I suggest the following policy:
When a Wikinews edition has seen no new stories for 8 weeks, the wiki
is locked and a site notice is added: "This Wikinews edition is
currently inactive. If you are interested in working on it, please
indicate so on [[m:Wikinews/Reactivate an edition]]." (In the correct
language, of course.) Instead of just 5 votes, you would need 10
Wikimedians to sign the reactivation pledge.
Inactive editions could also be removed from the interlanguage link
list on the Main Pages, but that would be optional if it's too much
maintenance.
There are currently a few Wikinewses that meet this criterion. In
general our setup policy tends to at least determine whether there's a
general interest but that doesn't ensure that people keep posting.
Without such a policy, I think we are just turning these sites into
magnets for vandalism and spam, as well as making Wikinews look
unprofessional (a news site with news that are a year old isn't much
of one). An open recognition that an edition is dead seems preferable
to me.
Wikinews is of course very special in this regard because it doesn't
really matter that much if a Wikipedia edition is dead for a couple of
months, but for Wikinews, it is a very obvious sign that the critical
mass is not there.
Does this policy proposal sound reasonable?
--
Peace & Love,
Erik
Member, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, all views or opinions expressed
in this message are solely my own and do not represent an official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.