Wikivoyage:Travellers' pub

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Topics chosen and being edited by my students

The list should be mostly complete (not all students have chosen the topic, despite the deadline for the choice having passed over a week ago...). Feel free to watchlist those (as they will likely see some newbie mistakes). If you make changes/fixes, it is good to explain them in an edit summary so that the student can learn (I encourage my students to review the history of those pages and read edit summaries).

• Aletai
• Andong
• Burqin
• Dangjin
• Danyang
• Dazu
• dongying
• Emeishan
• Fuding
• Garzê
• Gonjiam District of Gwangju (Gyeonggi) and merged and redirected to that article.
• Hanzhong
• Hongseong
• Jincheng
• Jining_(Shandong)
• Jishou
• Libo County
• Luzhou
• Menghai
• Mohe
• Nonsan
• Pocheon
• Pu'er
• Putian
• Pyeongtaek
• Ruili
• Sanmenxia
• Seoul/East
• Seoul/North
• Shangrao
• Siheung
• Suqian
• wuhai
• Yanbian
• Yancheng
• Yangjiang
• Yangju
• Yecheon
• Yuzhou
• Zibo

Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 07:48, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

謝謝 for the heads up. For those who don't know, you can temporarily add pages to your watchlist, so the watching expires after x days. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 11:21, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

@Piotrus: If only we could have timed your students' writing to coincide with the Wikipedia Asian Month - Wikivoyage Special Edition! OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 02:54, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

@OhanaUnited If I read that page correctly, it starts in November and continues for a month? The class will still be active during that period. Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 07:26, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

It's actually two months, from November 20, 2024 and January 20, 2025. So your class will have ample amount of time to participate, if you and they wish. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 18:46, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

@Hanyangprofessor2: I am getting really fed up with your students making the same mistakes over and over again. I am doing my best to coach them on their talk pages, but many of them just ignore what I write. I support using Wikivoyage as a learning tool, but your students must respect other members if the community. It is time for you to have a talk with them, or start paying us to be your teaching assistants. Ground Zero (talk) 03:17, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

@Ground Zero Students will be students; some will not listen (read...); others simply won't understand the instructions. I appreciate you providing feedback to many, but if you find it troublesome, feel free to ignore them - you are not required to be my teaching assistant, as much as, again, I appreciate your efforts. If a student keeps ignoring advice despite being repeatedly asked to fix an error and repeats it, being disruptive, feel free to block them (after, preferably, giving them a last warning and pinging me regarding this). Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 07:25, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

@Hanyangprofessor2: your goal is to use Wikivoyage as a teaching tool for your students. Our goal is to build a useful travel guide. How can we work together to achieve both goals?

Wikivoyage isn't a playground where they just just do whatever they want and walk away. It is a community project. Ignoring your students' errors doesn't achieve either of the goals we have. I don't understand why you would suggest that. And it isn't going to happen.

We want to use your students' contributions to improve Wikivoyage -- and most of them do -- and that is why other editors and I coach them. You can see our coaching on their talk pages and on article talk pages.

But when they ignore the advice and assistance they are being given and continue to make the same errors, they are being disruptive and creating ill-will. This is true of any community project, or any job they may have in the future.

Following your advice, we will revert your students' edits and block them from editing rather than let them mess up our travel guide. This isn't constructive activity, though, for us or for your students: it takes up our time while not improving Wikivoyage. But where the time we spend coaching is also being wasted, it is the better option.

Where you can help avoid this wasted effort for both parties is by making it clear to them that if they are going to use Wikivoyage as a learning tool, they have a responsibility to the other members of the community. And the same is true for you, professor. Ground Zero (talk) 13:48, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

GZ, I think the point is that you don't have to be the one to fix the students' (or any other newbies') problems. If you don't want to do it, then leave it alone and let someone else do it. What's not so helpful is for us to clean it up before he has a chance to do it himself, and then complain that he didn't do the work ...because we didn't wait long enough for him do it.

The page views for most of these articles is a couple of readers per day. That means that most of the time, we have an average of 8 to 24 hours to fix any problems before anyone will see them. We don't need everything to be perfect instantly. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:53, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

@User:WhatamIdoing, I don't think your criticism is fair. If I clean up an article to demonstrate to a new editor how things are done, I don't complain about them not doing it. There are students whom I have asked to fix their errors and who have done so. That is a success. And then there are students who ignore the requests by experienced editors to fix their mistakes. I usually wait a week or two (which is a lot more than 24 hours), and watch to see if they are making new edits. Some of them do not fix their mistakes, and continue to make the same mistakes in new edits. I think it is fair to address the problem of these students with their professor. Ground Zero (talk) 00:27, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

@Ground Zero I am afraid I don't understand your point. I tell my students to follow best practices, which are linked to, explained and demonstrated in class on many occasions, and I provide them with feedback. Some of them, however, will not listen, nor learn, and will try to cheat (newsflash: some students use AI generators for content or even discussion... welcome to ChatGPT era, sigh), etc. They are students, and not all students are good. A minority will fail the class, and unfortunately cause trouble for us - just like a minority of non-student editors will. What do you expect me to do? I cannot force the (bad) students to fix things if they don't want to. If the edits of the worst students are net negative, they should be reverted and the students who refuse to heed up repeated warnings should be blocked, just like disruptive regular users. I expect the students to get no special treatment outside (I think it is not too much to ask for) a courtesy ping to me, their instructor, in relevant discussions, so I can be aware of what is going on, and I can reinforce your message (but please don't block them without waiting a week or two to see if the issues are resolved, and note that while I try to watchlist various user and article talk pages, I can occasionally miss something, so pinging me is very useful for ensuring I am aware of the issue and can step in). Anyway, at the end of the day, I think the students create net positive value for Wikivoyage, so the assignment is welcome here? PS. As some of you know, the text of my Wikivoyage assignments is available at my userpage (User:Hanyangprofessor2; to be moved to a subpage in the near future). Feel free to suggest any rewordings, revisions, new activities, etc. Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 02:13, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

@Hanyangprofessor2: unlike regular disruptive editors, your students create a problem for Wikivoyage because there are so many of them, and there is a significant proportion who ignore requests to fix their errors and keep making the same errors. Here are some of them: User talk:Guoying1, User talk:Parksungeun, User talk:Ysrfield, User:CHEN HEBING and User:LJY2455 (see Talk:Suqian), User talk:Dbinni, User talk:SHENZIHE, User talk:SongHyeonmin2020007129. We put a lot of effort into coaching your students, because they are students who are working in a second language, but we have no way to reach them outside of talk pages. You do have another way to reach them, and that is why we are asking for your help. If your approach is to say, "I do what I can, but it's not my problem", then I guess our response should be to spend less time coaching, and just revert and block. One request for changes, and then I'll block. Ground Zero (talk) 13:56, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

Wikivoyage 12 planning

Hey everyone! Wikimedia Small Projects and the Wikipedia Asian Month User Group are teaming up again to throw a contest to celebrate Wikivoyage's 12th anniversary with the Wikimedia family. As part of Wikipedia Asian Month, we’re excited to kick off something special called Wikivoyage Asian Month from November 20 to January 20, where we’ll focus on improving or creating content about Asian destinations.

You can find all the contest details on this page. Just like with the Wikivoyage 10 contest, each community needs to have at least three judges and can decide if they want to stick to the global scoring criteria or come up with their own (just keep in mind that local criteria can’t be lower than the global ones). It’d be great to whip up a list of top places to create or enhance.

This year, we also want to include other communities, like frwikivoyage, itwikivoyage, ruwikivoyage, dewikivoyage, jawikivoyage, and zhwikivoyage. If anyone who speaks those languages could help promote this initiative, that would be awesome!

Feel free to hit me up with any questions you have about it. Let’s use this discussion space to figure out what method to go with (WAM usually uses Fontaine, so we might want to stick with that).

Best, Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 05:39, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

I'll be available this summer (southern) and am more than happy to volunteer as a judge if it's needed. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 05:40, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

@Galahad, do you have someone lined up to create a CentralNotice banner? As I recall, that was the biggest hurdle last time.

Based on prior experience, especially the amount of time involved for judges, I think that we need to have very few categories, and only automated criteria (e.g., the tools automatically count up the number of edits, and judges manually subtract out any identified bad edits). WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:14, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Past experience suggests that purely automatic criteria is a bad idea. It is Ok to use automatic qualifying criteria, but prizes should only be given at the judges discretion. We have had contests in past where the same 1000 bytes (eg detailing the mobile phone operators) have been added to tens of articles. We don't want "1 point for each 2000 bytes added to an existing article" to result in loads of articles getting the same boilerplate text. AlasdairW (talk) 22:02, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

I strongly agree with AlasdairW on this. Ikan Kekek (talk) 00:06, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

+2 – most of our problem expeditions stem from a broad automatic criteria. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 00:19, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

I also don't want to see "1 point for each 2000 bytes added". I would like to see automatic (or nearly automatic) criteria like "Most number of unreverted edits" or "Most number of days edited" or "Most listings updated" (the latter being detectable through the "Updated listing for..." edit summary, though it'd be nice to have the Special:Tags system tag the use of the listing editor).

And I would like the list of criteria to be short, so the judges don't have to check 20 different things. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:36, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Merely updating a listing is not necessarily good, if it's done in order to tout, involves adding default address info, makes it more encyclopedic, etc., etc. I oppose any automatic criteria. The judges need to take the time to personally review everything. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:23, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

I can assist with zhwikivoyage and judge. I think we can use the same criteria as the edit-a-thon in 2018. You can only get 1 point per article, not the "1 point per 2000 bytes added". And disqualify copying & pasting the same content across different pages. These rules should eliminate the boilerplate text problem. Recognizing that some of the contents can be out-of-date, removing inaccurate information should also count (but I am not sure if any tools can be used to count "subtraction" as improvement automatically). OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 22:15, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

I like the rules for the edit-a-thon 2018. But if it is to be held globally, the byte count should be changed (or removed) for different languages because of both an issue of byte count per character (ex. each Japanese characters have three bytes) and an enrichment issue for existing articles.

Also, I think it would be difficult to count minor corrections and subtractions; it would be easier to judge to focus only on the addition and creation of articles.

BTW: I can help judge on jawikivoyage though it is a small community if the contest is held there as well. It would be exciting if we could attract users from jawiki, where many users participate... Tmv (talk) 13:01, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

@WhatamIdoing: I can ping some admins to prioritize the banner request.

@OhanaUnited & @Tmv thanks! Please can you translate the message I posted and preferably ping me so I can provide assistance.

