[Foundation-l] Simple English Encyclopedia

[Jesse (Pathoschild)]

Hello,

There have been a lot of points raised, so I'll answer a few
generally. (All messages from committee members, including this one,
are personal messages and don't represent the committee.)

New simple-language wikis will not be created under the current
policy, simply because the policy does not have objective criteria
that would allow them. Do we allow any simple wikis, like a "simple
Cherokee" Wikipedia? If not, what objective criteria distinguish
deserving from non-deserving languages? If so, should we also permit
scientific-language wikis, and any other arbitrary variant
contributors may legitimately propose? If not, what criteria
distinguish deserving from non-deserving variants?

There are two ways to create new simple-language wikis. The first,
most obvious but most difficult, is to formulate those criteria so
that the policy can be changed to allow them. The second is to
circumvent the policy, by convincing the Board to accept such a
proposal directly. (The second may be possible, but would be very
unfair to contributors who want a simple non-English wiki, which won't
have the same amount of popular support to sway the Board.)

The language committee itself was created by Board approval, and can
be dismantled or have its membership changed by Board approval.
Without a language subcommittee, requests would need to be processed
by the Board or the sysadmins directly. More likely, the membership
would be changed in case of problems. I think the language committee
does more good than ill, but persons who disagree can certainly gather
together and propose a change.

-- 
Yours cordially,
Jesse Plamondon-Willard (Pathoschild)