Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Herpetoculture


 * 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

Description
Currently, a lot of articles related to herpetoculture read as "how-to" articles for keeping them as pets, not encyclopedic or academic articles concerning the species. Therefore they, generally, come off as commercial or amateur articles. The goal of this project would be to find an appropriate balance between information about the actual species of the animal, and information concerning domestic specifications of vital interest to the animal (e.g. keeping them alive in one's house). Additionally, other herpetoculture-related topics such as the herpetoculture page itself could use a special task force for improvement.

Additionally, many articles that would fall under this scope currently have problems with original research and advertisements, and as such sometimes fall victim to deletion. I believe these articles are of high importance to Wikipedia since many new or future pet owners consult Wikipedia entries. The articles within this topic also have a severe lack of proper categorization and organization.


 * List of important pages and categories for this proposed group
 * amphibians in captivity
 * buildings and structures used to confine animals
 * amphibians in captivity
 * buildings and structures used to confine animals


 * List of WikiProjects currently on the talk pages of those articles
 * : "[dedicated to] Wikipedia's collection of entries about Amphibians and Reptiles, both living and extinct."
 * : "articles relating to insects, arachnids, crustaceans and other arthropods."


 * Why do you want to start a new group, instead of joining one of these existing groups?
 * "Amphibians and Reptiles" covers all amphibians and reptiles, whereas this project would only cover amphibians, reptiles, and arthropods commonly kept as pets (or used as food), so as to provide useful articles for pet owners while maintaining an encyclopedic nature. Currently A&R has not reached a sufficient-enough scope to better control the quality of more specific articles related to such a large user base outside of Wikipedia.


 * This proposed project would not fit in WikiProject Arthropods for obvious reasons.

Support

 * 1) Support as nominator. Jacedc (talk) 15:31, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

Oppose

 * Oppose for now. While I support the motivation to organize editors and efforts, I don't foresee a substantially different group of editors or subject matter from WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles, rather a narrower scope within the existing. While not all A&R participants may be knowledgeable of Herpetoculture, probably most herpetoculture experts are familiar with general A&R topics. Thus I think Herpetoculture itself could be a fine task force within the broader A&R project, to more efficiently share resources and centralize discussions. Note there is also WikiProject Zoo, which lists Reptile centres within its scope, but that project appears semi-active (though possibly experiencing a recent revival). If there is a substantial editor base that is not part of A&R or Zoo, then possibly a new project is warranted, but I fear a distinct project with little thematic difference from existing projects, and relatively specialized scope, will be prone to a short life before inactivity. But as the success of WikiProjects ultimately depends on the real number of participants, I'd like to see more evidence of a real need and editor support. --Animalparty-- (talk) 08:48, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Wow, this was almost half a year ago. I completely forgot about it until now as I saw it pop up on my watchlist. Funny. Yeah, seems this thing never gained any traction, and in retrospect I definitely think a taskforce within A&R would be a better idea. Thanks for your input. :) Jacedc (talk) 17:23, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I concur (as a herpetoculturist); there's not enough material to cover, per WP:NOT, for there to be an entire wikiproject for this. That said, there could certainly be a Wikia or other external wiki site for this topic, that did include how-to advice, which might make up the bulk of the content for such an endeavor.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  11:55, 13 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Oppose per Animalparty. Jacedc (talk) 17:23, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Discussion

 * 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.