[Wikipedia-l] Proposed fork of Wikipedia

[Marc Riddell]

>> Firstly, when I stated that Wikipendium would be a fork of Wikipedia,
>> I intended it to be more of a social fork than a content fork - i.e.,
>> I'm not intending to use any Wikipedia content in Wikipendium. Perhaps
>> the purpose of Wikipendium, you might say, is to provide a valid
>> social alternative to Wikipedia with higher social and content
>> standards.

on 7/7/08 12:20 PM, Thomas Dalton at thomas.dalton at gmail.com wrote:

> 
> You'll struggle to get anywhere starting from scratch. Wikipedia is so
> far ahead that you won't get any readers and without readers you won't
> get more than a handful of writers. Citizendium started off with some
> Wikipedia content (although later removed most of it) and had the
> advantage of being founded by a known name, and it's nowhere near
> challenging Wikipedia and probably won't be any time soon. I've never
> heard anyone in the real world mention it, I hear people mention
> Wikipedia almost every day.

Nice words of encouragement. Thomas :-(. What are you afraid of?
> 
>> - simplicity and clarity of rules - there will be only three policies,
>> a "fundamental policy" (basically a constitution), a "content policy"
>> (essential content standards such as neutrality and verifiability),
>> and a "community policy" (essential community standards such as
>> respect and pleasantness);
> 
> A noble goal, but if you're going to get to the kind of size you need
> to be to compete with Wikipedia you're going to end up needing more
> than that. What about a deletion policy? A blocking policy? Some
> method for arbitrating disputes? Nobody likes having pages and pages
> of rules and procedures, but unfortunately they are necessary if a
> large group of people are going to work together effectively.
> 
It isn't size that is going to prove the true competitor of Wikipedia. It is
going to be quality, accuracy and consistency. And, a true non-cultist
approach to the work.

It's time.

Marc Riddell

-- 
If you're restricted to what is - you are cut off from - - what could be.