When it comes to global criteria, each community has the freedom to establish local criteria that suit their unique needs—this flexibility is what makes the contest so great! Ideally, we want to keep the criteria consistent, simply adjusting the requirements as necessary. It’s also crucial to leverage the content gap criterion to help prioritize our efforts; for instance, in eswikivoyage, we’re focusing on boosting our coverage of Japan destinations. Best, Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 01:00, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

You need someone with translation rights to mark the page eligible for translation. Otherwise we can't translate the message on Meta. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 02:06, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

No harm in asking a TA to mark it for translation (even us ordinary Meta admins cannot do this). --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 02:19, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

@Tmv Thanks for translating the Japanese page. Is there a local page on jawikivoyage like this? We want to add ja to the participating communities table. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 06:12, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

@OhanaUnited (and other members) Hello, I'm afraid to have no reaction by Japanese community. I am not comfortable to proceed on my own, so we will pass this time. Please feel free to call Japanese community if you hold the next one! We will be supposed to be ready. --Tmv (talk) 10:54, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

No problem. Please encourage anyone to participate in English, Chinese or Spanish competition. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 05:34, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

I think there isn't any major technical problem with the byte count for Japanese: Japanese characters use more bytes but also convey more meaning (Russian would have the problem). Anyway, isn't the competition language specific? The more severe problem of encouraging fluff remains. –LPfi (talk) 10:05, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Creation of stub articles has been a problem. If article creation is to be counted, then I think there should be a requirement of the article reaching usable status. Adding listings (appropriate ones with sufficient information) to articles seems to be among the most important tasks; although perhaps only those in bottom-level destination articles with a lack of them in the section concerned should be counted. –LPfi (talk) 10:12, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

You're obliquely making an important point: templated listings in non-bottom-level articles are usually problematic and should not be rewarded. That said, I think that any useful listings put in the right place should be appreciated and credited, not only those on otherwise blank pages. Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:16, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Maybe I could suggest the removal of points for incorrectly formatted articles such as the example you brought up? (e.g., -5 points for each templated listing in a region article where it is not supposed to belong) It would have definitely helped for the Nigeria and Africa Expeditions were this a thing. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 11:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I think there shouldn't be punishments for good-faith edits; not giving points for possibly problematic edits, good or not, instead directs participants toward those that are easy to judge. By counting only the first listings in a section, we'd avoid long lists in big cities.

If there already are 3, 5 or 9 eat listings, adding another grill kiosk helps little; better add the first or third listing to some badly underdeveloped city article. Whether that grill kiosk is worth listing is a matter of judgement, which takes judges' time and can create frustration for the participant who added it in good faith.

–LPfi (talk) 11:51, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

If you're suggesting a full hard-cap on points for listings (such as 9 for cities/parks in buy, eat, drink and sleep), I am all for that, as that avoids the listing copypasta we saw in the Africa Expedition. That said I don't think we should have one for see or do which I think is implied. SHB2000 (t | c | m) 11:54, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I did think about eat/drink/sleep, and you are right that there can be many more relevant see/do listings. There can still be a problem of long lists: adding all churches in Helsinki (taking info from the congregation pages, where it is readily available) shouldn't give more points than adding three listings to each of a dozen articles. There could be a cap at three similar listings or some such. –LPfi (talk) 15:31, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, true; I don't remember which expedition (or if it was with a specific editor), but there was one that added loads of boring municipal parks which would have the same intended consequence. Similarly, we also need to have provisions to ensure that listings such as WV:BORING (fast food joints) don't get additional points unless proven otherwise. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 21:40, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I'm in favor of adding a municipal park to pretty much every article; a free place to get some sunshine and exercise is useful for anyone with jetlag, and a playground is good for anyone traveling with little kids. I have fond memories of stopping at little city parks during family road trips when I was a kid. However, I don't think we need "loads of" them in any article, and probably not even three, unless they're very different (e.g., municipal playground vs municipal swimming pool vs municipal bike path). WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:44, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Sure, and more than one if they're particularly nice. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:57, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I am too – they're a great place to unwind at the end of a day; I only have an issue with excessive municipal parks. SHB2000 (t | c | m) 02:31, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Is this possible to be held at Wikimedia Incubator? Veracious (talk) 09:26, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

@Veracious: Absolutely! The Wikivoyage community in the Incubator is more than welcome to join in! Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 06:28, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

@Galahad Does the event starts at 15 January 2025? Maybe there's a little chance for idwikivoyage to join the party as a newly-hatched project. Veracious (talk) 04:37, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

That would be really nice to see; hopefully LangCom approves idwikivoyage, it's nearly there and can't see much getting in the way of things. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 04:42, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

@Veracious: The dates are fixed. You can, however, extend the duration of the contest on idwikivoyage. Best, Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 22:00, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

The global page is already set for translation. With just 25 days to go, it’d be great to get the local pages ready with the judges and local criteria (or decide if you wanna stick with the global criteria). Best, Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 00:15, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

With just 15 days to go, do we need to set up a registration/sign-up page? OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 22:08, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

Page on eswikivoyage created! Make a page like the one for every local edition of Wikipedia Asian Month (check out the ones on Wikivoyage 10 for both eswikivoyage and enwikivoyage, for example). Also, set up the boards in Fontaine after we figure out if we're going with the global or local criteria. Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 05:21, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

enwikivoyage and zhwikivoyage pages are also ready (I relied on your Spanish page as source for translation, so please double check the English version for accuracy). OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 07:02, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

Can we get someone to be enwikivoyage judge? OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 06:04, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

@SHB2000 wanted to volunteer as a judge for this edition. Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 15:54, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Yep, can confirm. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 20:36, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

@Galahad I'm actually in favour to create a local sign up table like this (for English) and this (for those using global criteria) instead of using the Fountain. It's far easier to summarize the result without having to click through every article to figure out which country it is from (and identify any non-Asian countries). OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 06:00, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

While I have no problem with it, each community should have its own way of judging articles (if enwikivoyage and zhwikivoyage think it is optimal to use a table, great). The important thing is that when judging, the global criterion is used (or the local one, if the community discussed it). On eswikivoyage, fontaine will be used for its practicality. Best, Galahad (sasageyo!)^(esvoy) 06:26, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Stage stations

I'm just putting this out here for a potential travel topic. In the past, when people had to ride horses to travel long distances, there would be places where they could change horses to continue the journey once their horse got tired. With such an article we could cover both the caravanserai of the Middle East and North Africa, and the shukuba of Japan. There are also a few such places in China that have been preserved, and I think the U.S. may have some such sites as well. The dog2 (talk) 02:25, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

The U.S. absolutely had them, and there are some existing stagehouse inns and restaurants at some of the places on stagecoach routes where people and horses got refreshments and rest. Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:38, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

King's Road (Finland) mentions a number of inns that have survived in some form. I suppose they served a role similar to the stage stations (by letting passengers rest), although the system I know about here was a farmhand driving horses of the farm to the next farm in the system – I don't know whether the inns represent the same period. w:Coaching inn says those performed the same functions as the American w:stage stations. w:Stagecoach seems to concentrate on England, but mentions several other countries. Also w:Mail coach is probably relevant. I suppose there is a host of Wikipedia articles also on the eastern systems. –LPfi (talk) 14:30, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

For Japan there is a Wikipedia article on Shukuba (宿場), which was the Japanese equivalent during the Edo Period. In Chinese, they are called 驛站 (yìzhàn), and some of the ones in China have been preserved to the present day. There is not much information on them in English, but there are travel articles in Chinese about some of those you can visit. If we create such an article, we need to think about what to call it. "Stage station" is one name, but you may also encounter "relay station" or "post station". The dog2 (talk) 15:11, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Lion and Lamb, a former coaching i in Farnham, Surrey

There are many coaching inns throughout Europe. The give-away is usually a large door which lead to a courtyard. In the picture to the right (which shows a former coaching inn that dates back to the sixteenth century, the doorway is below the gable). The Wikipedia article scarcely does justice to the topic. Since coaching inns were used to change horses, they were seldom more than 10 km apart and many market towns had clusters of coching inns. I found an academic article about English coaching inns which gives more information here. From what I have seen in France and Germany, similar coaching inn networks exsist there as well. Today, some of these coaching inns are still hotels where patrons park their cars in the former coachyard. Others, such as the Lion and Lamb in Farnham (see illustration) have been repurposed - in this case, the courtyard is an open pedestrianised precint with a number of coffee shops. Martinvl (talk) 12:44, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

We already have an article about The Tokaido Road and many more could be made, so I don't see an issue with making more in Japan or the equivalent in other countries. Are you suggesting making a parent article that lists similar places worldwide that we don't have articles for? I don't see an issue with that either. I don't know if we have any articles to put in it at the moment outside of Japan (Magome and Tsumago are articles specifically about individual post towns), but it's a legitimate travel topic. In Japan they seem to be consistently translated as "post towns" or "post stations" in English. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 03:55, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

In the United Kingdom, the word "Post Town" has nothing to do with travelling, but is tied up with the postal service. The United Kingdom has about 1500 post towns. When mail is being delivered, it is first delivered to the main postal sorting office in the post town and from there it is either delivered to the recipient or to a subsidiary sorting office in a neighbouring town or village for futher sorting and delivery.

As regards your initial question, I was thinking in terms of an article that described a typical coaching inn, but with your suggestion, such an article could include a list of roads that have many coaching inns. Martinvl (talk) 18:02, 30 October 2024 (UTC)

See also Caravansarai. Pashley (talk) 17:32, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

Switching to the Vector 2022 skin: the final date

A two minute-long video about Vector 2022

Hello everyone, I'm reaching out on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Web team responsible for the MediaWiki skins. I'd like to revisit the topic of making Vector 2022 the default here on English Wikivoyage. I did post a message about this two years ago, but we didn't finalize it back then.

What happened in the meantime? We built dark mode and different options for font sizes, and made Vector 2022 the default on most wikis, including all other Wikivoyages. With the not-so-new V22 skin being the default, existing and coming features, like dark mode and temporary accounts respectively, will become available for logged-out users here.

If you're curious about the details on why we need to deploy the skin soon, here's more information

* Due to releases of new features only available in the Vector 2022 skin, our technical ability to support both skins as the default is coming to an end. Keeping more than one skin as the default across different wikis indefinitely is impossible. This is about the architecture of our skins. As the Foundation or the movement in general, we don't have the capability to develop and maintain software working with different skins as default. This means that the longer we keep multiple skins as the default, the higher the likelihood of bugs, regressions, and other things breaking that we do not have the resources to support or fix.   Vector 2022 has been the default on almost all wikis for more than a year. In this time, the skin was proven to provide improvements to readers while also evolving. After we built and deployed on most wikis, we added new features, such as the Appearance menu with the dark mode functionality. We will keep working on this skin, and deployment doesn't mean that existing issues will not be addressed. For example, as part of our work on the Accessibility for Reading project, we built out dark mode, changed the width of the main page back to full (T357706), and solved issues of wide tables overlapping the right-column menus (T330527). Vector legacy's code is not compatible with some of the existing, coming, or future software. Keeping this skin as the default would exclude most users from these improvements. Important examples of features not supported by Vector legacy are: the enriched table of contents on talk pages, dark mode, and also temporary account holder experience which, due to legal reasons, we will have to enable. In other words, the only skin supporting features for temporary account holders (like banners informing "hey, you're using a temp account") is Vector 2022. If you are curious about temporary accounts, read our latest blog post.

