Wikipedia:WikiProject Appalachia

Welcome to WikiProject Appalachia! This project was founded by BrineStans on March 4, 2009 to expand and improve Wikipedia's coverage of the region of Appalachia.

All users are welcome and can sign their name in the members section. Feel free to add any articles in need of creation or overhaul to the respective sections.

This page was recently overhauled. The overhaul lasted from February 10 to February 20, 2024. Please feel free to make comments on the talk page about any and all problems, issues, or ideas you may have. Don't hesitate to join in the effort to make the best project we can!

Our assessment department's scales, worklist, and FAQs can be found here

'''If you have any questions, feel free to ask a member of our volunteer administrative team for help! Managers cover numerous specific topic areas and/or broad administration of the project. Ask for help on any of their talk pages or send them a message through this project's talk page!

Scope
This WikiProject aims to coordinate development of and improvements to articles related to the Appalachia region.

'' Note: Do not assume that being in, occurring in, or originating from Appalachia inherently places a subject within this projects's scope. A certain amount of cultural and/or historical impact on the region is required. It is rather subjective, but use your best judgement; if any disagreement about relevance arises please make it known via this project's talk page so that discussion can take place and consensus can be reached.''

The following subject matters fall under this project's scope:

All of these only apply when there is a reasonably notable connection with Appalachia
 * Any article relating to the geography, geology, climate, etc. of the Appalachian Mountains. (including locations and population centers)
 * Any political/environmental activism of any kind in the Appalachia region, particularly those relating to conservationism, labor, feminism, civil rights, etcetera.
 * Historic events, individuals, movements, or groups beginning in Appalachia or which had a specific effort/impact in Appalachia.
 * Coverage of cultural and ethnic groups, activities, traditions, music, art, etc. in Appalachia.
 * Most articles on flora and fauna do not fall under the scope of this project. Only those with a specific cultural or historic impact/significance do.
 * Groups, individuals and events relating to Appalachian industry, activism, pioneering, exploration, Native Peoples and politics.

Goals

 * To initiate, update, and maintain articles with importance to Appalachia and the Appalachian Mountains.
 * To create a more universal quality standard for Appalachian articles.
 * To bring Appalachia to Featured Article status and keep it there.
 * To subdivide and categorize Appalachian articles.

Active participants list
To join the WikiProject Appalachia, edit this list and add   to the following list of members in alphabetical order by username. Feel free to also add in your specialty/focus inline with your name!

Make sure to add User WP Appalachia or User WP Appalachia 2 to your userpage to place yourself in our category!

''Users will be manually moved to the inactive participants list periodically if they are found to have been inactive sitewide for a minimum of two months, this period is discretionary. Checks are carried out by volunteers; understand that mistakes can and will be made. If you will be absent for a period but would like to remain marked active, please add  following your username on the list below. To return to the active participants list simply remove your name from the inactive section and replace it below.''

Volunteer administration
The Appalachia Volunteer Administrative Team is a set of users who commit to a higher level of project participation, generally in a specific area. These users volunteer to manage, expand, and streamline certain processes and functions of this project.

The position of project coordinator is an elected position whereas the managerial positions are open and voluntary. Any non-ip user is fully permitted to participate in any PC voting. See the project coordinator section of this page for details on the role.

As simply as this concept can be explained: There is no power, authority, or prestige associated with volunteer administrators; there is only a commitment to help. The names are mostly just for show.

What the AVAT is and is not

 * These users do NOT have intrinsic authority but they are generally well-known and trusted within the project to an adequate extent that bold action is trusted as good faith.
 * These users do NOT have the authority to end a dispute unilaterally and suddenly but they can use their status as trusted and experienced users to provide possible resolution and can take action in the basic defense of this project, its members, and Wikipedia as applies to this project-space and accompanying templates.
 * These users may NOT act against broad consensus in any situation.
 * The AVAT is NOT appointed or exclusive; So long as a user displays good faith and meets the below expectations, they are welcome to commit to greater participation.

Requirements for volunteers

 * 1) Volunteers must be active within the last month or have an expected absence to remain listed.
 * 2) Volunteers must consistently and frequently participate in this project and its discussions and/or articles in this project's scope and their discussions.
 * 3) Volunteers must display courtesy and patience to all users.
 * 4) Volunteers should make an effort.

How to volunteer
To volunteer, simply add  under the position you would like to volunteer for in alphabetical order. There is no limit to how many people can volunteer for a certain position and the list of positions can be expanded or shortened with consensus.

