[Foundation-l] Re: Setting up Wikinews languages

[Erik Moeller]

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.

I agree, a Google-like "BETA" in the logo would be sufficient, IMHO.

> I haven't read the German mailing list, but from IRC, I had the
> impression that there were objections to this

Well, there were objections to the English Wikinews as well. The question  
is - do they matter? We're not going to get consensus on any new language  
as some people remain opposed to Wikinews on principle. It seems unfair to  
start Wikinews in English only when there is a substantial number of  
German users who would like to use it now, and when there were many more  
objections by English users than by German ones.

Of all the possible options, waiting for full community consensus until we  
launch a new language seems the least feasible. There should be objective,  
fair criteria for launching a new edition. So from this standpoint, I  
suggest adopting the proposed policy currently on Meta.

I disagree that Wikinews requires a larger user base to be useful. It  
certainly requires a large userbase in order to present a balanced mix of  
news, just like Wikipedia does in order to provide a wide range of  
articles. But even a couple of dedicated users can provide reliable news  
on the subjects that interest them. Just think of the hundreds of weblogs  
which do just that. As long as we do not set up the expectation that  
Wikinews can immediately replace CNN in any language, we should be fine.  
The BETA marker helps with that.

I believe that the demo phase served the purpose of testing the basic idea  
of Wikinews, and that we should now move on to launch it in all languages  
where there is a community of users interested in working on it, unless  
clear and compelling reasons are cited for not doing so that relate  
specifically to that language, and not to the idea of the project itself.

Regards,

Erik