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:Yeah, I know what you mean. First, about the colourful crowds, we can easily edit that out and make the whole paragraph less generalised. Then, about precautions and stuff, obviously we don't have to add things like the danger of being robbed and the possible benefit of travelling in groups to every article, that's the Lonely Plantet folks' job. But I do think that in this particular case - with the single female traveller in Mexico - there is some information that is both specific to the country and potentially helpful. I also think it does make sense to point out areas where a girl standing by the side of the road will be thought of as a prostitute more easily, you have that in Italy, too, for example. I'm gonna edit it a bit, though, and you can tell me what you think.--[[User:Zenit|Zenit]] 15:30, 12 July 2011 (CEST) (I was thinking we could do the opposite of the LP: add a disclaimer to every warning saying that you shouldn't be scared anyhow because bad things tend not to happen to ''you'' or something)
Ok yeah it sounds pretty neutral and helpful now with the edits you've made. I still don't know about the specific areas thing though. In my opinion in 99% of cases where somebody tells you "place x is more whatever than the rest of..." it's closer to meaning "when I was in x I got more whatever than when I was in the rest of...", that's why I tend to classify it as a personal opinion. In Central America most of all we were amazed how everybody we met would tell us : "oh you're heading there! It's really dangerous there you know", I can't even remember how many times we heard the line "hay muchos maliantes alla!"...
<br>--[[User:Marcool|Marcool]] 12:16, 12 July 2011 (CEST)
Hey, just to join the discussion: I think that you are right somehow ... but then people often say "Italy/Spain/whatever country" is a country where hitchhiking is more difficult than in country X" and there is usually truth in that, even though it does not always proove to be true. I had some hard times hitchhing in Spain and two years ago in Italy. During the [[Abgefahren_hitchhiking_race_2011|Abgefahren race]] most people had beautiful experiences in Italy, especially around the area we camped. On the way back going through more inhabited landscapes/cities it was definitely more difficult. Also some people said in [[Sines]] at last years' hitchgathering that hitching in Spain was great ... but many also had problems.
The same might be true for the "dangerousness" of an area. But a single experience can always vary a lot from the usual/average ... I would rather keep these experiences, but mark them clearly as experiences ... like they exists in some articles already. I know we usually have the policy not to write in a first person style, but I think there we could make a difference between personal experience descriptions and rational descriptions of how to get to a great hitching spot etc. It's fun to read personal experiences in my opinion. Of course one has to keep in mind that they 'are' personal, maybe even extreme, experiences which might not at all display the usual.
And about what non-hitchhikers say ... well... isn't there even an advise on hitchwiki to never listen to your drivers? ;)
--[[User:N0id|N0id]] 18:33, 12 July 2011 (CEST)
:Well, one thing with hitchwiki is the fact that we can't be super objective... because there's no empirical studies and stuff about hitchability or any of the other things that we prominently write about. In the end, it's just going to be a cocoction from the personal experiences of everybody who edits the article - and that's exactly the point why we need to keep the single women part in the mexico article. Somebody felt strongly about that, now we came and softened a bit because we didn't feel it was ''that'' important, and the next person will change it a bit again... I'm saying that nobody has the "ultimate" knowlege about hitching in any place and we just have to work on the right mix. and stuff. that goes for hitchability just as it does for dangers, prostitutes, etc.--[[User:Zenit|Zenit]] 21:43, 12 July 2011 (CEST)
I perfectly agree with both of you, although I hadn't read the piece of advice on ''never listen to you driver'' yet! Soooo true! :-) I guess that there's something to be learned out of everybody's experience indeed, and as you say Zenit it's near impossible to keep this type of article entirely objective so in the end it's really important I think to contextualize information, and organize it inside the articles, that way what is what remains clear and everyone can give his experience AND contribute general information in different scopes. On the other hand I do retain a slightly more extreme view on the ''this place works this one doesn't'' kind of judgements, outside of a personal experience scope of course. In my opinion this type of comment, however eerily true it may turn out to be sometimes, is of the kind that alters your experience without you even knowing it. You know this kind of information that you don't ''really'' pay attention too, that sits like a seed in the corner of your mind, and then, the minute you ARE in Italie, and you ARE waiting a long time, then you remember how somebody said it was hard to hitch-hike there, and the idea becomes bigger and bigger, and so the seed germinates, and in the end flowers and the next time YOU talk to somebody about hitch-hiking in Italie, you'll have a whole new bunch of seeds to plant in other peoples heads. Whereas on the other hand had you not had that seed in there in the first place, you may never have made note of the 45 minutes or 2 hours waisted on the outskirts of Turin, and you would have told the story if Italie differently... I'm exaggerating of course but I guess you see my point.<br>
--[[User:Marcool|Marcool]] 03:25, 13 July 2011 (CEST)
