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

Magnus Manske magnus.manske at web.de
Wed Aug 25 17:26:19 UTC 2004


Daniel Mayer wrote:

>Dividing our biology contributor base between two separate
>projects that have a great deal of overlap is a HUGE mistake. 
>  
>
* Biology is a little more than a species directory :-)
* We (wikipedians) can directly incorporate data from the big data dump 
that wikispecies will become, where demmed appropriate
* _If_ it turns out that we have a huge overlap, wikispecies can be 
integrated into wikipedia at any point, if there is consensus

IMHO there's a chance for a development boost in this project. Think of 
it as an evolutionary step. We had a mutation step from HTML to wiki, 
where the wikipedia and its software have become a very successful 
model. The wikispecies project, however, has demands that are a little 
different from "normal" wikis and wikipedia. We have a chance to 
introduce new functionalities (database-like functions, tree diagrams) 
and smoothen the old ones (categories, templates) into the software on a 
"blank page" testing field. They will be in the MediaWiki software and 
in the pages. Once these have stabelized and proven useful, we can take 
these successful concepts back to wikipedia, and some day, maybe the 
contents as well, if we (people in both projects!) see fit.

Magnus



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