[Foundation-l] Re:Wikimedia Communs

Fri May 28 21:04:00 UTC 2004

I'm sorry about this. I made the mistake of writing email while angry
again. It's just... I don't see what the big problems are. Sure, there
is a chance that the project would start slower than it would when
everything was ready at once, but for that it would start earlier. And
the swing it will get when the features are ready anyhow.

The other problems - if the way the wiki is working really makes
development much harder, you might have to think again about how
to do this. Just like the other aspects, the software is there to
support the project, not the project to implement the software.

The other problems will be encountered whichever way is chosen.
We now realize the GNU/FDL was not the best licence to put Wikipedia
under. But we would not have found out by just waiting. We found out
by having Wikipedia under the license, and meeting its limits.
Likewise, there will undoubtedly be good and not-so-good ways of
setting up a structure for the information on WikiCommons. We will
choose one (or a few) of them, and develop those, maybe even decide
to switch. But that will happen whether we start now or later.

Wikipedia wasn't build in one day. But it was built.

And finally, once more I apologize for getting so angry. Especially
because, as you said, in the end we want the same.

We don't have a risk of making mistakes. We have a certainty of it.
But delaying our decisions will not help us make better ones. Better
to make our mistakes now, the earlier we make them, the earlier we
can correct them.

Andre Engels

"Andre Engels" <engelsAG at t-online.de> schrieb:
> "Erik Moeller" <erik_moeller at gmx.de> schrieb:
> 
> > Something will be made, yes, but that something may be difficult to build  
> > upon - in terms of content, functionality, structure, policies - and grow  
> > into something tremendously more useful. That is the crux of my argument.
> 
> And with a single login and uploading this suddenly will work? Don't be
> ridiculous.
> 
> It will be easy to build upon. It's all there - content, functionality,
> structure, policies. We cann build them now, or we can build them later.
> Your proposal is to build until we have good functionality, and then start
> making some content and structure. My proposal is to get all of them at
> the same time and develop all.
> 
> It's NOT easier to make content from nothing than to make it from content.
> 
> We have some splendid Wiki software now, don't we? Ain't it a shame that
> we already made an encyclopedia and policies for it? With this software
> we would do a lot better, no? Why don't you go and start your own
> Wikipedia?
> 
> > If you can convince the others (vote, consensus etc.) that we should set  
> > up a blank wiki now and add all the other functionality later, regardless  
> > of all the problems that may ensue, then I will follow along, but my  
> > position remains that we should properly plan and develop a basic set of  
> > features before publicly launching this project with great fanfare, to  
> > make sure that we have a solid foundation to build on, and that we get the  
> > greatest possible interest in the important early stage of content  
> > development.
> 
> I'm sick of this.
> 
> andre
> 
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