According to the article [[meta:mailinglist]] the purpose of the Wikipedia-I mailing list is: "for issues concerning more than one Wikipedia, but not concerning the sister-projects".
Therefore I fail to see why the ToL, which is an en: resource, would serve as reason _not_ to start WikiSpecies. When people think that it takes away from the ToL, they fail to consider that the effort that goes into WikiSpecies may not be effort that does not go into en: but that it may take effort away from nl: or de: or fr:
They fail to remember that the first taxobox with the {{regnum}}, {{species}} syntax was brought to you in [[nl:Pos]] and translated for you as [[en:Ruffe]]. The point being that the potential for better cooperation with other wikipedia was brought to the en:ToL. When it was asked to discuss the look and feel of the Taxobox to make it pallatable for the de:, fr:, nl: and other wikipedia, the answer was NO, see our history we do not want that, democratic decision.
One argument used is that: forking is not wanted. The argument that a server with loads of diskspace exists that can be used to host something like WikiSpecies will propably only get a "well that is ok, because it is outside wikimedia, nothing to do with us".
Conclusion: *The arguments against are en: based have little or no relevance to other wikipedia and are, because of its purpose, of litle relevance to this list. *WikiSpecies will be a sister-project and as such it is not for this mailing list to decide what is going to happen. *The danger of forking outside Wikimedia is real, this to happen is the worst case scenario, because it will mean that a potentially valuable resource will be lost to all wikipedia not just to en:. *When a fork happens, ask yourself did it have to do with you, and are you comfortable with it?
Thanks, GerardM