Wikivoyage:India Expedition
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The India Expedition is a Wikivoyage Expedition to promote and coordinate collaboration to improve Wikivoyage's articles about India. Knowledge about places in India is welcome, because some articles are lacking in information. But even without knowing much about the destinations, you can help greatly just by copy editing and fixing format. If you'd like to join the effort, add your signature to the bottom of the page, or just plunge forward.
Rationale
[edit]India is the world's 2nd-largest country by population, well on the way to becoming the world's most populous, and it's also the world's 7th-largest country by area. Moreover, India is a prime destination for both business and leisure travelers, with a vital, fast growing economy and a wealth of culture, history and wildlife, fantastic regional cuisines and amazing geographic diversity. In addition to all of that, thanks to its strategically advantageous geographic location and proximity to multiple regional & global powers, India is a significant geopolitical power. According to Wikipedia, India also has the 2nd-largest number of English speakers in the world. So our articles about Indian destinations should be a showcase.
Instead, the standard of many highly visible articles about Indian destinations is very poor, with incorrect capitalization, spacing, punctuation, grammar and usage; irregular formatting; long lists of random and useless bulleted entries (including lists of "Cities" and "Other destinations" in non-bottom-level region articles that are way longer than the Wikivoyage standard of 9) without sufficient information to be useful to a traveller; touting; and sometimes, even poor comprehensibility.
Goals
[edit](1) To bring the most visible articles about India up to at least an acceptable standard of Usability, and where possible, Guide status.
(2) To bring more articles about Indian destinations up to the level of a strong Guide, suitable for featuring on the front page as Destination of the month or Off the beaten path articles.
Current priorities
[edit]- Make sure all the region articles linked from India#Regions are properly formatted and at an acceptable standard of English, and ideally, at Guide status
- Make sure all state-level articles linked from these region articles are properly formatted and at an acceptable standard of English, and at least at Usable status
- Improve the quality of the most visible and important city articles that either lack strong Guide-status articles or are huge cities requiring districting
- Issues related to the number and quality of coverage of "Other destinations" listed in state-level articles should be methodically dealt with through discussions on state articles' Talk pages and appropriate edits to articles for states, articles about parks, et al.
Other tasks
[edit]- Recheck usablecity and usabledistrict without Sleep listing
- Recheck usablecity and usabledistrict without Eat listing
- Recheck usablecity and usabledistrict without See and Do listing
- Expand usablecity and usabledistrict without See listing
- Expand usablecity and usabledistrict without Do listing
- Expand usablecity and usabledistrict without Event listing
- Expand usablecity and usabledistrict without Drink listing
- Expand usablecity and usabledistrict without Buy listing
- Complete Routebox navigation for major transport routes.
- Create custom page banner image
- Articles with no photographs This takes a few minutes to generate list and suggestions.
- Address Articles needing attention
- Event date needs updating
- Geo zoom needed
- Fix Articles with dead external links
- Fix or remove Articles with formerly dead external links
- Wikipedia-Wikidata check needed if connection can be made
- Articles Geo different to Wikidata, change geo or wikidata coordinates to match
- Create redirect for Airport code without link - (Airports coded)
- Add coordinated to guidecity and guidedistrict See listing without coordinates
- Add coordinated to guidecity, starcity, guidedistrict and stardistrict Listings without coordinates
- region with listing, do they need moving to city articles?
- huge city with listing, do they need moving to district articles?
- Fix external links without text
- Move in to listing where phone icon used, Tel: used, phone: used and + used
- Indented listing not using double bullet format but :*
Article status charts
[edit]Article statistics for India
[edit]Note that numbers in the tables are not dynamically calculated and must be manually updated. Last updated on 24 September 2024.
Click on number to get an updated list of pages by status. (Note sometime the link just sits there, usually due to the database updating, come back in 10 minutes.)
| Type/Status Matrix | Outline | Usable | Guide | Star | Unranked | Total (line) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District | 15 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 41 | |
| City | 794 | 200 | 9 | 0 | 1003 | |
| Airport | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| Park | 82 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 90 | |
| Dive guide | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Rural area | 21 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 23 | |
| Region | 146 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 169 |
| Total | 1061 | 246 | 12 | 0 | 11 | 1330 |
| Outline cities | sleep | eat | see | do | check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| needs only | 40 | 118 | 31 | 70 | 115 |
| has no | 500 | 621 | 370 | 675 | 258 |
Remember a reasonable Get in section, as well as listings, is needed to make usable.
National and multi-state regional
[edit]| Star | Guide | Usable | Outline | Redlink |
| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| India | Usable | This article will attain Guide status when all the cities linked in the "Cities" section, all the destinations linked in "Other destinations" and all six of the regions linked in the "Regions" section are at least Usable. Since the status of the region articles depends in turn on the statuses of state articles and on down, it probably makes most sense to concentrate on the cities and "other destinations" first.
