Anthere-
So, to your opinion, Jimbo is the only one (currently, since there is no board yet) to have the power to say whether yes or no, an international wikipedia can have a logo not written in english, or have a different default skin (picked up in the list of all skins available for all wikipedias of course) ?
Look, we both agree that the current English logo sucks, OK? So basing an argument against a largely similar logo among all Wikipedias on the current logo is really not very fair. I have not voiced any objections to the French Wikipedia coming up with their own logo because it is reasonable for you to choose a French logo over an English one, but I would have preferred it if you had made an effort to push for a new, international logo instead.
As for changing the default skin, the only wiki that has done so, so far, is the Esperanto wiki, and this was done by Brion without much (any?) discussion. We currently have no policy on this, and there are only two ways to set up such a policy within our current system: - decision by Jimbo Wales - authorization of a vote by Jimbo Wales - consensus among all Wikipedians, including Jimbo Wales (not gonna happen)
Since Wikipedia is not a dictatorship where everything that is not expressly allowed is forbidden, in the absence of a policy, it would be OK for any of the existing wikis to change its default skin. It would be courteous and wise to wait for a word from Jimbo before doing so.
I am more dubious of the arguments given for not allowing non similar default skin for example. I maintain that very likely, a reader will limit himself "most of the time" to one language only.
While that it is quite possibly true, even if only a minority of authors spends time on two or more wikis, and even if this time is spent 90/10 on one wiki vs. the other, having different skins will be confusing. I speak from first hand experience: To do some usability testing on the Cologne Blue skin (which I personally have grown to dislike quite strongly) I have set up my account on de: to use CB. Now when I switch between en: and de:, finding the navigational elements becomes *very* difficult, because CB is so much different from the standard skin.
There is another effect: When I first visited the Esperanto Wikipedia out of curiosity, I didn't know about CB yet and initially wondered whether this was still part of the same project -- there was no logo, the site was called "Vikipedio", and it looked entirely different. Many other visitors have reported the same experience on the Village Pump and elsewhere. This kind of reaction goes against anything that a common project with a common name stands for. It deteriorates the Wikipedia brand and common identity.
If they switch, they will perhaps not be "new" to wikipedia concept,
It's *especially* the new users that will likely check out other languages simply to see what's there.
as long as *all* skins are available to *all* wikipedias, I see not why we would make one wikipedia unhappy
Who will be unhappy? Are we really talking about strong tendencies within the Wikipedias, or only about single individuals who are very vocal? Is there such a thing as a "cultural preference" for a certain skin? The numbers certainly do not indicate this. The following percentages of users have changed their skin from the default to "Cologne Blue":
German: 19.4% English: 8.58% French: 11.8% Polish: 12% Chinese: 9.18% Dutch: 7.42% Swedish: 7.55%
The only Wikipedia here that has a substantially different number from all others is the German one. Is this because Cologne is a city in Germany? Probably not -- the current German main page has been heavily changed in favor of Cologne Blue, and there has been lots of propaganda for CB on some German Wikipedia pages and on the mailing list, raising awareness of the existence of the skin. I conclude that the different cultures are reasonably similar for us to set an international default, and that it is only a vocal minority that opposes such a step.
Regards,
Erik