Talk:Wikimania 2014 London Guidebook

TOC, sections etc

How do I get the table of contents to appear? EdSaperia (talk) 13:07, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

We don't use =Header 1=, so I have changed the levels of the headers. All the level 2 headers appear in the banner TOC now. We don't have a way to display level 3 headers there yet, though with the current level of content this shouldn't be a problem. If the article becomes very long, we can later add notoc=true to the pagebanner template so that it displays the old box-type TOC, but this should be unnecessary right now. Also, we should probably discuss what headers should be used here, as the current ones are very unlike our typical style. Texugo (talk) 13:25, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I understand the headers are a bit unusual here, but this is for a very specific purpose so perhaps might be accorded some leeway. Anyway, we shall see how it develops! EdSaperia (talk) 14:15, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Well, User:Torty3 made some changes because our listing editor depends on certain header names to function properly. Other than that, I might consider:

• whether we will actually need to separate the see/do/eat/drink lists into two sections by accommodation location - if they have things in common, which seems likely, it may be better to have one See and Do section, one Eat section, and one Sleep section with the two accommodations listed (are there only two accommodation options??)

So there are a couple of hostels/hotels that have been block booked, and they are not both necessarily directly adjacent to the conference venue, so I thought small local guides for each might be useful - these are really for places to get very quick bites to eat before or after conference days when you're back at your hotel room. EdSaperia (talk) 14:35, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

• whether we actually need to repeat "August" and "2014" in all those day subsection
• whether potential day/evening trips need to actually be assigned a day in the first place - do we want to send everybody to the same attractions at the same time on the same day?

Texugo (talk) 14:48, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I also don't think individual day listings are useful. Everything I can think of is general to the week (for example, a museum only needs to be listed once). Perhaps, if there are any day-specific events going on this will matter. If so, occasional headings could be added at the end of the list. I had heard that the accommodation has already been booked by the Foundation but I don't know where it will be. Can this be added? If they aren't too far apart, they probably only need one section to cover both. -AdamBMorgan (talk) 17:27, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

The reason I put in individual day listings is that conference goers often self-organise into evening trips, and this will help delegates find out who is going where and when, so that group outings can be planned in advance. I'll add the specific accommodation sites when they are confirmed, I had just put two in as placeholders for now. EdSaperia (talk) 14:35, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

It may be that it's more appropriate to have an outings calendar type thing on the Wikimania Wiki rather than on Wikivoyage, but it seemed better to put them in one place rather than break them up. I entirely agree that an event guide is a very different thing to a travel guide, but I figured the Wikivoyage community might accept Wikimania as an exception :) EdSaperia (talk) 14:39, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

I support you Ed. We can make prints of this page and distribute it among the hundreds of conference attendees. It will be a very good way to promote WV among the WM community. --Saqib (talk) 15:57, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

I also would support giving you the latitude to list individual day events, if they are being held outside of the Barbican Centre. The whole point of this page is to be useful to those who are participating in Wikimania 2014, so any way that we can help them from within our identity as a travel guide is appropriate and good. Ikan Kekek (talk) 11:10, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

If there are organized excursions, by all means include them. I was just afraid that we were going to be inventing some idiosyncratic minute-by-minute recommendation to, as an individual, go see X and Y on this day, L and M on this day, eat at Z on this day, and so on. Texugo (talk) 22:20, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Scope

What is the scope of this guide? Does it cover the whole of London or just places within easy walking distance of conference? - AdamBMorgan (talk) 20:09, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

We already have a full London guide split across many pages, and we don't need a second one. This has to focus on places within easy reach of the conference, which can be visited without too much disruption of the conference schedule, especially restaurants and bars within walking distance of the accommodations, conference-centric transport directions, etc. Texugo (talk) 20:49, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Agreed - this is really for people to decide "I am at my hotel, I have a couple of hours spare, where can I grab dinner/breakfast? What can I see?". London is very dense and it's easy to miss hidden gems that are very close to you! EdSaperia (talk) 14:35, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Suggestions

I did a Facebook post asking for people for suggestions and they had a load of ideas: https://www.facebook.com/edsaperia/posts/10100665919928290 EdSaperia (talk) 10:34, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

