On 11/14/05, Angela <beesley(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 11/14/05, Anthony DiPierro
<wikilegal(a)inbox.org> wrote:
Wikimedia should stick to creating and
distributing informational materials. There are wikis on Wikicities
which qualify, though. The poker one comes to mind (because that's
one of the few I've actually participated in).
The original poker request said it was aimed at the community at
http://www.twoplustwo.com and specifically said "this project will
only seek to involve content that would be out of Wikipedia's scope".
A wiki where poker players can share tips, or write about specific
non-notable games they've played doesn't fit in with anything
Wikimedia is likely to do, in my opinion.
The project is for the most part out of Wikipedia's scope (there is
some overlap but I see that as inevitable and not a bad thing). I
think it's well within the scope of Wikimedia, though. I think you've
slightly misidentified the actual purpose of the site, too. Maybe the
original proposal mentioned writing about specific non-notable games,
but I haven't seen anything like that. I mean, why would a
non-notable game be mentioned? Some example questions from
http://poker.wikicities.com/wiki/PokerWiki:Why_a_wiki%3F
* What games are spread at the Borgata?
* How should I play a pair of jacks under the gun?
* What are the basic rules of five-card stud?
* How should I manage my bankroll?
* What are some basics every beginner should know?
I can't "imagine a world in which every single person is given free
access to the sum of all human knowledge" without it. (and lest
someone misunderstand my quote that's from
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home)
Maybe this is an anomaly, but PokerWiki is an example of a project on
Wikicities that I'd like to see in Wikimedia. <sarcastic humor>Maybe
we could start a Wikibook about poker and use that site as an
incubator.</sarcastic humor>
I don't
understand any of this. Is
scratchpad.wikicities.com a
Wikimedia project?
No, the WikiLab at
scratchpad.wikicities.com is a Wikicity. What is
currently called "Seed Wiki" on meta would be the Wikimedia version of
this, though hopefully will more of a policy of what was allowed to be
there.
That's what I thought, in which case I don't really see what you're
trying to say. Maybe you thought I was saying there should be no
policy on the seed wiki? I certainly wasn't. <strikethrough
reason='see explanation below'>You're the one who said that it would
wind up being a fork of Wikicities, not me.</strikethrough>
The process to
create a new project is far too difficult. An
incubator wiki would facilitate that process.
Yes, but it should only facilitate it for things the community
actually want there, not everything someone thinks would make a good
wiki. There are hundreds of wiki ideas that are rejected even from
Wikicities. If you look a wikifarm with no policy, like
pbwiki.com,
you'll see the sort of content I'm concerned about ending up on this
"seed wiki" if people think it is a general dumping ground rather than
something where the project proposals need to be community approved.
Obviously the community should decide what goes in the seed wiki and
what doesn't. But I think we've developed a good process for the
community to decide - a wiki. Artificially raising the bar to require
board support for people just to begin working on something new, using
Wikimedia resources, is not good idea.
And I re-read the current policies on new project creation. From what
I've read it seems to be completely a board decision, though the board
is supposed to consider a poll.
By the way, I
just realized that some people might misunderstand my
quote. Angela, referring to wikiseed (the incubator wiki), said in an
IRC board meeting "Angela thinks it will end up being a fork of
Wikicities." That's all I was referring to when I referred to the
project that way.
This was my concern *if* the site was going to be set up without any
policies on what content should be there (which luckily isn't the case
now that people are discussing these policies on meta). Without those
policies, it wouldn't only be a fork of Wikicities, but of any wiki
hosting project / wikifarm.
Angela.
Sorry about that then. It wasn't clear to me when I read this that
that was what you meant.
Clearly the seed wiki should have policies on what content should be
there. I really don't think anyone was ever suggesting that there
shouldn't.
Anthony