 25 August 2009 (EDT)

--DenisYurkin 16:14, 28 May 2009 (EDT)

  • Support I've proposed Barcelona for next month (August). Is it ready? ChubbyWimbus 23:02, 18 July 2009 (EDT)
    No, it's not ready yet. We still don't have a districts map; MoS proofreading is not splitted (help anyone?). As for the map of the districts, pitifully I'm not sure I'll find enough time in the nearest 10 days to complete it in GoogleMaps -- but I can give out full control over it if someone is willing to help. Alternatively, fully-compliant static map would be of huge help, as CotM won't make sense without any map at all. --DenisYurkin 16:26, 20 July 2009 (EDT)
I have removed Barcelona from the upcoming collaborations list above however, when things are sorted out and you feel it is ready for the collaboration, put it anywhere you like! There is little support for the other collaborations, so Barcelona should take precedence unless new contributors or nominations arrive with great support. ChubbyWimbus 21:21, 28 July 2009 (EDT)

[edit] Berlin

Berlin would be good for the CotM:

  • The article has more than enough information
  • District and special interest article have been wildly merged which leads to inconsistent district information
  • Formatting is a nightmare
  • There are maps but colour coding is inconsistent
  • Information in the main Berlin article is duplicated or missing in districts
  • Sections are not according to WT standards

jan 09:04, 6 October 2009 (EDT)

[edit] Tokyo Disney Resort

I've patched up most of the ends addressed in the previous, unsuccessful nomination. Because this is the world's second most visited theme park destination, I think it's deserving of being a guide or even star. Jonathan 784 14:48, 10 November 2009 (EST)

  • Jpatokal says the lead image is "terrible". What would a more appropriate image be?
  • ChubbyWimbus says the See/Do section should be like those in the Walt Disney World sub-pages. But I'm not sure if that's a good idea, namely, in that it might make the article too long, to the extent that we need to districtfy the article, which I think just isn't right considering how small this place is.
  • Inas wants a subsection comparing TDR to the American parks. But I don't know where that should fit or if it's even necessary.
  • See http://wikitravel.org/en/Wikitravel:Travellers%27_pub#Tokyo_Disney_Resort_article_status

[edit] Tokyo

Whipping the world's largest city into shape won't be an easy task, but I've been really impressed by the total transformation at Kyoto and I think we have a fair chance with this team. To-do list, roughly in order of importance:

  • Finally sort out the districting once and for all (this is a biggie, and pending since at least 2007)
  • Draw up an overall map and locator maps for the districts
  • Adding addresses, directions and Japanese names to entries
  • Lots of nitty-gritty formatting work

I'll be in Tokyo again in late Sept and will be able to put in some grunt work if we can get the districts figured out by then. Jpatokal 00:08, 25 July 2009 (EDT)

  • Support A well-organized Tokyo guide would do wonders for all of Wikitravel's Japanese guides! I unfortunately have barely been to Tokyo, so I can't contribute to the districtification discussion. There seem to be many contributors who have been here, though. Hopefully they will offer their support and time to finally getting Tokyo up to standard. This collaboration has a lot of potential, and I do hope people will get on board for this one! ChubbyWimbus 21:18, 28 July 2009 (EDT)
  • Support I've been away from Wikitravel for a long time due to work, but I hope it's not too late to cast another vote in favour of this proposal. Some of the individual district articles need a serious sprucing up, and I'll do what I can to add entries and edit existing ones. --Diego de Manila 18:40, 20 September 2009 (EDT)
  • Support. (How did I miss this the first time around?) Perhaps we should start negotiating the districts well in advance – even considering the very different situation here, I think it helped us a great deal for Kyoto by making that an early task. Also, gaining some momentum should serve to guilt-trip me into finishing my own albatross! — Dguillaime 01:54, 5 October 2009 (EDT)
Since we are approaching the next month, I think it's good to get updates: Is Tokyo ready to be the November CotM? It is up for next month, but if you'd like to hold it off, it would be good to say so, and pledge support for a different nomination. ChubbyWimbus 00:26, 21 October 2009 (EDT)

[edit] Housekeeping

There are some tasks that could use some much needed help. There should probably be spread out separately with each task getting a month, possibly with a regular destination in between each task. --Stefan (sertmann) talk 16:43, 17 December 2009 (EST)

[edit] Outline all stubs

Go through all the items in Category:Stub articles, make sure all the articles get's the relevant template, and then remove the stub tag. There are about 300-400 of them, so if just 5-6 people join in, the task could easily be accomplished in a month.

