[Wikipedia-l] Where to move commentary

Tue Nov 6 23:26:45 UTC 2001

I like the idea of a metawiki, but I think the name should be
"metapedia" because it's more a matter of being meta-content
about the Wikipedia (and, I would guess, encyclopediae in
general) than being about wikis. (See my "faculty lounge" comment
below.)

I especially like the case Larry makes about [[Recent Pages]]. I
hadn't noticed, but I see that they ''are'' getting to cluttered
with meta-discussions.

Larry wrote:

> Moreover, with a separate namespace, it'd be slightly too
> convenient for my comfort to interlink the encyclopedia and the
> discussion section.

Agreed, but I do hope there's an InterWiki way to link ''from''
the metapedia ''to'' Wikipedia so we can hyperlink concepts and
discuss articles as examples.  For that matter, I'd like to see
the [http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?InterWiki InterWiki]
concept implemented. (It doesn't work on Wikipedia.) I wouldn't
complain about having to use single-braces syntax to link ''to''
the metapedia, though.

> ... what should we put on the commentary wiki ...?

> ... Basically, I think the policy, procedure, and propaganda
> pages (PPP!) are important to have right there at our
> fingertips, particularly for new people.

Agreed. They are akin to front matter in a book.  Since
[[Wikipedia is not paper]], it makes sense they would be part of
the same wiki database.

> ...Well, as I see it, it's a matter of officialness.

Yes! The metapedia is the place to chat about the project, build
community, etc. It's the "faculty lounge" for Wikipedians.  Then
the Wikipedia can be focused on encyclopedia content, which
includes official front matter.

> Third, so how would we create this?

I see an opportunity here to get us all accustomed to Magnus' new
software. Why not make metapedia a PHP wiki before we migrate the
Wikipedia? If that gives people chills, then I hope metapedia is
just a plain old UseModWiki. In that case, I hope the PHP
Wikipedia doesn't diverge from UseModWiki's markup language.

<>< [[tbc]]

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