On Jan 24, 12:45 pm, Michael Peel em...@mikepeel.net wrote:
On 24 Jan 2009, at 12:37, Gordon Joly wrote:
At 11:27 +0000 21/1/09, Michael Peel wrote:
Chris,
I assume you meanhttp://www.wikimedia.org.uk/?
We're currently waiting for the WMF to set up a wiki for WMUK, which we hope will be done imminently; the website will then be brought up to date fairly rapidly. We also don't currently have control of the domain names; we've requested that they be transferred from the current owner, but haven't heard anything back from him yet. I guess it depends on how long the WMF takes to set up the wiki as to whether it's worth replacing the content on the current website yet, although a note that the pages are out of date might be useful regardless...
I've now heard back from James (he was away), and he's raised a good point about whether the WMF or WMUK should have control of these domains and the other UK domains for the WMF's trademarks. I've been in contact with Mike Godwin about this; discussions are ongoing.
Wikimedia UK is an independent organisation from the Wikimedia Foundation. We (WMUK) need a website of our own that we control, and ideally, where we own the domain name.
If the WMF or James F want to keep control of wikimedia.org.uk that's very disappointing and frankly very unhelpful - particularly considering they're doing nothing with it. But if it is true, WMUK should not host its information on this domain and should seek to register a different one - maybe http://www.wiki.org.uk/?
Personally, I think setting up a website whose content we control but where the domain name is registered to James or the Foundation is a particularly bad idea. We would have full liability for the content but control would be a constant struggle. Obscuring the ownership would not be particularly helpful.
Either it's ours or theirs. If they want to keep, so be it.
Andrew