[Foundation-l] Criteria for the closure of projects.

[Mark Williamson]

>  At the same time there is an increasing group of people that object to all
>  the projects that are for intends and purposes dead. The creation of the
>  Incubator, the policies of the language committee and now the proposed
>  criteria for the closure of projects are all intended to make sure that
>  there are some minimal criteria that intend to ensure that as many projects
>  as possible will do well.

Let them object. Their criteria seem to be far less stringent than
yours -- the vote to close the Chamorro Wikipedia ended at a
standstill with no clear consensus either way. If people want to vote
to close the Kanuri Wikipedia, as they already did, then why can't we
let them?

>  I am not God, and you are not a boy putting his finger in the dyke. We both
>  cannot prevent people to object to moribund projects. What we can do is stem
>  the flow and provide objective criteria that will streamline the flow and in
>  that way we can prevent damage.

Damage, of what type? Any time somebody has made a seemingly frivolous
proposal (although both proposals had good reasons: Lombard and
Yiddish), it was soundly defeated in a poll. And if anyone ever voted
to close a Wikipedia that should obviously remain open by any sane
criteria (say, Catalan or Venetian), I am confident that someone would
intervene.

>  Jimmy has his contacts, the WMF has its contacts, I have mine and so do you.
>  When we want to have more languages supported with a Wikipedia we can tell
>  them about it, we can be enthusiastic about it but in the final analysis it
>  is the people that have to do the work. You can lead a horse to water, you
>  cannot make it drink.

The problem is that we are not leading enough "horses" right now. When
is the last time you have e-mailed a Guamanian guy to let him know
that the Chamorro Wikipedia exists? Or asked for help from some
organization that aims to promote the culture of the Marshall Islands?
These people and organizations do exist, and I (and others) have
solicited similar help before for other projects, with some success.
It's been a while since I sent such an e-mail, but I have found they
helped with: Malagasy, Maltese, Sicilian, Friulian, and several
others.

Mark