Re: [Wikinews-l] Relaunch Chinese Wikinews poll?

On February 7, 2005 we had a poll on Meta to gather opinions on how to deal with the particular problem of whether to launch a Chinese language edition of Wikinews or not. Back then, the main reason for not launching the project was that it might jeopardize the Chinese Wikipedia, i.e., put it at risk of censorship. The poll was evenly split, with half favoring launching the project given enough support (which it has), and the other half wanting the decision to be left to the Chinese Wikipedia community (which, incidentally, also voted 50/50): http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews/China Exactly one year later, I think it might be a good idea to relaunch this poll, with the old votes archived, given that the situation has changed fundamentally. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_Wikipedia_in_mainland_China Wikipedia has been censored in mainland China since October 2005. Furthermore, we have all seen large search engines cave in to the Chinese government in recent months. Interestingly enough, recent reports note that Google China is being censored in spite of filtering search results: http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2006/02/03/afx2498050.html To me, this indicates that it may simply not be possible to create an encyclopedia written from the neutral point of view which will be accepted by the current Chinese government. The question then becomes whether it is legitimate for us to continue to put a resource on hold that might be useful to millions of Chinese speakers outside the mainland, i.e. Chinese Wikinews. So, are there any objections to relaunching this poll, or alternative suggestions on how to proceed? I think the "wait and see" approach has gone on long enough. Best, Erik _______________________________________________ Wikinews-l mailing list Wikinews-l(a)Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikinews-l