AVAT member list

 * Project coordinator - Commitment to a broad and extensive effort throughout the project and its associated articles. This will be an elected position upon the project reaching a more stable participation level.
 * 1)   Dionysius Miller  talk


 * Assessment Department manager - Commitment to the comprehensive assessment of articles within the project and the refining of associated guides and media.


 * Media Department manager - Commitment to the cataloging and application of Appalachia-related media, particularly as it applies to articles lacking images.


 * Article Hawk Department manager - Commitment to vigilantly watch the Appalachia-related articles created, moved, and nominated lists which are provided to the project by attached bots.


 * Peer Review Department manager - Commitment to the timely and comprehensive execution of peer reviewing within WikiProject Appalachia by qualified users when nominated by the author.


 * 1)  Brooklaikatalk

Templates
The following are all templates directly serviced and sponsored by WikiProject Appalachia:

Appalachian Mountains & geology

 * Cove hardwood forest &mdash; create article
 * Tennent Mountain &mdash; create article

Culture

 * Tub mill &mdash; create article

Art

 * Music and Musicians
 * Stoney Mountain Boys; create article
 * Ironweed Festival &mdash; create article

History

 * Tally War &mdash; create article

Industry

 * Anthracite mining &mdash; add separate article

Appalachian Mountains & geology

 * Appalachian balds &mdash; expand
 * Cove &mdash; expand
 * Appalachian trail &mdash; add a small navigation box at the bottom of all A.T. points of note
 * Richland Balsam &mdash; I created this article: but much expansion is necessary.
 * Moccasin Gap article requires expansion to be relevant.

Culture

 * Cultural & ethnic groups
 * Scotch-Irish American &mdash; mess; add section for Appalachia
 * Melungeon &mdash; minor cleanup
 * Snake handling &mdash; overhaul
 * Cold Mountain (novel) &mdash; expansion. Currently most of it is plot summary, needs criticism/analysis
 * Granny women &mdash; move to Appalachian folklore or Appalachian folk medicine and do a major overhaul

Art

 * Music & musicians
 * Appalachian music &mdash; needs more info on festivals; possibly more about instruments
 * John Cohen &mdash; expansion. For his efforts in Appalachian Field Recordings
 * String band &mdash; expand
 * Roscoe Holcomb &mdash; expand (good lede already)
 * Henry Reed (musician); expand
 * Ola Belle Reed &mdash; expand
 * Sarah Ogan Gunning &mdash; could use expansion, discography.
 * Jim Garland &mdash; expand

History

 * Shelton Laurel Massacre &mdash; Stumbled upon this new article, needs expansion.

Locations & geographic features

 * Create section explaining states' Appalachian regions' relation to Appalachia
 * Western North Carolina &mdash; "Cities and towns" may need to be pruned, expand Tenn. Valley section
 * North Georgia &mdash; expand
 * Western Pennsylvania &mdash; wikify/reorganize, add sources and ARC section
 * Southwest Virginia &mdash; needs references
 * Upstate South Carolina &mdash; add ARC section; cities section may have too many subsections
 * Appalachian Ohio &mdash; clarify cultural vs. ecological definition in lede; overhaul history section with focus on Appalachian Ohio
 * North Alabama &mdash; add ARC section
 * Eastern Mountain Coal Fields (Kentucky) &mdash; expand
 * Western Maryland &mdash; expand

Industry

 * Coal mining in Appalachia
 * Battle of Matewan &mdash; clean-up
 * Theodore Dreiser &mdash; add info. on investigation
 * Harlan County War &mdash; expansion

Other

 * Appalachia &mdash; cleanup, expansion and work always needed
 * Transportation in Appalachia &mdash; needs to be encyclopediafied (reads too much like a term paper) and needs references

Clean-up, copyediting

 * Check any of the 400 or so counties (see list on the ARC website) in Appalachia for basic copyediting and clean-up; ensure they are in order and consistent with other county articles, remove any copy-pasted information or insulting language, remove non-notables from notable residents lists, etc.

Project departments
Project departments are generally "run" by one or more department managers; for any questions regarding the departments below, the project in general, or Wikipedia as a whole: don't hesitate to contact them on their talk pages or this project's talk page.
 * Article Hawk Department - Tasked with the management and curation of the provided lists for Appalachia-related articles created, moved, and nominated for various issues.
 * Assessment Department - Tasked with assessing Appalachia-related articles for both quality and "importance".
 * Media Department - Tasked with the categorization and application of Appalachia-related media on Wikipedia.
 * Peer Review Department - Tasked with peer reviewing Appalachia-related articles upon the author's request. They will then have the ability to tag said article as ' peer-reviewed'.

