From Wikitravel

Contents 1 Why "docent"? 2 How about Cabbie 3 other language versions 4 List of docents 5 Still on Docents 6 Idea 7 Country/region oversight

Why "docent"?

When Maj first came up with this idea, we bounced around a couple of names for the relationship. The obvious one is "guide", like a tour guide, but since we call our travel guides "travel guides" it seemed kind of confusing. Also rejected was "host", since we thought there might be some misunderstanding that there was some kind of hospitality exchange going on and that readers could expect to stay at the hosts' homes.

Although I lobbied hard for "cicerone", which I think is a cool word, Maj settled on "docent", which is (usually) what volunteer guides at a museum or a tourist information center are called. A knowledgeable, friendly person who's willing to answer questions is exactly the kind of relationship we were shooting for, so I think it's a good name. --Evan 14:49, 19 Feb 2006 (EST)

This is a really great idea, but how are people to know that an article has a docent? I'm in the process of adding myself as a docent for a few things in New Mexico, and at least as of today, there doesn't seem to be anything new in the article text (say a box at the end) to indicate that the capability has been added. Is that one of those not-implemented-yet features that we'll see in the next few days? -- Bill-on-the-Hill 15:01, 19 Feb 2006 (EST)

It's in the left column, under the search box. Of course this means I have to rework my JavaScript again for the new skin, but that's fine, since it will be more flexible when I'm done. I got at least some work on the Santa Fe map done today by the way. -- Mark 15:38, 19 Feb 2006 (EST)

I think the word 'docent' is a bit too obscure; in Europe it means a lecturer in college, not a tour guide! "Maintainer"? "Groundskeeper"? "Pathfinder"? Just plain old "expert"? Jpatokal 22:05, 19 Feb 2006 (EST)

Seems to me that just about any word chosen will have some cultural overtones. All of those do. "Guru"? Nah... I'd just as soon leave this alone. -- Bill-on-the-Hill 22:24, 19 Feb 2006 (EST)

Hmm, I did consider "Pathfinder" but Maintainer and Groundskeeper have too much to do with the article and what we want to suggest is a connection to the place. I'd hate to have people start to think of it as some sort of control/ownership of the guide (ie "I shouldn't edit this, it's someone else's page" or "not my problem, the maintainer will deal with it"). I'm not against considering other terms (like Evan said, we changed our mind a few times already) but so far I haven't heard anything that works better. ("Lecturer" isn't too far off the mark in my mind...) Majnoona 23:15, 19 Feb 2006 (EST)

How about savant? WindHorse 20 Feb 06

If it really must be changed, "Sage," maybe? -- Bill-on-the-Hill 00:03, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)

Works in French too. That said I'd like to resurrect cicerone which is a really cool word. Since what we're talking about doing here is pretty seriously novel I think importing a new word into English is exactly the right thing to do. I guess the only problem is that there's a travel guide publisher in Britain using that name. -- Mark 03:55, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)

How about Cabbie

Isn't the person who normally fulfills this duty called a "cab driver" or "cabbie" ? -- Mark 03:56, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)

Err... no. Here's a neutrally radical idea: "Local"? Or "native", "inhabitant", ... Jpatokal 04:04, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)

The meaning is exactly right, but I think most people associate the word with a cab driver - at least I do. WindHorse 20 Feb 06

Yes, exactly. -- Mark 06:57, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)

The docent by no means has to be an inhabitant, local, or native. I think that a majority of docents will not be. --Evan 10:36, 20 Feb 2006 (EST)

other language versions

Hi! Does it work in the other language versions? I added the RDF-Code to an article on German Wikitravel. It didn't work. -- DerFussi 10:05, 23 February 2006 (EST)

You were using "User" rather than "Benutzer", and you were also putting things in curly-brackets, which is only necessary for template parameters. I've changed your code, and it works, and I've also added a de:Template:hasDocent, which also seems to work. You'll probably want to move that to a more reasonable name in German. --Evan 11:27, 23 February 2006 (EST)

Thanks a lot. What a simple error but a big effect. I am going to suggest 'Insider' it's very common in German to describe a person who knows a lot about a place. -- DerFussi 11:43, 23 February 2006 (EST)