So, we will deploy Vector 2022 here in three weeks, in the week of November 25. If you think there are any significant technical issues, let us know. We will talk and may make some changes, most likely after the deployment. Thank you! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 16:22, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

@SGrabarczuk (WMF), click here: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Grinnell?useskin=vector-2022 and take a look at the missing page title. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:35, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

I see it on desktop, it's in the pagebanner. Do you mean the lack of a "floating" page title bar? Using Template:Pagebanner seems to disable it. The issue is probably fundamentally with Extension:WikidataPageBanner and/or its CSS. There's an open bug report since 2022. Either that, or the floating bar hasn't been enabled for the main namespace. Daggerstab (talk) 09:31, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm primarily concerned about the big empty space that I've marked here. It looks odd.

Additionally, while I don't think we necessarily want "wide width", we might want a wider default, and to have these sidebars start off collapsed. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:52, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

That's an inevitable result of the Pagebanner extension suppressing the article title. And apparently it's made bigger by a placeholder box for the site notice? I don't know if the languages menu can be repositioned via CSS or some skin settings. Daggerstab (talk) 22:23, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

@Daggerstab, WhatamIdoing: I was already writing my thoughts in reply to the Pagebanner-Vector2022 compatibility, but I'll do that separately. The part of it that applies here, is that having the text size set as standard blows a lot of elements, and makes many others (like the pagebanner) considerably smaller in comparison, to where some templates are simply unusable. Setting the text to be 'small' instead, results in a version of Vector2022 that more or less everything we know and love from old-Vector, except styled it's like an early-2020s website instead of a late-1990s website.

― Wauteurz (talk) 22:38, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Reading this back, and Christ does it look like my head was turned off. None of what I said is really relevant to this discussion. My apologies for that.

I think I meant to raise the fact that, yes, MW:Extension:WikipediaPageBanner does conflict with Vector2022's floating title, and that a patch (Phab:T306744) is being worked on, seemingly close to being finalised. That said, I think my note of the small text setting making Vector2022 look more familiar to those still used to old-Vector does hold true. It distorts templates and extensions considerably less, but making the point here was a tad irrelevant. :)
― Wauteurz (talk) 22:18, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

That patch was me, BTW. I didn't wait until the weekend. Daggerstab (talk) 06:31, 9 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm still opposed to this change – what exactly has changed for Wikivoyage since. What you seemed to have mentioned in your post doesn't seem to resolve any of the Wikivoyage-specific issues. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 04:18, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I looked at the linked old discussion, and there seem to be no site-breaking issues. Some CSS changes might be necessary to preserve pagebanner height, and perhaps the skin's default page width should be set to "wide". The only major issue is the missing floating title bar, and it's mainly an issue because the button for unhiding the side menu goes there when the menu is hidden. (See my other comment about the pagebanner extension bug report.) Daggerstab (talk) 09:49, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

I did some technical investigation of the issue and posted a comment to that bug report. If nobody does anything until the weekend, I can actually go through the whole rigamarole of setting up a MediaWiki development environment and try to submit a fix myself. Daggerstab (talk) 12:18, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

SHB, the question here is what's going to change for Wikivoyage soon. If we don't switch, stuff's going to start breaking, and when we complain, they're going to say "Well, we told you that we weren't going to keep supporting that 15-year-old skin forever. It's your own fault if you decided to use old software after we warned you." WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:54, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Right, I see – doesn't help that we're considered an afterthought here. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 21:04, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

No, we're a "first thought"; that's why they're warning us in advance. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:44, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

If we were truly a first thought, the issues brought up would have been fixed 2 years back, not now. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 03:53, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

Asking out of curiosity more than anything, but what according to you are the issues that were brought up that haven't yet been fixed? I can't seem to identify ones that haven't yet been mended or at least touched on. The only things that I can see not having been addressed, weren't within Vector2022's scope to begin with.
― Wauteurz (talk) 22:11, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

I do prefer Vector2022 over old-Vector, but only once modified. My main grope with Vector2022 as it stands, is that it breaks all of Wikivoyage's UI and layout balance. This is because of two factors: Scaling, and compatibility. Scaling is an issue since Vector2022 blows up the proportions of UI elements to where there's barely any room left to fit content (as @WhatamIdoing's screenshot above demonstrates). Compatibility is an issue as Wikivoyage articles depend on MW:Extension:WikidataPageBanner, and it is not yet updated to be entirely compatible with Vector2022, although a patch fixing the lack of a floating bar is currently being tested. Floating the pagebanner at the top of the page in place of the floating title bar I don't think is a feature that's being worked on, but the TOC is in the sidebar anyway - so that's not much of an issue.

Also, I would implore anyone still against or on the fence about Vector2022 to use, to enable it, customise that scaling so it doesn't break every template's proportions, and use it for a week or two. Yes, it takes some time to find where things have moved, but you'll also find that having, for example, a TOS on the sidebar is a massive quality of life improvement.

I personally would only support Vector2022 being rolled out here once the floating bar is fixed (which shouldn't take that long), and if Wikivoyage's default appearance uses the 'small' text option so we don't have to rethink our whole layout as a result of Vector2022.

The way I see it, Vector2022 definitely is the way forward, and the skin doesn't need anything additional for us that I am aware of. But despite that, other extensions, modules, &c, that we use, are not yet fully compatible with it, so we're not in a position to make the switch yet. Give it a few more months, and we should be there.

― Wauteurz (talk) 23:20, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Excessive whitespace above the (hidden) title

The issue noticed by @WhatamIdoing above is partially caused by a placeholder that remains after the sitenotice banner is collapsed. On my display, it's 24 px high, either because it has a fixed height in CSS (which doesn't seem the case), or because it has some kind of actual content, a default banner - a div containing a "<!-- CentralNotice -->" comment. Someone with more user rights than me should look into that.--Daggerstab (talk) 09:28, 10 November 2024 (UTC)

Sign up for the language community meeting on November 29th, 16:00 UTC

Hello everyone,

The next language community meeting is coming up next week, on November 29th, at 16:00 UTC (Zonestamp! For your timezone <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1732896000>). If you're interested in joining, you can sign up on this wiki page: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/Community_meetings#29_November_2024>.

This participant-driven meeting will be organized by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Language Product Localization team and the Language Diversity Hub. There will be presentations on topics like developing language keyboards, the creation of the Moore Wikipedia, and the language support track at Wiki Indaba. We will also have members from the Wayuunaiki community joining us to share their experiences with the Incubator and as a new community within our movement. This meeting will have a Spanish interpretation.

Looking forward to seeing you at the language community meeting! Cheers, Srishti 19:55, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

The new skin

Really does a disfavor to Wikivoyage I think. I feel strongly that the banner set the mood for the entire article, and it's so de-emphasized now, shrunk to oblivion in a lot of cases, at least on desktop. There is nothing practical about this post, just a whine. Brycehughes (talk) 03:55, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm with you mate – Vector 2022 has so many issues that it's never the same anymore. I just use Vector 2010 globally but I do recognize that unregistered users don't have this option. If only the WMF cared about us... SHB2000 (t | c | m) 04:43, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Yeah and unregistered users are who we want to appeal to. We're not Wikipedia (age old gripe, I know). It sucks because we had this brand appeal and this new skin really devalues it. Crazy idea but could we... uh.. opt out of the default skin? Brycehughes (talk) 04:52, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Good idea! I was suddenly surprised by it. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:18, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

The banner partially defined Wikivoyage, am I right? It set the tone for every article that had one, and every article that didn't have one longed for one. I'm wondering if I should make a new non-gripe post. I think just for our viability we should go back to the old skin, set that as the default for all readers. Brycehughes (talk) 05:24, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Specially for people who cannot easy change to a totally new user-interface, 2022 is a problem. What used to be "go to A, then press B, and you are there"; now it is "go to P, open submenu Q, then press R, and you are there". FredTC (talk) 05:53, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

FredTC I'm sorry what do you mean? What is A/B, P/Q/R? Brycehughes (talk)

One I remember (but there are more) is "go to the top of the page, then press Preferences, and you are there", which is in 2022 "go to the top of the page, then open the submenu that is under the puppet, then click Preferences, and you are there". --FredTC (talk) 06:11, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Yeah I agree but that is more like habituated user/editor stuff. I'm just talking the general/market appeal of this website. The new skin scrapes that away. Brycehughes (talk) 06:44, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

@Ikan Kekek: If you want the 2010 skin back right now, go to Special:GlobalPreferences#mw-prefsection-rendering and click "Vector legacy (2010)" – if you just want it on the English Wikivoyage (and not other sites including enwiki or Commons), follow the same but on Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. Let me know if you need any further help with this. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 07:27, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

I would rather the old skin be the default for all readers. Is there a way to make that happen? Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:12, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

That would've required us to oppose at #c-SGrabarczuk_(WMF)-20241106162200-Switching_to_the_Vector_2022_skin:_the_final_date; seems no one took my concerns seriously. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 08:20, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Rejection of Vector2022 wasn't within the list of available options in that thread. Yes, we are being force-fed the change, I can agree on that much, but only about that much. I would say we've shot ourselves in the foot (if not both feet) by ignoring Vector2022 up until now. It was posed as the new definitive look of Wikimedia projects from the get-go. We knew this was coming but didn't want to believe it.

Furthermore, we've had about two years to make ourselves ready for this skin. To have Vector2022 on Wikivoyage be optimised and configured to where it works with our visual brand. Did we? I think this discussion and the one from a few weeks ago show that we haven't. Vector2022 will be here to say, whether we like it or not. Whine your heart out for a week, and after that... The skin seems plenty modifiable and brings genuinely useful changes, so why don't we give it a shot? Try to make it work for us?
― Wauteurz (talk) 13:06, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm of the belief that it should be up to the WMF developers to make sure a site (or a major component of it) literally doesn't break, not us as volunteers, which the WMF failed to do. SHB2000 (t | c | m) 22:51, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

In principle, they could have been more involved at the very least, yes. Still, WMF hasn't been very dedicated to communicating with us, aside from posting announcements here and the occasional "I'll relay this". In hindsight, I'd still say that we should've picked up on this happening at some point down the line, and taken action ourselves. Wikivoyage is a collaborative effort, after all.