[edit] Help the orphans

Once the all the missing IsIn/PartOf tags is fixed, which is a process currently ongoing, going through Special:Lonelypages and adding links from the parent regions should be a breeze. Limiting them to nine is something which I think is out of scope, so I think it should be a fairly quick and straightforward task

[edit] Clean the backlog

We seem to have a giant backlog on some pretty important tasks, here is one way to deal with them.

  • Identify all pictures and articles currently [7] tagged with vfd, A lot of them are not on the nomination page. Preferably within a week, so they can be deleted or kept by the end of the month, would probably be good to put them all on list, than can be cleaned by deleting entries once checked.
  • Comment/vote on all vfd's, so we can identify a consensus for long standing votes, and clean up everything so we have a clean slate.
  • Clean up the pub.
  • Check and fix all Category:Copyvio tagged articles.
  • Check and fix all Category:Not an article tagged articles.
I like it. --Peter Talk 17:20, 17 December 2009 (EST)
I don't think these will attract new contributions, but I definitely think these are great collaborations. Everyone can participate. ChubbyWimbus 16:58, 18 December 2009 (EST)

[edit] Livingstonian rendevouz with the WHE expedition

Rework the World Heritage List, to something more manageable, useful, and easier read. Identify which cities all outstanding sights are in, and create outline pages for those articles.

I like this too. --Peter Talk 17:20, 17 December 2009 (EST)
Nice, although I wonder if we know enough about some of these sites to make the best redirects. Some may be better redlinked until someone familiar with the area is able to place them. ChubbyWimbus 16:56, 18 December 2009 (EST)
My experience so far with Wikitravel tells me that anon. users are more likely to go to the relevant talk and call us idiots for redirecting to a said city, than actually go fix that long list. And I believe for the vast vast majority it should be quite easy (if a bit tedious) to look up that information. --Stefan (sertmann) talk 17:09, 18 December 2009 (EST)
This expedition moves along only when people are up to doing the research. The research usually isn't too tough, though, and if we have a good cotm going, we can lean on each other when in doubt. --Peter Talk 18:17, 18 December 2009 (EST)

[edit] Update Country See and Do Sections

A while ago it was agreed upon that countries need "See" and "Do" sections. Now however, we have many country articles with loads of information but nothing or near nothing in their "See" and/or "Do" sections. Like some of the other current nominations, this would require a little research, BUT the countries are not at all untraveled nations. Look at France, Japan, Brazil, Spain, South Africa, etc. Such a weak section moves countries like South Korea from guide status to outline status (although it is still listed as a guide). It's silly to lower their statuses when we could add the information. ChubbyWimbus 04:31, 20 December 2009 (EST)

I think this could indeed be a useful CotM—it's not too hard to identify a country's main attractions and come up with a paragraph or two to describe/link them. I would add, though, that South Korea would still be at outline status until the country's major cities and other destinations are all at usable status or better ;) --Peter Talk 14:47, 20 December 2009 (EST)
Support. A good list of tasks, but I think we should make a list of some exact countries (or continents maybe), so we have better focus of which are done and which still have to be done.
Also I think we could include that all countries must have a list of nine cities and nine 'other destinations'. Some of those are quite messed up (just look at Italy, France, Germany, etc.) globe-trotter 12:32, 3 January 2010 (EST)
Support. Maybe we should make a table with countries in rows and tasks in colomns to keep track of our progress. ClausHansen 13:53, 3 January 2010 (EST)

[edit] France

I was appalled when I found France, the most visited country in the world, has such a shamefully messy and poor article. This should be a good candidate for CotM as nearly all tasks do not require local knowledge.

  • Pictures-There is ONE picture in this entire article!!!!!!!!! As colorful and scenic as this country is, I can't believe there's just one picture. I'm sure there's plenty of pictures in various city articles to use here. The challenge is ensuring all regions are represented and it's not all pictures of Paris.
  • Cites/Other Destinations-there are 13 cities listed and the "other destinations" section is completely wrong.
  • Get In-By plane: could use a little more info for non-Paris airports (ie. Marseilles has lots of flights to French territories & former colonies, Nice & Lyon have service from US, etc); By train: maybe have a sentence or two about SNCF/Eurostar then sub-headers/paragraphs for "To UK", "To Benelux", "To Germany", "To Italy", & "To Spain" (it seems some of this info is in the Get around/by train section); needs a "By boat" section concerning travel to/from UK and (I think) Corsica as well as Mediterranean cruises; needs "By car" section maybe listing major highways to neighboring countries as well as how to get vehicles across "La Manche" (English Channel). It would also be nice to see this section (as well as the rest of the article) reflect the fact that Reunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, & French Guiana are as integral a part of France as Hawaii is to the US or Canary Islands to Spain.
  • Get Around-By plane: a list of every airline and destination is unnecessary, needs to list general info about internal flights (perhaps tips on how to get cheap flights); By car: info on car rentals would be nice;
  • Talk & Eat cleanup-These sections need just a little cleaning up
  • See/Do-shamefully nonexistant
  • Learn-Discuss "study abroad" options within France and maybe list places to learn French like Russian in the Russia article.
  • Buy-Vacations: bleong under "understand"; what things should a traveller buy to take home?; Money: remove some non France-specific stuff; expand "stores" section.

