[Foundation-l] Incubator Wiki for New Wikimedia Projects (was Vote to create Wikiversity Vote)

Tue Nov 15 00:38:33 UTC 2005

On 11/14/05, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> Wikimedia should stick to creating and
> distributing informational materials.  There are wikis on Wikicities
> which qualify, though.  The poker one comes to mind (because that's
> one of the few I've actually participated in).

The original poker request said it was aimed at the community at
http://www.twoplustwo.com and specifically said "this project will
only seek to involve content that would be out of Wikipedia's scope".
A wiki where poker players can share tips, or write about specific
non-notable games they've played doesn't fit in with anything
Wikimedia is likely to do, in my opinion.

> I don't understand any of this.  Is scratchpad.wikicities.com a
> Wikimedia project?

No, the WikiLab at scratchpad.wikicities.com is a Wikicity. What is
currently called "Seed Wiki" on meta would be the Wikimedia version of
this, though hopefully will more of a policy of what was allowed to be
there.

> The process to create a new project is far too difficult.  An
> incubator wiki would facilitate that process.

Yes, but it should only facilitate it for things the community
actually want there, not everything someone thinks would make a good
wiki. There are hundreds of wiki ideas that are rejected even from
Wikicities. If you look a wikifarm with no policy, like pbwiki.com,
you'll see the sort of content I'm concerned about ending up on this
"seed wiki" if people think it is a general dumping ground rather than
something where the project proposals need to be community approved.

> By the way, I just realized that some people might misunderstand my
> quote.  Angela, referring to wikiseed (the incubator wiki), said in an
> IRC board meeting "Angela thinks it will end up being a fork of
> Wikicities."  That's all I was referring to when I referred to the
> project that way.

This was my concern *if* the site was going to be set up without any
policies on what content should be there (which luckily isn't the case
now that people are discussing these policies on meta). Without those
policies, it wouldn't only be a fork of Wikicities, but of any wiki
hosting project / wikifarm.

Angela.