Giskart wrote:
Brion VIBBER wrote:
Pursuant to KQ's suggestions, I've started a page on the English wikipedia:
and now Esperanto: http://eo.wikipedia.com/wiki/Vikipedia_Ambasadorejo
A good idea be would it not be better to use the meta-wikipedia for this ? Now it is used to put stuff on that is out of please on the English wikipedia. I see a future for the Meta - wikipedia as the central conectionpoint between all wikipedias. A truly international, multi-lingual wiki for essays and other non-encycopedia stuff but also as the centre for international co-ordination. For Embassys or some respresantation. You can make different "Main Page"s on the same wiki. Somthing like this; http://meta.wikipedia.com/wiki.phtml?title=Hoofdpagina
I think there will be more active in the Embassy pages if the are all on 1 wiki. Then there are only only 2 wikipedias to monitor. . If the Embassy pages are all on the home-wikipedias i think some will be forgotten and the traffic, if any, will only be downstream from the English to the others but not upstream.
My experience with Meta has been that I check it somewhere between very rarely and never, which makes it useless for me for discussion or site announcements. On the other hand, the wikis I participate in *editing* I check rather regularly (en, eo quite frequently, fr at least few times a week; I check de for the bug reports page), and so I'm much more likely to notice big news / help requests / policy discussions there. Likewise the mailing lists (eg intlwiki-l) come directly to my inbox once I've subscribed, so it's tough to ignore them.
I doubt I'm alone in this, so I would expect to have an easier time getting ahold of, say, the French wikipedia community by writing on a page on the French wiki which will appear to all French wikipedians in their RecentChanges list than by writing on a page on meta which if I'm lucky someone (an "ambassador") will remember to check. If I want to get ahold of _everyone's_ attention, that's what intlwiki-l is for. The people who are subscribed to these mailing lists (the "ambassadors") are guaranteed to receive that, and they can then make sure there is appropriate local discussion on their home wikis and that everybody's voices are heard on the mailing list.
Someone unable or intimidated to post directly to the big list can leave a request at their local "embassy", which the local ambassador can send on to the mailing list.
But you're welcome to prove me wrong, I've been hoping we could do something useful with meta for a long time. :)
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)