Hi,
now that we're about to move demo.wikinews.org to en.wikinews.org, we have to think about a procedure for setting up other language domains. If any decision on this matter has already been made by the Board, please let me know.
It should be noted that on two of the language voting pages, no majority was reached on starting the project. These are French and Chinese. Others had very small participation.
In the original proposal, I suggested that Wikinews can be set up in any accepted Wikimedia project language where there is at least one interested participant, and that 4 more regulars are required for the language to be recognized as "official", and for the firsts sysops to be created.
I would like to ask the Board if this procedure is acceptable.
If it is not, one possible alternative would be to immediately set up language domains for any language where there are more than 10 votes on the respective voting page on Meta, and more than 50% in favor. This would currently mean Japanese and German. The vote could be re-opened, and kept open permanently.
In any case, I would ask for the immediate authorization of de.wikinews.org, as there was overwhelming support on the German voting page for starting the project, there has been some German press coverage on it, and there is already much interest on the German mailing list.
Regards,
Erik
Erik Moeller wrote:
It should be noted that on two of the language voting pages, no majority was reached on starting the project. These are French and Chinese. Others had very small participation.
...maybe due to the fact that the poll procedure started with english as the first page where to place your vote. At least that's what I did.
In any case, I would ask for the immediate authorization of de.wikinews.org, as there was overwhelming support on the German voting page for starting the project, there has been some German press coverage on it, and there is already much interest on the German mailing list.
I support that.
Mathias
Yes, please set up de. I was interviewed by Die Welt last night, as was elian. (Erik, I would have pointed them to you, but you weren't on irc and I didn't have a phone number for you, and she was on a deadline.)
--Jimbo
Mathias Schindler wrote:
Erik Moeller wrote:
It should be noted that on two of the language voting pages, no majority was reached on starting the project. These are French and Chinese. Others had very small participation.
...maybe due to the fact that the poll procedure started with english as the first page where to place your vote. At least that's what I did.
In any case, I would ask for the immediate authorization of de.wikinews.org, as there was overwhelming support on the German voting page for starting the project, there has been some German press coverage on it, and there is already much interest on the German mailing list.
I support that.
Mathias
foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
On 3 Dec 2004, at 12:15, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:
but you weren't on irc and I didn't have a phone number for you, and she was on a deadline.)
Would it be a good idea to set up some restricted access shared Wikipedian telephone directory, where people can opt to give their phone number and hrs of "reachability" and time zone? The directory probably should only be readable by registered Wikipedians who give their own phone number as well.
Do people think that's a nutty idea or does something along these lines possibly make sense?
-- ropers [[en:User:Ropers]] www.ropersonline.com
Jens Ropers wrote:
Would it be a good idea to set up some restricted access shared Wikipedian telephone directory, where people can opt to give their phone number and hrs of "reachability" and time zone? The directory probably should only be readable by registered Wikipedians who give their own phone number as well.
Do people think that's a nutty idea or does something along these lines possibly make sense?
We did that a while ago, the emergency developer contact list. The basic idea was to give developer phone numbers to various active Wikipedians, so that someone could be contacted when the site went offline. Now we've got more developers, so there's always someone hanging around on IRC. Erik wasn't on the list, so that wouldn't have helped in this case. I'm a bit more wary about giving out my phone number now than I used to be. Wik was on the list of active Wikipedians, and he did make a half-hearted attempt to publish my phone number to get back at me for blocking his vandalbot. He didn't make any threatening phone calls to any of the developers, which I appreciate.
I'm sure Erik would be quite happy giving Jimbo his phone number, after all I'm pretty sure Erik has Jimbo's. It was a phone call from Erik to Jimbo that convinced Jimbo to get moving on the creation of the Wikimedia Foundation.
-- Tim Starling
Now that we're about to move demo.wikinews.org to en.wikinews.org, we have to think about a procedure for setting up other language domains.
I support moving the demo to a URL which makes it clear the project is not temporary. However, it is also important to make clear to readers that the project is in Beta to avoid responses to the site being overly-critical in these early stages. This could be done via a beta.wikinews.org URL, but this becomes more complicated once other language domains are added, so perhaps a message in the site notice, or on the logo, would be more appropriate.
In the original proposal, I suggested that Wikinews can be set up in any accepted Wikimedia project language where there is at least one interested participant, and that 4 more regulars are required for the language to be recognized as "official", and for the firsts sysops to be created.