All or most added. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 21:57, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Cope

Mates, i start to like the article. One thing came up my mind. There will be always one participant get sick at venues of this size. I think a Cope section would be good to have a list of nearby pharmacy (aspirin for the headache) or GP/med center for the bloody knee from tripping a step at the hotel. Ok? jan (talk) 12:31, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

How is this NHS thing working for tourists? jan (talk) 12:31, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

I think I've covered the basics. I'm not sure how much detail is appropriate here. For example, there are various conditions that do get free healthcare (which includes Leprosy and the Plague) and certain country's citizens, and sometimes residents, will get it too (the EU, Switzerland, Georgia, Australia etc). There's a list in this NHS PDF document. Should that be mentioned in the guide or not? - AdamBMorgan (talk) 18:53, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

London Guidebook for Wikimania 2014

Swept in from the pub

Hi Wikivoyagers,

I'm organising Wikimania 2014 in London. It'd be really useful to have a page where attendees can collate events and attractions near the venues and dorms to help decide on things to do around the conference days. Would Wikivoyage be happy to host this, perhaps as an itinerary? EdSaperia (talk) 13:30, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

I'd certainly be happy to be involved in the creation of such a page if there's a consensus for it. --Nick ^talk 14:14, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Sounds like a fine idea. I'm not in the UK and don't know London well, but I'll help out where I can.

Is Wikivoyage:Books useful here? Should such an itinerary or book cover things outside London? For example, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath (which I consider the nicest place I've been in the UK) are reasonably close. To a Canadian or others used to larger distances, anywhere in Great Britain is close. Pashley (talk) 17:14, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

This might be a perfect topic for a Collaboration of the month sometime soon. --Danapit (talk) 18:09, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Ed, I would say let's focus on expanding and improving article on City of London and articles of district nearby rather than creating an itinerary, perhaps we will need some local volunteer editors from London who can help us adding good content to the articles. --Saqib (talk) 18:40, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

I think it will be most useful if we particularly focus on what's within walking distance of the conference venue and of the dormitories. There are many, many things within 20 mins walk of the venue - I think it would make the experience of conference-goers much more enjoyable if they had a really local guide rather than being faced by the enormity of London as a whole. Faced with London's infinitude of destinations will result in choice paralysis, and most things in a London guide will be a discouraging train ride away anyway. EdSaperia (talk) 22:39, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Ed, It would be great if you kindly elaborate the activities and attractions located within the 20 min walk of the Barbican Center. --Saqib (talk) 05:24, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Well e.g. in this area: http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm?clat=51.51971907159177&clng=-0.09237527847290039&r=1.61&lc=FF0000&lw=3&fc=0&fs=true EdSaperia (talk) 14:20, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Ed, why don't you start the itinerary article and then we can see how useful it can be. --Saqib (talk) 18:24, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

For those who do not already know, the venue is the Barbican Center and the relevant WV article London/City of London.

I think there are some things like the West End theatres and the British Museum that most visitors to London will want to find, no matter where they are staying. Pashley (talk) 22:56, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

I'm also very open to having highlights of the city, but perhaps this is adequately covered in the London guides already. What I am really looking for is - sessions are over for the day, you've got an hour or two to grab some dinner, where can you walk to before the evening events begin? EdSaperia (talk) 14:20, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

It did not say so before, but I have added the dates now. I added " 8-10 August 2014" and I hope that's correct. --W. Frank^email_talk 19:49, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Traffic

This site gives live traffic updates, not sure where it should go but seems useful: http://www.frixo.com/cities/london/ EdSaperia (talk) 11:31, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

Merge

I suggest this itinerary be merged into destination guides once Wikimania is over. --Saqib (talk) 20:53, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Certainly. Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:48, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Is there any system to lock it and mark it as historical or inactive? I'm still relatively new here but it might be useful to keep in some fashion, both for historical interest and, if this works, for reference with similar occasions in future (Wikimania is annual, after all). - AdamBMorgan (talk) 23:47, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

It would be good to keep an archive, so that we can reference it for following years (and so historical links still work). There also tend to be wikimedians in the city for a good few weeks after the event, so don't be too itchy on the trigger :) 46.64.21.172 20:46, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Color of links

I think the page has some links with color blue and others black (in bold). Unless a user hovers on the black bold text, it doesn't indicate its a link. Visual cues are important, at least for ease of navigation. On mediawiki, the convention is link color is blue; the link text gets underlined when mouse over.

