Re: [Wikiversity-l] Questions about Wikiversity Beta

Guillaume Paumier wrote: For my own opinion: Nothing. Oh, I guess you can say that by having a smaller Wiki that you can find common information about Wikiversity, but that means that you now have yet another website to find historical information about Wikiversity, in addition to Meta and Wikibooks (in all languages as well). I feel that the existing Metawiki on http://meta.wikimedia.org/ does more than enough to deal with all of the associated issues that have to be done for multi-lingual coordination of Wikiversity projects. There is also an existing base of admins/bureaucrats and policies in place to help deal with the content from vandals and others who would damage such a project. Starting out a brand new wiki just discussing meta issues of all Wikiversities is not needed at the moment, if only because there simply isn't the user base necessary to maintain such a website, especially when other alternatives already exist that can do as good if not a better job. This is a general question that I have not seen answered. I suggest that this is a duplication of what the Wikimedia incubator already is providing, and proves that the beta website is simply not needed at all, at least in the capacity of being a proving ground for new language versions of Wikiversity. Of course the mission and role of the Wikimedia Incubator is still not completely defined and lacked a community to help get it going as well. Perhaps this is a sign that Wikimedia projects are getting so large and diverse that we now have projects at competing and cross-purposes? I certainly don't think that the pt.wikiversity should be transwikied from pt.wikibooks to beta.wikiversity right away, just to be moved again to yet another wiki in the future. There were about a dozen active Wikiversity projects going on Wikibooks in all languages, and this represents a significant quantity of content that must be at least acknowledged in some form or another. There is (unfortunately) a still-active community of Wikiversity contributors on Wikibooks. While most of the vocal ones have moved to en.wikiversity, there are a few minor edits and changes that are still happening on en.wikibooks. This will end shortly in one form or another, but it is something that should be acknowledged in some form or another. For those individuals who think they can put together a sizable community to get a Wikiversity project going in a language other than English or German, I would strongly recommend that they try to submit a request to Meta at [[meta:Requests for new languages]]. There already is a major section for Wikiversity, and some lively discussions that are happening there. Most notably from my perspective is that both sp.wikiversity and fr.wikiversity ought to be started, or at least there isn't a legitimate reason to deny starting language editions for either of these langauges. There certainly are very large communities for both groups, including very experienced administrators willing to work with maintaining content in those languages. What I find most unfortunate is that this wiki (beta.wikiversity) was set up on the authority of a single e-mail message from Anthere, and no community discussion as to if it was even needed in the first place. Indeed I have long argued for at least as long as that e-mail message from Anthere was sent, that it should not be created. I guess my contrary arguments never were listened to, and certainly have never been acknowledged by those who are working on the beta.wikiversity. Of course trying to find a proper forum to lodge complaints about setting this website up have been next to impossible to find as well. It is, for me, more proof that it is a very small group that really has an influence to establish project like this and that pet projects are prefered over ones that have strong community support. And that is pet projects by those in the "inner circle" of the Wikimedia Foundation and the developer team. -- Robert Scott Horning