At the end of the day, we as editors value Wikivoyage more than anyone developing skins for WMF would. To them, we're just another stubborn client. We can be sour about that all we want, but that solves nothing. Just letting it be will probably just bring damage to Wikivoyage's readership in the long run...

I say we swallow this bitter apple, and work on modifying the CSS files mentioned below to where Vector2022 can be used here in a way that we're happy with. That might possibly be worth coordinating through something like the UX Expedition, so we can manage wishes and solutions clearly? ― Wauteurz (talk) 23:28, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, while the WMF did poorly handle this, I think your solution is the best course of action for now. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 23:47, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

What about changing MediaWiki:Common.css and adding e.g. ".wpb-banner-image { min-height: 250px; object-fit: cover; }" ? We can surely skin WV to our preferences, no? You can first try to modify it locally (either via DevTools, or via Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering -> "Custom CSS"), and then we can vote what mods we can do globally... -- andree 09:04, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

I think the WMF folks made it obvious in the discussion above that we cannot opt out – they will not maintain old skins for general use. Users with accounts can set their skin in their preferences (I still use Monobook), but the worry is about casual or otherwise non-registered users.

We could tweak Common.css, but it might be difficult to change the banner width without breaking things (like hiding important menus at some browser window sizes or on some devices). If somebody feels confident, then absolutely, give it a try.

–LPfi (talk) 10:33, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

How about just modifying Vector2022-specific things in MediaWiki:Vector-2022.css? Documentation (of some sort) can be found here. Furthermore, some userscripts that can inspire how we end up implementing Vector2022 can be found here.
― Wauteurz (talk) 12:44, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

I have been tweaking my own instance of Vector a bit tonight. If anyone wants to take it for a spin, go to Special:MyPage/common.css and insert the following two lines:

/* Importing Wauteurz' common.css */

@import url('https://en.wikivoyage.org/w/index.php?title=User:Wauteurz/common.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css');

Please note the assumed configurations of Vector 2022 listed at the top - You'll have to set those yourself.

It makes some minimal changes that make Vector 2022 more condensed, and makes the sidebars more legible. It's a bit unorthodox, straight up breaking site notices, but it's mostly for illustration purposes anyways. :)
― Wauteurz (talk) 01:13, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

Making Vector 2022 work for us

Vector 2022 is probably here to stay, so it's better to make something of it rather than to just be miffed about it. I've added a section to the UX Expedition to track desired changes to the skin. My own CSS skills are rusty, and my JS skills are close to non-existent, so if you're able to help modify this skin, please chime in. If you have any issues with Vector, then please add them to the tasklist. For those just wanting some quick and dirty fixes and tweaks to Vector 2022 for the time being, feel free to use my common.css for yourself.
― Wauteurz (talk) 16:56, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

And, at the risk of being pedantic, all logged in users have five options for skins to use. I personally have been on MonoBook since it was introduced and have no problems with it. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:18, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

I don't consider it pedantic. However, Vector 2022 replaces Vector 2010, and switching back to it or any other available skin in response to that is like putting your head in the sand. The average reader of Wikivoyage will be presented with Vector 2022 whether we like it or not. Vector 2022 should therefore be the baseline for which we develop the website, and essential to that is that Vector 2022 looks and works the way in which we want it to. Of course anyone is free to choose whichever skin they want, and it's great that MonoBook works for you. The average reader though, isn't aware of the existence of skins. They'll assume that the site they're presented with, is the way it's meant to be. If Vector 2022 breaks things on Wikivoyage, then it's therefore in our interest to make Vector 2022 work, even if we do not use the skin ourselves.
― Wauteurz (talk) 17:48, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, of course, but I'm just responding to how you mentioned editing one's own common.css: that also by definition will not change things for other users. I'm just pointing out that if you personally want your own experience to be different and aren't someone who knows stuff about CSS or JavaScript, changing your skin will probably fix whatever problems you have with Vector 2022. To the extent that Vector 2022 is a problem for en.voy in general and not-logged-in users, there need to be different solutions, but this is a solution for logged-in users that is pretty frictionless. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 18:58, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

Ah, gotcha! I didn't catch that link myself. To be entirely clear about it: I'm working on some rough fixes in my common.css, but that doesn't mean that everyone should use it as their common.css. The talk page that it links to explains to either enable it in common.css, or vector-2022.css, as well as what differentiates them. If you plan to solely use Vector 2022 (like I have done for the past two years), then which one you choose doesn't matter. If you occasionally switch between Vector 2022 and another skin, then vector-2022.css should be the place to install it.

The eventual goal is to roll some of these fixes in my common.css, or more polished versions of them, into the site-wide vector-2022.css file, thereby making it a fix for all users. I mostly just linked that option because I reckoned there would be people out there that want to give Vector 2022 a shot. In that case, that stylesheet helps fix some of the most complained-about issues we currently have with Vector 2022. :)
― Wauteurz (talk) 19:27, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

Wauteurz My primary concern (currently) is the page banner image, and I think your tweak to it is a good compromise. Is there some place I can express my support for getting this change (at least eventually) incorporated? Brycehughes (talk) 23:41, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

@Brycehughes: Thank you! I cannot claim that banner tweak though. I've copied it from ButteBag's CSS files.

I've set up a vote here for pushing the changes to MediaWiki:vector-2022.css. The vote is on the entirety of changes in my common.css. If there's any changes in there that you don't agree with pushing, such as the visual tweaks for example, please mention them in your comment. We then won't push those, and we can have a discussion about those separately at a later stage.
― Wauteurz (talk) 00:22, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Wauteurz Cool! Thank you. I can set your css in this browsing window and then compare it with a private browsing window. Is the some article you can suggest that would allow a decent diff for many of your tweaks? Brycehughes (talk) 00:30, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

There isn't a singular page that shows everything. Tweaks to the header, sticky header, sidebars and footer can be seen on any page. TOC and Discussion Tools changes can best be seen in the pub. Some visual changes (like using stylistically consistent icons in pagebanners) can only be seen on previously featured articles. Other changes are only visible when logged in (Gold watchlist star, more prominent logout button).

In any case, I have made a summary of my changes. If you can't find any of them, let me know and I'll point you in the direction. ― Wauteurz (talk) 00:47, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Since my userpage uses a banner anyways, I've added the icons to it, so you can compare all of them. I'll quickly change the star as well. I'd forgotten about that one.
― Wauteurz (talk) 00:50, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Re: watch list gold star... it didn't used to be gold did it? What motivates the change to gold? I'm not opposed to it, just wondering if this CSS is more an attempt to restore 2010 feel or a package of other wishlist items. Brycehughes (talk) 00:56, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

It's one of the branding and colour changes. Those come in two varieties:

• Making Wikivoyage slightly more distinct from other Wikimedia projects. Our compass logo has nice arrows, so I used a singular one for the sidebar's TOC.
• Because I find Vector 2022 a bit bland with the blue-and-black-on-white motif. In response to that, I coloured some arguably important things like the golden watchlist star and big, fat, bold "Log out"-button.

Also, RE: Pagebanners. A better fix for its compatibility is still in the works for as far as I know. I don't think fixing it forever will have an effect if the extension likely will have been altered for the exact same purposes by next month.

Let's also not spam the Pub too much with questions about these proposed changes. Please start a topic on the relevant talk page if you have more questions, and I'll answer them tomorrow after I've had my beauty sleep :D ― Wauteurz (talk) 01:06, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Yep, no worries. Thanks for your answers on this. I generally I support changes that go back to the 2010 feel of this website (conservative is the name of the game usually here). I'm not sure I support newer differentiating tweaks so much (although I certainly don't oppose them... they're just unfamiliar). I can cast my qualified vote now. Thanks again and have a good sleep. Brycehughes (talk) 01:09, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

No worries! I get that the switch can be radical to some, and all change takes some time to get used to. Familiarity is something most people depend on, so we can't fault each other for that. Hence also why I don't really want to rush this, but give people time to adjust and see what they do and don't like. There's no rush to vote from my side :)

I'll probably make some comparison screenshots of every change between regular Vector 2022 and my alterations tomorrow so that even people who don't want to use Vector 2022 can have their say about the proposed changes. If an Admin or Bureaucrat can tell me whether I should upload those locally or on Commons, then that'd be appreciated.
― Wauteurz (talk) 01:17, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

A couple more things re banners. What is the current Vector2022 aspect ratio... did they keep it at 7:1? I see yours sets it to 5:1. In either case, I assume this means WV:BANNER needs to be updated from the 7:1 advice? (And what does this mean for all existing 7:1 banners? I assume object-fit:cover means that things won't look how they once looked... I think I see the trade-off hmm) Brycehughes (talk) 00:34, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

If it can, the banner will try to display at 7:1. It does so on my end anyway. I haven't checked if ButteBag's fix takes origins of the images into consideration, but assuming that it does, we can emphasise that people define the origin point for their banners, which can be done within the template itself. ― Wauteurz (talk) 00:37, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

I see: "at least a 5:1 aspect ratio"... I'm not clever enough with CSS to know how that works. I think that solution is as good as we can do and we'll need to publicize it. Brycehughes (talk) 00:46, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Democratic Republic of the Congo... the page banner there is still so sadly crowded and disappointing now. Anyway, I suppose this is just about cutting our losses. Brycehughes (talk) 00:54, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

Technical feedback

I left some feedback purely from a technical perspective User_talk:Wauteurz/common.css#Feedback_from_an_interface_admin. Jdlrobson (talk) 06:46, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

RFC: Enable responsive mode?

I'd like to propose making the Vector 2022 skin responsive. Most sites these days are responsive and the new skin responds well to being resized. The current experience of seeing a zoomed out version of the Vector skin is not great.

If you want to see what that experience looks like, please load https://wikifunctions.org on a mobile browser, which currently supports this mode.

Per wikitech:Wikimedia_site_requests this just needs a discussion and agreement to make the change. Not sure what consensus here would look like but happy to do one if that's the correct process? Jdlrobson (talk) 06:49, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

FYI: Fodor’s No List 2025

https://www.fodors.com/news/news/fodors-no-list-2025 —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 18:05, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

It seems like we can do more to build up the section on overtourism and call out particular locations that are negatively impacted. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 18:08, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

It's not just calling out destinations, but also travel practices that damage places and local economies. In the area of parks, too many parks are overdeveloped: should national parks really build more roads and camping areas with pull-through sites and hookups to accommodate huge RVs? Should we really keep mentioning Airbnb when cities around the world are considering regulations to ban (or at least curtail) its takeover of local housing for use as tourist rentals? Responsible travel means acknowledging that common travel methods can be damaging to local communities. I don't have a solution to offer, but I'm troubled that travel is increasingly becoming a villain rather than a force for understanding and tolerance. Mrkstvns (talk) 14:53, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

It sounds like there may be some tradeoffs. If travel is to be a force for understanding, then maybe staying in a rental house in an ordinary neighborhood is more effective than staying in a hotel in the business district.

