I'm a little disappointed by the decision myself, but I can't say that I was surprised by it. I don't think anybody should have been surprised that a project with only a half-dozen "active" members, or a project that could go for months at a time without a single edit would eventually be closed. If anything, we should be disappointed by the members of that project who resisted a voluntary merger on several occasions. I saw that the members there would rather their content be trapped on a small, under-staffed and under-advertised project instead of moving it to a larger project where it would get more legitimate attention and exposure. I offered my own time on several occasions to do the content transfer, and was always met with resistance. I know other Wikibookians offered help as well, with similar results.
So don't be disappointed that the content was not saved at the last possible moment. Be disappointed that we had months where we could have been moving it and nobody made the effort. Be disappointed that everybody in the whole wiki-world knew that Simple English Wikibooks was not a viable project, except the "community" of people who worked there and should have known best. Be disappointed that the people who were supposed to be the caretakers of that content chose to let it get deleted rather than have it moved someplace safe and active.
--Andrew Whitworth
On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 8:07 AM, Aaron Adrignola aaron.adrignola@gmail.com wrote:
Was anyone aware, when deciding that Simple English Wikibooks would be closed, that it would outright be deleted? See http://simple.wikibooks.orgto see what I mean.
This prevents any import of the content to English Wikibooks at all, regardless of how it would be done. I know the bug filed to close the wiki only asked for closure and not deletion.
I am disappointed by this move. I had heard that it wouldn't reopen due to policies but I would have made an effort to import what content there was to at least our transwiki namespace had I known it would be deleted entirely.
(Aaron) Adrignola English Wikibooks _______________________________________________ Textbook-l mailing list Textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/textbook-l