The following is a Wikivoyage policy:
If you are thinking of organizing an event involving edits to improve the coverage or quality of Wikivoyage, welcome! There are many parts of the world that could use increased coverage on this site, and the process of updating existing articles is never-ending, so we could always use a helping hand. Various editing events have greatly improved Wikivoyage's coverage of a number of countries around the world.
Unfortunately, not all editing events have produced good results. After considering what has gone right and what has gone wrong, we have developed the set of guidelines listed below to help everyone have a positive experience. In essence, editing events require an emphasis on the core principles of this site and a dialogue between experienced Wikivoyagers and event organizers and participants.
Early notification required for qualifying events
[edit]A "qualifying event" is any event, contest, training program, club activity, or other scheduled plan that is likely to:
- involve 100 or more edits to Wikivoyage or the creation of 5 or more articles and
- 10 or more people editing Wikivoyage
Small collaborative sessions with a group of mates, including in-person one-on-one Wikivoyage mentoring sessions, aren't considered to be events for the purposes of this page.
Anyone who organizes a qualifying event must:
- Announce their plans in the travellers' pub before finalizing most of the details or as early as possible during the process of applying for any grants. Classes involving edits to Wikivoyage, which have to be organized well in advance, should be announced at least 1 week before the editing for the class starts in the case of organizers familiar with Wikivoyage guidelines, and 1 month in advance for those who are not. We are happy to hear about your plans many months in advance – as soon as you have plans or even some concrete ideas, we'd like to know.
- Involve Wikivoyagers in as many stages of the event as possible, and in any case, early enough to help change or if necessary cancel an event in cases in which its goals and intentions are diametrically opposed to Wikivoyage:Goals and non-goals and other core Wikivoyage guidelines. For example, if there are off-Wikivoyage organizing and discussion pages Wikivoyagers can read and better yet participate on (such as on Meta or Wikipedia), post a link to them in the travellers' pub the same day those pages are created, so that Wikivoyagers can participate in discussions and notice any problems before they occur.
- Regularly monitor the comments and advice Wikivoyagers give them, whether in the travellers' pub, off-Wikivoyage discussion pages or user talk pages, and take it into account at every stage of the event.
- Read, understand and emphasize the need for participants to follow core Wikivoyage guidelines, especially those laid out on the Wikivoyage:What is an article?, Wikivoyage:Don't tout, Wikivoyage:Copyleft, and Wikivoyage:Welcome, Wikipedians pages. Make sure all participants are aware of those pages and urge them to read them before they start editing Wikivoyage.
- Emphasize to all participants the need to read their Wikivoyage user talk pages when they are posted to and edit summaries (readable by clicking the "View history" tab of an article) when any of their edits are reverted or further edited.
Organizers who have closely followed these guidelines have achieved good results and contributed greatly to this site; those who have not have caused havoc. We hope the event you organize will be one of the good ones, and we would like to help you make it a success!
Like any other policy, there is some flexibility for good-faith people who are cooperative and constructive, but anyone who organizes events that are not announced in advance on this site, do not take Wikivoyage guidelines or Wikivoyagers' advice or objections into account and create a big mess Wikivoyage volunteers have to clean up will be subject to a user ban nomination on this site. So make sure that's not you.
We look forward to working with you and everyone who will be participating in your event. Please reach out to us for help and advice at any stage at the travellers' pub or arrivals lounge.