User:Rschen7754/Manifesto
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This is an essay which contains the advice or opinions of one or more members of the U.S. Roads WikiProject. While it is not a part of the standards the project promotes, it provides some recommendations and ideas for members to consider. |
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A USRD Manifesto
Contents |
[edit] Preamble
On January 2, 2008, an Arbitration case was opened against NE2 on the English Wikipedia. However, the scope of this case quickly expanded to include the supposed "walled garden" of USRD. After stepping away from Wikipedia for almost a week, I have thought about the issues and am proposing some solutions. I will need to travel back in time to the days of SRNC to give some background and to explain my reasoning for my recommendations.
[edit] The past
After the WP:SRNC poll, the U.S. Roads projects were disorganized, with some users leaving and many bitter about the outcome of the poll. If you are not aware of what SRNC was, I will link you to the account, as I won't bother rehashing it here: Wikipedia:State route naming conventions poll/Account.
Around September 2006, we began to strengthen WP:USRD. Many of these changes included assessment, INNA, ELG, shields, and more. The changes continued throughout 2007 with a universal participants list, an IRC channel, a newsletter, and much more.
Many benefits were seen through these changes. Users at USRD began to become a community again after the vicious debates of SRNC. In addition to this, USRD was more organized and began to generate many GA class articles and a few FA class articles. Article quality began to improve drastically as well, and many commended USRD for its strong structure.
I believe that for the end of 2006 and for most of 2007, the strong USRD was the right organization for the U.S. roads articles. This was the right structure that was needed to rebuild the roads project and to provide an environment where WP:USSH can be enforced. Therefore, the USRD era has served its full purpose but no longer will work at this point in time.
Was USRD acting as a walled garden? I firmly deny this and can prove this. However, will we get anywhere by arguing over what USRD was or was not? No. So let's just drop the issue and let ArbCom rule on that one.
[edit] The problem
However, much has changed since the first arbitration. The USRD project has grown. Back in the days of SRNC, the only active users were involved in nearly all of the main U.S. roads discussions. However, this is not the case anymore. The majority of the editors do not pay attention to WT:USRD and instead focus on their own states. While I disagree with the attitude of these users, I believe that the typical solution, saying "tough luck" to these users, will cause more problems than the one that I am proposing.
[edit] The proposal
My proposal is to give more "powers" to the state WikiProjects. We have not tried doing this before, and I believe that we could give this a shot. If this does not work out, I believe that the case would be made for stronger USRD organization. This would occur through the following proposals:
[edit] Relating to USRD
1) USRD should take on the purpose of being the "face" of the U.S. road projects. USRD should be a group for collaboration among all of the state highway WikiProjects.
2) Another purpose of USRD should be mediating disputes between state highway WikiProjects or task forces.
3) USRD will be the coordinating force in sticking up for U.S. roads interests (and possibly roads interests in general) in policy and guideline discussions across Wikipedia.
4) USRD will work together in friendly competitions across Wikipedia - lowering WikiWork, competing for milestone articles, DYK, FA, GA, and other such competitions.
5) USRD will specifically maintain the portal.
6) USRD will publish the newsletter.
7) USRD will continue maintaining its own departments such as shields, INNA, and ELG. They will continue to have the same scope and authority that they have in the past.
8) Participant list consolidations should be reversed. The main participants list should only have "national editors" and editors of states with no WP. National editors are discouraged from joining every state highway WikiProject - they should only join states where they are heavily involved. National editors are considered to be part of every state highway WikiProject; however, the "national editor" designation should not convey special privileges in state highway WP discussions. Inactive editor removal will now be the responsibility of the state highway WikiProject.
9) Standards such as INNA and shields should still be enforced. If there are problems carrying this out, then these should be made guidelines through consensus and normal Wikipedia procedure.
10) Discussions involving multiple states, issues that all USRD needs to be aware of, or issues concerning all USRD should take place at WT:USRD. USRD members should post the state highway WPs that could be affected.
11) USRD should follow all Wikipedia guidelines.
12) - I don't know if this will go over well. If this is opposed I'll just strike this part and let the rest stand. - I propose that some editors be assigned to taking care of USRD "chores" such as watching the assessment backlog, maintaining stats pages, patrolling XFD, etc. to ensure that these tasks are carried out. These tasks would not bring the bearers special authority over USRD.
[edit] Relating to the state highway WikiProjects
- Note that IH and USH are included in this. Task forces are not included in this unless specified below.
1) State highway WikiProjects can make editorial and managerial decisions relating to their own state.
2) State highway WikiProjects must follow the remaining USRD guidelines (which are entirely contained in the departments and no longer part of the main USRD page).
3) National editors can participate in state highway WikiProject discussions but do not have special privileges.
4) Inactive projects can be controlled by USRD since national editors will be the only editors of those inactive projects; thus, a true consensus will be formed.
5) WP:USRD/SUB should be marked as historical. Project demotions should be handled through a Wikipedia-wide process such as WP:MFD or WP:RM. Project creations should not be limited, but with the caveat that they can be sent to MFD or RM as stated above.
6) Task forces that are currently in place should remain in place until a Wikipedia-wide discussion such as RM can take place for the project promotion.
[edit] Conclusion
These are my proposals for a better USRD. If you have any input, let me know. Of course, this will need to be approved by consensus before we could act on these. --Rschen7754 (T C) 01:38, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
