[Foundation-l] Incubator Wiki for New Wikimedia Projects

[Robert Scott Horning]

Daniel Mayer wrote:

>Wikijunior has specific rules for a set of pages. That is not unlike a
>WikiProject on Wikipedia. Each book needs to have its own style guide to retain
>coherence anyway. The other issues that pertain to protecting minors are
>misplaced since minors should only be viewing WikiJunior from a static snapshot
>at wikijunior.org.  Some Wikibooks are getting to the point were they are
>publishable on such a site. But they dont seem to be ready yet. Publishing the
>result at a kid safe domain will fulfill our part of the grant (normally a
>WikiProject would not get such special treatment, but no other WikiProject has
>a $10,000 grant). Approved static snapshots of other textbooks could be
>published at wikiversitity.org. 
>
>Wikijunior is a set of textbooks for kids. Textbooks are developed at
>Wikibooks, so having a separate place to develop textbooks for kids would be
>infringing on the Wikibooks mandate and forking that project. Also, the effort
>to create such a narrow-focused set of items would not be viable all on its own
>and starting down the road of forking off each new set of Wikibooks textbooks
>would kill the project. If Wikibooks gets its own wiki then why not any other
>set of textbooks on Wikibooks? 
>
>-- mav
>  
>
I dare you to name one single Wikibook that has its own page on Meta. Or 
any other Wikibook that has as complex set of internal policies as 
Wikijunior. Or has people advocating for it to be moved onto a seperate 
domain for any purpose. This is the first time I've heard Wikiversity 
even being suggested to host "snapshots" of Wikibooks texts and 
Wikibooks is far more than the textbook publishing arm of Wikiversity 
anyway, and something I would in general advocate against.

While there are textbooks on Wikibooks, it is far more than that if you 
have paid attention to the community there at all. Wikibooks is about 
non-fiction books, and that takes many very unique forms.

In addition, some editor/contributors are advocating that Wikijunior 
become more than just "textbooks for kids". Most sections of Wikijunior 
read like Wikipedia entries anyway, and I have yet to see a real "book" 
be written for Wikijunior that isn't a macropedia and couldn't otherwise 
be served as a specialized Wikiproject on Wikipedia right now, except 
for violations of forking policy, and even that could be dealt with on 
Wikipedia right now as well. Wikibooks is just the platform chosen to 
host this project and to give it a place to grow.

Mind you, I'm not advocating that Wikibooks get rid of Wikijunior. I'm 
just trying to point out that no other similar project should ever be 
started on Wikibooks, and I have been vocal when I've seen things come 
close to doing that. Wikijunior also causes confusion already with new 
Wikibooks contributors, seeing the Wikijunior policies, and thinking 
that they also apply to the rest of Wikibooks. Trying to explain to 
these new Wikibooks users that Wikijunior is a special exception to all 
of the rules on Wikibooks usually lets them understand that there are 
other standards and guidelines for the rest of Wikibooks as well. 
Macropedias in particular should be Wikiprojects on Wikipedia with a 
portal page to link all of the encyclopedic entries together that are of 
a topical nature. This is where Wikijunior especially causes confusion 
with new contributors to Wikibooks.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning