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Revision as of 18:12, 15 October 2006 by RHaworth (talk | contribs) (we do not have a talk_talk namespace)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) | The following is a proposed Misplaced Pages policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. |
This Guideline for List of notable accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft inclusion criteria and format is intended to help achieve and maintain standardized List inclusion criteria and format for the List of notable accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft article.
Background
List articles on Misplaced Pages in general suffer from several common problems:
- Vague inclusion criteria: confusion about eligibility causes constant conflicts, especially with newer contributors to the list and/or inconsistent entries
- Inconsistend format: entries contributed by different editors are different in format and style, making the list harder to read with haphazard appearance
- Bloat: good lists should be restricted in length to about 25-32K, while poor ones bloat indefinitely due to lack of standards and controls - overly long lists should be broken up into smaller sub articles
The above are general ailments that many lists suffer from. The specific list here is no exception, and its current state reflects all these generic problems. Specifically, it has a mix of very notable cases with marginally notable ones. It has differing grammar and punctuation styles for different entries: present vs. past tense, semi-colon separated single sentence vs. period separated multi sentence, etc. It is also excessively bloated, currently weighing in at 87 kilobytes, more than 3 times the recommended size for a good list article.
Rationale
WP is open to change by anyone at any time, but list articles specifically are extremely difficult to maintain properly, as they consist of a long list of individual items. The only way to maintain a high quality list is by agreeing on a hard set of rules for the list and strictly enforcing them. If some editor is unhappy with the list status, s/he can either work to change the rules (with resultant retroactive changes possibly needed in the list) or start a new list with his/her own rules. But once the rules exist, even if they are not perfect or ideal by everyone's perspective, they must be enforced, or else the list degrades in quality over time.
The restriction to minimize the number of entries, and minimize the words per entry, could seem to contradict the 'Misplaced Pages is not paper' rule, but in fact the non-paper rule deals with inclusion of articles into WP, not entries into a list. If a list has too many entries and becomes excessively long, it loses its readability, usefulness and attractiveness.
Specific proposed rules for this list
Inclusion criteria
- Each entry in this list must be linked to a specific corresponding Misplaced Pages article about the accident or incident being described; if there is no such article, write it first and then insert it in this list; if the article is deleted, its list entry will also be deleted
- Each entry in this list must describe an aviation accident or incident (see definitions in section below) that involves at least one commercial aircraft (as defined in 'includable commercial aircraft' section below)
Entry tense
This article is sorted by increasing time and is a timeline type list. The present tense sounds more dynamic and engaging, as if describing unfolding events in real time. Therefore, each entry in this article shall be in the present tense only as it describes the specific event.
Entry length
No individual entry in this list shall exceed 40 words; if the describes an accident involving multiple aircraft then the maximum size may be increased to 60 words. This is a maximum value and should not be used unless absolutely needed; we want to keep the overall article size to a minimum so simpler events should use less words, to allow more complex ones more space.
Entry style
Editors will attempt to minimize the words for each entry to convey the most critical highlights: date, site, airline, flight number (link to accident/incident article), aircraft type, nature of accident/accident, reason(s) (when known), number of casualties. The structure shall normally be one long sentence broken up into sub-sentences by semi-colons.
Definition of includable 'commercial' aircraft
For the purposes of this list article only we define 'includable commercial aircraft' involved in an accident or incident as any of the following:
- An airliner, commuter, airtaxi or charter aircraft with minimum seating capacity of 10 seats
- A cargo aircraft carrying cargo for hire, with a gross takeoff weight of at least 20,000 pounds and involved in an accident only (incidents for cargo aircraft of any size are excluded in this article)
Note that any entry in this article must also meet the notability criterion by having its own dedicated accident/incident Misplaced Pages article. In the case of a collision, at least one of the aircraft must meet the inclusion criteria on its own.
Definition of aviation accidents and incidents
From the NTSB's site:
An accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft that takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage.
An incident is an occurrence other than an accident that affects or could affect the safety of operations.
The ICAO definitions are similar, though somewhat more involved.
Proposed enforcement mechanism
- This guideline, when approved by consensus, will become a sub-page of the List's Talk page, and will be linked to from the Talk page; the article will include one or more references to it in the comments (visible only to editors).
- Any new entry that does not meet the inclusion requirement of this guideline can be removed by anyone; the burden is on the includer to prove that a new entry meets the guideline
- Any new entry that does not conform to the style/grammar/format of the guideline should be fixed
- Old existing entries that do not conform to the style/grammar/format of the guideline will be fixed by volunteers over time
- This guideline requires all editors to conform to all applicable Misplaced Pages policies and encourages civil discourse at all times
Discussion mechanism
Discussion of this guideline will take places in its own Talk page. Any change to this guideline must be discussed and agreed to by consensus on that page.
See also
- "REPORTING AN ACCIDENT TO THE NTSB". Retrieved 2006-10-15.