Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Greater Springfield

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The following discussion is an archived proposal of the WikiProject below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.

The proposed WikiProject was not created. Project not created due to insufficient editor interest. Ajpolino (talk) 18:36, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Description[edit]

A project to develop and improve access to the rich history, culture, and economic knowledge of Springfield, Massachusetts, Holyoke, Massachusetts, Chicopee, Massachusetts and their neighboring communities. This region, Massachusetts's only other census metropolitan area besides Boston, is lacking in its documentation, particularly of the lower Pioneer Valley, and could use substantial expansion in its geographic articles such as neighborhoods, parks, and landmarks. This WikiProject is meant to serve as a single location for discussing standards for work on these and other articles. Simtropolitan (talk) 17:26, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

List of important pages and categories for this proposed group
Ongoing compiled list here


List of WikiProjects currently on the talk pages of those articles
Please invite these and any other similar groups to join the discussion about this proposal. See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Directory to find similar WikiProjects.
Why do you want to start a new group, instead of joining one of these existing groups?

I propose this group be created due to the significant cultural and geographic difference between Springfield and the Boston community, not unlike WikiProject Lowell. This projects aims are well within the means of WikiProject Massachusetts but would seek to provide greater support for the region. There are still a great many articles to be written from abundant primary resources and I just don't have the ability to work with so many myself. --Simtropolitan (talk) 17:47, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]


Support[edit]

Also, specify whether or not you would join the project.

  1. Simtropolitan (talk) 17:26, 31 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  2. YeahImaBoss (talk) 15:02, 5 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Support. I would happily join the project if it is approved.FFM784 (talk) 01:38, 10 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion[edit]

Taskforce/workgroup of WP:WikiProject Massachusetts. No reason for a stand-alone project.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ >ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ<  22:34, 13 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

  • @SMcCandlish: And why not? There's a WP:Boston, WP:Lowell, WP:Cape & Islands. There are plenty of redlinks and stubs that remain in major city articles alone, and this is the only other census-designated metropolitan area in the Commonwealth. This would allow for greater organization and context in the way these other WP have served their respective communities. --Simtropolitan (talk) 20:16, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
    WP:OTHERSTUFF. Micro-projects like that almost always go moribund after a few months of activity (if even that). There is no functional difference between a taskforce/workgroup and a wikiproject, other than that the former shares loads of administrative and collaborative resources and divides overhead, while the latter creates an enormous amount of redundant "support" material and administrative/maintenance work, that ends up not actually supporting much if any content development and long-term editorial collaboration. It's like building a palace in which to park one's lawnmower. PS: WP:Boston (not to be confused with WP:BOSTON, a meet-up group) is semi-active (mostly not for 6 months), but Boston is a major city on the international scale. (Greater Springfield is a diffuse metropolitan area, rather like the Dayton, Akron, etc., and about 8 other such metro areas over in Ohio) GS is only about 630K people; Boston proper is larger, and Greater Boston is over 8 mil. WP:WikiProject Lowell, Massachusetts (WP:Lowell and WP:LOWELL don't work) has been inactive for a year, and should be merged to WP:MASS as as taskforce. Ditto for WP:WikiProject Cape Cod and the Islands (WP:Cape & Islands doesn't work), inactive since 2015.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ >ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ<  23:04, 8 November 2017 (UTC); expanded 23:17, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • It doesn't look like the one task force listed on WP:Mass is any more active, it hardly could be described to take resources to build a Wikiproject that are finite other than the interest of volunteers. Generally it's a lot easier to go to school districts and historical societies to encourage participation in something called a Wikiproject than a "task force". Cincinnati and Youngstown aren't exactly international cities, neither is the Capital Region of New York, but you'd be hard pressed to say that they don't have some distinct identities and priority articles separate from WP:Ohio or WP:NY. If it's a matter of not wanting to create the infrastructure related to the project, let that be the problem of the participants involved but Wikiprojects are meant to be a welcome rallying to encourage people to build a larger body of work. If it's the fault of some projects for being inactive, that should hardly be an excuse to not try to build descendants for others. --Simtropolitan (talk) 01:10, 9 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • When wikiprojects are dying off because of the shrinking editorial pool, an observation that it's hard to even keep some of the taskforces/workgroups going is not an argument for creating a wikiproject, but for creating a good taskforce. Your reasoning simply does not scale at all. If it's really, really difficult to juggle five balls, and people even find juggling three of them a challenge, then you start with three not five.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  04:17, 10 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment: This is not a vote for or against, but had this proposal been about one of many other places in the U.S. then I would say no. But since this is Massachusetts, so heavily influenced by Puritan ideals of public service and social justice, has SO many notable people and events there.  — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  05:08, 20 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or at the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.
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