There is a proposed policy for new languages at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy_for_wikis_in_new_languages
There may be reasons for Wikinews to follow a different procedure to our other wikis though, since the process of creating a news site really needs more users than an encyclopedia. The proposed language policy currently states five users are needed. If this does not change, then the same policy can be applied to Wikinews.
If it is not, one possible alternative would be to immediately set up language domains for any language where there are more than 10 votes on the respective voting page on Meta, and more than 50% in favor.
I don't think the vote on whether to start the project is the same as a vote to have a language sub-domain once the project has started, so these votes should be discounted now. Any creation of a new language Wikinews should follow whatever the procedure is going to be used without reference to the previous vote.
In any case, I would ask for the immediate authorization of de.wikinews.org...
I haven't read the German mailing list, but from IRC, I had the impression that there were objections to this and that some wanted to wait until there was evidence the English version was running well before starting a German version. Could someone please confirm whether this is the case or whether there is already enough support for a German Wikinews?
The content that is currently on the Demo wiki is in the public domain in order to facilitate the migration to any other license.
It would be best to keep the project as public domain for a couple of weeks to allow users of the project to decide how they might want to use text from Wikipedia in future, and whether Wikipedians feel they want to be able to use text from Wikinews in Wikipedia articles. I would prefer a vote not be held immediately, to give people time to discuss which projects need to be compatible with each other, and how external users are likely to want to use Wikinews.
Angela.
Angela-
Now that we're about to move demo.wikinews.org to en.wikinews.org, we have to think about a procedure for setting up other language domains.
I support moving the demo to a URL which makes it clear the project is not temporary. However, it is also important to make clear to readers that the project is in Beta to avoid responses to the site being overly-critical in these early stages. This could be done via a beta.wikinews.org URL, but this becomes more complicated once other language domains are added, so perhaps a message in the site notice, or on the logo, would be more appropriate.
I agree, a Google-like "BETA" in the logo would be sufficient, IMHO.
I haven't read the German mailing list, but from IRC, I had the impression that there were objections to this
Well, there were objections to the English Wikinews as well. The question is - do they matter? We're not going to get consensus on any new language as some people remain opposed to Wikinews on principle. It seems unfair to start Wikinews in English only when there is a substantial number of German users who would like to use it now, and when there were many more objections by English users than by German ones.
Of all the possible options, waiting for full community consensus until we launch a new language seems the least feasible. There should be objective, fair criteria for launching a new edition. So from this standpoint, I suggest adopting the proposed policy currently on Meta.
I disagree that Wikinews requires a larger user base to be useful. It certainly requires a large userbase in order to present a balanced mix of news, just like Wikipedia does in order to provide a wide range of articles. But even a couple of dedicated users can provide reliable news on the subjects that interest them. Just think of the hundreds of weblogs which do just that. As long as we do not set up the expectation that Wikinews can immediately replace CNN in any language, we should be fine. The BETA marker helps with that.
I believe that the demo phase served the purpose of testing the basic idea of Wikinews, and that we should now move on to launch it in all languages where there is a community of users interested in working on it, unless clear and compelling reasons are cited for not doing so that relate specifically to that language, and not to the idea of the project itself.
Regards,
Erik
Angela wrote:
Could someone please confirm whether this is the case or whether there is already enough support for a German Wikinews?
I can confirm it. And I also confirm that "already" does not apply. Support for a vapourous thing won't increase. Please stop assuming that the success or failure or the whatever of en.wikinews will have a short term influence on de in case you do.
Mathias
Mathias Schindler wrote:
Could someone please confirm whether this is the case or whether there is already enough support for a German Wikinews?
I can confirm it. And I also confirm that "already" does not apply. Support for a vapourous thing won't increase. Please stop assuming that the success or failure or the whatever of en.wikinews will have a short term influence on de in case you do.
I just want to make it clear that I was never assuming one Wikinews would influence the success of another in the way that you imply. I was simply passing on the results of a discussion on IRC, in which I was led to believe that one of the German mailing lists had made a decision about this, and I wanted to clarify the situation before the wiki was created.
Anyhow, the wiki now exists and I have made Elian an administrator there and Mathias a bureaucrat as per requests via Jimbo.
Angela.
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