Re: [Wikinews-l] Closing inactive Wikinewses

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. _______________________________________________ Wikinews-l mailing list Wikinews-l(a)Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l