One note about "insider" it's already used by Bootsnall, but maybe it's not a big issue, since they dont currently have a German version! Majnoona

List of docents

Hi there, we have so many list, but I think one with all docents might be useful. If I was looking for a docent in a particular city or region, I could easily contact him/her. Cheers, Felix - 19/May/2006, 17:42 GMT

• I'd support this. It would also help to track growth of the project. - Andrew Haggard (Sapphire) 04:41, 11 June 2006 (EDT)

Still on Docents

Moved from Wikitravel:Travellers' pub I'm not being able to set myself as a docent on the Sao Paulo page. Could it be anything wrong on the server side or am I screwing it up somehow? :) Cheers! Mattalves 18:28, 13 May 2006 (EDT)

The HasDocent template apparently doesn't work properly if you go to an article by way of a redirect (such as São Paulo or Sao Paulo (city) instead of Sao Paulo). These bits of code are somewhat delicate. :) It might be worthwhile to follow Special:Whatlinkshere/Sao_Paulo to find out which pages are linking to it through redirects, and change them to [[Sao Paulo|São Paulo]], so they link directly. - Todd VerBeek 19:55, 13 May 2006 (EDT)

Thanks for the help and the corrections, Todd! Works fine now :) Mattalves 12:27, 14 May 2006 (EDT)

Idea

How about having docents for a destination arrange discounts for Wikitravellers that consult the docent for that destination? I think it would be extremely useful, but there are some cons to the idea also. Here is a short list of pros and cons that I could think of. Feel free to edit the list.

Pros

• Increases Wikitravel's visibility
• Helps the traveller

Cons

• May not be compatible with IB's advertisement plans
• The idea may suspectible to abuse i.e. someone taking a kickback - Andrew Haggard (Sapphire) 15:30, 11 June 2006 (EDT)
• It would discourage people from becoming docents. I'm happy to answer questions for people, but don't ask me to start acting as a travel agent for anyone. Even if I'm not obligated to, I don't want anyone to think that maybe I'll also do stuff for them. - Todd VerBeek 19:00, 11 June 2006 (EDT)
  • Very good point. I don't think it would be feasible anyway, so I withdraw the idea. - Andrew Haggard (Sapphire) 19:04, 11 June 2006 (EDT)

Country/region oversight

Swept in from the Pub:

Does Wikitravel have general overseers for the world's various geographic regions (e.g. an overseeing mod for Western Europe, or Brazil)? It might be useful to copy Wikipedia's example of nominating uber-mods who have the final say on matters pertaining to a specific subject. This would ensure that there was a long-term editor watching over a set of articles who had proper perspective on how they were set out.

For example, an overseer for all article about France would be the ideal candidate for making sure that all France articles conform to Wikitravel standard formats, could be a responsible figure to turn to for consultation when major changes to that set of articles were proposed, could flag articles which need bringing up to par with the best France articles, could coordinate other mods interested in France, could coordinate efforts to remove systemic bias/failings (e.g. the UK article has problems with semi-humorous regional and class conflicts emerging in the article), and could be the final arbiter on matters to do with France articles. Most of those jobs are already performed by editors working en masse, but haphazardly and in pieces. Appointing someone with a little more power and responsibility to deal with major groups of articles might make the editing of those articles more efficient.

I hope I haven't missed this feature's existence! Polocrunch 17:48, 11 May 2006 (EDT)

We have a system of Wikitravel:Docents, where the docent can answer questions about a destination from readers who have questions.

I don't think that travel has the same kind of specialization requirements that deep coverage of a scientific or technical topic requires. I mean, is any particular resident or visitor to Minot really so super-qualified that they should have exclusive and final say over what goes in and what doesn't? That just doesn't seem very reasonable. Things have worked very well so far where people contribute proportionally to their knowledge, dedication to the subject, and free time. A more rigid hierarchy doesn't seem healthy for Wikitravel at this stage of the game.

Do you have some links on that Wikipedia program? I've never seen it. --Evan 20:07, 11 May 2006 (EDT)