On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 7:43 PM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 8:49 AM, Andrew Whitworth
<wknight8111(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 12:59 AM, John Vandenberg
<jayvdb(a)gmail.com> wrote:
There is a discussion on Meta to disband
Wikiquote, or at least
consider the problems it faces and how to move forward.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metapub/On_disbanding_Wikiquote
So far it is mostly people who have doubts about its utility, so
broader participation is desirable. I appreciate that this is not
going to be a pleasant discussion for regular contributors to
Wikiquote, but I see it as a worthwhile discussion, even if it only to
re-affirm the community support for having a quote project now that
the encyclopedia and library project are rapidly encroaching on its
territory.
I know this proposal is probably offensive to some people. Nobody
wants to see "their project" closed, no matter what problems it may
have. I've seen this with projects that are much worse off then
en.wikiquote, and I would expect nothing less from the quoters (what
do their members call themselves?).
<snip>
I'm not in favor of closing wikiquote, but
then again it could turn
out to be the correct decision if questions like those above don't
have clear and suitable answers. I hope people take this issue
seriously because Wikiquote could seriously benefit from some
thoughtful introspection.
--Andrew Whitworth
I guess this might be another potentially offensive proposal, but I
think Wikiquote, given that it is in some ways the least successful of
the projects, might be a good test case for a remerge,
"wikicompendium"-style, back to Wikipedia.
I feel that the separation of the projects (and the consequent
fracturing of the community) may have been a historic mistake, and
that we should consider whether or not something like Wikiquote might
work better as a "Quote:" namespace on Wikipedia (while retaining the
conventions particular to Wikiquote). I feel this is an experiment
that might be worth pursuing.
I was earlier thinking of a Quote: namespace for Wikisource, as a way
to ensure that the source is provided in full first, before the quotes
are attached, or at least concurrently developed. I hadnt thought of
a Quote namespace being part of Wikipedia - that could help allow the
fair-use quotes to be better managed.
--
John