[Foundation-l] Social issues for the newer projects

[Erik Moeller]

Michael,

I think the process you describe - the people joining being people who 
left Wikipedia for some reason - *does* exist. We certainly have a 
number of users who quit Wikipedia and joined Wikinews. And certainly, 
we have to be aware of their sensibilities. So thanks for pointing this out.

However, we also have a constant influx of people from Wikipedia who 
simply wish to know what Wikinews is about, and who either like it and 
become contributors, or who don't like it and go back to Wikipedia. Some 
of these people may eventually quit Wikipedia entirely, not because they 
don't like it, but because they find Wikinews more interesting. That 
doesn't mean they didn't "fit into" Wikipedia. As crazy as this may 
sound, it is not impossible to like another project more and still like 
Wikipedia. :-)

For Wikinews in particular there's also the process of discovery through 
blogs that link to us and news sources that copy our content. This 
should not be underestimated. Today, Wikinews was slashdotted and linked 
from many, many blogs due to the tragic London terrorist attacks. It has 
received an unprecedented influx of new contributors, many of whom are 
not Wikipedians. The main story about the attack has received more than 
500 edits so far (much, much kudos to Dan100 for being on the case from 
the first hour).

So, in that respect, Wikinews is quickly growing beyond the point where 
the effect you mention is highly significant. I also think that in terms 
of "quality content", the community has produced some excellent material 
so far - on par with the best Wikipedia has to offer.

As unfortunate as the recent conflict on en.wikinews.org is, it also 
demonstrates that Wikinews is growing large enough to *have* such 
conflicts. Wikipedia did have similar conflicts in the early days -- big 
fights between LMS and Cunctator, H.J. and 24, the Spanish fork, and so 
on. You don't know what a huge deal it was when Wikipedia got its first 
trolls! Learning to deal with conflict is part of growing up. Call it 
the puberty phase of the wiki. :-)

The next level is that the community becomes large enough for conflict 
to generally be accepted as a part of life, and for conflict resolution 
mechanisms to be developed, refined, and applied regularly. From the 
perspective of the rest of the Wikimedia community, seeing Wikinews grow 
up may be disturbing. What has the kid done this time! But please do 
recognize that this is a natural process, and it needs to happen. While 
babies are cute and innocent, they can't do much besides screaming, 
consuming food, and excreting waste products. ;-)

Best,

Erik