--- Erik Moeller <erik_moeller(a)gmx.de> wrote:
Aside from what people's feelings are, it is
important to collect
empirical data. So far, your claim that Wikipedia will lose contributors
to in-the-news articles because of Wikinews is unproven. It may in fact
be the other way around, given that Wikinews prominently links to as
much Wikipedia material as possible.
Again, those data were in a language that I already noted was fine for
Wikinews. And English, being such an international language and spoken by so
many people can not be a used in such a test. The English-speaking community of
users working on Wikimedia projects is huge. So your results are not at all
surprising.
But the arguments that have been brought up against
the French Wikinews
are just the same that have been brought up against Wikinews in general:
It could harm our reputation, it could lead to legal problems, etc.
Whether these arguments outweigh the benefits of the project has been
addressed in a global vote.
Imposing the results of a global vote onto a language community which has a
great deal of opposition to the vote result, is not something that makes for
harmonious co-existence between languages. This is especially true when a large
plurality of the global vote is from a single language community.
So global votes are great for deciding if the foundation wants to start a new
project at all. But whether or not particular language communities are ready
for that project should be up to them - not forced onto them.
What is a good solution to that problem? Perhaps, as
soon as the
required number of contributors is reached, there should be a vote on
when the desired launch date is. "Never" would not be an option in that
vote, but it could have a scope of, say, 4 weeks. This would also be a
test of whether the people who pledged to participate are actually still
around and interested, so the vote could have the same minimum number of
participants.
'Never' is not a valid option. I can agree with that. But 'not in the
immediate
future' *would* have to be an option, IMO.
I am opposed to delaying the creation of Wikinews just
because a
Wikipedia in the language in question is still too small. That would
create a hierarchy of projects. When there are participants, the project
should be launched - but the timetable for the launch could be set by
the community.
You are putting words into my mouth. I never said that Wikpedians in a certain
language decide this, I said that the relevant language community decides it
(well at least if I did say it, that was not what I meant :). *All* Wikimedia
projects in a particular language have a stake in a new project in their
language. Thus all Wikimedians who participate in those language project
versions need to be heard.
-- mav
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