Project coordinator
Project coordinators are "elected" by WikiProject Appalachia members from among any users who receive a nomination or volunteer to be "on the ballot". The coordinator has a very specific set of roles to fill and is not equivalent to a leader or authority.

Most importantly, section N5 states: "The PC is not a president, monarch, or dictator; they are a coordinator who's duty is to coordinate, not lead."

Role of the project coordinator
The project coordinator, as you might guess, is tasked with the coordination of this WikiProject. The goal of the coordinator is to maximize the efficiency of this project; users editing Appalachia-related articles will generally edit at the same pace no matter what, but the focus of affiliated users and the standardization of articles and templates can be changed. By preferring certain focuses and working to make the editing process simpler and easier, this project can better work towards its goal of a well documented Appalachia.

"Election" process
In truth, there is no formal election, but a discussion and consensus.

When should the PC be replaced?
A PC should be replaced when one or more of the following is true:


 * E1 – A discussion on the project talk page reaches a consensus and/or majority opinion that an election should take place (for any reason the initiator states, whether here or not)
 * E1.1 – The sitting PC is free to cordially and in good faith participate in the discussion. If the PC floods, interferes with, is uncordial/rude in, or acts unreasonably in the discussion they should be warned. If the warning is not heeded and/or the initial action was egregious then they immediately forfeit the position and department managers should be encouraged to prevent issues resulting from this process.
 * E2 – The sitting PC consistently or egregiously acts in a way not acceptable on Wikipedia and WikiProject Appalachia (see below). These acts are in obvious editing actions, talk pages, and user pages.
 * E2.1 – Discriminatory action on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, private political beliefs, sexuality, or any other personal identities or uncontrollable realities.
 * E2.2 – Unreasonable ad hominem attacks on users despite warnings or requests for privacy.
 * E2.3 – Harassment of users.
 * E2.4 – Any other action not acceptable on this platform.
 * E3 – Exclusivity in participation not conforming with project and site rules.
 * E4 – The PC can no longer fulfill their duties.
 * e4.1 – The PC retires or semi-retires from Wikipedia.
 * e4.2 – The PC voluntarily resigns their position.
 * E4.3 – The PC has been fully inactive for a month or more unexpectedly and without warning
 * E4.4 – The PC has been removed from Wikipedia and/or suspended for a non trivial period
 * e4.5 – The PC has passed away
 * E5 – Any other reason which warrants removal

Project coordinators overtime

 * 1) BrineStansde facto (3/4/09 – 2/10/24) 14 years, 11 months, 16 days
 * 2)   Dionysius Miller  talk (2/10/24 – present)

Duties of the project coordinator
It is the duty of the project coordinator to carry out and/or supervise the following. If action is controversial or possibly counter-intuitive then any and all actions by the PC must defer to consensus. Similarly, the powers, limitations, and details of the PC can be changed at any time through consensus.


 * The PC must oversee and/or undertake any needed upkeep of project pages, WikiProject templates, and non-article space decisions.
 * The PC is expected to be exceptionally, preferably available semi-daily.
 * The PC should be among the most active users within Appalachia-related pages of all kinds.
 * The PC should be a courteous helper and answer any questions posed in project talk pages and their own talk page.
 * The PC is responsible for any notifications, announcements, expansions, deletions, and major changes for the project.
 * The PC is responsible for the creation or removal of any recommended focuses in editing.

What the project coordinator is not

 * N1 – The PC is not better than any other user, their opinion is of equal weight. They are not special.
 * N2 – The PC is not the final say on any issue.
 * N3 – The PC is not infallible and must be held accountable.
 * N4 – The PC is never allowed to overrule broad consensus.
 * N5 – The PC is not a president, monarch, or dictator; they are a coordinator who's duty is to coordinate, not lead.

Categorization
Articles in the Wikiproject are in Category:WikiProject Appalachia.

Related English-language Wikipedia categories:
 * Category:Appalachia
 * Category:Appalachian culture
 * Category:Appalachian Mountains
 * Category:Appalachian studies
 * Category:Appalachian Development Highway System

Related categories at Wikimedia Commons:
 * Appalachian Mountains
 * Appalachia
 * Appalachian music
 * Coal mining in Appalachia
 * Moonshining in Appalachia

Web

 * Digital Library of Appalachia
 * Appalachian Regional Commission Online Resource Center
 * Appalachian Studies Association Online Resources
 * Appalachian Treasures Gateway
 * Encyclopedia of Appalachia online edition

Print

 * Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell (editors). Encyclopedia of Appalachia.  Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
 * Richard B. Drake. A History of Appalachia.  Lexington, Ken.: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.
 * John Alexander Williams. Appalachia: A History.  Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.