Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2011-01-10

Why is WikiProject UK Waterways the only project on Wikipedia devoted to regional waterways? Are rivers, canals, locks, and other waterways utilized differently in the United Kingdom than in continental Europe, the United States, Australia, or elsewhere?

geni: The UK's waterways with a few exceptions (the

Manchester ship canal

say) never expanded from the original small size they were built to (usually somewhere around 72ft*7ft although both bigger and smaller standards exist). Elsewhere canals tended to expand at least up to barge size but in the UK they were for the most part flat out replaced by rail. The UK's canal system is the only one I'm aware of where an entire network of canals ended up being used for leisure with no significant movement of goods.

EdJogg: A widespread network of canals developed in the UK as there were no other practical means of bulk transport at the time. I suspect that other countries (following on from the British invention of the steam engine) moved straight to the faster transport provided by railways and then roads, except where navigable rivers of suitable size already existed. There is also a great sense of history in the UK, and a love of all things old – hence the desire to resurrect as much as possible of the original canal network for modern leisure and ecological use.

Hymers2: Agreed with the above, with the addition of the Irish waterways. The UK and Irish systems are unique in the world in being used almost exclusively for leisure and in being largely unchanged from when they were built. Where leisure use has developed elsewhere (eg Canal du Midi) it has usually been by companies of British origin, at least initially.

What are some of the benefits and challenges of maintaining a regionally-focused WikiProject?

EdJogg: I cannot speak for others, but my knowledge is limited to UK waterways, so a region-specific project helps maintain focus. On the other hand, there are likely fewer editors available to contribute.

Geni: It lines up with the

meatspace waterway groups. Well more correctly it combines the mostly English and Welsh coverage of groups like the Inland Waterways Association and Waterway Recovery Group

with the Scottish and Northern Irish groups.

Rodw: I found the guidelines How to write about UK Waterways helpful with some of the articles relating to waterways in the south west of England which I have been involved with including: River Parrett (FA), List of locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal (FL), Bridgwater and Taunton Canal (GA), Bristol Harbour (GA), Grand Western Canal (GA) & Kennet and Avon Canal (GA).

Jezhotwells: Agreed the guidelines are good and clear. I have contributed to River Avon, Bristol Harbour and also other features of the docks and tributary rivers and streams.

Hymers2: I have contributed expansions and revisions to several articles.

Some of the project's articles include route maps. How do these compare to the route maps for train and roadway articles? What sources of information are used to create route maps for waterways?

Ronhjones: I have made some of these, using the standard set of icons as used for the railways, plus the necessary water only related ones. I use a combination of published guides (e.g. Nickolsons), Streetmap (OS map), Google earth, and own knowledge.

Rodw: I've never made any of these but I'm very grateful to User:Bob1960evens and others who have made loads of them.

Hymers2: The route maps compare well to those used for railway articles and are very useful as a means of explaining the routes.

Jezhotwells: I have found these icons useful; and used them to make a map for

New Cut (Bristol)

.

EdJogg: The icons and maps were based on those created for railways, and expanded to provide the unique features. The maps are essential for describing the (arrangement of) features of a canal in a succinct manner and useful to show the alternative routes proposed or built for restored canals.

How are abandoned waterways and structures handled by the project? Do these tend to be more interesting than the waterways currently in use?

Rodw: Lots of the old canals, including the Somerset Coal Canal near me are no longer in water, but the feature which seems to have generated most discussion is the amazing (but unsuccessful) piece of engineering – the Caisson lock.

geni: About the only additional challenge that abandoned stuff presents is deciding what is actually abandoned. There are a lot of canals around that have bits in water and active restoration projects which can be tricky to classify (the Croydon Canal is clearly abandoned the Thames and Severn Canal is less clear).

Jezhotwells: I agree with geni; often hard to decide what is actually abandoned. Many ambitious projects are in existence to restore waterways such as the Wilts & Berks Canal.

EdJogg: The 'abandoned' canals are often more interesting (to me) since many are in an active state of restoration, so the articles are expanding to reflect progress. Those that aren't being restored may be less well known. Established waterways are perhaps less interesting as their current state is 'in use', although the history should be as interesting.

• 
  Wilts & Berks Canal
• 
  What appears to be an abandoned portion
• 
  New construction on the Wilts & Berks Canal

Does the project have any difficulties acquiring pictures of waterways? Does the project's regional focus make requested photography easier to take?

Rodw: I help by taking pictures of waterways near me – but I also find Geograph Britain and Ireland a really great source & they all have suitable licences.

geni: Used to be but most are covered these days. Biggest problem is probably the british weather.

Jezhotwells: Geograph is a good source. I have contributed some images to Commons.

EdJogg: There are many hundreds of canal pictures that have been auto-uploaded from Geograph to Commons. The main problem is categorising them. Since the editors and the subject matter are in the same country, taking additional photographs presents less of a transport problem!

Anything else you'd like to add?

Jezhotwells: Any new members will be welcomed, there is much that has still to be covered.

EdJogg: The British canal system is a fascinating topic to study, and any editors interested in industrial archaeology or old technology will find much of interest here.

Next week, we'll watch the world's second most popular sport. Until then, stump the batsman with your superior knowledge of WikiProjects by reading through the archive.

Reader comments

2011-01-10

Featured topic of the year

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By Tony1 and Wizardman

From the new featured article, Peveril Castle, a medieval building overlooking the village of Castleton in the English county of Derbyshire. Its site provides views across the Hope Valley and Cave Dale.

This week's F and A covers Saturday 1 January – Friday 7 January UTC.

