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Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Stalinism

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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. Closing proposal due to insufficient editor interest. Ajpolino (talk) 18:42, 10 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Description

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This project would focus on the creation and improvement of Wikipedia articles pertaining to Josef Stalin, his associates, and any aspect of history, life, economics, etc. pertaining to the Soviet Union between 1924 and 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned Stalinism in his "Secret Speech" at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party. Articles pertaining to memories of Stalinism, including in the present day, would also be relevant to the project. Bjberesf (talk) 22:23, 15 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

List of important pages and categories for this proposed group


List of WikiProjects currently on the talk pages of those articles
Please invite these and any other similar groups to join the discussion about this proposal. See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Directory to find similar WikiProjects.
Why do you want to start a new group, instead of joining one of these existing groups?
Your answer goes here.

Hey, there really should be an answer here!!!

Support

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Also, specify whether or not you would join the project.

  1. Bjberesf (talk) 22:23, 15 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  2.  — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  may be willing to join, but I'm part of many WikiProjects. 23:50, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

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  • Oppose as redundant with WP:WikiProject Socialism. This is just a historical subtopic of that, and probably too narrow to even support a taskforce/workgroup, though you could try that.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ >ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ<  22:33, 15 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
    SMcCandlish I would say there is quite a bit to add as a task force. ―Matthew J. Long -Talk-☖ 22:42, 22 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
    Maybe, but as a subtopic of communism, which is a subtopic of socialism, it's getting very narrow, and it's scope is necessarily finite (i.e., you eventually run out of articles on notable Stalinism-relate sub-sub-sub-topic that could actually be written at Wikipedia).
  • Oppose I just don't think there is that much within its scope. — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  03:01, 25 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
    • But Weak support if the scope is expanded to cover both Josef Stalin and Stalinism. There might be more content to include if you do that. — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  23:00, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
      • Holy cow, I had no idea we had so many articles about Stalin and Stalinism! SMcCandlish, I've expanded the nomination, so what do you think now? — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  23:48, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
        With that expanded scope, it sounds like maybe a potential taskforce/workgroup of WP:SOCIALISM, probably with some staying power (we wouldn't have these articles without people willing to work on them). But probably only as a broader taskforce on communism (or at the narrowest, maybe Russian communism); that would be much more viable. Any of those would be pointlessly redundant as a stand-alone project, though. Put it this way: a) even communism isn't a separate wikiproject, and b) WP:SOCIALISM is active and well-developed, with the actual processes like peer review that make wikiprojects especially useful as editorial tools. I know from experience with smaller wikiprojects that establishing such things for narrow topics with only a limited number of editors and a very finite number of articles is essentially impossible.

        Have a look at WP:MILHIST, probably our most successful and productive wikiproject when it comes to getting the work done that a project is supposed to do. None of that would have happened if it had forked into 100 or a dozen or even five sub-topical "fiefdoms". The more that wikiprojects coalesce the more effective they are, until they hit the point were they're too generalized to match editorial interest. E.g., WP:WikiProject Football (for association football/soccer, not gridiron) is very effective, but WP:WikiProject Sports is not, because pretty much no one is diffusely interested in "sports" across the board; they're intensely interested in particular ones. By contrast, except for a few academics and students, no one is all about Stalin and Stalinism, but interested in Communism and in Marxism more broadly, and Stalin and Stalinism's role within that bigger picture.

        The key point: wikiprojects are about improving articles and creating more of them for complete and quality encyclopedic coverage; they are not fan clubs or special interest groups to promote detailed trivia on topics of narrow interest. Probably 85% of the ones we have should be up-merged to broader topics, because they're dead or dying; doing so would pool more editors topically and thus make assessment, peer review, and other processes that they're not doing at all or not doing well become actually feasible.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ >ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ<  05:51, 13 December 2017 (UTC); revised: 04:50, 10 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

  • Limited Support. Support for this proposal is limited to Task Force Creation. This seems like a good idea for a task force of socialism/communism, but not for a whole new WikiProject.―Matthew J. Long -Talk-☖ 22:40, 22 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Would this also include discussion of Stalinist movements outside of the USSR? Ergo, the CPUSA during the Stalinist period or groups like the Stalin Society, Workers World Party, anti-revisionists etc?--Bellerophon5685 (talk) 01:50, 8 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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.
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