[Wikipedia-l] Re: A portal page for www.wikipedia.org

Sun Jan 9 16:19:13 UTC 2005

Pete/Pcb21 a écrit:
> Anthere wrote:
> 
>> I do not think there were be links broken now.
> 
> 
> It is very strange that no-one seems to have picked up on this.
> There are clearly many many more links to http://www.wikipedia.org 
> (expecting to link to an English language encyclopedia) than ever 
> before. The decision has been taken to break these links.

1) The address www.wikipedia.org become obsolete 2 years ago.
On the net, 2 years is a life-time.

2) Besides, 2 years ago, the english wikipedia was far smaller than 
today, so most of the pages just never existed at the address in www.

3) Finally, unless I really misunderstood something, all pages ARE 
redirected, so there are NO links broken. The only thing the reader 
could notice is the change of url (tiny change). Honestly, most sites 
just do not pay so much attention to their readers.

Let me give you another example :

Please, type the following url in your browser

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/incivility.

Where does it go ? Broken or english wikipedia article explaining what 
uncivility is ?

> Whether the cost of breaking those links is worth the gain of getting a 
> international portal is debatable.

I am ready to listen arguments in favor of keeping www.wikipedia.org the 
adresse for the english wikipedia. I know of no arguments for now. What 
are those ?

> More interesting to me is how this episode shows how what really matters 
> is in getting something changed is what a tiny number of people think, 
> not what the unwashed masses (who a: can't programme a computer and b: 
> aren't on the board) think.

You are free to organise a poll on meta for the "unwashed masses" with 
the following choices (while not forgetting to mention no links will be 
broken)

a) keep www.wikipedia.org a redirect to the english wikipedia
b) change it, for example to have www.wikipedia.org a portal mentioning 
all wikipedia languages (or a similar type of solution)

I expect an absolutely unprecedented support for our project, of at 
least 80%. I would be happy of a 90% of support. I am quite confident 
that any non english wikipedia will disapprove keeping the 
www.wikipedia.org the adresse of the english wikipedia only. And I am
confident many english editors will not support it either, as most 
understand the importance of us being a multilingual project.

May I remind you that today the number of pages in a language which is 
not english is superior to the number of pages in english, and that the 
german language is getting a very significant proportion of the english 
wikipedia as well ?

For this reason, I will not even take the time to do it. I invite you to 
do this poll if you feel that "unwashed masses" are not taken into 
consideration (which truely amaze me given the amount of discussion I 
have seen in 3 years on that topic). But PLEASE, if you feel left out, 
DO make that poll. This should be a very simple poll which will not 
require a lot of time to you.

There is a doctrine on Wikipedia which is "be bold", but any true 
wikipedian knows very well that being bold against community wish 
generally brings no good. However, it is good to be bold, because this 
is how things progress. Just need to wait the right moment to do it.

I think this is now :-)

> Pete/pcb21