2010 in featured topics

File:Bsb48052.jpg

The Signpost asked User:Wizardman to review the year in featured topics and to choose what he feels was the stand-out promotion.

"In the past year, the

featured topics process

has evolved significantly. The raw numbers are as follows for 2010: 21 featured topics were promoted, 65 good topics were promoted (including 18 in October, a record), 16 topics were demoted, and there were 16 supplementary additions.

The numbers have shifted from 2009, during which there were 32 promoted FTs, 50 promoted GTs, 13 demotions, and 15 supplemental additions. However, this reduction in numbers is despite a major change in the process: as of September 1, a new requirement has been that at least half of the articles in a featured topic must themselves be featured (up from a third); if this is not the case, the topic is eligible instead for good topic status. As a result, 23 topics went from featured to good, bringing the total number of featured topics to below the 100-mark (currently there are 94 FTs and 141 GTs). Beyond that, a shift in running the process was made, as I have mostly taken over from User:Rst20xx, who became inactive about halfway through 2010.

As for specifics on what areas have been strongly represented in promotions, most have come from the MILHIST project—particularly as a result of

Operation Majestic Titan

—and many promotions have been of music albums and discographies. In many areas, topics remain non-existent; examples are economics, math, business, and engineering, to name a few.

Of the topics promoted in 2010, what was the featured topic of the year? That was one of the first topics of 2010, the Australian cricket team in England in 1948, which currently contains 42 articles, 24 featured and 18 good. It's one of the largest topics we have, and even for someone who could care less about cricket, I found it to be a great read, and enjoyed watching the progress the topic made.

As featured topics are not an oft-traveled area of wikipedia, I wanted to note about the value of the process. Namely, creating a topic allows a group of similar articles to become examples of our best work, since people interested in one article may be interested in another article in that topic. Those wishing to read about

30 Rock (season 2)

. Since many articles in a topic might use the same sources, it also makes it easier on one's time or on one's wallet if they already have the sources to work on a cluster of articles. Having an article featured is great; having a group of articles featured can provide a much greater benefit, especially if it's on an important topic. (If U.S. presidents or UK prime ministers were ever featured topics, that would be amazing)

If you want to contribute a topic but need ideas on one, I can always provide some help. You can find topics in anything if you look hard enough, which is one of the joys of working on them."

Featured articles

Durrell's vontsira". Handle with care: here, a nasty bite on the hand seems on the cards.

Eleven articles were promoted to featured status

• Nev1
  ; picture above)
• Suillus spraguei (nom), an attractive, edible mushroom of eastern North America and eastern Asia (nominator Sasata).
• Nergaal
  ).
• Round Church, Preslav (nom), an early 10th-century Bulgarian church building, known only from studying its ruins. The only written reference to its existence in medieval sources does not amount to certain identification (TodorBozhinov).
• Sigi Schmid (nom) (born 1953), a German-American soccer coach who became one of the most successful collegiate coaches of all time in the US (Cptnono).
• Governor of Kentucky (nom), the office of the chief executive of the US state of Kentucky, and the centrepiece of a new featured topic (Acdixon).
• New York's 20th congressional district special election, 2009 (nom), a battle between Democrat Scott Murphy, a private businessman, and Republican Jim Tedisco, the minority leader of the New York State Assembly (Gyrobo
  ).
• Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis (nom), a condition featuring attacks of muscle weakness in the presence of an overactive thyroid gland (Jfdwolff).
• Henry J. Wood (nom), a major figure in British musical life in the first half of the 20th century; his influence continues in London's annual series of The Proms, which he conducted for nearly 50 years (Tim riley
  ; picture at the right)
• Bernard Bosanquet (cricketer) (nom) (1877–1936), a cricketer who was transformed from a very average batsman into an international, match-winning all-rounder through his invention of the googly, a completely revolutionary style of bowling, in which the ball is spun in the opposite direction to normal without the appearance of anything abnormal (Sarastro1).
• Salanoia durrelli (nom), a mongoose-like member of a family of carnivoran mammals unique to Madagascar (Ucucha
  ; picture at the right).

"Once again, all the articles are of the highest quality. I have chosen Henry Wood as my favorite this week because of the number, density and quality of references to off-line print sources. Who can fail to agree with Wood's wise words: "I do not like ladies playing the trombone or double bass, but they can play the violin!" However, I do find myself sympathising with the critic who described a third of Wood's audience at a performance of Schoenberg as hissing, another third "not hissing because it was laughing, and the remaining third ... too puzzled either to laugh or to hiss." "

Three featured articles were delisted:

• Halloween (1978 film) (nom): referencing and prose
• Herbig–Haro object (nom): referencing and prose
• History of the Philippines (nom): referencing and MoS compliance.

Featured pictures

• Golden toad (nom; related article), a male of this strikingly coloured species, which has been considered extinct since around 1989, part of a world-wide decline in amphibian populations (created by Charles H Smith).
• Noodle snacks
  )
• Noodle snacks
  ).
• Orange-lined triggerfish (nom; related article), promoted after considerable debate about sharpness, piscine mucus, and the blurring effects of water (Hans Hillewaert (photography), Papa Lima Whiskey (editing to sharpen the image); picture at the bottom)
• Chick Bowen said, "Such consent is not necessary, either legally or ethically, as long as the photograph is taken in a public place and is not demeaning or intrusive, which this image is not. See Commons:Photographs of identifiable people." (created by William Warby
  ; picture at the right)
• GreatOrangePumpkin
  ).

Inno e Marcia Pontificale

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Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

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Gounod's Ave Maria for cello and piano

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• Fridae'sDoom
  ).
• Bencherlite
  ).
• Sven Manguard
  )