On Mon, 7 Nov 2005, Jimmy Wales wrote:
Tell me when
you've stopped discussing and voting on genial new projects
and obscure dialects, when you've kicked the language fanatics from the
mailing lists, when you've closed the unwatched spam traps, when you've
settled on a checkuser and logo policy, when someone has had the guts to
introduce single login instead of just talking about it and when you are
serious about this human knowledge thing.
I'm very sympathetic to all these points. I don't have an easy answer
to what to do, and kicking language fanatics off the mailing lists isn't
exactly our normal style. I do think we need some serious reform of our
language policy to end what I see as an ongoing drive to reclassify
every dialect in the world into a standalone language.
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Each person's list of things like this will be
slightly different, but
the overall point is that I am beginning to sense a need with the
community for us to turn inward, to change some of our very open
policies which lead people to endless new-project proposals and
new-language speculation.
The current policies strike me as more undefined than open.
It is not easy to start new projects, certainly not those with their own
domains; it's not even easy to figure out where and how within the English
Wikipedia to nurture an English-language, encyclopedia-focused project.
It is much easier (perhaps too easy, considering how many wikis have zero
active users) to start new languages. However it is surprisingly hard to
find a list of [other] ways to integrate new language/dialect content into
the projects*.
The current bar for starting new domains/languages is low; but the
alternative isn't necessarily to turn people away or kick them out of
discussions; we can at least start by providing enthusiastic (fanatic?)
proposers with better information, clearer guidelines, and one or two
wikis that focus on incubation.
One of the prime advantages of both free licensing and wikis is that they
allow people to act on impulses, contributing two hours of content while
they are passionate about something, before it fades from mind, rather
than waiting for days or weeks for others to grant permission. I hope
we find ways to encourage this -- perhaps by more clearly distinguishing
alpha/beta/reviewed content/projects/languages** -- while also improving
quality and consistency at the highest and most public levels.
-- SJ
* e.g., "Just a minor dialect? use this auto-conversion patch to let
users choose which dialect they see. A language with little written
content, few speakers, or controversial status? Here's a collection of
Swadesh lists; starty by adding yours to it... Here's an incubator wiki
where you can develop other content in that language... Here's how you can
set up your own wiki and raise the issue again once you have 500 articles.
A language with millions of literate speakers but no wiki community?
Here's where to develop that content at first, where to announce it, and
the milestones you need to reach before getting your own domain."
** even users. cf. last week's discussion of anonymity.