[Foundation-l] Sister Project Cooperation

[Birgitte Arco]

I hesitate to write this because it might seem
self-serving in a dispute I am involved in.  But
truthfully I am thinking of the larger picture here. 
There is a discussion on the Talk page for the English
Wikipedia Main Page under "Sister projects on new Main
Page".  The main sticking point in this discussion is
the people from the English Wikipedia truly believe
they know what Wikisource is or is not and want to
write a description, but are unable to understand that
people from Wikisource have a better idea of what
Wikisource is than they do.  Of course that statement
is inherently biased, but everyone involved has the
best intentions.  For my part everyone there has been
completely civil and willing to explain themselves. 
Unfortunately there is a prevailing attitude that
people from a "different" project should not decide
how they are represented in the Sister project
template.  This is over a minor wording issue and I am
not asking people to intercede on this.  However if
you read through the comments, it is easy to see how
easily this could have devolved into complete
bitterness.  I hope that outcome has been avoided now.

I worry that in the future a similar issue may come up
and things will turn out worse.  I believe fostering a
sence of harmony and cooperation between sister
projects is the utmost importance.  I wonder if it
would be best for wikimedia to have an agreed upon
sister project template at meta for each necessary
language, with the recommendation that all daughter
projects base thier local Sister project templates
from the meta one.  This would provide an authorative
example of what is acceptable and should hopefully
prevent any future turf wars.

Thanks for considering this.  I would suggest if this
idea is implented; it is done without any haste and is
well-advertised amoung all sister projects in many
languages.

Birgitte SB

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