I read some years ago a story about two men on a hike through a mountainous area where a new road was being considered. One was an environmental activist, and the other was a geologist. The environmentalist said that if people want to see these glorious views, they should hike up here on their own two feet. The geologist said that his wife was a wheelchair user. Should she not be able to see glorious views? WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:40, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

Vector2022, belaboured

I want to point anyone interested in the recent Vector2022 skin changes to this: User talk:Wauteurz/common.css#Support for site-wide integration. Wauteurz seems to have put a non-trivial amount of effort into implementing a set of tweaks to Vector2022 that help keep the both the usability and the spirit of this website alive, as well as a non-trivial amount of effort into making the tweaks understandable to us editors (via screenshots). I think they deserve our attention. Brycehughes (talk) 02:15, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the PSA, @@Brycehughes. I just want to add that this is a very non-trivial change. I know many of us hate Vector 2022, and have already set the old Vector as their default skin. I've no issues with that, but I would implore all of you, even those that hate Vector 2022 with a burning passion, to give Vector 2022, with and without these changes, the light of day. Our target audience sees Wikivoyage with this skin as per last week, so it's essential that it looks the way we want. If Vector 2022 remains as broken as it is, then I can see it driving traffic away from the site. And well, what's Wikivoyage without readers?

If anyone needs help with enabling Vector 2022, enabling my changes on your end, or anything else to do with this skin, then please find me on my talk page. Wikivoyage is our project, so it's in everyone's interest that Vector 2022 gets tweaked and fixed well, so I want to make sure everyone can formulate their own opinion about my tweaks by experiencing them for themselves.
― Wauteurz (talk) 09:09, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Seems like it's crickets so far, unfortunately. I've long thought this website pretty conservative when it comes to change (for good or for worse), but perhaps that's a misdiagnosis, because Vector2022 is pretty radical, and the conservative option would support a slight shift it back to how it was before. Yet, crickets. Perhaps it's less conservatism but more a "beauracratism"... acceptance and willingness to work within both that which has existed before and that which is bestowed from upon high. This isn't a criticism of this website (which I love), just an observation. It's too bad though – the new banner formats suck. Brycehughes (talk) 05:09, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm not sure how this was in the past (10-15 years ago), but it seems there are like 5-10 people discussing technical things around here, nowadays. So I'd say, the best strategy is to bring a feature up to a good quality, deploy it - and then gather feedback. Usually there will +- be none, unless you break stuff... -- andree 13:04, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up, I've left my votes there. I've been trying out the new skin for a while now, and over-all I've grown to like it. Dark mode is a game changer for me, so I'd gladly accept a few imperfections here and there - but the proposed adaptions alleviate some of those. El Grafo (talk) 11:27, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

I wrote this elsewhere, but if you want to improve Vector 2022 for Wikivoyage - particularly the banner, please create Phabricator tickets. This is how things get done and how developers hear about the problems that impact you.

The majority of tickets mentioning wikivoyage have been resolved:

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/search/query/AgRvywEVbccj/#R

Only three remain open and I am aware that one of those has an open patch.

Perhaps filing some tickets based on the conversations you are having now and issues you are finding will yield better results and get Wikivoyage back to where you want it to.

It might also be worth involving the views of other Wikivoyage language projects to see if these are English Wikivoyage specific gripes or Wikivoyage gripes.

The changes suggested to the banner itself by Wauteurz, look great FWIW and I don't see why those would be controversial if a developer posted a patch to the codebase. Jdlrobson (talk) 16:47, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

Destination dupes

In the context of overtourism and tourist traps, some travel media and influencers have suggested "destination dupes"; a similar but less visited alternative to a famous but overcrowded place; for instance visiting Bordeaux instead of Paris. Is this something for Wikivoyage? See here /Yvwv (talk) 03:08, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Sure, but though I haven't been to Bordeaux, I can't see how it could be close to a dupe of the much larger Paris that has the Louvre, the Orsay, the Orangerie, etc., etc. Is Indianapolis a dupe of New York? Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:47, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

I think the idea is sound and should probably be pursued by Wikivyoage, too, but I do agree that Bordeaux probably isn't a dupe of Paris. Though I don't know what led to this assessment, so I cannot judge on this specific case. PragmaFisch (talk) 09:01, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

What counts as a duple probably depends on what you're looking for. If your target is the Louvre, there may not be any suitable alternatives. If your target is a place that adores food and wine, then Bordeaux might be delightful. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:42, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

I think it's a good idea, and I think there are a few places a "dupe" can be mentioned in Wikivoyage's structure. For example, using Canyon de Chelly as a "dupe" of the Grand Canyon (similar beautiful scenery in the same region, but much less crowded): Canyon de Chelly can be mentioned in Grand Canyon#Go next or maybe Grand Canyon#Understand, as well as in relevant region articles (at least Northern Arizona and Arizona, and maybe higher-level region articles too. —Granger (talk · contribs) 14:25, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

On alternatives to Paris, I don't really think there are any closely comparable places, but Lyon and not Paris is considered France's greatest culinary city. However, in most other ways, I think it is a big come-down from Paris, though to be fair, I have yet to visit Lyon. It's just a lot smaller, and because power has been so centralized in Paris vs. les provinces for hundreds of years, the foremost museums and other cultural institutions have been placed in Paris by design, especially since the days of Napoleon. Someone who's been to both places could say whether the cultural institutions in Lyon are likely to satisfy someone who visits Lyon instead of Paris for a week or 10 days and wants to do something other than just concentrate on cuisine. Consider Italy and Germany by contrast as countries that weren't unified until the 1870s or the U.S., with its federal system of government (something in common with Germany) and several cities bigger and more important than D.C. in several spheres outside of federal institutions. For example, we could definitely consider Chicago as a viable alternative to New York as a place that can be visited for a week to 10 days, unless your main reason to visit New York is to go to a Broadway show (and even then, you can see shows in Chicago) or God forbid Times Square (could you be satisfied with Michigan Avenue on the Loop, instead?), and Munich is a viable alternative to Berlin, though very different and with not quite as diverse a complement of museums (but it's probably more touristy and certainly more expensive than Berlin). Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:53, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

Very few places in the Nordic countries are overtouristed; the Faroe Islands are a rare example. In general, big cities or purpose-built resorts tend to have better infrastructure to handle a larger number of tourists than a small town. In Stockholm, one street (Västerlånggatan) is overrun by tourists, but the Stockholm Main Street recommends the parallel street, Stora Nygatan, instead. /Yvwv (talk) 21:14, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

I think that in many cases a single city would not be a complete alternative. Either the alternative would work as a replacement for a 3-4 day visit to the overcrowded city, or would form part of a group of cities that would make an alternative.

For example, instead of visiting Edinburgh, go to the museums, music and parks in Glasgow, museums in Dundee, Stirling castle and Linlithgow palace. AlasdairW (talk) 22:21, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

While overtourism and domestic overcrowding are issues in many cities, they are rarely a problem in the whole city during the whole day. I visited Barcelona and stayed near Camp Nou between game days, and was nearly alone in the street. Travellers with a flexible schedule can easily avoid crowds. /Yvwv (talk) 00:12, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Late to the discussion, but what I'm getting from this is

• if you're after a specific attraction or museum, there may not be any suitable alternatives;
• if you're after something more generic, like food or beaches, suitable alternatives may be better.

Would this sum things up? --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 03:15, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

That sounds about right to me. I would include completely different countries in the "suitable alternatives". If you're after Italian weather, then parts of California, Australia, England, and South Africa would work for you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:25, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Good point – weather is a good one too. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 12:25, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

WhatamIdoing, there's really part of England that has weather like Italy? Where is that? By the way, lately, it's been absolutely impossible for me to edit this page from my iPhone. Pressing "reply" produces no response, and clicking the edit icon works only for the introductory section at the top of the article. Is anyone else having this problem when trying to edit this page with their iPhone? Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:27, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

According to the climatologists, Weymouth and Portland technically have the same climate classification ("csb") as much of Italy. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:21, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

@Trizek (WMF), have you tried to edit from the mobile site?

@Ikan Kekek, is it just this page? Is it just Wikivoyage? WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:24, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

It's just this page. Ikan Kekek (talk) 01:40, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I have had similar issues – I did try keep up with this page when I was away in the outback last week, but more or less gave up (especially with the poor connection). --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 01:48, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

The connection wasn't an additional issue in my case. Ikan Kekek (talk) 03:24, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I can't reply on this page using the mobile view, even with the safemode activated. We will investigate this, thank you for reporting. Trizek (WMF) (talk) 14:03, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

T376048 tracks the issue. Trizek (WMF) (talk) 15:20, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Guidelines on Wikivoyage

Hello All,

I am here to discuss the possibility of starting up some "community guidelines" here on Wikivoyage. We nat already have this, but the thing is simplicity. We want to make this simple for all ages, as we allow all ages on Wikivoyage. Please may an admin help me out in making this a possibility.

Thanks,

Rock RockTransport (talk) 16:15, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

We have community guidelines - for example: Wikivoyage:Keep Wikivoyage fun, Wikivoyage:Here to build a travel guide. And by the way, one of the facts about Wikivoyage is that admins have no special power or responsibility to create new policies; we just have some powers to enforce policies that have been agreed upon by a consensus of Wikivoyage users. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:02, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Wikivoyage:Policies has a section with community policies. --Ypsilon (talk) 19:27, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

Parking spaces

Where to list parking spaces in a city article, and should they be moved to districts for huge cities? WV:STICK says that "parking" goes under the "Get around" section of a city article, but does it refer to a general advice on parking, or listings of individual parking spaces? Also, while listing parking spaces is unnecessary for most cities where cars can be parked anywhere, there are cities that are chock-full of "No Parking" signs (or districts with alleys too narrow for cars to enter), and we have to list parking spaces for such cases. Sbb1413 (he) (talk • contribs) 05:17, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

I think "Get around" is typically the right section, both for individual parking lots and for general information about parking. Information about parking is usually part of information about how to get around a city by car. Exceptions include some articles where it's common to drive to the destination but move around within it on foot (San Marino, Disneyland); then it makes sense to put parking in "Get in". For advice about where to park for a specific POI, I would use the "directions" parameter of the listing.

