[Foundation-l] Setting up Wikinews languages

[Angela]

> Now that we're about to move demo.wikinews.org to en.wikinews.org, we have
> to think about a procedure for setting up other language domains.

I support moving the demo to a URL which makes it clear the project is
not temporary. However, it is also important to make clear to readers
that the project is in Beta to avoid responses to the site being
overly-critical in these early stages. This could be done via a
beta.wikinews.org URL, but this becomes more complicated once other
language domains are added, so perhaps a message in the site notice,
or on the logo, would be more appropriate.

> In the original proposal, I suggested that Wikinews can be set up in any
> accepted Wikimedia project language where there is at least one interested
> participant, and that 4 more regulars are required for the language to be
> recognized as "official", and for the firsts sysops to be created.

There is a proposed policy for new languages at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy_for_wikis_in_new_languages

There may be reasons for Wikinews to follow a different procedure to
our other wikis though, since the process of creating a news site
really needs more users than an encyclopedia. The proposed language
policy currently states five users are needed. If this does not
change, then the same policy can be applied to Wikinews.

> If it is not, one possible alternative would be to immediately set up
> language domains for any language where there are more than 10 votes on
> the respective voting page on Meta, and more than 50% in favor. 

I don't think the vote on whether to start the project is the same as
a vote to have a language sub-domain once the project has started, so
these votes should be discounted now. Any creation of a new language
Wikinews should follow whatever the procedure is going to be used
without reference to the previous vote.

> In any case, I would ask for the immediate authorization of
> de.wikinews.org...

I haven't read the German mailing list, but from IRC, I had the
impression that there were objections to this and that some wanted to
wait until there was evidence the English version was running well
before starting a German version. Could someone please confirm whether
this is the case or whether there is already enough support for a
German Wikinews?

> The content that is currently on the Demo wiki is in the public domain in
> order to facilitate the migration to any other license.

It would be best to keep the project as public domain for a couple of
weeks to allow users of the project to decide how they might want to
use text from Wikipedia in future, and whether Wikipedians feel they
want to be able to use text from Wikinews in Wikipedia articles. I
would prefer a vote not be held immediately, to give people time to
discuss which projects need to be compatible with each other, and how
external users are likely to want to use Wikinews.

Angela.