Cities Delhi is a Guide but needs districting; Bangalore is Usable; Chennai is Usable; Hyderabad is Usable; Jaipur is a Guide; Kochi is a Guide; Kolkata is Usable; Mumbai is a Guide; Varanasi is Usable. More detailed comments about the articles for these cities are in the subpages of this page for the states they're in, but since all are at least Usable, they aren't keeping this article from being advanced to Guide. Other destinations Main temple complex in Bodh Gaya: Bodh Gaya is now Usable. Ellora/Ajanta: Ellora is an Outline; Ajanta redirects to Aurangabad, which is Usable. Golden Temple: Amritsar is Usable. Hampi has been upgraded to Usable. However, it still needs an editing pass for grammar/spelling/formatting. Temple complexes in Khajuraho: Khajuraho is Usable. Konark is Usable. Meenakshi Temple in Madurai: Madurai is Usable. Taj Mahal: Agra is Usable. So work is most needed on Ellora to bring it up to at least Usable status. This won't be sufficient to turn India into a Guide-level article, because the region articles still need to be improved, but it would help a lot. Region articles are covered below: |
| Himalayan North | Outline | Some sections are empty. |
| Plains (India) | Outline | This article is much improved, but something should be put in "Stay safe", and perhaps the "Go next" subtitle should be deleted. The text should also be read and edited as appropriate by someone familiar with this part of the country. |
| Western India | Usable | In decent shape, including a pretty good introduction. |
| Southern India | Outline | This region of India has a very important history, but Southern India#Understand needs more explanation and connection with travel and less in the way of long lists like "the Hoysalas, Chalukyas, Gangas, Kadambas, Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras." Some pictures of historic monuments from different periods could help. Compare the efforts at history coverage in Germany#History and Indonesia#History. |
| Eastern India | Outline | While some of the content of this article has been filled in, it's still pretty sparse. The description for Puri needs editing, as it isn't immediately clear to a non-Hindu. There's only 5 "Other destination"; are there more to list? Eastern India#Get around might merit more content. "Do" is entirely empty. |
| North-Eastern India | Outline | "Get around" and "See" are empty. "Eat" is not very helpful: Some description of local cuisines would be more useful. |
State-level
[edit]Himalayan North region
[edit]| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| Himachal Pradesh | Outline | Some of the descriptions in Himachal Pradesh#Cities are too long or incorrectly formatted for 1-liner listings. Some of the "Other destinations" are red links. "Understand" is blank. Himachal Pradesh#See isn't too poorly formatted, but Dalhousie is a town and the 3 valleys belong in Himachal Pradesh#Other destinations. What we need in this section is a good paragraph that summarizes the highlights of sights in the state. "Do" is listy and without links to relevant articles. Dishes listed without explanation in "Eat" as specialities of the state need descriptions.
Regions Himachal Pradesh is divided into four regions, of which Central Himachal Pradesh, Eastern Himachal Pradesh and Southern Himachal Pradesh are Outlines, while Northern Himachal Pradesh is a redlink and is divided into Chamba (district) and Kangra (district). Cities There is a separate chart of city article statuses at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Himachal Pradesh. Two are former Destinations of the Month - Shimla and Dharamsala - both still good articles but not above a brush up. No other city's article is close to ready. |
| Uttarakhand | Outline | The most pressing problem is that Chamba (Uttarakhand) is #3 on the list of "Cities", but the link pointed to Chamba (Himachal Pradesh), so now, this is the merest Outline. It's a tiny village and it's hard to find out much information about it online, so should it really be on the "Cities" list?
Regions Uttarakhand is divided into 2 regions - Garhwal and Kumaon. The Garhwal article contains more information, but it is irregular that it has a bunch of "See" listings that are actually in towns with linked articles, all of which are shown (more or less) on a dynamic map. The Kumaon article needs more information, and "Get in" should be restructured for ease in reading. Uttarkhand has 13 districts. It would be more logical to list districts under each of the regions, rather than the Uttarakhand article, since we are not using District pages. The districts are Almora, Bageshwar, Chamoli, Champawat, Dehradun, Garhwal (Pauri Garhwal), Hardwar (Haridwar), Nainital, Pithoragarh, Rudraprayag, Tehri Garhwal, Udham Singh Nagar and Uttarkashi. Cities There is also a separate Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Uttarakhand sub-page, where the status of region and city articles can be discussed in more detail. Dehradun is currently a weak Guide, not yet good enough to nominate for Destination of the Month, and it would be a good place to feature when ready. Rishikesh and Haridwar are also important holy cities for Hindus, and their articles are currently Usable and should be improved to Guide status whenever possible. Nainital is quite weakly Usable, Mussoorie more strongly Usable, and the rest of the articles are all Outlines. |
Plains region
[edit]| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| Punjab (India) | Outline | There are 10 "Cities," with no descriptions (there should be 9 Cities). "Get in" had been mostly general and somewhat encyclopedic info about the country; once content irrelevant to Punjab was deleted, very little remained. "Get around" has more content, not all of it specific to Punjab, but needs to conform to WV subtitle format. "See" is exactly wrong for an article at this level in the hierarchy. The intro to "Do" is relevant to "See," instead, and museums are "See"s and shouldn't be listed by city name in a state-level article. "Buy" is not bad. Punjabi food is wonderful, so it's important for the "Eat" section to be good, but it feels like a wall of text, as there are a lot of unexplained items in lists. The section may be too long, too. For "Drink," perhaps adding bolding to the subject of each bullet might be sufficient to improve readability.
