On 2020-06-19 09:58, Nicolas VIGNERON wrote:
> All three options remove the term "Wikimedia" to replace it by
> "Wikipedia" and indeed, there is no statu quo option...


In my opinion, it was a mistake in 2003, when the foundation was
established,
to invent a new name for it. If it had been called "Wikipedia
Foundation" from
the start, it would have been so much easier to explain to friends,
collaboration
partners and donors what we are. We are a foundation to support Wikipedia
(and also its sister projects). Wikisource, Wiktionary and the rest are
just that:
They are sister projects to Wikipedia, always were, always have been.

Only Wikipedia is the groundbreaking innovation that could win the Nobel
Prize
(for peace, perhaps?). None of the sister projects could qualify for this.
While Wikisource is great, we should be humble and grateful that we can
benefit from all the money and technology around Wikipedia, including
events like Wikimania.

What you have to ask yourself: If it had been named "Wikipedia Foundation"
from the start, would you have left it? Would you have left Wikisource, in
order to administrate your own, separate, independent project? Asaf Bartov
does this with Project Ben-Yehuda. I do this with Project Runeberg. These
are not part of Wikisource, not part of the Wikipedia/-media movement.
But we never broke away from Wikisource. The reason we maintain our
own projects is because they are older than Wikisource. It is a lot of extra
work to administrate your own project. If this kind of extra administration
is your mission in life, perhaps you should leave Wikisource and run your
own? See how fun that is.

In my case, I could close down Project Runeberg and merge with Wikisource,
if it weren't for some differences in licensing. Much of what I have
digitized
there can not fit in Wikisource. And so I continue to carry the extra burden
of administrating my own project. But it's not because I hate the Wikipedia
movement or Wikisource. On the contrary, I was active in establishing
the Swedish chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation in 2007. And I have spent
too much time explaining the difference between Wikipedia and Wikimedia.

I wish it had been named "Wikipedia Foundation" from the start. When the
burden of dual names was obvious in 2015, I wish the foundation had just
renamed itself quickly without asking anyone. It would have been criticized,
but now it is criticized anyway after very long and slow process, so no
gain.


--
   Lars Aronsson (lars@aronsson.se)
   Linköping, Sweden

   Project Runeberg - free Nordic literature - http://runeberg.org/



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