[Wikipedia-l] What is the purpose of this mailing list ??

Wed Aug 25 09:05:47 UTC 2004

According to the article [[meta:mailinglist]] the purpose of the 
Wikipedia-I mailing list is: "for issues concerning more than one 
Wikipedia, but not concerning the sister-projects".

Therefore I fail to see why the ToL, which is an en: resource, would 
serve as reason _not_ to start WikiSpecies. When people think that it 
takes away from the ToL, they fail to consider that the effort that goes 
into WikiSpecies may not be effort that does not go into en: but that it 
may take effort away from nl: or de: or fr:

They fail to remember that the first taxobox with the {{regnum}}, 
{{species}} syntax was brought to you in [[nl:Pos]] and translated for 
you as [[en:Ruffe]]. The point being that the potential for better 
cooperation with other wikipedia was brought to the en:ToL. When it was 
asked to discuss the look and feel of the Taxobox to make it pallatable 
for the de:, fr:, nl: and other wikipedia, the answer was NO, see our 
history we do not want that, democratic decision.

One argument used is that: forking is not wanted. The argument that a 
server with loads of diskspace exists that can be used to host something 
like WikiSpecies will propably only get a "well that is ok, because it 
is outside wikimedia, nothing to do with us".

Conclusion:
*The arguments against are en: based have little or no relevance to 
other wikipedia and are, because of its purpose, of litle relevance to 
this list.
*WikiSpecies will be a sister-project and as such it is not for this 
mailing list to decide what is going to happen.
*The danger of forking outside Wikimedia is real, this to happen is the 
worst case scenario, because it will mean that a potentially valuable 
resource will be lost to all wikipedia not just to en:.
*When a fork happens, ask yourself did it have to do with you, and are 
you comfortable with it?

Thanks,
    GerardM