Regions All three "Regions" articles (not counting Chandigarh, which is discussed in "Union Territories" below) are skeletons. Should we eliminate the Majha, Doaba and Malwa articles and make Punjab (India) a bottom-level region with more than 9 (or 10) cities, or should we expand the region articles into something more than repositories of city links plus brief introductions? Cities There is coverage of the articles listed in Punjab (India)#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Punjab. The short version is that while User:Gobbler, User:Matroc and others have helped a lot, all of the articles still need more improvement. The Punjab is a highly visible state, so it should be a rather high priority to make all the articles at least close to Usable, if not better, and Amritsar, which has been downgraded to Usable because of numerous problems is a Guide, should be turned into a genuine Guide article, good enough to nominate for Destination of the Month. |
| Haryana | Outline | The entire article is grossly lacking in content. With 4 "Other destinations," there's room for more if there are others.
Districts The same remarks I made about "Regions" articles for Punjab (India) apply to Haryana's district articles. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Haryana#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Haryana. The short version is that except for Gurgaon, which is a Usable article with moderate problems, all the articles are more or less poor and in many instances, not only lacking in information but also messed up in various ways. |
| Uttar Pradesh | Outline | Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India and home to the Taj Mahal and several very important cities of Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage. For it to be an Outline is embarrassing, and getting it to at least Usable should be a top priority. There are 10 cities in the list. There is only one "Other destination." Several sections are blank, "See" is irregular, "Do" is too brief, "Eat" needs to have names of dishes set off from the rest of the text (for example, by bolding), and "Stay safe" needs updating. The article also lacks a state map.
Regions Same remarks as above. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Uttar Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Uttar Pradesh. Not a single one is a Guide, and that is bad in a state with cities as important as Varanasi and especially Agra. It might not be important to feature the Agra article on the front page, but given that Agra contains the Taj Mahal, which might be the single most famous tourist attraction in India, and that the famous royal city of Fatehpur is also covered in the article, bringing it up to Guide status should be one of the highest priorities for the India Expedition. |
| Bihar | Outline | Only 2 unlinked "Other destinations" are listed. "Understand" is solid, but needs a thorough proofread and edit by a native or otherwise very solid English-speaker, as I see a number of mistakes such as noun-verb disagreement in a quick scan. "Talk" and "Get around" are empty. "See" is an egregious long list, including linked city names that are treated as sights. Some of the descriptions of cities should be merged to the "Cities" section. "Do" is just a list. "Eat" and "Drink" look fairly good in a quick once-over. "Stay safe" looks fine.
Regions Most of the region articles are pretty skeletal, except for Mithila — which has a lot of content but I suspect some of it may be copyvio, and some of it is definitely too encyclopedic. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Bihar#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Bihar. Only two of the cities in the list have articles that are even good enough to be Usable — Patna, the capital, whose article is only so-so, and Gaya, which has only two images and no custom pagebanner. |
| Madhya Pradesh | Outline | Intro is pretty good. There are 9 "Cities" and 9 "Other destinations", all now with descriptions. "Understand" needs less encyclopedic figures and a bit more context for the history. See should be a paragraph and shouldn't list a national park a second time but can mention it. "Eat" is intriguing but could use some more explanation for non-Indians. "Drink" is one of several blank sections.
Regions All skeletal. I suppose there are too many cities to merge these articles into the state article, so the region articles should be expanded. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Madhya Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Madhya Pradesh. Of the 9 cities listed, Bhopal,Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur are Usable, though the Indore article lacks a custom pagebanner. |
Western India region
[edit]| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| Rajasthan | Usable | Through the end of "Cities," the article is quite good. However, several of the "Other destinations" are red-linked and only one has any description. "Understand" is too brief and should include some remarks about the state's history as a crossroads of trade, its reputation for jewels and gold, and a bit more about the Rajput kings. The "By bus" section has good information but might benefit from a URL and a telephone number. "See" is a long list and "Do" is an even longer list with no apparent order and formatting problems. The article lacks a state map and needs a few more photos (such a picturesque state needs them!). Tangential, but it's a little strange that there's no Rajasthani phrasebook — anyone know the language and want to start one?
