[Foundation-l] Allow new wikis in extinct languages?

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 5:41 PM, Pharos <pharosofalexandria at gmail.com> wrote:
>  This type of guidepost might make things easier and more "obvious" for
>  the Language subcommittee.

I'm really of the opinion that languages should be evaluated
differently depending on the project in question. For instance, the
language requirements to start a new wikinews should be different from
those required to start a new wikiversity, etc. Some examples of such
requirements:

1) Wikibooks, Wikiversity: There are populations of school students
which are taught in language X. Notice this isn't the same as being
taught about language X in language Y.
2) Wikisource, Wiktionary, Wikiquote: There are original written
source documents worth reading and preserving.
3) Wikinews: There is a speaking population, likely a native one, that
is interested in consuming news written in language X

These are just a few examples, but it highlights some of the
differences I'm thinking about. It doesnt make sense to have a Gothic
Wikibooks when there are no Gothic school children in need of such
books. It doesnt make sense to have a Wikisource in a language for
which there are no surviving written records, etc.

--Andrew Whitworth