Wikivoyage

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Wikivoyage

Post by Sweep »

Anyone use it?

Opinions?

Was musing on whether to pay for the add-on to OSMandplus which allows you to read it offline.

I kind of like the idea of offline.

Not sure how active it is.

From a quick scan it seems to allow a certain amount of "authorial colour".

Take this on Crawley:

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Crawley

:)

It seemed to be fairly down to earth in its descriptions of Burnley as well.
Sweep
Psamathe
Posts: 17650
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Wikivoyage

Post by Psamathe »

I used to be a massive contributor but stopped as it all became madness. They seem to be dominated by a small group of US blokes who seem to regard “site policies” as being cast in stone and inflexible. Unfortunately different parts of the world different things apply (e.g postcodes, addressing principles, terminology) yet the site refuses to recognise this.

The competitor site WikiTravel is now based on a commercial advertising/booking service model though the content is still covered by the same CC license terms. The commercial nature of WikiTravel (WikiVoyage “competitor”) means that I’m not prepared to contribute content there.

But in my 4 months in Peru, Bolivia and a bit of Chile, unfortunately WikiTravel proved far more useful, had more content and was more accurate. Even in Cusco (tourist centre of Peru) I queried something I thought wrong (from walking around), showed the hostel owner the WikiVoyage page and their comment “Must be a different Cusco, that not this city”. Again, it comes down to the rigorous inappropriate policies blocking contributions so people give-up.

One day I wasted hours going to bus companies to buy a ticket to next destination only to find that whilst WikiVoyage listed the companies of running that route, go to the company to buy a ticket and find they have not run there for years - massively out of date and really wasted time. The bus company/route problem was the point I completely stopped using it as it was a great hindrance and alternative ways of finding out stuff was easier, quicker and worked.

Example, in Arequipa I went on a short free walking tour. Run by students for tips (so not really “free”) and it was excellent, not so much a tour of places but more a walking lecture about the historic factors that make the city what it is today, covering geology, slave trade, pre-Columbian era, catholicism and conversion methods used, etc. So I thought I’d add it as an entry in WikiVoyage Arequipa page. It was deleted within the hour because they have a policy banning walking tours! Pages of argument and debate about what a daft policy, many agreeing but policy is policy.

It’s a shame because it has great potential and possibilities but is being badly held back by a small group of people who can’t see what their attitudes are doing to the site.

Ian
Last edited by Psamathe on 10 May 2019, 8:18pm, edited 1 time in total.
Psamathe
Posts: 17650
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Wikivoyage

Post by Psamathe »

Sweep wrote:......
Was musing on whether to pay for the add-on to OSMandplus which allows you to read it offline.

I kind of like the idea of offline.....

Re offline use - I tried it offline in OSMAnd and PocketEarth and it was pretty useless (not easy to get to the content and not well presented). Better is the Kiwix app (free and content free) which allows you to download the WikiVoyage content (and other Wikis incl Wikipedia) and run it offline in a similar manner to the online browser interface).

Ian
matt_twam_asi
Posts: 346
Joined: 29 Apr 2008, 10:56am
Location: West Sussex

Re: Wikivoyage

Post by matt_twam_asi »

Sweep wrote:From a quick scan it seems to allow a certain amount of "authorial colour".

Take this on Crawley:

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Crawley


Oh I don't know, I think it could be even more colourful (speaking as a Horshamite ;)).

I've used Wikivoyage a fair bit and my general one word opinion is "sparse". Yes, I know I could add info but I prefer to spend my limited spare time on improving OSM. I wish the project well but it's not going to challenge the professional competitors any time soon.
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