Regions All region (division) articles are pretty skeletal. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Rajasthan#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Rajasthan. These articles are generally in much better shape than many other states' city articles, and Jaipur was Destination of the Month for November 2015. They are very interesting destinations, and a bit of good editing could make several more ready for a dotm or otbp nomination soon. |
| Gujarat | Outline | The intro is not as clear or compelling as it could be. The regional structure is confusing and could use more explanation or perhaps reorganization. The list of Cities is 8; a 9th would be good, but which one? "Other destinations" number 15. "See" has a bunch of templated listings, which is incorrect. "Do" is in much better shape. Gujarati cuisine is delicious, so "Eat" could be expanded, with more photos. Finally, how can we have an article about Gujarat that doesn't mention the intercommunal rioting of 2002? The silence in the article is deafening. "Understand" should include a brief history that, among other things, touches on the rioting, but of course without seeming to make it the subject of the article.
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Gujarat#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Gujarat. There has been great progress, with most of the listed cities now at Usable status, but every article needs some organizational edits and most could use more information in listings, even if completely listified now; Ahmedabad needs to have its loads of listings all moved to existing district articles. |
| Maharashtra | Outline | The intro could be more compelling but is not bad. "Cities" list is 9 cities long; "Other destinations" are 7; descriptions in both sections could be tweaked to make it easier for non-Indians to understand some of the descriptions (e.g., "500+ years history, with traces of Nizamshahi, Shahjahan and Peshwas"; "one of the 12 Jyotirlinga in India"). "Get in" is a wall of text, probably with too many specific details, and "Get around" is empty! "See" is 1 long list and 2 shorter ones. "Do" has 2 listings - a short one and a long, overly detailed one. What we need is an overview, but that trekking info belongs in another article. The "Eat" section looks pretty good. The article completely lacks photos and also has no state map.
Regions South Maharashtra is barely more than a skeleton and needs a lot more content. Marathwada has templated listings, which is not standard for a regional article. North Konkan and South Konkan are pretty filled out. The Vidarbha article is useful, but again could use a lot more content. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Maharashtra#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Maharashtra. To summarize, the Mumbai article, though a Guide and fairly recent Destination of the Month, still has a lot of listings that need to be moved to district articles. Improvements have been made to most articles. Aurangabad and Pune are Usable and would be great to bring up to Guide level; Nashik is also Usable, as is Kolhapur, weakly. The rest are Outlines, in need of more information. |
| Goa | Usable | Most of this article is quite good and pretty interesting to read. "See," "Do" and "Buy" are treated like sections in a city article, with a bunch of listings, which is not the normal way a state article treats them and not appropriate in this case, either. "Stay safe" might be easier to read if divided into more subsections. "Go next" should have links added as needed and could use some tweaking.
Regions North Goa and South Goa, further subdivided into talukas, not all of which have their own articles. North Goa is pretty informative, and the structure is fine except for the specific "Eat" listing, which should be moved to the local article for whichever town it's in or closest to. South Goa is more nearly skeletal, but more than that, primarily because of the "Beaches" section under "See" (which I think is fine and appropriate for the state). Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Goa#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Goa. 5 cities are linked there, and while it would be good to bring all of them up to Usable status, the really important one, Panaji, is a weak Usable article at this point, and given that it's such a big tourist destination, making it at least more solidly Usable if not a Guide should be a high priority. |
Southern India region
[edit]| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | Outline | Some "Cities" lack descriptions; "Other destinations" list is too long. "Get in" and "Get around" are very short, partly because there was a bunch of info about Hyderabad, which is now part of and surrounded by Telangana, though it is the capital of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and will remain so until at most 2024. "See" is a useless unexplained list. "Do" is not about tourist activities and might belong in "Respect" and "Stay safe." "Eat" has some spacing problems. "Drink" also needs work, and what is "ready juice"?
Regions Northern Coast and Rayalaseema are skeletal. Southern Coast is skeletal plus a "See" section which needs a thorough edit, with the specific listings listified and moved to the appropriate locality articles. Guthikonda Bilam is close to Karampudi, but there is no Karampudi article, and there probably should be, if the cave is such a major attraction. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Andhra Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Andhra Pradesh. In brief, the condition of all but one of the articles is pretty disastrous, and that's bad because at least Nellore and Kurnool are fairly important destinations. The Vizag article is Usable but still lacks the information needed for it to be truly fully usable, as a fair number of the listings even in that article lack location and/or contact information. So there is a lot of work to do, and anyone who chooses to start on it will be doing readers a good turn. |
| Telangana | Outline | Has almost no content — That's the overriding issue, and it's bad for a new state that includes Hyderabad. "See" is an unhelpful list. Just a very inadequate article right now. No regions are listed, which at this point is a good thing.
