User:Slambo/TWP shop

The problem

In researching the history and technology of rail transport subjects, we sometimes come across information that would be useful in creating a new article when we are working on other topics. If this information or links to the information is not saved somewhere, it may be lost forever to other Wikipedia editors. After discussing the issue with other editors involved in WP:1.0 assessments, we set up Category:Needed-Class rail transport articles and the appropriate parameters in the {{TrainsWikiProject}} banner to populate it. The idea was that these facts and references could be put on the talk page of the proposed article so other editors could more easily find the data needed for new articles.

In late January 2007, discussion ensued to remove this category and all of the "orphan" talk pages in it based on the Criteria for speedy deletion. Rather than lose the references and information that were placed on those talk pages, it was decided that we should find an appropriate place for the data without the need for orphan talk pages.

The proposed solution

Since all of the articles proposed within Category:Needed-Class rail transport articles fall within the scope of WikiProject Trains, it seems only natural that the information that was collected should be saved in a location where project members could easily find and access it. To that end, I propose that we create the "TrainsWikiProject shop" as a subpage of the project's main page (perhaps located at Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/TWP shop with a shortcut at WP:TWP/shop). The name is reminiscent of railroad rolling stock construction shops. An example implementation is currently located at User:Slambo/TWP shop example.

Keeping the notes on one page like this has precedent in Wikipedia by way of the Wikipedia:Requested articles list. The TWP shop could easily be considered an extension of the current sublist of requested articles on rail transport topics (which already links to the project to do list).

TWP shop structure

The shop page would consist of an introductory lead section describing the page's purpose within WikiProject Trains followed by subsections that contain the notes and references that are currently residing on the orphan talk pages. Each of the subsections would be named with a link to the proposed article title so it would be easy to see when the proposed article was created. For example, a subsection of the page could be coded like:

 === [[Joseph H. Boardman]] ===
 Chairman of the [[United States]] [[Federal Railroad Administration]];
 [http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/1329 bio at FRA page]

Subsections could be added for any topic within the project's scope by any editor. Also, any editor can update and add notes in any subsection (this is a collaborative effort, after all).

Automated actions

A bot could be created that would periodically (perhaps on a daily or weekly basis) check the proposed article titles for their existence as articles. When the articles are started, the bot would copy all of the text in the appropriate subsection to the newly created article's talk page. Continuing with the same example as above, the new text could be formatted lie:

 == Notes from the TWP shop ==
 Chairman of the [[United States]] [[Federal Railroad Administration]];
 [http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/1329 bio at FRA page]
 
(notes copied from [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/TWP shop]] by TWPBot on date/time)

After the notes are successfully copied to the new article's talk page, the bot would then remove the subsection from the TWP shop page. The bot would also know to follow redirects on newly created pages so the notes would be copied to the correct destinations.