Wikivoyage:No advice from Captain Obvious
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This page in a nutshell: Information that is obvious (or common knowledge) for an article's target audience should not be included in the article. |
When visitors arrive from far away, locals usually love to give them advice. Unfortunately, this often leads to a temptation to offer advice for everything under the sun. On Wikivoyage, this translates to Respect and/or Stay safe sections a mile long, with the result that actual useful information is buried in an avalanche of platitudes and things most of us learned in kindergarten.
To prevent this, Wikivoyage's rule of thumb is No advice from Captain Obvious. In other words, if the piece of advice is true for every city and country on the planet (and can be assumed to be common knowledge among well-travelled people) it does not bear repeating in every single article on Wikivoyage.
Actual examples of advice from Captain Obvious include:
- Don't flash your valuables in areas which may be targeted by pickpockets.
- Wear a condom if engaging in sex with a partner you don't know well.
- A bottle of water costs more at a convenience store than at a supermarket.
- Locals don't take kindly to their country, customs, language or food being mocked by foreigners.
- Never speed on the roads.
- Avoid anyone who appears to be drunk, and avoid drinking too much yourself.
- As long as you avoid going outside when a storm is forecast, or when you hear thunder, you'll be fine.
That said, remember that obviousness must be considered from the traveller's point of view, not a local's. Leaving 15% tips in restaurants is obvious to Americans, and never sticking your left hand in communal dishes is obvious to Ethiopians, but visitors should be told about both.
Destination articles should mention universal concerns when they are particularly important for the location. Pickpocketing is a risk in most big cities, but notoriously bad at the most crowded venues in Rome. Likewise, fine dining is expensive everywhere, but visitors to Norway should really check out the price tag before ordering. Leaving public transportation seats for the elderly is recommended everywhere, but in Japan, being reluctant to do so would be very embarrassing.
Several travel topics, such as the Respect, Stay safe and Stay healthy articles, cover a wide range of more universally applicable information. If it's in any of these, it's unlikely to be needed anywhere else.