of the Would make more sense if you proposed a Simple German Wikipedia, although judging by the performance of the Simple English one, I can't see there being many good contributors.

Well Sabine, we can both, can't we? Wikibooks leaves the space for things like these on the one hand; on the other hand, the existance of a Simple English wikipedia justifies a Simple German wikipedia anyway. Wouter _________________________________________________________________ Speel online games via MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.nl/

The fact that the Simple English wikipedia did not succeed so far (I won't say failed, because that sounds far too definitive to me) is certainly a reason for serious contemplation en reconsideration of this proposal. On the other hand, we could learn from what went wrong so far on simple: when starting einfach:, and build a frim community with clear goals and arrangements first. And attract enough willing contributors, of course. Wouter _________________________________________________________________ Speel online games via MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.nl/

Why? _________________________________________________________________ Speel online games via MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.nl/

Angela wrote: I agree with this, having occasionally peered over at simple: but never really having gotten interested in it enough to edit significantly. I do think the idea is admirable, but perhaps some of the same goals could be accomplished by making the existing Wikipedias somewhat easier to read. I've run across quite a few en: articles that use diction not in common use since the 19th century (and I don't just mean the ones imported from EB1911). That has a certain charm, but more people being able to read our encyclopedia has greater benefits, IMO. I don't necessarily mean to reduce the writing level to that of a typical American newspaper (which are purposely targetted to a 7th-to-8th-grade level to maximize the potential audience), but I think there is some reasonable middle ground. -Mark

On the Requests site, someone dropped a similar critical note, proposing a Wikijunior project. Moreover, this was the original aim of the proposer, wasn't it? What about trying to reanimate the simple-project by mutation simple.wikipedia.org into en.wikijunior.org and creating a website de.wikijunior.org rather than einfach.wikipedia.org? I propose that we try to raise these two wikijunior projects to adulthood first, since too many projects at once will lead to a certain chaos. On the other hand, it's just children who are usually unable to read another language than their native one, of course. Wouter _________________________________________________________________ Gebruik MSN Messenger en krijg direct antwoord http://messenger.msn.nl/

Timwi, depending on your definition of a child, this has already happened. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedians_by_age If you look there, you'll find that already, the majority of Wikipedians were born between 1977 and 1993. Obviously if you consider 18 to be the limit of adulthood, all those on the list born after 1985-1986 are "children", and if you consider 21 to be the limit of adulthood, that would make it 1982-1983, and if you consider it 30 (which some do), it would be 1974-1975. Either way, that leaves you with a great deal of Wikipedians. Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Kzhr (prominent Wikipedian and sysop from ja:), and Ilyanep are all examples of Wikipedians you might know who are under 18 - Ævar is IIRC 16, Kzhr is 15 I think, and Ilyanep is 13. (I myself am 15, 16 in August). The average age of Wikipedians in general iirc is 22 or so. That's because our huge young crowd is balanced out a bit by 30- and 40-somethings. Mark On 17/04/05, Timwi <timwi(a)gmx.net> wrote: -- SI HOC LEGERE SCIS NIMIVM ERVDITIONIS HABES QVANTVM MATERIAE MATERIETVR MARMOTA MONAX SI MARMOTA MONAX MATERIAM POSSIT MATERIARI ESTNE VOLVMEN IN TOGA AN SOLVM TIBI LIBET ME VIDERE

I'm 19.

18 yes, even younger, no;)

And this was certainly the opposite fault! Sorry for messing over your mailboxes! _________________________________________________________________ Spreek vrienden en familie met MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.nl/