[Foundation-l] Re: Swedish, Spanish, French Wikinews set up

[Erik Moeller]

Michael-

>
> Yes, please do. Some of us

Who is "some"? Who is "us"?

> would very much like to know why this was so clear to you, based on 
> your communications with the Board, and apparently not clear to 
> Anthere, given that she is part of this same Board.

Here's a chatlog from October 29 on #wikimedia with Anthere and 
Aurevilly. Angela and jwales were also present.

Okt 29 13:13:59 <Aurevilly>     Xirzon, what will you do with wikinews 
poll result : lauch it globally or launch it only for languages that 
approved it?
Okt 29 13:14:14 <Xirzon>        Aurevilly: I'm tending towards the 
latter, but will have to discuss with the board
Okt 29 13:14:39 <Anthere>       hum ?
Okt 29 13:14:42 <Anthere>       euuuu
Okt 29 13:14:50 <Anthere>       I think there is a misunderstanding Here
Okt 29 13:14:57 <Anthere>       vote is global
Okt 29 13:15:06 <Xirzon>        Anthere: that's the way I always 
intended it, yes
Okt 29 13:15:14 <Anthere>       we do not isolate decisions depending on 
languages
Okt 29 13:15:18 <Xirzon>        I have no problem launching globally!
Okt 29 13:15:19 <Aurevilly>     Xirzon, OK ; I think it's better to stay 
global, IMO
Okt 29 13:15:29 <Xirzon>        I'm just trying to make people happy.
Okt 29 13:15:32 <Anthere>       launch or not launch of specific 
languages will be later
Okt 29 13:15:48 <Anthere>       I also think that isolating vote on 
different pages
Okt 29 13:15:52 <Anthere>       is indeed confusing
Okt 29 13:15:58 <Anthere>       I am not very happy with this
Okt 29 13:16:00 <Xirzon>        Anthere: what would you suggest as an 
alternative?
Okt 29 13:16:05 <Anthere>       all votes on one page

Now, as should be obvious from this excerpt, I was very willing to use 
whatever approach the Board prescribed. Later I commented:

Okt 29 13:29:44 <Xirzon>        board: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Aggregation is now used on all 
vote pages - please edit if needed

The template contains the text:

"Please note: The vote counts will be aggregated 
[[Wikinews/Vote/All|from all languages]]. A global majority is needed."

It was prominently displayed on all voting pages. We also agreed not to 
state at this point when the different Wikinews editions would be 
launched ("leave it vague", Jimbo and Anthere said). Weeks after the 
vote, on December 2, I wrote the following message to foundation-l:

http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2004-December/001601.html

-snip-

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. If any  
decision on this matter has already been made by the Board, please let me  
know.

It should be noted that on two of the language voting pages, no majority  
was reached on starting the project. These are French and Chinese. Others  
had very small participation.

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.

I would like to ask the Board if this procedure is acceptable.

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. This would  
currently mean Japanese and German. The vote could be re-opened, and kept  
open permanently.

-snip-

Jimmy only responded that he was OK with creating de.wikinews.org. 
Anthere did not respond at all. Angela wrote a detailed response:

http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2004-December/001607.html

-snip-

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.

...

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.

-snip-

The policy for new languages was not changed. The German edition was 
launched on December 3.  On December 4, I created the [[Wikinews/Start a 
new edition]] page. That sat there until January 29, collecting pledges, 
and referencing the policy for new languages on Meta. I don't know if 
Anthere was away when I sent the mail above, but she had several weeks 
to respond or to contradict the agreed upon requirements, or to comment 
on the "/Start a new edition" page that they were not acceptable. She 
did not, nor did Jimmy.

As the chatlog above shows, I was willing to bend over backwards to make 
the community happy, but was later authorized to follow a simpler 
procedure, which I did. Now, I'm as always open to discussing ways to 
improve our policy. But the evidence is clear that there was no 
wrongdoing on my part.

Regards,

Erik