[Foundation-l] Closing projects policy now official

Sat Jun 25 09:20:36 UTC 2011

Hi,

could someone perhaps explain why the board delegated closing policy to
*individual language committee members*? Because as I read it, this advice
to the board is given by one individual, even if the rest of the committee
disagrees (there is a two week discussion but in the end it is a
one-person-call). Also, I do not understand why the *language* committee has
a role in this in the first place. Is closing projects often about whether
or not it actually is a language (the expertise field of langcom)?

Lodewijk

2011/6/25 Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com>

> Board has decided to make Closing projects [1] official. The text of the
> policy is below (as well as at the mentioned page).
>
> Language committee members who decided to take care about this would be
> listed inside of the section "Tasks" of the members list [2]. During the
> next weeks present requests will be normalized after the discussion at
> the LangCom list.
>
> [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Closing_projects_policy
> [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_committee/Members
>
> * * *
>
> This policy proposal defines the process to close (and in some
> situations delete) a wiki hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. The
> proposals are handled by [[Language Committee]] members who opt-in to
> take care of this, and the [[Board of Trustees]] has final authority
> over the member's decision.
>
> ==Problem situation and new authority==
> The current [[Proposals for closing projects]] lack a clear policy.
> Several proposals have been made for a policy, but so far none has been
> adopted.
>
> Because of that, a lot of small inactive wikis are proposed to be
> closed. Some people support out of principle ("wiki is inactive"), while
> others oppose out of principle ("let it grow"). Often, users came by and
> made a decision, which could even be the opposite of the actual consensus.
>
> This policy tries to address this problem by:
> * requiring a valid reason for closure, and defining several reasons as
> either valid or invalid reasons
> * putting the procedure in hands of language committee members and final
> Board decision
>
> The community has no longer authority over closing projects, but only an
> advising task. This puts the procedure in line with the [[language
> proposal policy]], which is also dependent on language committee and
> Board approval. That means closing projects is no longer easier than
> opening one.
>
> Although the decision is made by a member of the Language Committee and
> no longer through community consensus, the Board will have final
> authority, and the LangCom is convinced that this procedure will improve
> the decision-making and that both the LangCom and the Board are the
> appropriate authority for dealing with closing Wikimedia wikis.
>
> ==Policy proposal==
>
> ===Types of proposals===
> In order to distinguish routine situations from potentially more complex
> or unusual ones, projects that are proposed to be deleted are classified
> as one of two types:
> # Regular language editions that are small/inactive but do not generally
> harm to stay open (automatic spam is always blocked, contrary to the past).
> #: ''For example: Afar Wiktionary, Gaeilge Wikiquote, Guarani Wikibooks,
> ...''
> # Other (often relatively more active) wikis that may be controversial,
> questionable or in another way uncommon.
> #: ''For example: Quality Wikimedia, Simple English Wikiquote, ...''
>
> ===Definition of actions===
> * Closing a wiki means locking the database so it cannot be edited but
> all pages are still visible to public. User rights (sysop, ...) are
> removed and can be restored on user request when the wiki is re-activated.
> * Deleting a wiki means deleting the database so it is completely
> unavailable on the web. An XML file with the wiki's content will still
> be available for external use.
> * Transferring or importing content means moving useful articles/pages,
> along with the contribution history, to the [[Wikimedia Incubator]],
> [[oldwikisource:|OldWikisource]] or [[betawikiversity:|BetaWikiversity]]
> (or another site when explicitly mentioned). <small>See
> [[incubator:I:Importing]] for more info.</small>
> ** Files are left on the wiki because of a lack of an export function.
> When the wiki will be deleted, files could be downloaded manually if
> needed. <small>When such a software feature becomes available, files
> should be exported.</small>
>
> ===Proposing===
> Anyone can propose to close a wiki. The following must be done:
> * The proposal must be categorised under either type 1 or type 2 (see
> above).
> * If you want the wiki to be deleted as well, that must be explicitly
> mentioned in the proposal.
> * When the proposal is submitted, the local wiki should be informed as
> soon as possible.
> * A good reason should be given why it should be closed/deleted.
> ** Inactivity in itself is ''no'' valid reason; additional problems are.
> When the Wikimedia Incubator is at a stage where it is usable to a
> certain extent like a real wiki<ref>In the future, the Wikimedia
> Incubator is intended to function as a place for normal wikis that are
> not large enough to need an own wiki (so we don't have a large number of
> small wikis but instead a normal Incubator wiki with "virtual
> wikis").</ref>, inactivity will be a valid reason.
> ** Absence of content since the wiki's creation is a valid reason
> (usually for type 1).
> ** Not meeting the current [[WM:LPP]] requirements is ''no'' valid reason.
>
> ===Decision===
> * During a period of 30 <small>(''can be changed'')</small> days, the
> proposal is public to the community for comments and recommendations.
> * Any Language Committee member who has opted-in to take care of
> handling closing projects proposals can bring up the proposal on the
> mailing list. It is discussed during 15 days (or longer if needed),
> without formal voting.
> * Thereafter, the initial LangCom member makes a decision and sends its
> recommendation to the [[Board]] which has final authority.
>
> ===Proposal approved===
> * For the first type of proposal, useful content should be transferred
> to the Incubator. Whether content is useful is hard to define, but
> common sense can help. For the second type, a different solution for the
> content is often appropriate.
> * A bug should be submitted to Bugzilla to request the closure (and
> deletion if applicable).
> * Re-opening projects is done through [[requests for new languages]],
> which uses the [[Meta:Language proposal policy]] that is much more
> strict than used to be in the past (when most wikis that are now
> proposed for closure, were started)
>
> ===Proposal rejected===
> * The wiki remains open.
> * A new proposal may be submitted if there are new conditions. A
> proposal that is exactly the same, may not be made the same year to
> reduce unneeded duplicate proposals.
>
> ==Retroactivity==
> As has been done when the Langcom policy was introduced, all current
> proposals will be made invalid. Anyone can start a new proposal under
> the new policy.
>
> ==References==
> <references />
>
> ==Links==
> * http://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/closed.dblist – automatic list of
> currently closed wikis
> * [[bugzilla:28985|Bug 28985]] – Wikis ready for closing (tracking)
> * Previous proposals
> ** [[Closure of WMF projects]] (August 2008 proposal)
> ** [[Closing/Deletion project policy]] (2006 proposal)
> * Other
> ** [[Proposals for closing projects]]
> ** [[Proposals for closing projects/General discussion about small,
> inactive wikis]]
> ** [[Requests for comment/Rights and closed wikis]]
>
>
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