Individual parking spaces are rarely worth listing, but individual parking lots, or areas with lots of street parking, can certainly be worth mentioning in small towns or places with limited parking. Gambier comes to mind; I added a marker for the town's main visitor parking lot because many of the other parking spaces there have a two-hour limit. —Granger (talk · contribs) 14:38, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

I agree that "Get around" is the right place. Might also consider mentioning alternatives to driving, such as parking in an outlying suburb and using Metro or other transit services to get into the downtown area. Mrkstvns (talk) 14:59, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

I'll use "Get around" to list parking spaces. Thanks for input. Sbb1413 (he) (talk • contribs) 13:01, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Let's Connect Program

Dear all,

I hope this topic finds you all well. My name is Gorana Gomirac and I am a part of the Let’s Connect working group. We are a team of 8 who represent: Latina America, MENA, South Asia, East, South East Asia, Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, Northern & Western region. If you are interested in participating in learning clinics , I welcome you to fill out this registration form. You will gain access to our monthly newsletter, our monthly learning clinics and even become a sharer where you and your community can give a workshop/learning clinic to our fellow Let’s Connectors. We look forward to include more topics about Wikivoyage so please feel free to reach out to us!

If you have any questions please email us at letsconnect@wikimedia.org Gorana Gomirac (VMRS) (talk) 12:59, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Student article in need of feedback

My students have been posting requests for feedback at Wikivoyage:Requests_for_comment#Status_assessment. Many got feedback already and I appreciate it (and I tell the students to act on it). A few are still waiting for feedback. The sooner they receive it, the better. Note that the course ends in late December and student motivation to fix anything will likely follow. Note that some additional requests for feedback could be made soon; the students were supposed to do this a month ago, but of course, some are completing the assignment late (sigh). Again, thank you everyone who offered feedback (in particular, @Ground Zero). Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 06:18, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

Can someone teach me how to make cool maps?

Or direct me to a guide about how to make colored districts overlays on the maps.

A student of mine managed to create a cool map for his city (Sanmenxia) - I have to admit I am not sure how to replicate what they did (I'd like to learn and then write this up as a to-do part of the next semester class). What I have can be seen in the sandbox:

User:Hanyangprofessor2/sandbox2

The student managed to achieve better results that what I am familiar with (in Ansan), and seemingly with less code (Ansan article has a bunch of GPS code at the bottom, which I assume defines the shape in the overlay; for Sanmenxia perhaps it is hidden in some template or in wikidata, and it is simply missing for the Ansan?).

In case it is not clear, I'd like to replicate the map from File:District_of_Ansan.jpg but in the form of a map overlay, rather than a picture. Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 07:13, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

@Hanyangprofessor2: It seems your student in the case of Sanmenxia used {{mapshape}} to replicate things, which uses Wikidata items linked to relations on OpenStreetMap. Just use {{mapshape|type=geoshape|wikidata=|fill=|title=}} as a general guide, filling out the Wikidata items with the Wikidata item of the district, fill with the colour (hex code), and title with a link to the article and it should appear. SHB2000 (t | c | m) 12:23, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

@SHB2000 Could you try to fix the code in my sandbox so that it works for Ansan and makes a pretty map? If I see how this is done, I hope I can understand how to do it again for other places. Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 01:52, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Where to go to submit/complete feature requests?

Hi all, I've been using wikivoyage while I backpack through Spain. There are a number of usability or UX issues that I'm repeatedly running into. At first I was planning on building a browser extension to make these modifications, but then I realized perhaps I can make these changes to the site itself?

To start off simply, I'm interested in making page sections collapsible, with a clickable button or icon next to their header text. For example, on the page for Girona, the map of the city is inside of the Get In section. I would like to be able to collapse the Get Around section so that it is easier to look through the items in the See section and cross-reference the city map.

I've looked around and I think this is an overall Wikimedia modification that would be necessary, not something that is Wikivoyage-specific? To what degree are Wikivoyage-specific changes possible? I've found this page on Phabricator, and it makes it sound like headings are already collapsible? Perhaps I am somehow using an outdated interface on Wikipedia when I view a page and there are no collapsible headers (outside of the left side contents pane). Is that where I should go to start discussing this feature request and my work in completing it?

TL/DR: seeking direction on how/where to begin contributing technically to Wikivoyage MappinWeeks (talk) 00:26, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Are you using the regular or mobile version of the site? I think collapsible sections are a feature of the mobile version, see https://en.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Girona. The recommended position for the map is in Get around, but this is optional, see Wikivoyage:Map. AlasdairW (talk) 05:38, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I've been using the desktop version of the site. I can use the mobile site moving forward. Thank you. I suppose I can submit a wish for the desktop version of the site to also have collapsible sections. MappinWeeks (talk) 23:51, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@MappinWeeks: If you want to submit ideas for new features, I think m:Community Wishlist would be your go-to. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 05:52, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Although it might make sense to ask here first, to confirm they aren't about your personal settings. On mobile, I get the sections collapsed by default; visiting the mobile site on desktop, I get them collapsible (even with Monobook); just using the mobile skin (Minerva) on desktop gives no collapsibility. –LPfi (talk) 10:02, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@SHB2000: Awesome, thank you. Lots to look through in here. MappinWeeks (talk) 23:54, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@MappinWeeks, since you can code, you might be interested in https://developer.wikimedia.org/

There are two 'sites' or ways of viewing Wikivoyage: One is en.wikivoyage.org and the other is en.m.wikivoyage.org ('m' for 'mobile'). If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, the very last words in the footer (down with the privacy policy and disclaimers) are a link to switch to 'Mobile view' or back to desktop view. The mobile site has collapsible sections. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:04, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@WhatamIdoing: Thank you for the link. I'm of the mind that desktop users should also have the ability to easily collapse sections on the site when they reach a page fresh from a search engine, but upon looking more into the decision making process of the Wikimedia foundation I feel like this may be a decision that has "already been made"? TBH my only experience with the wikis is reading WP and WV voraciously and occasionally fixing typo or grammar errors as I see them. Wading into the administration of everything has me feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the process involved. MappinWeeks (talk) 00:02, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Well, there are hundreds of thousands of people who contribute at least a tiny bit during the course of a year, so we've got to have some process.

I'm not sure this decision is carved in stone. It might be something that just hasn't been done yet. I think @SGrabarczuk (WMF) will know if there have been any recent discussions about collapsing sections on the 'desktop' site. I know that it was suggested for talk pages (e.g., like this one) in the recent past. WhatamIdoing (talk) 00:08, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks @WhatamIdoing for the ping. No, there has been no such discussion in the recent months. @MappinWeeks, I'm guessing that there may be different arguments for different Wikimedia projects; for example what's good for Commons may not be good for Wikivoyage or Wikipedia, and thus project-specific solutions may have lower chances of being built.

However! :D based on this conversation, we may document your idea to have it reviewed later. More people could also chime in and continue the topic. So MappinWeeks, could you elaborate on what problem you believe making the headers collapsible would solve? Let's focus on the problem itself. Thanks! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 01:23, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

So here's one thing: Being able to collapse sections means that you can get irrelevant or distracting bits off your screen. Here at Wikivoyage, we don't do animated gifs or videos, but collapsing a section that contains a large map might be useful. Alternatively, if you're trying to make a decision about where to sleep, collapsing everything else might make it easier to focus on what you're looking at (or what everyone else is looking at, if discussions about finding a hotel keep getting answers like "This restaurant sounds great" or "I'd like to go see that..."). WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:15, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

@SGrabarczuk (WMF) Sure, I can think of a few different problems. One is, as WhatAmIDoing mentioned, simply removing excess information. A true example that happened to me several times: I arrive to my hostel in say Sevilla, and pull up the Wikivoyage page for the city. Since I've already gotten to the city and to my accommodations, the sections for Get In and Stay are both ones that are of no help to me. I would simply ignore those. But a more pressing need, that I would actually use the browser web developer tools to remove DOM nodes, is what I mentioned above:

Let's say I'm looking at the page for Girona and trying to come up with a plan for walking the city and seeing the sights. I can't blindly use the items in the See section because if I go to all of them in order, there's a good chance that I will be walking back and forth across the city. To facilitate coming up with my walking itinerary, I will use the city map to see where all of these items of interest are. On the Girona page, the map of the city is inside of the Get In section. In order for me to switch back and forth between the items in the See section and the map, I need to scroll past the Get Around section entirely. This is where I would use Firefox developer tools to remove all DOM nodes from that section to make referencing back and forth easier. If the sections were collapsible on the desktop version of the site, this would be a lot simpler to handle.

The point that WhatAmIdoing brought up about having a group all looking at the screen together and unintentionally looking at the wrong sections is great, too. If you could collapse all of the sections except for the hotel or restaurant one, that could help making group decisions easier if you are viewing the page with a group.

@SGrabarczuk (WMF) I understand your point about changes for WV may not be helpful for other parts of the WMF. If something is decided to be implemented in only one site is agreed upon, how is the difference in code across sites accommodated? Also, what is the process for, or where are these technical direction decisions made? Is it all with Phabricator? MappinWeeks (talk) 00:47, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

The ability to focus on a single section should be good for some individuals, too (e.g., with ADHD or dyslexia). This will be more relevant on larger screens/devices than on smartphones. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:15, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

On desktop, one solution to MappinWeeks' scenario – the one I use – is to have the map in one window and the See in another (and perhaps Eat in a third one, partly obscured by See, switching between them as needed). For this to work, it is essential that the pages can be made narrow enough. –LPfi (talk) 10:22, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Article about a train station

What do we think of this? Please comment at Talk:London St Pancras International. Thanks! Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:33, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

I saw that discussion but decided to say nothing because I don't have a dog in the race and might like to see how the article pans out. My only fear is that once we have one train station article, people will start creating articles for smaller, less complex stations that ''are'' better covered within a city article's "Get In" section. Waiting and watching.... Mrkstvns (talk) 20:08, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Just like there's an article for Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza. But I don't think slippery slope arguments are a good reason to avoid helping travelers. We've mostly been able to keep obviously unnecessary airport articles off of articlespace, and in addition, just because we cover populated places which have sufficient interest to fill out an article hasn't meant that we've kept every stub about some obscure hamlet. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:23, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

University of Macau campus

I'm putting this out here because I'm not sure whether the talk page of the Macau article or the China article will be a better place to discuss this. The University of Macau campus is actually on Hengqin Island in Zhuhai, which is part of mainland China, but on special plot of land that has been leased to Macau. What this means is that Macau law applies there, and you need to pass through border control to access it from the rest of Zhuhai, but not from Macau. In fact, the campus is separated by electric fences and a moat from the rest of Hengqin island, so you will need to go through border control to access the shops and restaurants in Hengqin from the campus.

