[Intlwiki-l] [Wikipedia-l] embassies and diplomats (fwd)

[Daniel Mayer]

On Thursday 26 September 2002 12:01 pm, Brion wrote:
> Giskart wrote:
> > Brion VIBBER wrote:
> >> Pursuant to KQ's suggestions, I've started a page on the English
> >> wikipedia:
> >>
> >>   http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Embassy
>
> and now Esperanto:
>       http://eo.wikipedia.com/wiki/Vikipedia_Ambasadorejo
>
> > A good idea be would  it not be better to use the meta-wikipedia for
> > this ? Now it is used to put stuff on that is out of please on the
> > English wikipedia.  I see a future for the Meta - wikipedia as the
> > central conectionpoint between all wikipedias. A truly international,
> > multi-lingual wiki for essays and other non-encycopedia stuff but also
> > as the centre for international co-ordination. For Embassys or some
> > respresantation.  You can make different "Main Page"s on the same wiki.
> > Somthing like this;
> > http://meta.wikipedia.com/wiki.phtml?title=Hoofdpagina
>
>  >
>
> > I think there will be more active in the Embassy pages if the are all on
> > 1 wiki. Then there are only  only 2 wikipedias to monitor. . If the
> > Embassy pages are all on the home-wikipedias i think some will be
> > forgotten and the traffic, if any, will only be downstream from the
> > English to the others but not upstream.
>
> My experience with Meta has been that I check it somewhere between very
> rarely and never, which makes it useless for me for discussion or site
> announcements. On the other hand, the wikis I participate in *editing* I
> check rather regularly (en, eo quite frequently, fr at least few times a
> week; I check de for the bug reports page), and so I'm much more likely
> to notice big news / help requests / policy discussions there. Likewise
> the mailing lists (eg intlwiki-l) come directly to my inbox once I've
> subscribed, so it's tough to ignore them.

Sorry Brion, but your logic here fails me (chicken and the egg scenario). The 
Meta is practically useless for what it was made for because nobody uses it 
for much of anything but a dumping ground of POV material. So by ignoring it, 
you are extending its uselessness.

I really like the idea of having the meta be the neutral ground for all the 
different Wikipedia projects and I am glad to see that several alternate 
homepages in different languages have already popped-up. This trend should be 
encouraged. Why not have the same setup for the Embassy pages? Isn't this 
/exactly/ what the meta was made for? 

If the software made it possible for people to see changes made to Metapedia 
in their own language's Recent Changes then I can forsee much more activity 
over at the Meta. 

I'm with Giskart on this one.  

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)