----- Original Message -----
From: "Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales" <jwales(a)wikia.com>
> Mathias Schindler wrote:
>
> > David should come up with an argumentation that survives contact with
> > reality when it leaves the fair-use island (except the argumentation
> > lazyness (sp?) to find free solutions).
> >
> > Sorry, if this was to harsh but I'm very scared of this change of policy.
>
> No, I don't think it is too harsh, it's very important that we be
> quite hard-headed about such things.
Jimbo and Mathias,
I'm a firm believer that disagreeing parties can be steadfast in differing opinion while maintaining the courtesy of civiilty and foregoing insults by implication.
This issue goes beyond mere laziness.
Here's a reality of the current Wikinews project:
If a major news event (a terrorist attack, for instance) happens at night at the Eiffel Tower in Paris and we have a Wikinews reporter in Paris on scene who takes a photo, we will not be able to keep that photo on Wikicommons because under French law, night time pictures of the Eiffel Tower are copyrighted and not freely available for distribution (the light installation is a protected work of artistic expression.) But, I can guarantee you that virtually EVERY OTHER news agency - including those in France, will publish night time pictures of the twer. But, the distribution of a WikiCommons night-time photo of the Eiffel Tower would be a violation of copyright if used in Wikipedia or Wikibooks. Therefore, that same photo would be unavailable to Wikinews, even though the copyright agrument is minimal for news (since the shelf life for news is so short).
And that is only one non-logo example.
I'm not asking us to ditch WikiCommons entirely - I'm merely suggesting that the quickly adopted die-hard rule of Wiki-Commons-ONLY was installed without adequately thinking through the limitations it places on the Wikinews project in regard to the abilities of other Internet news organizations.
I think that was the Wikiverse expandes, it is becoming very obvious that "a rose is a rose is a rose" doesn't always apply. Not all wiki images have interchangeable use or share appropriateness between projects.
For me, I'd like to see an alternative where some images which may not be Inter-wiki suitable could still be used on Wikinews as appropriate. There could be many ways around this - including expiration dates (where after 5, 10 or 30 days, the picture automatically expires and is replaced will a null pixel) - or something similar.
-David
Inspired by this web comic contest:
http://crowncommission.com/dailygrind/
I've created a Wikinews writing contest. The rules, in a nutshell: You
have to write at least one story a day. You fail to meet the
requirement, you drop out. The last man standing wins the contest
(apologies for non-gender-neutral language).
As with other contests, there is an open "prize bin" that everyone can
contribute to -- whether it's cash or goods.
If you would like to participate in the contest, please register at:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Writing_contest
You should register before March 21 -- people who register after that
date will have to write more stories to "catch up".
The main goal of this contest is to increase the daily story output of
the English Wikinews. If it works out, the idea could be copied by other
editions as well, but since English is currently the main source of
translations, any positive change here helps a lot.
As an incentive for people to donate physical prizes, I think it would
be a good idea if the Wikimedia Foundation could cover shipping costs
for sending goods to the winner, within reasonable limits. Is that possible?
All best,
Erik
I am of the opinion, based on the (lack of) progress on
fr.wikipedia.org that we need to seriously reassess the "new site"
rules.
First, it needs to be harder to start, and it needs to be demonstrated
that the existing wikipedia community supports it. This is important
because we want to transmit the values of quality and neutrality to
the new sites.
Second, it needs to be made clear that if a site falls inactive, it
will be closed.
----
Separate issue: the logo *really* needs to say BETA on it, ASAP. This
is already causing confusion. People have come to me demanding to
know why I authorized that Wikinews no longer be in beta, but I did
not. It needs to be in beta for probably 2 years.
--Jimbo
--
"Pianosa is een Italie" - first words of 50,000th article on nl.wikipedia.org