Guide articles aren't necessarily perfect... just very close. For example, a city guide might lack a static map, some of the listings might not exactly match our manual of style. The article may have perfect spelling and grammar but the prose is a bit dry and wikipedic. This prevents them from being considered "star" articles, which are the ones we hold up as examples of just how great a Wikivoyage article can become.
See also: Stub articles, Outline articles, Usable articles, Star articles.
Identification
[edit]The criteria for what makes a "guide" article varies depending on what the subject is. For example, an article about a city must have multiple hotel and restaurant listings, but that doesn't make sense for an article about an entire region, which should instead have a listing of the cities in that region. National parks may have limited amenities by design, to keep them in their natural state; if one small, isolated remote village offers few or no options, its article should simply say so. Obviously the criteria for an itinerary, travel topic or phrasebook would be even more different.
See Project:Article status for an overview of article status criteria, or the following links for guide criteria for specific article types:
- Project:City article status (also for districts)
- Project:Region article status (also for continents and continental sections)
- Project:Country article status
- Project:Itinerary status
- Project:Travel topic status
- Project:Phrasebook status
- Project:Park article status
- Project:Airport article status
- Wikivoyage:Dive guide article status criteria
A complete list of all current "guide" articles can be found in Category:Guide articles.
What to do with them
[edit]Tag
[edit]If you find an article that meets the criteria for "guide" but hasn't been tagged as such, or if you improve an article to the point that it qualifies, please tag it.
There is special markup in our software to mark something as a guide article. Unlike the "stub" tag, which is generic enough to apply to any kind of article, we have different tags for the different kinds of articles. For example, the tag for a guide about a city looks like this: {{guidecity}} which makes this appear on the page:
The other kinds of "guide" tags are {{guidedistrict}}, {{guideregion}}, {{guidecountry}}, {{guideairport}}, {{guidepark}}, {{guidediveguide}}, {{guidetopic}}, {{guidephrasebook}}, and {{guideitinerary}}.
You can add one of these messages at the bottom of the page. This tells readers that this article should be all they'll need to plan their visit... but acknowledges that there's always room for improvement (and updates) and invites them to make the article even better.
Improve
[edit]If you find a "guide" article and you can see what's holding it back from becoming a "star"... plunge forward! If you know your way around Illustrator or Inkscape, make a map for it. If you have a good eye for detail, comb through the listings and fix any formatting mistakes. If you have a flair for the English language, give the text a full-body massage with a happy ending, and make it sing. Give the article that final nudge from "great" to "superb".
The specific criteria varies depending on the kind of article (i.e. city, country, etc.) but a star article is as good as it gets. At that point it's a guide to be proud of, and should be nominated to be a "star".
When an article is just starting out, we often need all the information we can get to get the article started, and style and detail comes second. Even some touting is occasionally tolerated just to get information in the guide. Additions to guide articles should try to maintain the articles quality, and comply with the style guidelines whenever possible. However, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't always plunge forward to add your latest discovery at a destination.