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