[Foundation-l] Re: Intent to launch pt., pl., ro. Wikinews; further procedure

Sat Feb 19 02:14:16 UTC 2005

> > Translating/creating policies seems to be a much better test of actual
> > interest in doing work. Once you do that, that shows a commitment to the
> > project.

I am kind of torn between several things here.
I do agree with Erik, new people coming to a new project can be pretty
good, it gives different insight, and wikinews is definitely not like
wikipedia. Also I agree that some people, not active on Wikipédia,
might be interested in Wikinews and strengthen the community. I also
agree that translating the project rules or creating original ones is
very important (I have started translating policies in fr, and it is
quite a challenge).
I also agree with Anthere  though, a basic knowledge of how "life on a
wiki" works is important, very important. We need people who are
likely to become admins very quickly, if only to change system
messages...
And Ryo makes a good point, what if the policies drawn on meta are
just rubbish and we can't check because we don't speak the language?

To me the existing policy addresses only one of the issues, 3 users
that know the wikimedia projects. I would actually *add* Erik's
proposal to the launching of a new Wikinews, for I believe people on
the fr wikinews have been quickly overcome by the enormous task of
putting together policies. Basically, the French Wikinews was started
with people who had a rough idea of what it is all about, but don't
have the first clue of how to address it. Asking people to actually
look at the other wikinews and try to understand the project is a very
good way to measure interest.

Of course, if one of the interested users has been participating in
any other language wikinews, (s)he should count for both requirements
(see Carlosar for exemple)

So I would say 5 signatures, among which 2 people knowing how to work
a wikimedia project, 2 people willing to work in advance in setting up
rules. Those can be the same of course. This said, I think for the
launching of the wikinews for which people have already signed up, I
would not change the rules.

My two cents (of a euro).

Delphine