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Telangana#Cities at India Expedition/Telangana (which is now incomplete as more cities have been added to the article). Only Hyderabad is Usable; the rest are Outlines |
| Kerala | Usable | This article contains a lot of good content and is very promising. We should aim to make it into a good Guide-level article and then nominate it for Destination of the Month. But it does need work. The "Cities" list does not use 1-liner listings Regions Malabar contains some information, but the weird formatting of "Do" suggests copypasta and also contains too much information that should be in linked articles and replaced by a summary here. Central Kerala contains a lot of information but needs a thorough copy edit. Central Travancore is mostly a skeleton, but with an interesting "Eat" section. Northern Travancore is skeletal. Southern Travancore is mostly a skeleton, but with a brief though useful "Eat" section. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Kerala#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Kerala. Kochi is an excellent and previously featured Guide. The top priorities for this project should include making the very lacking Kozhikode article Usable. Kozhikode, in its alternative name of Calicut, is one of the most famous Indian cities for students of European exploration of Asia, so having a poor-quality unusable article for the city is embarrassing and ill-serves the traveller. Other important tasks would be to make the Thiruvananthapuram article a Guide and nominate it for a Dotm feature and improve any of the other articles. Every one of the cities seems worth visiting, and if we make all these articles Usable, we will go a long way toward making the Kerala article itself a Guide, which would be wonderful. Featuring the entire state as a Dotm would be really excellent. |
| Tamil Nadu | Outline | There are still too many "Other destinations", though the line with three hill stations was deleted, with Ooty moved to "Cities". Lacks "Understand" section, "Get around" section. Lacks "See" section! Other sections with content are pretty good.
Regions Northern Tamil Nadu is fairly skeletal, except that it has a full entry for a temple in Malaikodi. If it's an important temple, a Malaikodi article should be created, with the entry moved there and listified. Tamil Nadu North Coast has a lot of cities but only some are described; empty sections should be filled in, plus some photos. Western Tamil Nadu is better than many district articles but still fairly empty. Central Tamil Nadu is better but needs copy editing and has mostly empty sections. Southwestern Tamil Nadu is pretty skeletal. Tamil Nadu South Coast has some city descriptions but is otherwise pretty empty. Ditto for Far Southern Tamil Nadu, and Northeastern Tamil Nadu is the emptiest of all. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Tamil Nadu#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Tamil Nadu. None are at Guide level, and deciding whether to district Chennai and how to better organize the mountain of information in that article should be one of the top priorities of this project, because it's such a large and important city. Next in priority would probably be work on the Madurai article, because that city is such an important and ancient centre of pilgrimage, and making something out of the "See" section of the Tuticorin Outline article. |
| Karnataka | Outline | Intro could sell the state a little more: What are its biggest draws for visitors? And the article has only one photo! The "Regions" section has descriptions for 3 of 5 regions and is not very colorful in describing any. There are now 9 "Cities," and 2 were taken from "Other destinations," so there's room for 2 more destinations. See Talk:Karnataka#"Other destinations" moved from article for a whole bunch to choose from. The "Understand" section is OK but could use one or two illustrative pictures. "See" is incorrectly formatted, with listings instead of prose. The rest is not bad, but copy editing is needed. The article also lacks a state map.
Regions Every region of Karnataka is further subdivided into "Districts" or "Regions". All top-level region articles are pretty skeletal, except Karavali, which on a quick inspection looks outstanding and in some ways exemplary, though it could still use further work, including 1-liner listings in the first few sections. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Karnataka#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Karnataka. The most pressing issue is what to do with Manipal, which is currently a redirect to the article about Udupi city. A close second in priority is to bring Bangalore up to Guide status, given that it's one of the most important cities in India. |
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Eastern India region
[edit]| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| Chhattisgarh | Outline | Very sparse. Lede is very basic; list of 8 cities has no descriptions; there is no content in "Other destinations", but that's probably because of what's in "See". "Understand" is encyclopedic and not useful to the traveller. Get in/Get around are blank. "See" needs to be turned into readable prose. "Do" is blank. "Eat" has some content, but the names of dishes could be better set off with bolding and described more. "Drink" has two unexplained words. There is no state map. There is no Regions section, which is the right thing, at least for now.
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Chhattisgarh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Chhattisgarh. All are at Outline level and need basic edits for content, copy editing and/or format. Since Chhattisgarh is a lesser-known state, these edits are relatively low-priority, but some of these towns, such as Mainpat, seem like interesting destinations, and Raipur is a state capital, so it would be nice if the articles for those places could be at least closer to Usable. |
| Jharkhand | Outline | Until "Understand," it's very listy, with little explanation, and there are towns listed in "Other destinations." The "Understand" section is good writing, but it should be edited to eliminate archaic terms like "Mohammedan" and other content that is not so relevant all these years after 1949. I think it would be good to excerpt this book more briefly and then add other information. "Get in" lacks any remarks about plane travel. "See" is inadequate. "Do" is empty. "Eat" and "Drink" are not bad.
