[Wikipedia-l] No new wikis

[Erik Moeller]

I am a bit concerned about the pace at which new Wikipedia spinoff  
projects are created. Wiktionary was a good idea, because it filled a gap  
that was there -- we received lots of dictionary entries, so it seemed  
like the logical conclusion to start a wiki-dictionary.

But now we have a new "Textbook-Wiki" which was started without much  
discussion - possibly a good idea, but also possibly too specific - and  
shortly afterwards, a "Wiki-Quote" project was created. Now people are  
talking about creating a "Wiki-Piki" for pictures.

This is all nice and good, but haven't we learned anything from the  
Wiktionary experience? Wiktionary was set up without much thought as to  
how the wiki process could be applied to a dictionary; it took months to  
formulate some kind of standard template, and we still don't have  
Wiktionaries in other languages. Wiktionary could have benefitted a lot  
from better planning before it was set up. I'm not sure I like the Wiki- 
Quote idea at all, as it intersects a lot with Project Sourceberg, is not  
very wiki-like (a quote is a quote) and not very compatible with the open  
content idea. Wiki-Quote was only very briefly discussed.

Furthermore, it's not exactly like we have lots of free resources. Our  
database server, pliny, is down on its knees, the full text search on the  
English wiki is now permanently disabled, we have only a couple of active  
server administrators, and hardly enough developers to address problems in  
the software.

I propose that
1) we do not start any new Wiki spin-off projects until our current  
resources have been substantially expanded;
2) we formalize a process for starting such projects, e.g. a planning  
period of at least 3 months on Meta with exact specifications as to what  
is to be placed there. After this period, users on the Meta wiki should  
vote on whether the new wiki should be set up or not. 3 months may seem  
long, but if interest can't be kept up that long, the idea may not be so  
great after all.

Otherwise I see the danger that we'll end up with lots of nice ideas that  
all go nowhere, like the sep11.wikipedia.org (which IMHO should never have  
been set up in the first place).

Regards,

Erik