Based on this, I think we should now treat the University of Macau campus as part of Macau instead of mainland China, and re-draw both the Macau and Zhuhai maps to indicate that. The dog2 (talk) 18:52, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

If we're covering that university, it should be covered by the Macau guide, but no borders should be changed on maps. Why are we covering it, though? Ikan Kekek (talk) 18:58, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

It is technically Macau's top university, and some people might want to tour university campuses. But what I'm saying is that even though the campus is technically in Zhuhai, because the plot of land it sits on has been leased to Macau, you do have to pass through Macau immigration to access it from the rest of Zhuhai. Since WV's policy is to reflect the actual situation on the ground, we should re-draw the map to treat it as part of Macau, since it is for all intents and purposes part of Macau from the traveller's perspective. The dog2 (talk) 19:13, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

That's why it should be covered in the Macau articles, if it is to be covered. I don't see it being in mainland China making it relevant for Zhuhai, if you need a Macau visa. If it offers courses shorter than 12 months or student exchange semesters, then it can be listed in Learn (it is in Macau#Learn, but with no link to a proper listing, which probably should go into Macau/Cotai). I suppose it does, and I suppose those courses will make it attractive to some travellers, especially as the university's language seems to be English. LPfi (talk) 19:29, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Yes, you need a Macau visa to access the campus. You can't access it on a mainland Chinese visa, which is why I am saying that the map of Macau should be re-drawn to include the campus. I've only added a note in the Get Around section of Zhuhai that the campus is under Macau jurisdiction and you need to pass through border control to access it. The dog2 (talk) 19:40, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

We do follow de facto borders rather than strictly political ones, but there's no listing for that university on Zhuhai, so I'm not sure why we're discussing this.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 19:25, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

It is listed in the Macau article because the university is technically supposed to serve Macau. The old campus was in Macau proper, but they moved to a new and larger campus in Zhuhai in 2014, and ever since then, that plot of land in Zhuhai has come under Macau jurisdiction. The map of Macau as it currently drawn does not include the University of Macau campus, which is just south of the mainland end of the Lotus Bridge. You can see it on Google Earth, bound by the sea to the east, and by a moat separating it from the rest of Hengqin island. It is connected to Macau proper by a tunnel, and by a special access viaduct onto the Lotus Bridge. From the rest of Zhuhai, you will need to go to Hengqin Port and pass thorough border control to access the campus. The dog2 (talk) 19:37, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining. I understood the logistics, just not the reason for the discussion (it wasn't clear to the that the uni was covered at all on WV). But if the university is covered on the Macau articles (and it seems that it should be), then it should be present on the Macau map too. I agree with IK that messing with the borders is something we'd want to think twice about. The lack of physical border infrastructure between different European countries doesn't stop us mapping the borders as they are; we'd just need to explain the unique situation of this uni in the article text (and I think you just did so).--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 20:12, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Watch this video starting around 8:00. You can see the tall barbed wire fence with watchtowers separating the University of Macau campus from the rest of Hengqin. The dog2 (talk) 20:45, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Cool. I understand how it works, I just don't think we should be altering the actual border on the map, but by all means add the island to the Macau map and it would probably be appropriate to add the moat/fence.-- ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 21:14, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Pinging SHB2000 since he is usually the one who edits the maps. The dog2 (talk) 22:15, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Are we working with a dynamic or static map here? If it's the static map, I think @Shaundd: is a better person to ask – I suck at working with existing maps. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 22:18, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

I agree with Thundering. Cover it in the Macau guide (or better yet, the appropriate district article) but don't change where the boundaries are shown. Ikan Kekek (talk) 22:24, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ I have added a listing to the Cotai article, but because it is technically beyond the boundary of Cotai, it does not appear on the dynamic map. As for the static map, even if we don't change the official boundaries, I think we should have an indication on where the campus is. The dog2 (talk) 23:17, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

The reason it didn't show wasn't it was outside the area – there are often airports outside cities, which also show – but that "learn" isn't among the markers that are shown by default. I changed to "chocolate", which is less prominent than "listing"/"other", as this isn't an important marker for most. LPfi (talk) 08:06, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

How to get GPS coordinates?

I want to add a link to my guide for students at User:Hanyangprofessor2 but I can't find it easily. It's not under Wikivoyage:GPS, nor under Wikivoyage:Coordinates - those should be redirects to wherever we have something useful... Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 02:10, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

A possible guide is in: Wikivoyage:How_to_use_dynamic_maps#Gather_geo_coordinates, but it may not be the best. I tend to use what it gives as method 2:

1. On a desktop open the full page map using the icon at the top right of the page (the rightmost of the 3 icons there).
2. I often then select the Mapnik layer on the map which is displayed, as this has more sights, hotels etc marked by name.
3. Right click on the point of interest.
4. Select the lat/longs and copy them
5. Paste into the listing.

There may be other pages that give better guides, and there may be a better way of doing it on a mobile without actually going there. AlasdairW (talk) 04:41, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. For now I'll redirect the two shortcuts I suggested to that page, I recall seeing it before but I couldn't find it recently due to lack of said shortcuts... Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 07:37, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

@Hanyangprofessor2: I use Google Earth to get GPS co-ordinates. I position the cursor at the appropriate point on the map and read the values off at the bottom of the page. Google Earth can be confuigured to give either degrees and decimals of a degree of degrees, minutes and seconds. Martinvl (talk) 20:29, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

@Martinvl Nice, How to configure it to give WV-friendly numbers? I got (for example) 37°19'02"N 126°49'16"E Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 05:07, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

@Hanyangprofessor2: Select "Tools" from the Google Earth Pro toolbar, followed by "Options". Select the "3D View" tab and make your choice. Hope this helps. Martinvl (talk) 16:35, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

@Martinvl Thanks. Maybe you can add this as a how-to section to Wikivoyage:How_to_use_dynamic_maps#Gather_geo_coordinates ? Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 01:57, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

@Hanyangprofessor2: Done Martinvl (talk) 16:13, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

idwikivoyage

I noticed that nobody's brought this up here, but earlier this month, voy:id: was just launched, thanks to Veracious and everyone else who made it happen. Nice to see that some of the most-widely spoken languages in the world that previously didn't have a Wikivoyage project are finally getting one (I think from memory the only other big one was Arabic?). --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 23:53, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

I wish i could help Arabic Wikivoyage too. The problem is, I always got ISO error whenever i try to save my edits. Veracious (talk) 03:05, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

That's a bummer :(. Looking at w:en:List of languages by number of native speakers, seemingly the most spoken languages that don't have a Wikivoyage are ar:, yue:, wuu:. mr:, te: and pa:. I reckon there's potential for most of them except for maybe Telugu. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 04:27, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Syabasy kepada semua orang yang telah melancarkan(?) Wikivoyage Bahasa Indonesia! (My attempt as a Malay-speaker with limited Indonesian knowledge to congratulate everyone who launched Indonesian Wikivoyage.) Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:42, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

It's probably "Selamat kepada semua orang yang telah meluncurkan Wikiwisata Bahasa Indonesia!" . Thank you for the congratulations message. ^^ Veracious (talk) 09:58, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

"Selamat kepada (seseorang)" is definitely not a phrase I would think of, as in my experience in Malay, when not meaning "safe," "selamat" was always attached to another word. Sama-sama. :-) Ikan Kekek (talk) 13:25, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

ISO error? Does that mean that your web browser posts the edits in a different character set from the one expected by MediaWiki? I think that that would be bug, which should be reasonably easy to fix, perhaps a workaround through user preferences in the browser could work. ("ISO error" could mean different things, that is just my first guess) –LPfi (talk) 09:25, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm not Veracious to know what the exact error is, but from my experience, the Incubator interface is terrible to use. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 12:14, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Seoul/North: Split North into East and West?

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Seoul/North

It looks really weird to have this split into two unconnected parts. See File:Seoul districts png.png

However, there are some issues to correct the article in Seoul/North divided into East and West:

Relatively, there's little information in the northwest(Eunpyeong) compared to the northeast(Gangbuk, Seongbuk, Dobong, and Nowon). If you make a separate article in the northwest, it will be an article with extremely little information. Therefore, I think it is a better option to merge with Seodaemun-Mapo next to Eunpyeong in terms of location. Seodaemun-Mapo articles are as follows. https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Seoul%2FSeodaemun-Mapo

What do you think about this problem? Parkjeongeun0430 (talk) 01:46, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

I think you should discuss it on the Talk:Seoul page. Either start a new thread or post to a relevant existing one. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:33, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

@Ikan Kekek Note I started a discussion a while ago (Talk:Seoul#Seoul North suggested to be split into two) but nobody commented... Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 02:43, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

I had remembered commenting, but I guess I had planned to comment and then was unable to edit on my cellphone for lack of signal or something and forgot about it. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:44, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Nope, I did comment at Talk:Seoul/North. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:45, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

Merge and redirect Jiangyin to Wuxi or not?

I thought I would do this, and now I'm not sure. Please help us puzzle this out at Talk:Jiangyin. Thanks! Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:43, 18 December 2024 (UTC)

User:ShakespeareFan00/Toys,_Games_and_other_amusements

Can this draft be improved? I only put the UK stuff I remembered, but needs more.. ?ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 11:53, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

Do you want it to stay UK-focused? If not, then w:en:Toy museum may be helpful. There are also events such as w:en:Nuremberg International Toy Fair, which is not open to the general public. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:39, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

Can adults from high-income countries be ignorant of public transportation?

This article had a shocking message. A well-travelled journalist had no experience of using public transportation, and avoided it altogether during her stay in New York City. Wikivoyage has guidelines such as WV:OBVIOUS which make the assumption that adult readers have some basic knowledge of the world. Should articles on public transportation, and destinations where public transportation is a useful method to get around, provide advice for people who have zero experience with these systems? /Yvwv (talk) 22:31, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

Yes, they should. I haven't read the article you linked, but there are huge swaths of the U.S. where either there is no public transit or locals have the idea that taking it somehow makes them poor or non-white (yes, that's true - some white people have said it to me unprompted). So many of them are scared or overwhelmed by transit systems like New York's and don't use them when they're here. To be fair, on weekends and sometimes very late at night, when most subway construction projects occur, even locals are often confused by reroutings and station closures, and mta.info does not always provide complete information (and sometimes, they can't, because incidents can happen in real time that require unplanned changes). Of course, when tourists take taxis in New York, they help some hard-working people make a living, and their taxes do more to fund New York than if they took the subway and buses (or walked longer distances!) more often, but it's certainly not necessary for people with reasonably able bodies to avoid public transit here. Ikan Kekek (talk) 23:00, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

Speaking as an American, there are many places in the United States where it's a status symbol to have a car and be ignorant of public transportation and there are also places where it's a status symbol to not have a car. Stuff is weird. But as someone who used public transportation in Indianapolis (where it's not so extensive compared to a lot of the Global North), some view public transportation as some kind of dire, last-ditch Plan C for how to get around and avoid it like the plague, sadly. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 23:05, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

I suppose this prejudice is a reason for the scaremongering on Public transportation#Stay safe. It reads like there would be pickpockets and robbers on any bus or train. I suppose some of the advice is appropriate for some destinations, so didn't cut down radically, but I think most of it would apply to any crowded place and is adequately covered in Travel basics and Stay safe. –LPfi (talk) 12:15, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

The cultural gap between the United States and western Europe might be a surprise to both sides; at least the current situation in international politics is proof of that. Even though driving is the normal mode of transport in the countryside of western Europe, practically all adult residents have some experience of public transit. On the other hand, many European city-dwellers have no driver's license even though they could afford training and a car. Maybe WV:OBVIOUS needs more clarification for which kind of prior knowledge should be expected from travellers. /Yvwv (talk) 15:34, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the policy can cover that. It says

"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."