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Jharkhand#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Jharkhand. None is better than Usable, and even the Usable articles are a bit questionably usable, for practical purposes. This is a lesser-known state, though, so none of the articles is a top priority. |
| Odisha | Outline | If statuses of state articles were awarded solely based on their own quality, this would probably be rated Usable, but it can't be because one of the regions, Eastern Odisha, has no article (the other region articles are very sparse, too). In general, I'd describe the article as pithy - short, but fairly well-written and to the point. "Regions" have no descriptions; all but one of the cities does, though "the Kashmir of Odisha" is a bit obscure. "Other destinations" have descriptions, but some copy editing is needed. "Understand" is pretty well-written, though it could possibly be expanded and copy edited. "Talk" should have links to phrasebooks but is OK. "Get in" should have bus info, too, but otherwise seems OK. "See" is usable. "Do" should have more content. The rest of the sections are all pretty decent.
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Odisha#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Odisha. There are two Usable cities: Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur, both of which need more work but are in much better condition than the rest, which are all Outlines. Of the Outlines, Koraput is closest to Usable. |
| Sikkim | Outline | This article contains a lot of good information, but some of it is more detailed than the article for the entire state needs and should be moved to regional guides (East Sikkim and South Sikkim contain very little information, though they are both quite a bit more than skeletons, while West Sikkim and especially North Sikkim are better) or guides to cities. It also lacks a state map (the map of India showing a tiny bit of red where Sikkim is is no substitute for that). There are several photos in the article now, but more good ones would still be welcome, especially any good ones of monasteries.
Towns There is a discussion of articles linked from Sikkim#Towns at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Sikkim. Pelling is now tenuously Usable but really needs more and more exact directions and Geo for its "See" listings. After that, but Gangtok and Yuksom and are closest to Usable, probably in that order, followed by Dzongu. It would be great to make all four of those articles truly Usable and make any one of them a featurable Guide. Ravangla is also a really interesting and beautiful destination, but bringing its article up to Usable would take more work, because some sections are blank. |
| West Bengal | Usable | The writing in this article is quite good, but there are aspects of the structure and content that could be improved. It would be good to subdivide "Get in" and "Get around" into the normal divisions according to method of transportation. "See" is a pithy summary but could have more specifics. "Do" has some information regarding theatres, adda, boat ride and festivals. Surely there are some activities involving physical exercise or viewing some kind of performance or sporting match that one could do in the state. "Eat" is well-written, but should be expanded with specifics because Bengali food is magnificent. The "Stay safe" section is very helpful.
Regions The North Central Bengal article is the most filled-out of all the state's regional articles, but it still could use more 1-liner listings. North Bengal has an informative "Understand" section but otherwise has a lot of white space. Rarh, Southwest Bengal and Southeast Bengal are underdeveloped articles. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from West Bengal#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/West Bengal. Only Siliguri is a Guide, and several are quite interesting as destinations. Making Kolkata a Guide is, of course, the highest priority among tasks relating to city articles in this state, but Darjeeling is India's most famous hill station because of its tea, and Murshidabad, not quite Usable yet, has a good enough article to already come across as a compelling place to visit. And that's not all, so read the rest of the discussion at the link. |
North-Eastern India region
[edit]| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| Arunachal Pradesh | Outline | Lede could be more interesting. Since there are no regional divisions, the "Regions" heading has been deleted. There are 10 "Cities," but 2 are red-linked, and few have any description. Both "Other destinations" are red-linked. "Understand" section is completely inadequate. "Get in" seems helpful but might do with some kind of subtitling. "Get around" is empty. "See" is really sub-optimal for a state-level article, but part of the reason for that is that some of the referenced towns are just red links. So anyone who wants to start articles for the red links will be doing a good turn. "Do" also needs to be turned into a prose summary, preferably without full listings, if there's another obvious place to put them. "Eat" is pretty good. "Drink" is inadequate. "Stay safe" is more or less acceptable. It might be good to put some info in "Go next."
