Marco Krohn wrote:
The proposed project "wikispecies" will have a huge overlap with existing Wikipedia articles. Therefore using the term sister-project is IMHO wrong, and calling it a "partial fork" is much closer to reality.
Just to clarify, I think that wikispecies is not overlapping with the encyclopedia in any significant way, that it is not a fork, that it is a perfectly appropriate use of our resources, and that this discussion should end pretty soon.
A species database is just a different kind of reference work than a general interest encyclopedia. This is not materially different from efforts at wikibooks, wiktionary, etc., to generate other kinds of reference works.
By supporting Benedikt Mandl's proposal in-house, rather than being persnickity and forcing him to go outside for support, we guarantee such things as long-term software and content compatibility, etc.
When fully developed, a wikispecies directory will be a delightful resource work as a standalone *and* a nice foundation for *some* encyclopedia articles. But the two are not identical.
--Jimbo