06:22, 21 December 2009 (EST)

Our France coverage is pretty weak on all levels. The "Other destinations" seem to make good headers for the Provincial articles. I'd suggest moving those to the provinces they describe. I will support with the disclaimer that I don't know much about France, so I don't know if I will be useful for this one. ChubbyWimbus 15:49, 21 December 2009 (EST)

[edit] Rio de Janeiro

Host to the Olympics in 2016 and, before that, to many World Cup games, including the final, in 2014, so we have some time to get our act together. And despite the fact that it is full of useful information there is still lots to be done:

  • A map. First, we need a good map to make clear the borders of the various zones, apart from anything else.
  • Beaches. Instead of just listing the beaches, say something about them. The list does seem to be in north-south sequence, which is a start.
  • Sights, buildings, museums, parks, etc.. Do these belong on the main page or in the pages on the Zones? At present there is a lot of duplication. Summaries on the main page I think, with more detailed info and links on the Zone pages.
  • Hotels need to be moved to the Zone pages.
  • The zone articles all need to be beefed up. Zona Oeste needs to follow Wikitravel style.
  • Gaps. There are some gaps. Much more needs to be said about Floresta da Tijuca for example.

With a Carioca wife and a Carioca colleague I can probably help out quite a bit, although I have no immediate plans to visit Rio. Shep 13:42, 4 January 2010 (EST)

[edit] Istanbul

Istanbul can make a wonderful DotM, I guess (and it's one of the Capitals of Culture of Europe in 2010), but it needs a little bit of cleaning beforehand.

  • Many listings throughout the district articles need to be listingified. Adding missing addresses, contact info, etc would also be nice.
  • Listings in the articles should be alphabetized when appropriate (but I wouldn't want Hagia Sophia, for example, go lost under piles of less important listings just because it doesn't have a name starting with A).
  • Some hotel listings need a mild dose of de-touting.
  • "See" section of main article badly needs some more prose, perhaps with short descriptions of major attractions in the city.
  • "Walking tours" section of "Do" can be re-shaped, moved into respective districts, and replaced with some blurb.
  • Listings at "Buy" section of main article should be moved to districts and replaced with a prose about shopping scene in the city.
  • "Eat", "Drink", and "Sleep" sections of main article can make use of longer explanations about the general scenes in the city.
  • Some internet cafe listings, which can be searched through the web, should be added to districts (though how reliable the search results are open to debate—they may very well return establishments that are long closed or having crappy connections/computers).
  • Inserting internal wikilinks pointing towards district articles throughout the main article whenever possible/appropriate to avoid problems discussed at Wikitravel talk:Huge city article template#a notice on districts on top of huge city articles.
  • Some districts can benefit from more photos, especially Istanbul/New City, Istanbul/Golden Horn, and Istanbul/Western Suburbs, all of which currently have no pictures.
  • A basic rail transport (metro/tram) map could be created, if any mapmakers take an interest in producing one. Here is a cc-licensed rail system map: [8]
  • A general proofreading/spelling check through the main and district articles, preferably by native English speakers.

I'd also be grateful if anyone else can further elaborate on what can be done during a CotM for Istanbul. —Vidimian 13:09, 28 January 2010 (EST)

[edit] Updating the Collaboration of the Month

At the beginning of each month, the Collaboration of the Month needs to be updated. Any registered user can do so. To update the current Collaboration of the Month you should:

  1. Remove the current collaboration from this page and move the next one up.
  2. Move the current collaboration to the previous collaborations page.
  3. Remove the Cotm template from the current Collaboration of the Month pages and add the pcotm template to their talk pages.
  4. Add the Cotm template to the next collaboration article.
  5. Update the Template:Current collaboration with the current COTM.
  6. Clear the cache for the Wikitravel:Project page by clicking here
  7. Clear the cache for the Main Page by clicking here
  8. Schedule some new Collaborations, there should be about 4 months worth upcoming in the queue
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