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Arunachal Pradesh#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Arunachal Pradesh. All are either Outlines or Redlinks, but Tawang is off to a promising start and would make a fascinating Off the Beaten Path, if we ever got that far. In the meantime, Arunachal Pradesh is certainly an off-the-beaten-path frontier land, so the improvement of any article in the state is not a top priority, but making Tawang Usable and adding more content to the article for the state capital, Itanagar, are secondary priorities for this expedition that would be nice to accomplish. |
| Assam | Outline | I humbly submit that the lede is not bad now. There is excessive detail in the "Regions" list. The "Cities" list has an introduction, which is unusual but interesting and not bad, in my opinion. I did move the last section of it to the talk page, though, because it lists a bunch more cities, most of them redlinks (the two not redlinked in that section are in the "Cities" list in the article). The cities in the state with articles should be listed in this section as per WV:Avoid long lists. "Other destinations" seem way too numerous even though this is a bottom-level regional article, given that quite a few lack articles of their own and those in the "Heritage, Cultural and Others" subsection include a town and several completely undescribed names. "Understand" will require copy editing. Some sections may be too detailed, but it would be really helpful to restore some of the content I moved to the talk page if someone can connect it with Wikivoyage links to cities (or parks, etc.) with notable archaeological or historical sites. "Talk" section is a little long and needs more links to phrasebooks but is OK. "Get in" needs copy editing and has external links that need fixing. "Get around" looks OK, based on a quick skim. "See" and "Do" are wrong in concept and need to be turned into paragraphs giving highlights in prose. "Eat" looks informative and useful. "Drink" is funny: There's no alcohol in Assam? "Stay safe" looks OK but "Cope" has some footnote-style external links, and are all these media in English?
Regions All three regions are Outlines and are in poor conditions. Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Assam#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Assam. They're all in poor condition - all Outlines except Guwahati. |
| Manipur | Outline | Extremely sparse article. The only sections that are close to sufficient are "Stay safe" and "Regions" (the regions are described without their own articles, which is appropriate in this case). "Eat" is interesting but doesn't seem complete. "Do" is completely unclear. Lacks a page banner, photos, state map, along with almost everything else. I'm almost tempted to suggest that we make this article an exception and fold in the information in the city articles, except that the article about Imphal is arguably close to being a weak Usable article by itself. The other city in the state with an article is Bishnupur, which has a weak Outline article with information only in the "See" section. |
| Meghalaya | Outline | Sparse and has structure/content issues. Lede doesn't explain why you might want to visit. "Districts" section contains only one active link, and the linked article has no real content. I would suggest eliminating that article and all the links in the "Districts" section, and I'm unconvinced we need a "Regions" or "Districts" section at all. Only one of the "Cities" has an active link - Shillong, which has a very solid Usable article. "Understand" in the Meghalaya article is a bunch of historical details, and "The British came to Sylhet in 1765" is not a promising start, as Sylhet is in Bangladesh. I would suggest deleting this section and starting again with some things that it would help travellers to understand. |
| Mizoram | Usable | The writing style employed in this guide is very pleasant to read. The lede presents a colorful picture. Two of the "Cities" have active links, so anyone who wants to write articles about any of the others would be doing a service to potential visitors. Perhaps we should delete the empty "Other destinations" section. "Understand" is very well-written, so the only issue would be how accurate it is, a question I don't know the answer to. "Get in" and "Get around" seem adequate. "See" is the really problematic section: It's way too long, and many of the subsections could serve as good starting points for articles about cities other than Aizawl, and some of the "Champhai" section can be moved to the new Champhai article. The subsection on Aizawl is mostly just a copypasta of the "Understand" section of the Aizawl article. Most of "Do" was really "Buy" content, so I separated it into a new "Buy" section, whereupon very little remained to Do. Also, it shouldn't be necessary to mention the names of the main shopping centres in Aizawl here, given that we have an article on the city where they should be listed. "Eat" could benefit from explanations of what jadoh, kikpu and tung-toh are but is otherwise pretty good. "Drink," "Stay safe" and "Go next" are all short but seem adequate. Lacks a state map or pictures. It would also be good to check on whether the prices mentioned in the article are current. There is no regions section, which is a good thing in this case. |
| Nagaland | Outline | This article's main problem is a lack of information. The best section, though requiring copy editing, is "Eat." Almost the entire "See" section seemed to have been copied and pasted from one or more other sites (see here), and the strange spacing and touting of a resort were tell-tale signs of that, so I deleted that content and now it's virtually empty. There is no regions section, but there is an unusual top-level "Tribes" section, which is actually a kind of interesting idea but might do with more explanation. The article lacks any images except for a locator map. It's a beautiful state, so choosing a series of illustrative photos will be a pleasant task.
