In a message dated 11/13/2005 10:13:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, robert_horning@netzero.net writes:
That such proposals seemingly never get approval is a reason why nobody wants to throw an idea into that dustpile of ideas and instead try to sneak the projects through a back door like Wikijunior has done.
Excuse me, but Wikijunior was never snuck through a back door. In fact, it is probably one of the most relevant projects to Wikibooks in that it is developing age-appropriate educational material. As I recall, that was the objective of Wikibooks. Looking at it, it seems to have developed quite nicely.
Danny
daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 11/13/2005 10:13:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, robert_horning@netzero.net writes:
That such proposals seemingly never get approval is a reason why nobody wants to throw an idea into that dustpile of ideas and instead try to sneak the projects through a back door like Wikijunior has done.
Excuse me, but Wikijunior was never snuck through a back door. In fact, it is probably one of the most relevant projects to Wikibooks in that it is developing age-appropriate educational material. As I recall, that was the objective of Wikibooks. Looking at it, it seems to have developed quite nicely.
Danny
If it was such a useful project, why didn't anybody follow the New Project Guidelines, as approved by the Wikimedia Foundation board, for Wikijunior? Like I said, it doesn't follow any standard procedures on Wikibooks, and doesn't even try to be like another Wikibook. It stands out from everything else there in part because it is a different project. It is even listed in several places as a Wikimedia sister project, seperate and distinct from Wikibooks. That is my beef, and in that respect, yes it was snuck through the back door to become an independent project.
There is all this talk about how useful Wikijunior is. There is a domain for http://wikijunior.org (try it if you don't believe me). There isn't something comparable for Wikicalculus, where the Calculus Wikibook is available on a seperate domain, nor am I asking for it either. The point is that Wikijunior is a seperate project using Wikibooks as an incubator, and was not started by regular Wikibooks contributors. It is also bypassing the New Project Guidelines, which were established prior to the creation of Wikijunior as well.
On 11/14/05, Robert Scott Horning robert_horning@netzero.net wrote:
There is all this talk about how useful Wikijunior is. There is a domain for http://wikijunior.org (try it if you don't believe me). There isn't something comparable for Wikicalculus, where the Calculus Wikibook is available on a seperate domain, nor am I asking for it either. The point is that Wikijunior is a seperate project using Wikibooks as an incubator, and was not started by regular Wikibooks contributors. It is also bypassing the New Project Guidelines, which were established prior to the creation of Wikijunior as well.
-- Robert Scott Horning
You say this as though it was something done intentionally to get around the new project guidelines. I followed the early discussions about Wikijunior, and this doesn't coincide with my memory. When Danny announced on this very mailing list that "the Wikijunior project has moved to its natural home on Wikibooks" it struck me as the perfect place for it. Looking at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikijunior#Relationship_to_Wikibooks seems to confirm this.
Wikijunior may have grown beyond the scope of Wikibooks, or maybe the idea of putting it on Wikibooks in the first place was a bad idea, but the *intention* was never to use Wikibooks as an incubator project. We can discuss whether or not, in hindsight, it was a good idea, but saying it was "snuck through the back door" implies things that just don't seem to be true.
Anthony
daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 11/13/2005 10:13:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, robert_horning@netzero.net writes:
That such proposals seemingly never get approval is a reason why nobody wants to throw an idea into that dustpile of ideas and instead try to sneak the projects through a back door like Wikijunior has done.Excuse me, but Wikijunior was never snuck through a back door. In fact, it is probably one of the most relevant projects to Wikibooks in that it is developing age-appropriate educational material. As I recall, that was the objective of Wikibooks. Looking at it, it seems to have developed quite nicely.
There you go! Trying to change the debate by sneaking facts into it! ;-)
Ec
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