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

[Daniel Mayer]

--- "Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales" <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:

> 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.

How the hell is it not a fork?! Have you been reading this discussion? Esp
important has been talk about how to incorporate the database functions into
MediaWiki so that everything Wikispecies-type functions could be performed. Use
of the upcoming Wikimedia Commons to store such data was also a great idea. 
 
> 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.

None of the data proposed to go into this fork could not be incorporated into
existing Wikimedia projects. 
 
> 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.

If in-house means within existing projects, then yes I agree. 
 
> 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.

Our current category system could be extended to create such a directory
*within* Wikipedia. Dividing our biology contributor base between two separate
projects that have a great deal of overlap is a HUGE mistake. 

-- Daniel


		
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