[Foundation-l] A dangerous precedent

[Matthew Britton]

Birgitte SB wrote:
> If Volapük Wikipedia is valid community, then they are
> free to create their project by any method that works
> for them.  If it is not a valid community, then the
> WMF should close the project.  This is a bright line.

Well it's not that bright a line, unless someone comes up with a precise 
mathematical definition of what constitutes a "valid community".

Anyway, while I personally don't think there is a valid community, I 
don't see that in itself as a good reason to close a project.

There are numerous other very small wikis, with only a handful of pages, 
that also don't have a community. But the language that they are written 
in does actually have native speakers -- often hundreds of thousands or 
more, just not in developed countries where Internet access is 
commonplace. This means that the wiki has a potential to be useful to 
people who would not benefit from the other wikis, and for that reason 
alone I think it is worth having them; one day, perhaps when Internet 
access is more widespread, they may be able to grow. That there is not a 
community now does not seem to me to be enough to counter that argument.

-Gurch