[Foundation-l] Chinese Wikinews: board action required

Sat Apr 16 20:28:27 UTC 2005

> > Yes, this is what I had in mind.  The French Wikinews was started
> > according to existing policy, but clearly that policy is inadequate to
> > ensure a proper launch with solid community support.  When we were in
> > Brussels a while back Delphine/notafish was making a valiant effort to
> > get it going/get it organized/make it work, but to my knowledge this
> > hasn't been successful.

Well..let us say that I have *tried* to translate a few policies, so
as to make it a bit more "regulated" and ensure that I could
delete/tag articles with some background for doing so. this said, it
is too much work for one person, and having no-one to discuss those
policies is not very motivating anyway. But thank you Jimbo for
mentionning it.

 [snip]

> The French Wikinews is now in a somewhat strange state; it is being
> updated regularly, but not in the way Wikinews should be. Instead of
> writing full-length stories, contributors are writing in "Current
> events" summary style right on the Main Page:
> 
> http://fr.wikinews.org/wiki/Accueil

I believe when you write contributorS, you really mean contributor (as
in one contributor). i invite you to take a look at the recent changes
or Main Page history to see that there is mainly one person actually
working on this wiki, who, as Anthere pointed out earlier, is not
familiar with the projects and not exactly acquired to the cause of
"NOPOV".  See his intervention on the Village pump to see his
standpoint about NPOV. This said, he is a good contributor in the
sense that although he may not agree with all our views, he has so far
kept his personal opinions away from the content as much as possible.

> I hope that over time, the French Wikinews will evolve like the other
> editions into a source of genuine stories. But, at least it is not a
> spam magnet, and there is a small community there.

Yes, small is the word. Apart from this one contibutor, Weather Bot,a 
few IP edits,  another contributor who is (as I am) only working on
the form and shape rather than the content, there is virtually no-one.
 Again, this will prove my point:
http://fr.wikinews.org/wiki/Special:Recentchanges. Let us face it,
with 35 articles and one contributor since the begining of the
project, and this although it has ben advertized on the Village pump,
put for a while on the Community Portal, and re-advertized not so long
ago by yourself on the French Bistro (which, i must say generated a
good 20 or 30 edits). and absolutely no reaction on your second
intervention (a must for a French Bistro i must say).
So I say it again, I strongly believe the French community is
definitely not *ready* to undertake the Wikinews project at this
stage. As long as it continues surviving as it does, with somone
copy/pasting current events on to the main page, I guess I don't have
an opinion about it. Close it, or don't. I might chage my mind with
time if the situation does not improve. Wikinews.fr is , in my very
humble opinion, a disgrace both to the Wikinews project as a whole and
Wikimedia. But then again, it is MY opinion.

[snip]

> 
> Given the success of the English one, I hope to start an international
> writing contest soon, which will also help us to track the progress of
> the different languages.

I can only wish you good luck with it. And unlike Yann, I doubt that
the 100 000 articles on fr will bring more contributors, but on the
contrary I believe they will bring this dormant (not to say dead)
project  into the spotlights and enhance its failure as such. Too bad.

Best,

Delphine
-- 
~notafish