[Foundation-l] A Wikimedia project has forked

[MZMcBride]

Tempodivalse wrote:
> I thought the Wikimedia community should know that a large portion of
> Wikinews' contributor base has forked into its own project
> (http://theopenglobe.org) after becoming deeply dissatisfied with Wikinews.
> The new wiki has finished its creation stage and is about ready to publish
> news articles.

>From Wikimedia's perspective, I think this is "one down, several hundred to
go." Wikimedia has made it clear that its singular focus is the English
Wikipedia. All other Wikipedias are peripheral; all other project types are
abandoned. Perhaps with the exception of Wikimedia Commons, which is able to
pull in grant money, so it continues to receive some level of technical
support.

It's a great injustice to countless contributors that they receive support
in name only (as "one of Wikipedia's sister sites" in a handful of
publications), but it's indisputably the reality. A classic example of this
reality, incidentally, is the GoogleNewsSitemap extension fiasco on the
English Wikinews.

I'll echo others in wishing you all the best of luck going forward. I
sincerely hope whoever administers your new site will treat you better than
Wikimedia has.

MZMcBride