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Nagaland#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Nagaland. None is close to Usable, though the article for the state capital, Kohima, is closest. Nagaland is a frontier area with a history of civil unrest, so none of the articles is a priority for this project, but it does sound like an interesting and beautiful state. |
| Tripura | Usable | The filled-out sections are written in decent style, but I question this article's Usable status and think it's still an Outline. I moved the "Districts" section, all red links, to the talk page. Only one of the "Cities" has an article, the capital Agartala, which is not horrible and not too far from Usable. None of the "Other destinations" is described at all. "Understand", "Talk" and "Get in" seem adequate. "Get around" is informational if not quite usable, and an enterprising person could try their hand at subdividing the section. "See" is not organized in a standard way, but unless articles about all the towns mentioned can be started, there may have to be some specific listings (though not of attractions in Agartala) in this state-level article. "Do" is empty. "Eat" and "Drink" are adequate, but "Stay safe" oddly omits information covered in the rest of the article about insurgencies and resulting danger for night travellers. "Go next" has information but could do with some reformatting for greater readability. Also needs a pagebanner, state map and photos. |
Union Territories (alphabetical order)
[edit]| Article | Status | To do |
|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | Usable | Pretty nice article that needs updating by someone who has been there since 2011. "See" and "Do" should be turned into good paragraphs, but the bulletted listings for things to buy are probably more helpful than anything using pure prose. The "Caution Note" in "Buy" must be explained: If people are trying to pass counterfeit for criminal reasons, would simply asking them to use valid bills work? If they're not, would it make them angry and hostile? Or are they doing it to entrap tourists on behalf of the local police force? Also, in the "Respect" section, conservative dress for women needs to be elaborated on. Are bikinis OK on the beach? If not, what? And outside the beach, should women wear ankle-length skirts? Knee-length? Should their entire arms be covered? But overall, this is a very good article, and I think we should aim to make it a Guide, but that would require all the listed "Cities" and "Other destinations" to be at least Usable, and some are red links.
Cities There is a discussion of articles linked from Andaman and Nicobar Islands#Cities at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The article for Port Blair is a good Usable article, and Guide status is clearly on the horizon if we're willing to do some work. |
| Chandigarh | Usable | If this extensive article is improved to Guide status, it could be an interesting Destination of the Month because of its unusual modernist architecture. However, it still has pretty far to go before it can be a Guide. More comments at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Punjab. |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu | Outline | This regional Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu article is quite sparse, and the two components have been nominated for separately being breadcrumbed to Gujarat, but so far, nothing's been done. Dadra and Nagar Haveli had really bad formatting problems, but thanks to some excellent cleanup by User:Matroc and the addition of a dynamic map, it looks much better, though it's still an Outline. The Daman city guide is a bit more filled-out; Diu is better and could be made Usable without too much trouble. If turned into a Guide, Diu could be an interesting Off the Beaten Path feature. |
| National Capital Territory of Delhi | Guide | Delhi is a Union Territory, but of course we treat it as a city and it's one of the most important cities in India. The most pressing issue in regard to Delhi right now is how to district the city. There's a lot of good content, but it can't all remain in what will become the main article. If you have an opinion about where the district boundaries should be, please discuss it at Talk:Delhi. |
| Jammu and Kashmir | Outline | There are 5 "Other destinations"; some have more than 1 line of description, but only one currently has its own article. Jammu and Kashmir#See should be a prose summary, not a rather long list of bulletted entries. Jammu and Kashmir#Eat should be an introduction to Kashmiri cuisine, not a disorderly list of places to eat. In addition, there is room for some more photos of this spectacular state. Finally, the article has no state map.
Regions Jammu Division has very little content, but Kashmir Valley has a lot of content and nice photos. Cities There is a separate chart of city article statuses at Wikivoyage:India Expedition/Jammu and Kashmir. All the rest of the city articles are Outlines at various stages of development. Jammu is an important centre of Hindu pilgrimage, so improving that article to Usable should be a fairly high priority. Srinagar and Jammu are both close to Usable now, so it would be great to advance both those articles' statuses. |
| Ladakh | Usable | Ladakh is extremely informative, though it could use a thorough copy edit and some reduction of text that could be only in bottom-level articles. Leh is a strong Usable article, and it would be great to turn it into a Guide and nominate it for Off the Beaten Path because it's a unique, beautiful and safe destination. |
| Lakshadweep | Usable | As there are no separate articles for individual islands or towns, this is something of a hybrid between a regional and city article, and needs and has individual listings. Like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands article, it needs an update from someone who's been there since 2011. It also needs a clearer map, and more pictures would be nice. |
| Pondicherry (union territory) (Puducherry) | Extra-hierarchical region | This territory is too scattered for it to make sense for it to have its own article, so now it's an extra-hierarchical region.
On the other hand, there's the Pondicherry article that's actually about the city of the same name, which is Usable and in much better shape. It's a nice article through "Get around", but "See" is only partly fleshed out and partly just a list of names, with no further info about most of them. "Do" is looking better. "Buy" gives the reader some ideas but doesn't direct him/her to any particular part of town. "Eat" and "Drink" sections are now alphabetized. "Sleep" sections are now alphabetized, too, but need to be checked for listings that are actually in Auroville — if any remain — and updated as necessary. The article should be thoroughly geocoded, copy edited with a fine-toothed comb and brought up to Guide level. Pondi city might be a decent Otbp feature if the article were improved sufficiently (which would take a fair amount of work). The Auroville article is Usable, is an interesting counterpart to this one, and it should probably be improved concurrently with the Pondi article. Its usefulness is actually quite limited, as many establishments are named but with no location, contact information or opening hours mentioned. |