[Wikipedia-l] What is the purpose of this mailing list ??

[Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales]

Marco Krohn wrote:
> The proposed project "wikispecies" will have a huge overlap with existing 
> Wikipedia articles. Therefore using the term sister-project is IMHO wrong, 
> and calling it a "partial fork" is much closer to reality.

Just to clarify, I think that wikispecies is not overlapping with the
encyclopedia in any significant way, that it is not a fork, that it is
a perfectly appropriate use of our resources, and that this discussion
should end pretty soon.

A species database is just a different kind of reference work than a
general interest encyclopedia.  This is not materially different from
efforts at wikibooks, wiktionary, etc., to generate other kinds of
reference works.

By supporting Benedikt Mandl's proposal in-house, rather than being
persnickity and forcing him to go outside for support, we guarantee
such things as long-term software and content compatibility, etc.

When fully developed, a wikispecies directory will be a delightful
resource work as a standalone *and* a nice foundation for *some*
encyclopedia articles.  But the two are not identical.

--Jimbo