[Foundation-l] Foundation project taglines

Thu Mar 23 18:42:41 UTC 2006

It seems to me that there is a basic question that needs to be answered: Who
picks the slogan?

If the answer is "The Board" (or more generally, the Foundation, such that
it could be delegated to one of the committees), then the Board or other
appropriate foundation source needs to say "the official slogan is...", and
the projects need to understand that they don't have the opportunity to
change it. Some things are changeable, like the colors on the mainpage,
others are not, particularly those that are integral to our public image,
like the logo and the slogans.

If the answer is "The Community", first, the follow up, "Which community?".
If it is the case that each project community picks it's own slogan, then
that needs to be enforced. (That is, if Wikisource is responsible for
picking the Wikisource slogan, then whatever they pick needs to be
enforced.) If every project is allowed to pick whatever slogans it likes to
use for the other projects, then I'm changing the main page of Wikiquote to
reference Wikipedia as "the open-content, editable encyclopedia that gets
vandalized a lot" and blocking any Wikipedia editor who disagrees.
</WP:POINT>

Common sense says that a slogan is something that must be consistent; we
need a firm ruling from somewhere on high that this is either something to
be decided by the Board/Committees, and if so, what their decision is, or
something to be decided by the individual project, with an accompanying
order to use the slogan Wikisource has adopted for itself.

What we cannot have is every project using a different slogan for the other
projects, or edit wars/wheel wars over which should be which. A round of
applause to Birgitte for refusing to let it become an edit war (both by
refusing to engage in it herself, and for encouraging others from Wikisource
to let the Foundation decide).

Essjay

On 3/23/06, Birgitte Arco <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- Cormac Lawler <cormaggio at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 3/23/06, Birgitte Arco <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
> > > I had previously wrote an email suggesting we
> > > standardize the tag lines accompanying the logos
> > at
> > > meta.  The problem surfaced at EN Wikipedia when
> > after
> > > six months of reading Wikisource The free library,
> > the
> > > tag line was changed during the Main Page
> > redesign.
> > > At the time I wrote I had thought the situation
> > was
> > > cooled off.  It seems that was premature.  Things
> > have
> > > flared up now at Template talk:WikipediaSister.
> > > Neither side is going to convince the other at
> > this
> > > point.  Truly how the projects are represented is
> > a
> > > Foundation decision.  This situation will not be
> > > resolved until the Foundation makes that decision,
> > or
> > > declares who the decision should be delegated to.
> > >
> > > Birgitte SB
> >
> >
> > Hi Birgitte,
> >
> > I don't see how the decision can be meaninfully made
> > by anyone *but*
> > the community themselves, ie in this case,
> > Wikisource. But I don't
> > know who would make this decision at the Foundation
> > level, maybe the
> > board, maybe Jimbo himself.
> >
> > I don't want to re-ignite the debate, but I'll make
> > my own comment. I
> > followed the discussion more or less before and I've
> > read the page you
> > linked to. I liked the 'compromise' of "free-content
> > library", but
> > then I realised that all Wikimedia projects are free
> > content. "The
> > free library" is fine, and, bottom line, it's what
> > Wikisource have
> > already agreed on. If/when they agree on another,
> > it'll be changed, as
> > has already been said.
> >
> > Cormac
>
> I am not sure how it the decision would come about
> either.  Of course I agree with your assement of the
> situation, but others don't.  Until one side or the
> other hears something authoritative I am afraid this
> will be unsettled.
>
> Birgitte SB
>
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--
Essjay
-----
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