Andrew Dalby akdalby@hotmail.com wrote:
Sorry to come along late but I think a correction is needed here: so far as I can discover, the exclusion of ancient languages was not proposed through the community and was not discussed by the subcommittee. I could find no record that the amendment by which it was introduced was even noticed by the subcommittee. Please correct me if I'm wrong here!
Hello Andrew,
The policy itself was originally passed through the community, and a slightly modified version was approved by the subcommittee. The amendment excluding ancient languages was later agreed upon by the subcommittee (there is no community consensus either way on the amendment).
You can read subcommittee discussion at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_subcommittee/Archives (those archives are opt-in, so messages from two members are censored).