User talk:Skysmith/Small communities

These are interesting and helpful ideas. I can't think of anything to add right now, but I'm sure something will come to me. Perhaps this should be organized as a Wikiproject, and we could select a 'test' article of some random stub to work out these ideas. By the way, see Talk:Lima, Ohio for a semi-organized effort by one small city to improve their coverage on Wikipedia.--Pharos 18:19, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I like the idea for your project, but there may be a few sticky points. Primarily, a lot of small-town events, local bands, local legends, etc. will be non-notable. It's hard to fact-check something that information that has never left a particular region. Most of what you have discussed seems valid enough, but just keep in mind that this project will probably have an undesired side effect of encouraging people to post a lot of junk. From my experience of what I've seen posted in county articles in the past, it has been largely nonsense; but, I suppose, with a wikiproject such as yours to provide guidance, maybe this would happen less? My warning is: make sure it doesn't result in a bunch of non-notability.

A good effect, as I see it, is that it seems like a good way for new Wikipedians to contribute. When you first show up at Wikipedia, it's a little intimidating, because there's a lot of writing, leaving one to wonder What more could I possibly add? But one's hometown is something that mostly everyone can immediately start writing something about.

At any rate, I find your idea intriguing. I offer my services if you would like help in organizing it. ~ Booyabazooka 07:19, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's correct; many of those small-town events, locations and so on are not prominent to anyone else but the locals. They are important only in the context of the local community. We should encourage people to use these kind of details to expand the article about their town of village instead of writing new articles about them - Skysmith 08:30, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I like the suggestions on this page. It's often hard to figure out what's interesting about a town, but there's always plenty to find if you know what to look for. And, yes, many of these are non-notable outside of the context of that small town, but are eminently suitable to serve as details in that town's article. Just don't go overboard and add every building, or every garage band. Deco 20:14, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]