I'm not saying strictly the page should follow conventions. But at least, no matter the style one wants to implement, it should be straight forward and visually recognizable and understandable.

--Nkansahrexford (talk) 12:49, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

That's more of a project wide style issue. This page just uses the standard Wikivoyage templates with standard linking formatting. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 12:33, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Photography symbol

We are likely to have a fair number of commons users present. Do we have an allows photography symbol for the museum listings?Geni (talk) 15:09, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Well, I've added experimental notes to three listings but I just don't know whether or not a lot of these places allow photography. Also, this is non-standard for Wikivoyage and may be removed at some point. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 12:54, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

NB: I've found Commons:Commons:WikiProject Arts/Museum photography, which is a start at listing these rules but doesn't actually help much for this area and may not be maintained much. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 14:02, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks!

Hey Wikivoyage guys, you're amazing! Thanks for putting this page together. I'm already crazy excited about my first Wikimania, and this makes the excitement even bigger ;-) --Gnom (talk) 09:20, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Duplication

We usually try to avoid content duplication, but there are a lot of listings here that would seem to more properly belong in London's district articles. Shouldn't a travel topic like this be more of an overview and not include full listings (but rather direct readers to our district articles)? Powers ^(talk) 15:40, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Powers, I believe this is a temporary article and once Wikimania 2014 is over, this will be merged with London article. --Saqib (talk) 15:53, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Shops

I've added the two nearest branches of Maplin (shop selling IT spares and consumables) to the "Connect" section. Feel free to move them if they'd be better elsewhere; or add rivals. Ditto for the cycle shop I'm about to add. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:46, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

Are we advertising this article somewhere right now?

Less than a month until the Wikimania event. I think it could be good to tout inform readers that this article exists at some prominent place. Somewhere on the main page would be best, perhaps in the blurb of the London City banner, some icon or banner somewhere, other ideas..? ϒpsilon (talk) 11:37, 7 July 2014 (UTC) We will get more links to itFabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 09:01, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Other locations to add to map

Great work, I love the map. It would be great if we had some more locations added to the map.

1. The William Blake, EC1V 9BP Ze German speaking meet up
2. The Barbican Thistle Hotel, EC1V 8DS, Main hotel for WMF
3. Travelodge EC1Y 1AG Main hotel for WMUK scholarship people

Thanks Fabian Tompsett (WMUK) (talk) 09:15, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Wikimania 2015?

I don't know if this guidebook was spearheaded by Wikimania organizers and/or Wikivoyage contributors, but it is a great idea and proved to be very helpful to me during the conference. I wonder if there are plans to create a similar guidebook for Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City? -Another Believer (talk) 18:12, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

User:Another Believer: Sorry for late response. I don't think the guide article was much used during the conference. Page-paga stats shows that it was merely accessed 500 times in August. As far I am aware, the conference organisers didn't printed the guide. As for Wikimania 2015. I would say lets drop the idea. --Saqib (talk) 14:12, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Ah, ok. Too bad others did not find it as helpful as I did. Thanks for responding! -Another Believer (talk) 16:27, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Merge with London/City of London

I see that the article has been tagged today for a merge with London/City of London. I think that it would be better to keep this article to help anybody creating a guidebook for future a Wikimania. It could be labelled as a closed event (like London 2012), and any useful info copied to City of London. AlasdairW (talk) 22:54, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

User:AlasdairW: It was discussed prior to creating this guide that this will be temporary. I don't see any good reason to keep it. London 2012 is a major event whereas Wikimania is not. I don't think creating such guide articles for every other conference is under the scoop of Wikivoyage. There're plenty of conferences held each year throughout the world and many of them attract thousands of people. I believe this was created as a test case. But provided that not many people cared to use this guide during Wikimania London, I don't think we're going to have such a guide for next Wikimania. --Saqib (talk) 18:07, 11 March 2015 (UTC)