User:Haus/9/test1

Preamble[edit]

As of September 2011, there are 59 WikiProjects that have been listed as child projects of WP:TRANSPORT. Some have hundreds of active editors, while many others have very few.

The big picture[edit]

1. I believe that the military history project (MILHIST) is a very good example of what a WikiProject is capable of providing to Wikipedia. For example,

MILHIST is structured with a main project area and topical task forces
MILHIST has active discussion areas, i.e. topics that are brought up for consideration are typically addressed in a reasonable manner
MILHIST is very effective at coaching new editors and peer-reviewing articles
MILHIST is very effective at helping its editors promote articles to GA status and above

2. I believe that creating a functional transport project similar to MILHIST would be a benefit to editors interested in the topic, and to the development of transportation content.

3. I believe that natural resistance to change would currently inhibit any effort to actively regroup transport-related projects under a main transportation project.

4. I believe that building a few functional task forces under the banner of a main transport project is possible.

5. I believe that if task forces of a main transport project benefit enough from inclusion, it would naturally encourage other projects to unify.

6. I believe that while it is impossible to make a wikiproject successful, it is possible to a) provide it with the resources it needs to become successful, and b) inform potential new members of its existence.

7. I believe that if we are able to build a functional transport wikiproject, the process could serve as a case study and a precedent for unifying other wikiprojects.

Groundwork[edit]

1. I believe that editors adding WT:TRANSPORT to their watchlist is a fundamental goal.

2. I believe that tools already exist that would be effective in driving traffic to that page, such as:

Project banners
User boxes
WikiAds
The Signpost

3. I believe that having a more attractive main project page would encourage more editors to watchlist the talkpage.

4. I believe that the use of IRC has strengthened esprit de corps in some Wikipedia undertakings, and that a node such as this might be useful.

Maritime transport[edit]

1. While the maritime transport topic area overlaps with other projects (notably WP:SHIPS), I believe that:

the topic is cohesive enough to be a functional task force
the topic has enough interest among active editors to be a functional task force

I believe that the maritime transport topic area could be built up to be a functional task force.

- This would require recruitment of editors interested in the topic area within Wikipedia.
- Recruitment of new editors outside Wikipedia is possible and would be very helpful.

# A fundamental goal would be to

* Contact active transportation editors to develop a plan.
* Post a plan on WT:TRANSPORT
* Ask members of Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council to join the process as advisors
*

Stray thoughts[edit]

Regularly scheduled collaborative projects
Network economy/ success begets success

"A WikiProject's pages is not a place to write encyclopedia articles directly, but a resource to help coordinate and organize the writing and editing of those articles. WikiProjects often write advice for editors, use bots to track what is happening at articles of interest to the group, and create handy lists of tools and templates their members commonly use. The discussion pages attached to a project page are a convenient forum for those involved in that project to talk about what they are doing, to ask questions, and to receive advice from other people interested in the group's work." - From WP:PJ