[Foundation-l] Proposal re: sep11.wikipedia.org

[Erik Moeller]

On 9/26/06, Robert Scott Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote:
> Whatever happens to the
> sep11.wikipedia is going to set a preceedent for all future Wikimedia
> projects that enjoy a similar fate.

Well, there's at least three very different types of situations:

a) a project we really do not want anymore, because it falls outside
our scope and mission. Solution: Find a willing host to preserve the
content and remove it from WMF servers. While tlh.wp is still around
as a read-only site, tokipona.wp was deleted AFAICT (tokipona.wp is
blank) and restarted on Wikia. So precedent appears to exist.

b) a project that falls within our scope & mission, but has fallen out
of use, e.g., many of the Wikinews editions. Here we might place a
notice of lock-down and have some reactivation process.

c) a project that falls within our scope & mission, but is in very
serious violation of policy/law, esp. copyright law. Here the project
may have to be restarted from scratch (cf. closure of
fr.wikiquote.org).

In terms of Internet history, I would also point out that, in addition
to our own efforts to preserve this content by finding suitable hosts
for it, there is the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at
www.archive.org, which takes regular snapshots of web content. Given
the value of its historical archives and the shrinking costs of
storage space & bandwidth, I think it is highly likely that they will
be preserved for a long time.

IMHO the distinction between "projects" and "pages" is actually rather
arbitrary here. We delete off-topic content all the time. But I do
think we should, indendently of whether we are dealing with projects
or pages, make an effort to give large identifiable _sets_ of at least
superficially useful content an appropriate new home if we remove them
from our servers.
-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik

Member, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees

DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, all views or opinions expressed
in this message are solely my own and do not represent an official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.