[Foundation-l] Priorities

Tue Oct 23 19:20:09 UTC 2007

On 10/23/07, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> It is in the in the way we present the Wikimedia Foundation; in interviews
> and in presentations the English language Wikipedia dominates. When
> something is done in the English Wikipedia it is news. Something of equal
> relevance in another project is not. When you consider the massive
> improvements that have happened in Wiktionary ... Nobody knows, seems to
> care. This is the pattern. When people discuss technical developments it
> does not happen when it is not of relevance for the English Wikipedia. Who
> cares that there is no language file in MediaWiki for a fifth of the
> languages we say MediaWiki supports ?
>
I've noticed something else related to this that I found disturbing.
When Jimbo describes Wikia he says "Wikipedia is the encyclopedia and
Wikia is all the rest of the library."  Isn't the rest of the library
Wiktionary, and Wikinews, and Wikibooks, and Wikiversity, etc?

At the same time, though, the English language Wikipedia is by far the
most successful project.  Of course it's going to dominate interviews
and presentations and news and discussions.  These are things the
foundation couldn't control even if it wanted to.  And surely the
English language Wikipedia generates the most revenue.  As a result,
shouldn't it be entitled to spend an equivalent portion of that
revenue?