Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Business

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Merge of business and companies WikiProjects

Latest comment: 4 days ago21 comments6 people in discussion

It looks like we have a number of reasonably active WikiProjects in this area, as well as some inactive ones:

WikiProject Business
WikiProject Companies
WikiProject Finance & Investment
WikiProject Retailing (currently inactive)
WikiProject Marketing & Advertising (currently inactive)
WikiProject Trade (currently inactive)

I don't edit in this area, but to me it would make sense to combine efforts and merge these projects, reducing duplicated work in tagging articles and other maintenance tasks, and driving activity towards a single talk page. The active projects could be retained as task forces of the new project for more focused work, if desired. If there is interest, the process is quite straightforward and we have recently done something similar with history projects that went well. There would just need to be a consensus amongst members of the affected projects here, as well as a decision on which projects (if any) to retain as task forces. Thoughts? – Joe (talk) 17:56, 5 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I don't see why you would merge WPCompanies into the rest of it. It is clearly different, as it deals with concrete entities, and not concepts in general. If you want to merge WPCompanies somewhere, it should be with WP:WikiProject Organizations since companies are a type of organization. -- 64.229.90.32 (talk) 05:27, 10 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I don't see why trade, finance and investment should merge here instead of at WP:WikiProject Economics, as they are economic activity that has large governmental influence and deal with international relations. -- 64.229.90.32 (talk) 05:27, 10 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Advertising, marketing, and propaganda deal with psychological aspects. Seems more like applied psychology and social engineering. So WP:WikiProject Psychology -- 64.229.90.32 (talk) 05:31, 10 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Retailing is a business activity, so would fit into WikiProject Business -- 64.229.90.32 (talk) 05:31, 10 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

WP:WikiProject Brands could also go with WPBusiness. -- 64.229.90.32 (talk) 05:32, 10 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I'm not saying these projects don't cover distinct topics. They do. But the purpose of WikiProjects is to coordinate a group of editors interested in a set of topics, rather than categorise content (we have other ways of doing that). In other words, we don't need or want wikiprojects on every distinct topic; only those topics sufficiently broad to sustain active collaboration amongst multiple editors.

I think there is considerable overlap between WP Business and WP Economics and these might be a candidate for a future merge (e.g. WP Business & Economics). In the mean time, I don't think it matters precisely where inactive projects are merged, only that they direct editors to an active project that is somewhat related. – Joe (talk) 11:28, 18 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I'm not a regular participant here, but I'm inclined to skip Wikipedia:WikiProject Companies for now. Otherwise, I think these are all good candidates for a straight (non-task force) merge. Obviously, if any active group prefers not to merge or to merge to a different page, then that must be respected.

I'll leave a note about this at Wikipedia talk:Notability (organizations and companies), as the regulars there might have some advice. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:29, 23 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I would support a merge between WikiProject Companies and WikiProject Organizations because that seems like an unnecessary, sometimes arbitrary separation. I would also support a merge-up of WikiProject Finance & Investment and WikiProject Trade to WikiProject Economics as they are underused subtopics of the main project. WikiProject Retailing and WP:WikiProject Marketing & Advertising can probably be merged up to WP:WikiProject Business for the same reason. I would be fine with WikiProject Business and WikiProject Economics merging and merging Companies/Organizations into that. C F A 💬 04:10, 2 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Related to this, I suspect (but haven't looked for years) that Wikipedia:WikiProject Hospitals is inactive. If so, it could be merged in here and also tagged for Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Society and medicine task force. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:22, 6 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

If companies and organizations projects are merged companies should be merged into organizations because most of WP:Organization's scope would not fall under the companies WikiProject. PARAKANYAA (talk) 11:38, 1 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

WikiProjects can change their scopes and their names. Wikipedia:WikiProject Business and organizations might be a plausible name for an all-encompassing group. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:07, 1 September 2024 (UTC)Reply

Why would WP:Organizations support business activities at all? Just business organizations (ie. companies). Should go there. How is a political organization, charity organization, service organization, paramilitary organization, or rebellion organization going to fit properly with that kind of name? "Organization" without "business" would be the project name if there is any merger of business oranizations into organizations. -- 65.92.246.77 (talk) 21:21, 18 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Because "business" is not the same as "businesses". The "business" part means articles like:

and the "organizations" part means articles like:

WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:33, 18 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Your proposal uses the singular "business" and not the plural "businesses", so again, why would you do that. If it is the plural form, there is no need to change WP:Organiations name at all. If it is the singular form, there is no reason to have bankruptcy under the same wikiproject as organizations, some vastly different topic areas there, as I said earlier. -- 65.92.246.77 (talk) 04:40, 19 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Because this is "WikiProject Business" (in the singular) and not Wikipedia:WikiProject Companies (in the plural). That means that the interest area is the kinds of stuff you'd study for a Master of Business Administration.

WikiProjects are voluntary social groups of people. Only the opinions of people who intend to participate in any future group are really relevant. This is not the Category system for articles, where a logical or heirarchical distinction matters. A WikiProject is more like deciding which friends you want to sit with in the school cafeteria, or which classmates you'd like to do your homework with. If the non-profit folks and the business majors want to hang out together, then they're free to do so. If the companies people don't, they're equally free not to do so. It doesn't have to seem rational to others. WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:16, 19 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

So do you think there is a consensus to merge Business, Finance, Retailing, Marketing, Trade, and Brands? Leave out companies maybe because that can be merged with organizations. PARAKANYAA (talk) 20:38, 20 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

@CFA, @Joe Roe, any objections to this plan? WhatamIdoing (talk) 00:54, 22 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

No, looks good to me. C F A 💬 01:57, 22 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

I'm still in favour of included Companies, but other than that no objections. – Joe (talk) 07:49, 22 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Joe Roe, I'm inclined to leave out Companies for now. It can be merged in later if they want to. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:58, 22 October 2024 (UTC)Reply