Rotem-
Please, I would not like to argue about something silly as this, my arguments are nor "correct" nor "incorrect"
They are incorrect.
I was just trying to make small improvements to the HTML layout
Your improvements would be no improvements.
to make it more simpler and easier for users to use. If they won't like it it would have been reverted to the previous version.
By whom? By them? They don't have access to the skin code. If we give you access to the code, you'll effectively be the gatekeeper for the Hebrew wiki. I don't like that idea given the kind of misconceptions you have about so-called "autonomy". Now you're even talking about different licenses!
As for trying to "sneak" things in, I thought different language versions gets autonomy regarding decisions like this.
What made you think that? The only code autonomy is in the language files. If every language gets its own little "fixes", code maintenance becomes a nightmare. This is not going to happen. If you want improvements, or if your users ask for improvements, tell this to the mailing list and we'll discuss whether these improvements would truly be improvements, and implement them for all wikis *or not at all*. This is not bureaucratic, this is the way we have always done things. It's the only way to maintain a common codebase.
I have many ideas and I know a bit of PHP. If the users (that actually use that wiki) want a feature, bug fix, or a change on wiki X, why not just let them have it?
1) Because it will then become more and more difficult to update the code of that wiki from the CVS versions as the two code trees start to diverge from each other, and your users will start whining that they don't get feature X that's in the English Wikipedia, because adding said feature to the Hebrew Wikipedia causes a merge conflict with the special code that Rotem Dan added there; 2) Because if that feature, bug fix or change is useful, than all other wikis should have it. The Hebrew wiki is running on our server with manpower invested by people who have nothing to do with its contents, there's no way you are going to make a bug fix without making the same bugfix to the rest of the project as well. You benefit from our work, we benefit from yours. Simple, no? And if it isn't useful, then well, obviously the Hebrew wiki shouldn't have it either. 3) Because that feature, bug fix or change may have implications or effects that your users do not understand; this makes it necessary to discuss it first. The place to have such discussions is *here*, on the wikitech mailing list. 4) Because consistency across the different Wikipedia projects is essential for usability; bilingual users or users of several wiki-projects will expect the different wikis they are on to operate in the same way, and will be confused if each wiki makes it own little adaptations. Furthermore, this weakens the Wikimedia brand, which is important for being recognized internationally.
I think that reagardless of geographical, national etc. differences on wiki users demographies (that I think has nothing to do with anything here anyway). he.wikipedia.org is a complete, (almost) independent site, that has its users and readers, they should be the ones who vote for decisions related to their site, including policy,
Key elements of the policy, such as NPOV, are the same for all wikis. A wiki that does not follow the NPOV convention but makes up its own in its place would likely be kicked off the server quite quickly.
wiki code
The code is the same for all wikis. The only differences are language- specific additions. Most layout "fixes" are *not* language-specific.
layout, licensing
The licensing is the same for all wikis. The fundamentals of the layout are also the same.
and logo.
There should be a common look and feel for all wikis. Small variations in the logo are acceptable, though.
Look, if you don't want to be part of the Wikipedia/Wikimedia project, just say so. If you want to do everything by your own rules and ignore common conventions and policies, you will have to set up your own wiki, preferably with your own code. But don't waste our time if you don't want to play by the rules.
Slightly annoyed,
Erik