Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shortcut: WP:HIST WP:HISTINFO

Welcome to the Historical information WikiProject. We are a group dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of historical information (in articles not about history).

(For more information on WikiProjects, please see Wikipedia:WikiProject and the Guide to WikiProjects.)

[edit] Goals

Wikipedia has a large number of articles that, for one reason or another, lack historical information. Not articles about history that lack information, but articles about all sorts of things that should also include an historical element but do not (or do scarcely).

Wikipedia is edited by a great bunch of people living in the twenty-first century. As such, there is a bias toward current information, and against historical information. Of course, a good encyclopedia article should have both.

The dual goals of this WikiProject are:

to identify articles that lack historical information and
to add the historical information.

[edit] Scope

Virtually any article that's not specifically about an event or person from history can potentially fall under the scope of this WikiProject.
Everything changes over time. People forget this when writing.

[edit] Guidelines

If you see an article that lacks historical information, the best thing to do is, of course, to be bold and fix it.

Barring that, add the template {{histinfo}} to the article's talk page. Adding this template to the talk page causes the following box to appear there:

This article lacks historical information.
Please add it if you can!
For more information, see (or join!) Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information.
Please remove this message once the article has been expanded.

If you have specific ideas about what the article is missing, you can add them as a parameter:

This yields:

This article lacks historical information.
Specifically: Some ideas go here.
Please fix this article if you can!
For more information, see (or join!) Wikipedia:WikiProject Historical information.
Please remove this message once the article has been expanded.

[edit] Cities, towns, communities

For example, U.S. community entries based on U.S. Census data generally lack any historical information. All one has to do is pick a town, do some research, and write a historical sketch. (Examples recently done: Ballantine, Mont.; Cusseta, Ga.; Perry, Ga.)

[edit] Products, tools, inventions

An article on a product (manufactured item) or invention should include information on when (and where and why and how) it was first made and how it has changed over the years. Pretty good example articles are Brick, which traces the development of bricks over many centuries, and Semaphore (communication), which does the same for semaphore. A pretty bad one is Lever, which says only that levers were used in ancient Egypt and written about by Archimedes.

[edit] Geographical features

An article on a geographical or topographical feature (river, mountain, or the like) should include information when it was discovered (by Westerners or altogether), how it has affected life (e.g., by erupting or overflowing), and how it has changed over the years (as by erosion). Pretty good example articles are Yellow River, which discusses how the river has changed course over the centuries, and how those changes affected people's lives; and Lake Champlain, which discusses how the lake was used in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. A pretty bad article is Great Smoky Mountains, which has virtually no history at all.

[edit] Peoples and languages

[edit] Literary traditions

National literary traditions need historical development. See e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Poetry.

[edit] Anatomical features and medical conditions

[edit] Concepts (including mathematical objects and schools of philosophy)

[edit] Organizations, companies, nations

[edit] Modern books, works of art, films, games, computer programs, musical pieces, etc.

[edit] Older books, works of art, musical pieces, etc.

[edit] Scientific discoveries: planets, periodic-table elements, etc.

[edit] Individual dates, numbers, letters, phones, etc.

[edit] Open tasks

Here list specific pages that need help, and what's wrong with them. Other articles that need help are at Category:Articles lacking historical information.

[edit] Of immediate concern as we get this WikiProject running

OF IMMEDIATE CONCERN are finishing the subject-matter list, above, and recruiting members.

Add ideas to items on the subject-matter list, above. The items are not Gospel, either -- change them as you see fit, of course.
Recruit members! One way is to announce the formation of this WikiProject on talk pages where there is good reason to think people might be interested in it. (But see Wikipedia:Spam#Canvassing.)

[edit] Members

Please feel free to add yourself here, and to indicate any areas of particular interest.

msh210 (talk)
Badbilltucker
User:Resources of Sheboygan Club
Alarob, interested in everything, but a student of the colonial Americas, especially the North American
syrenab, currently actively expanding history of prisoner of war and prisoner-of-war camps Southeast.
user:Arthur Ellis British history, military, Cold War
Natalie US history, specifically the first half of the 20th century

[edit] Featured content

Add here any articles we worked on significantly which then made it to featured status.

[edit] Candidates

And add here any articles we worked on significantly which are candidates for featured status.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Templates

{{histinfo}} — on the article's talk page — yields:

{{histinfo|Some ideas go here.}} — also on the talk page — yields:

(Except that those references to the WikiProject are links rather than boldfaced non-links.)

The link what links to or includes the template histinfo can help see pages that include the template: an alternateive to checking the category.

[edit] Edit summary

When adding the {{histinfo}} template, you can use the following edit summary:

This article needs historical information. See [[WP:HIST]].

When actually adding historical information, you can use:

Adding historical information. [[WP:HIST|You can help!]]

[edit] Userbox

Show you're a member of this WikiProject! (This also helps attract more members.) Use {{user histinfo}} on your user page; it displays

This user is a member of WikiProject Historical information.

on your page and adds you to Category:WikiProject Historical information participants.

[edit] Categories

{{histinfo}} automatically categorizes the page into Category:Articles lacking historical information.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/k/Wikipedia%7EWikiProject_Historical_information_66e1.html"

Categories: WikiProjects | History WikiProjects