Daniel-
This is
most definitely not a fork of Wikipedia. Wikispecies is more
about collecting data than writing articles. This data will be saved
in a way that allows all Wikipedias, not just the English one, to use
the data. As a project, Wikispecies has different aims to Wikipedia.
It is aimed at the needs of scientific users rather than general
users. Integrating Wikispecies into Wikimedia prevents a fork.
*That* is what the Commons is for. Fork.
Mav is correct, in my opinion. It doesn't make much sense to have separate
"data projects". Instead, we should pursue developing the Commons into a
single such repository from which other projects can dynamically
transclude their content. With one such project, it is very clear to every
participant that the sole purpose is to store data. With many specialized
projects, we risk that people come across something like Wikispecies and
start treating it like it is Wikipedia.
I suggest supending
species.wikimedia.org until it is clearer what
direction this project needs to take. If no consensus can be found, a vote
on Meta seems like a good idea (apologies if there already was one and I
missed it).
Regards,
Erik
The point is, most people have not followed what wikispecies project was
about, so it is not certain whether they would do an informed vote. This
might be well one of these cases where voting is not a good idea Erik :-)
Another point would be this one. There are many people very interested
in doing wikispecies.
If wikispecies is set up, it may be that part of its information is
included in wikipedia, or it may be that the wiki is a wikimedia project.
If wikispecies is not set up, it may be that the wiki is set up
somewhere else and it may be that part of its information is included in
wikipedia from that free ressource.