[Foundation-l] The Perl Wiki

[Eric R. Meyers]

Hi Shlomi,

On Saturday 08 July 2006 06:26, you wrote:
> > On Friday 07 July 2006 17:47, you wrote:
> > > Personally, I feel that putting the central Perl wiki within Wikipedia
> > > may not be such a good idea. That's because Perl hackers may wish to
> > > deviate somewhat from Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View. For example,
> > > the Perl wiki may have an entry about Python, Ruby, Tcl, etc. with some
> > > criticisms of their approaches of doing things.
> >
> > There is a correct time and a correct place for everything.  There are
> > some things that are appropriate to be placed neutrally under the Perl
> > topic within Wikipedia itself, and some are not, so we just need to
> > organize and police things smartly, moderating the content as needed to
> > make it public, while providing external links out to the proper private
> > location, or locations, for the Perl biased expressions to occur.  No
> > foul and no problem, I believe.
>
> Right, but this will fragment the Perl central wiki. If people have to look
> in two different places, this would be confusing. I'd rather have one wiki
> and that's it.
>

I absolutely agree with you, but all options are kept available to us.  I'm 
formally removing the incorrect name "Perl-Wikipedia" from this discussion 
about "The Perl Wiki," to avoid any further confusion.

People will be going to two major information resources.  They will be going 
to Wikipedia to learn about many topics, including Perl, and they will be 
going directly to The Perl Wiki for its centralized Perl information.  I 
believe that the Perl related topics within Wikipedia will be a very big part 
of the total information solution, along with The Perl Wiki however it is 
implemented.

> > I also believe that a truly objective Perl person could legitimately
> > write a factually valid and complete critique about the various
> > programming languages, comparing "their approaches of doing things"
> > without showing a bias toward any particular language, or languages.
>
> True, but see below.
>
> > We just need to be very
> > fair, complete and moderate in what we do for the general public.  It's
> > simply a difference between the formality of writing from "Wikipedia's
> > Neutral Point of View" and someone quickly hacking out an expression of
> > their Perl biased opinions in a more private Perl setting.
>
> Yes, but I still believe that a Perl wiki may be somewhat different than a
> Perl section in the wikipedia.
>
I completely agree with you, because like you've been doing with your recent 
Wikipedia entry about Tom Christiansen, and your Wikibooks project for 
Newbies, there are "A Lot of Things Perl," including good encyclopedic or 
technical information that is best created within Wikipedia or Wikibooks, and 
simply referenced by The Perl Wiki as needed to amplify the local topics or 
discussions going on in the in everday happenings of The Perl Wiki.

The global Perl community has a very good story to tell to the world through 
all of the Wikimedia components that are available.  You're doing exactly 
"The Right Stuff," by utilizing the Wikimedia components to tell part of the 
Perl story, by adding a page in Wikipedia to tell the world about Tom 
Christiansen's great contributions to Perl, and by writing new Wikibooks to 
help bring new people into the Perl community.

Eric
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