So needing to tell about public transport is something not obvious to a European, in the same way that having to tell about your left hand is unobvious to the Ethiopian. It is only when somebody notes the need, like here, that we are made aware, and in the future we know that the public transportation option needs to be emphasised a little more than we'd think necessary.

And then we need to tell the "obvious" things somewhere, not in the city articles, but in Public transportation, with a mention in Travel basics and Transportation.

Could those who have one foot in the cultures unused to public transport check those three articles (and perhaps Old towns and other related ones) for whether they are clear enough, with a suitable tone?

–LPfi (talk) 18:28, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Even in places with public transit, it's not uncommon in many parts of the Anglosphere (bar the UK/Ireland) where it's practically unusable (such as <5 services a day) – this too has a massive perception of people willing to use transit. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 05:33, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm in California, and I have lived in other parts of the US. For the most part, outside of a few dense urban areas, public transit is for people who don't have other options. It's for poor people, disabled people, people who lost their driver's license, etc. In a few places, it's for (older) students (if a seven year old takes the bus alone, people will assume the child is either lost or neglected and call the police).

Two stories occur to me:

• Why we need to explain the basic mechanics: In the US, the main way for a tourist to use public transit is: Get on the bus, and put cash in the fare box next to the driver. In other parts of the world, the equivalent mechanism is: First buy your paper ticket from an ATM-like machine; when you get on the bus, you need to stamp your ticket. US tourists to Europe assume that having possession of the paper ticket is enough. This means that they have paid and think they've done everything correctly, and they end up getting fined for fare evasion.
• On the US really not getting it: I went to college in Grinnell. It's a small college town. Some years ago, I heard that they were trying to create a public bus system. The rules would be: Loop route, running weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., every 30 minutes, unless the driver got a call to pick up a rider with disabilities (e.g., to take a wheelchair user to the doctor's office), in which case the bus would be back on route whenever that errand was finished. From the POV of the average rider, this means that you wouldn't be able to use it to get to/from work, you wouldn't be able to use it to get to anything time sensitive, and you might have to wait for the bus in the rain/snow/heat for over an hour. In other words, it would sometimes be faster to walk to your destination than to wait for the bus. (They couldn't get the funding sorted, so in the end, it never happened.)

WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:35, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Do you think Public transportation#Get in handles the (former) issue? –LPfi (talk) 21:17, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Maybe not? It's informative but not actionable. It lists multiple options but can't say which one(s) are relevant. There are a few bits that I don't understand (e.g., what's a "general NFC payment" app?), but mostly I understand it, and just find it unhelpful. By contrast, Public transit in Israel tells me exactly what I would need to know: get this app, pay this way, etc.

United States of America#By bus 2 mentions local transit but doesn't say anything about paying. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:46, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

I rewrote on "general NFC payment". I don't think there is any way to tell what options are available in a certain city, for that you need to consult the city articles, the local transportation website or local info. It could probably be improved, but I think the section is useful for getting an idea of possible options, so that you can recognise them when seeing local signage – and avoid naïvely riding with an unvalidated ticket.

For the US, I suppose it should say something about the augmented risk for harassment or just a discomforting atmosphere in some public transport systems, like the current warning for the Los Angeles bus station.

–LPfi (talk) 09:42, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

I agree that it's impossible to be more specific in a general article. The most we could do, I think, is to say something like "You'll have to look up the specifics for your country/city/destination."

I am not sure that the US deserves a country-wide warning about harassment. The half-dozen US transit systems I've used over the decades, mostly in California, have been ordinary experiences. Nothing was spectacular, but nothing was a significant problem. I would not hesitate to use any of them again, assuming that the service had a route running when and where I needed to go. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:35, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

• While I think it's unfortunate that public transportation is not more widely accepted in the US, I don't think the stigma is entirely unwarranted and I would not want to encourage tourists to use it without knowing that there are risks. I agree with WhatamIdoing in that public transport is typically something you use because you can't use anything else in the US. Public transportation in the US is often uncomfortable and people can be rude or erratic in ways that make you feel unsafe. Americans talk loudly, they talk on the phones, they often have very private conversations on buses. They curse and yell at other passengers or the driver. People harrass you in New York's subways. If you have to use public transport, you can get used to these things to a point, but even then there are limits and locals will still feel uneasy. Travelers who don't will be more likely to feel uneasy or unsafe. Probably very few of the English WV readers are Japanese, but many of America's issues do not exist in Japan or would be very rare at least. Are most places in Europe similar to the US? Japan? Worse/Better? Overall, though, I don't think the "Stay safe" section is particularly fear-mongering. It's mostly very generic advice, which makes sense given it's an overview of the entire world of public transport. Maybe the last line is a bit too emphatic about emergency numbers. It's good advice, but not just for people who will use public transportation. For public transit, I'd say it's good if you're concerned or you know that the public transit you need doesn't have the best reputation, you're using it at night, etc. ChubbyWimbus (talk) 15:27, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

It's not just about cars being a status symbol. Cars are a status symbol in Singapore too (one of the 5 Cs), but the public transport is still clean and well-maintained, and as a local, I would advise tourists visiting Singapore to use public transport rather than renting a car. On the other hand, I know people from Shanghai who can afford to buy a car but choose not to have one because it turns out faster to use the Metro when you take the traffic jams into account. And to be fair, the Shanghai Metro is much newer than the New York City Subway, but still, it is much cleaner and much more pleasant to use.

And even in a city like Chicago with decent public transport by American standards, it's still more convenient to have a car. The L trains are not that clean, and I often see people putting the soles of their feet on the seats without taking off their shoes. In my entire youth growing up in Singapore, I have never seen anyone doing that, and if you do, you can be pretty certain of being told off by your fellow passengers. And in my multiple visits to Hong Kong and Tokyo, I have never seen anyone do that either. So given the situation, I don't blame people who can afford it from wanting to drive instead of using public transport even in American cities with decent public transport. And even if you compare with developing countries, the commuters in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok are still generally more considerate than American commuters. The dog2 (talk) 15:49, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

I cannot speak for all of Europe, but over here I don't stay alert and don't carry only essential items when on the bus (other than perhaps late at night or in certain neighbourhoods away from home). The people on the bus are the same as in the shop or in the street and people are on the bus to travel, not to steal things. Buses don't offer any particularly easy pickpocketing, so any pickpockets too are probably on their way home or to work. Of course, if you flash valuables and leave them unguarded, then the pickpocket who may be there, could use the opportunity (a "hey, don't forget your phone" is still much more probable). If a local wants to talk, seize the chance, unless they are drunk or otherwise make you feel uncomfortable.

We don't need to repeat the generic advice in every travel topic article, as we don't in every city article. There is some advice specific to public transport (know the routes and timetables etc.), but as noted in the article, it is relevant for safety only when there is a danger in the first place.

The issues in the US should be mentioned in United States#Get around, and of course the public transportation articles should note that safety of public transport varies between countries and between cities.

–LPfi (talk) 16:29, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

As an American, I basically agree with LPfi about public transportation safety – the people on the bus or train are the same ones as on the street, and I stay alert if taking the bus to a rough neighborhood at night but not on my daily commute to work. Statistically, US public transit is no more dangerous than other public places. Indeed, in some ways it's safer: there are usually other people on the vehicle, which deters crime, and your risk of death or injury from a traffic accident is considerably lower on a bus or train than in a private car. I think perceptions of dangerousness are often a reflection of the stigma associated with public transit and the people who use it.

On the other hand, it is true that public transportation in the US is often dirty, inconvenient, or otherwise unpleasant compared to other countries. But that isn't an issue of safety, just an issue of comfort. —Granger (talk · contribs) 15:10, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

Speaking for London (and probably for most large European cities), tourists will find that a car is a liability rather than an asset, but locals who live in the outer suburbs will often own a car. However, usng a car to get from town to town is often useful. For example, several years ago, my wife and I had a three week holiday in Italy - a week in Venice, a week in the countryside near Lucca and a week in Florence. We rented a car for the week that we were near Lucca as we spent time visiting a number of smaller Italian cities. WE picked the car up in Venice and dropped it off in Florence. Dos this put thngs into perspective? Martinvl (talk) 21:15, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

I wouldn't deny that there are problems in the New York City or Chicago mass transit systems (or those in various other cities I've visited like Boston, D.C., Philadelphia and the Bay Area), but I would still encourage visitors to take them. Taxis (let alone Uber/Lyft or limos) are so much more expensive and not free of risks. For the record, I've lived in New York for the great majority of my 59 years and have never had anything horrible happen to me on the subway, whereas I did have problems in elementary school with my classmates back in the 1970s and also had problems on the street in the 70s and 80s and have also had some scary close calls with drivers while walking. The scariest thing that ever happened to me on the subway was one day when I was commuting to a job in Queens, and a guy thought he was Jesus and yelled at all of us for not repenting, and I was waiting for him to pull out a gun and start shooting, but he did not. Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:31, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

IMO my experience with taxis (blatant scams, verbal confrontation, refusal to use meters) as a non-American have been far, far worse than I've ever had with taking public transit (pretty much next to none) in the US. Agreed with what you've said. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 05:34, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

November traffic spike

Hi, I have noted that Wikivoyage had huge traffic spike (over double usual views) on all articles from about 24th October to 12th December. I am simply curious what is the reason behind it, calculation bug? search engine changes? Krystian55 (talk) 20:46, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't know, but something odd is happening on both desktop and mobile sites. You might look at "top views". If there is a script stuck on the same page, that will usually show up as a weirdly high page view for one thing. Pages with very low mobile percentage (e.g., 2%) are usually false positives. WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:21, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

Probably a DDoS attack, just like what they did to WebArchive on October 2024. Veracious (talk) 09:54, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

I have wondered before whether our public page views tools make us a desirable way to test DDoS-type scripts. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:54, 24 December 2024 (UTC)