2011/6/17 John Vandenberg jayvdb@gmail.com:
An interesting question was posed on foundation-l a few minutes ago. (see below)
On English Wikisource, I think there is an unwritten "guideline" that the people who start a project do have a limited right to "OWN" that project.
As it is an unwritten rule, I might just be dreaming this.
I would write it up something like:
Wikisource contributors dont enforce our own view of policy unless someone else is undeniably breaking policy. Wikisource contributors dont intentionally interfere with each others projects unless requested, or unless a project is breaking widely held communal expectations.
Do other Wikisourcerers dream the same dream?
I'm on this list, too :)
I made a lot of edits in the English Wikisource, mostly to Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar and to some Britannica 1911 articles, but i actually don't know much about its policies, written or unwritten.
It is a fact that i do feel that i "own" Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar in a way, but i would gladly give this up to have more people join its proofreading. In Wikisource, unlike in Wikipedia, the text is not supposed to be controversial, but there can be argument about presentation, division into pages, headers, usage of links and templates etc. I invested literally months in creating the infrastructure for this book, but i am nevertheless willing to see someone come and change it into something better without asking me. In other words, i wish more people would "interefere" in my work, even if their vision of it is different from mine. I wouldn't consider this interference, but help - as long as it's constructive, of course.
But that's how i feel, of course; I know that there are people who feel differently and i want to work with them, too. That's why i started this thread.