[Wikipedia-l] Re: Starting a new wiki

[Henry H. Tan-Tenn]

Evan Prodromou wrote:

> There are a _lot_ of free or low-cost PHP hosting services that can host 
> a wiki. Mediawiki can be hard to set up on these services, since MySQL 
> usually costs significantly more, but there are a number of other wiki 
> engines* that work with  flat files and don't require a database.

Yes, but MediaWiki is the best :)  Besides, the annual fees that go into 
paying "low-cost" hosting services could well go to our developers. 
It's only a few hundred US dollars but not too stingy for an hour of 
setting-up.

> Anyways: I think the best strategy is to tell people who want to have a 
> Wikipedia in their language to go start a wiki somewhere else. If they 
> can show that they have a robust community that can support a Wikipedia, 
> then they should get an xx.wikipedia.org domain (as well as other 
> xx.wikisomething.org stuff).

So they go find an ad-supported PHP hosting service, run a non-MediaWiki 
installation, build up a small but active community, finally have a 
Wikipedia subdomain approved.  And then have to start all over again? 
Won't migrating the database consume even more developer time?  Or do 
the speakers of this language have to hire a developer to do that?  Or 
just copy-and-paste and lose the history?

The Walon Wikipedia was fortunate to have received assistance in 
migrating its data into Wikipedia.  The Minnan Wikipedia still has 
articles sitting out there.  But knowing the developers' time is highly 
constrained, we have not complained nor do we see it as a "right" to 
receive such help.  But I do want to point out some possible consequences.


> ~ESP
> 
> * I can hear it now: "Huh? There are other wiki engines? There are other 
> wikis? I can set up my own? Huh?"

That's an awful impression.