On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 5:14 PM, Yaroslav M. Blanter putevod@mccme.ru wrote:
The distance between Moscow and Vladivostok is 10K km. May we have 83 chapters please?
First, please don't top-post.
If a critical mass of Wikimedians in Irkutsk wants to organize a local chapter, and believes that there's good reason to organize separately from Wikimedia Russia, we would certainly entertain those arguments. I don't think anyone would seriously draw an analog between Russia and the United States, however.
The population distribution in Russia isn't anything like that of the U.S. or Europe, and the geopolitical and culture considerations are very different. Distance alone isn't a deciding factor, but given the similar geography and climate of the U.S. and Europe, it's a valid point that suggests that Los Angeles and New York may not be well served by a single chapter structure.
Austin