[Wikipedia-l] Wikis and uniformity

[Rotem Dan]

Anthere wrote:
 > Do not resign :-) Just take it easy and slowly.
<snip>
 > But, there is no hurry, having all your issues solved
 > in a month is *not* gonna happen. We are here for a
 > long time anyway :-)

I'm an adherent of uniqueness, diversity and individuality, but the
responses here seem to show that there is a status quo on "how a wiki
should look and feel" that is maintained and all wikis are forced to
conform to, for some reason (with the exception of the Esperanto wiki,
and the french logo). I find that repressive and creatively discouraging.

Each wikis is, after all, an independent internet website. I find it
really boring and dull that all the wikis look and feel the same. (I
sometimes confuse between Wikipedia and Wiktionary because they look so
similar).

A basic rule in marketing is to satisfy your audience. Since the
audience of, for example, the Hebrew wiki, is not the audience of, say,
the Polish wiki. I think each audience should have the right to choose
how their website would look and work.

The argument that all wikis should be identical because there is a
minority of bilingual pepole who work on more than two wikis is really
weak. Here's a better argument: I will design the hebrew site so it will
be very intuitive and will take almost no effort to learn how to use it,
yes, it would be different but very easy to use.

Wikimedia's wiki sites have hundereds of thousands of different articles
and encompass many different subjects and languages, why not let them
develop their own unique look and character? There can be a universal
Wikimedia logo that each wiki would be required to show, I have to say I
would be /proud/ to put that logo on the Hebrew wiki.

Hoping I won't get flamed for this,

Rotem